I love reading the things my kids write in their English Diaries. Here are some recent ones...
"Today I played baseball. Baseball is a very good sport because I am growing and it's very exciting. So, I like baseball. But today the ball was hit my hand! Very hard! So I was hit the ball back but it didn't break. So my hand was more hurt. This was a very strong ball. So I fought with the ball and I was the winner. I kicked the ball and it flew into the sky."
"Today is Sunday. I went to church. I saw my best friend Da-Sol. Da-Sol is a friend of long-standing and a good friend and a lifelong friend and a congenial friend and a reliable friend. I like her very very much. Da-Sol went to church too. After church we bought new sixth grade school things. I bought one music notebook, one english notebook, and two noting notebooks. The cost was 9,000 won. It was very expensive but I was not repentance. Today was a very happy and fruitful day."
"Today is the 15th of February by the lunar calendar. Today's moon is very big and shining. My family went to the mountain and saw the big moon. My family said a prayer to the moon. When we came down the sky was very dark. It was dangerous but we were impartial"
Impartial? Congenial? Repentance? I think they've discovered the English-Korean dictionary! :)
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
The Strangest Thing I've Ever Eaten...
On Saturday I went to my first Korean class. It was both incredibly exciting and incredibly difficult. Korean is so difficult! With romance languages there are so many similarities to English and you can use Latin roots to figure things out. Korean is completely foreign... But I have memorized the alphabet and am currently working on learning to read. On Saturday I learned how to say "My name is Kayla" (Jae irimeun Kayla imnida), "I'm American" (Jae eun Mi-guk saram imnida) and other useful, basic phrases. Like "seun-sang-nim" which means "teacher". So now I know what my kids have been shouting in a panic to each other ("Kayla seun-sang-nim!!!") when they hear me coming down the hall...
After Korean lessons, I went out for delicious sushi in Hongdae (the university district of Seoul) with my Canadian friend Fran and my Korean friend Jamie. After some delicious rolls and some hot sake we went to this tiny hold-in-the-wall place with only four tables because Jamie wanted us to try one of her favorite Korean snacks. It's not that common, but it's somewhat popular among young people. The snack turned out to be the strangest thing I've ever eaten in my life. Here's what it was: you take a square of seaweed paper ("gim") and lay it on your palm. Then you spoon into it some cucumber slices, carrot slices, lettuce, mint leaf, onion, and fish eggs. Then you put a dollop of peanut butter on top. Finally you roll in up into a neat little packet and dip it in wasabi soy sauce. Then you eat it. Sound gross? It was. So gross I got to see it in reverse quite soon after eating it. At least I tried it!
After Korean lessons, I went out for delicious sushi in Hongdae (the university district of Seoul) with my Canadian friend Fran and my Korean friend Jamie. After some delicious rolls and some hot sake we went to this tiny hold-in-the-wall place with only four tables because Jamie wanted us to try one of her favorite Korean snacks. It's not that common, but it's somewhat popular among young people. The snack turned out to be the strangest thing I've ever eaten in my life. Here's what it was: you take a square of seaweed paper ("gim") and lay it on your palm. Then you spoon into it some cucumber slices, carrot slices, lettuce, mint leaf, onion, and fish eggs. Then you put a dollop of peanut butter on top. Finally you roll in up into a neat little packet and dip it in wasabi soy sauce. Then you eat it. Sound gross? It was. So gross I got to see it in reverse quite soon after eating it. At least I tried it!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Traditions of Seolnal
Seolnal is one of the two major Korean holidays, the other being Chusok (Harvest Moon Festival). Korean New Year is actually the Lunar New Year which is often refered to as the Chinese New Year. During this 3-day holiday, it is obligatory to travel to one's hometown and visit relatives, bringing expensive gifts of food and drink. Many Koreans dress up in hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing. The children and grandchildren perform a ritual called "saebae" in which they bow deeply to their elders as a sign of respect and say "saehae bok manhi badeseyo" (literally: "receive a lot of New Year's luck!") If they do a good job, they are rewarded with envelopes of money. On Seolnal all Korean's eat ddeok-guk, pronounced duck-gook which is rice cake soup. The soup is made by diagonally slicing rice cakes into thin, oval slices. The rice cake slices are soaked in water, then boiled in beef broth. The soup is garnished with chives, seaweed, and egg and is eaten for good luck in the New Year. My favorite thing about being in Korea during Seolnal was getting to see Korean people all dressed up in the traditional clothing, Hanbok. Here are some pictures of what it looks like. It's so beautiful!
This last picture is of my friend Hannah who is Korean-Canadian but moved to Korea to teach and got married here. She had a Western stype wedding and also a Korean style wedding. This picture was taking at her Korean wedding. Isn't it beautiful?
This last picture is of my friend Hannah who is Korean-Canadian but moved to Korea to teach and got married here. She had a Western stype wedding and also a Korean style wedding. This picture was taking at her Korean wedding. Isn't it beautiful?
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Seolnal (Lunar New Year)
For Seolnal (February 6-9) I got 3 days off from work plus the weekend. On Tuesday night a group of us went out for dinner and then to a Noraebang (노래방). Noraebangs are private karaoke rooms. You go and pay a set price (it's really cheap) and you get a private room with tables, couches, two microphones, and your very own karaoke equipment, complete with monitors that display the lyrics of the songs you choose. The great thing is they have tons of English songs. I've gone 3 times since I've been here and it's a really fun group activity.
The next day we all chilled out and basked in the glory of a Wednesday with no work. Fran and I went on a huge food shopping trip and then we had all had a movie night. For the holiday our Korean boss had given all of the teachers a choice between two New Years gift options. Option one was entitled "Spam Gift Set". Option two was a choice between a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon or a bottle of Merlot. And yes, the first option was indeed a Spam Gift Set which is exactly what it sounds like - 10 cans of spam. elegantly wrapped and presented in a lovely gift box. Spam is a huge deal here - kind of a delicacy, actually. Koreans really like to put in everything - soup, sushi, sandwiches... Funnily enough all of the Korean teachers chose the Spam Gift Set. All of the foreign teachers chose the wine. I got the Merlot. So Wednesday night we kicked of our vacation time by cracking open our free wine and enjoying it with some delicious brie cheese.
Thursday was New Years and the city was eerily quiet. There was hardly anyone on the subway, and nearly all businesses were closed due to the holiday. Everyone was home celebrating with family. Thankfully, some museums were still open so Fran and I spent the day at the National Museum of Korea - the biggest museum (in terms of building size) that I have ever seen in my life! I'm not sure if the pictures capture it or not. Anyway, the museum is full of historical artifacts (pots, weapons, paintings, pots, tools, jewelry, pots, scrolls, statues, pots...), mostly from Korea but some from Japan and China as well. Thursday night since it was New Year's, we got dressed up and went out for dinner at the only Western Restaurant around: Outback Steakhouse! Unfortunately, Outback here is such a commodity that it is ridiculously overpriced - the cheapest entrees are between $30 - 40 each. So we decided to just get appetizers to share and it was sooo yummy.
Friday Fran and I bundled up and headed to the Seoul Museum of Art. Friday was the opposite in terms of city bustle. Thursday was kind of like Thanksgiving in the states. Every one is home so for a while there is no one out and about. But Friday was like Black Friday - everyone was suddenly out and everything was unbelievably crowded!
The reason we went to the Seoul Museum of Art was because they are currently showing a Van Gogh exhibit! We saw over 60 original Van Gogh works, including drawings and paintings. It was really amazing. It was also ridiculously packed but it was so nice to see that Seoulites were eagerly taking advantage of such a wonderful opportunity in their city. After the museum we went to see "Nanta", the longest running show in Korea. It is a non-verbal performance done by 5 actors. It combines rhythms of traditional Korean folk music with modern music all centered around a cooking theme. So the performers do all kinds of rhythms and beats with cooking utensils and they actually cook food on stage, etc. One review referred to it as a combination of "Iron Chef, Blue Man Group, and The Marx Brothers". It was really impressive and highly entertaining. Definitely worth the price of admission.
So that was Lunar New Year! Unfortunately there aren't many pictures because you can't take pictures inside museums or inside the theater....
The next day we all chilled out and basked in the glory of a Wednesday with no work. Fran and I went on a huge food shopping trip and then we had all had a movie night. For the holiday our Korean boss had given all of the teachers a choice between two New Years gift options. Option one was entitled "Spam Gift Set". Option two was a choice between a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon or a bottle of Merlot. And yes, the first option was indeed a Spam Gift Set which is exactly what it sounds like - 10 cans of spam. elegantly wrapped and presented in a lovely gift box. Spam is a huge deal here - kind of a delicacy, actually. Koreans really like to put in everything - soup, sushi, sandwiches... Funnily enough all of the Korean teachers chose the Spam Gift Set. All of the foreign teachers chose the wine. I got the Merlot. So Wednesday night we kicked of our vacation time by cracking open our free wine and enjoying it with some delicious brie cheese.
Thursday was New Years and the city was eerily quiet. There was hardly anyone on the subway, and nearly all businesses were closed due to the holiday. Everyone was home celebrating with family. Thankfully, some museums were still open so Fran and I spent the day at the National Museum of Korea - the biggest museum (in terms of building size) that I have ever seen in my life! I'm not sure if the pictures capture it or not. Anyway, the museum is full of historical artifacts (pots, weapons, paintings, pots, tools, jewelry, pots, scrolls, statues, pots...), mostly from Korea but some from Japan and China as well. Thursday night since it was New Year's, we got dressed up and went out for dinner at the only Western Restaurant around: Outback Steakhouse! Unfortunately, Outback here is such a commodity that it is ridiculously overpriced - the cheapest entrees are between $30 - 40 each. So we decided to just get appetizers to share and it was sooo yummy.
Friday Fran and I bundled up and headed to the Seoul Museum of Art. Friday was the opposite in terms of city bustle. Thursday was kind of like Thanksgiving in the states. Every one is home so for a while there is no one out and about. But Friday was like Black Friday - everyone was suddenly out and everything was unbelievably crowded!
The reason we went to the Seoul Museum of Art was because they are currently showing a Van Gogh exhibit! We saw over 60 original Van Gogh works, including drawings and paintings. It was really amazing. It was also ridiculously packed but it was so nice to see that Seoulites were eagerly taking advantage of such a wonderful opportunity in their city. After the museum we went to see "Nanta", the longest running show in Korea. It is a non-verbal performance done by 5 actors. It combines rhythms of traditional Korean folk music with modern music all centered around a cooking theme. So the performers do all kinds of rhythms and beats with cooking utensils and they actually cook food on stage, etc. One review referred to it as a combination of "Iron Chef, Blue Man Group, and The Marx Brothers". It was really impressive and highly entertaining. Definitely worth the price of admission.
So that was Lunar New Year! Unfortunately there aren't many pictures because you can't take pictures inside museums or inside the theater....
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Changdeokgung Palace
The kings of the Korean Joseon Dynasty built what are refered to as the "Five Great Palaces of Seoul". On Saturday I got to tour one of them: Changdeokgung Palace. It was build in 1405, during the Joseon Dynasty. All the palaces in Seoul were destroyed during the Japanese Invasion of 1592-1598. This particular palace was reconstructed in 1865 and functioned thereafter as the main palace in Seoul until the end of the Joseon Dynasty (1910).
One of the interesting characteristics of Changdeokgung is that it was designed to blend in with the topography of the land instead of disrupt nature. There are 13 buildings on the palace grounds and 28 pavilions in the gardens. The palace occupies 110 acres. Changdeokgung was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997. The UNESCO committee inscribing the site stated that the place was an "outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design" being exceptional because the buildings are "integrated into and harmonized with the natural setting" and adapted "to the topography and retaining indigenous tree cover."
Here are my pictures. I went with a group of friends: Fran (Can.), Dan(UK), Glenn(Can.), Andrea(Can.), Jamie(Kor.) & Richard(U.K.)...
Me and my best friend in Korea!
L to R: Dan, Glenn, Richard, Andrea, Jamie, Fran
One of the interesting characteristics of Changdeokgung is that it was designed to blend in with the topography of the land instead of disrupt nature. There are 13 buildings on the palace grounds and 28 pavilions in the gardens. The palace occupies 110 acres. Changdeokgung was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997. The UNESCO committee inscribing the site stated that the place was an "outstanding example of Far Eastern palace architecture and garden design" being exceptional because the buildings are "integrated into and harmonized with the natural setting" and adapted "to the topography and retaining indigenous tree cover."
Here are my pictures. I went with a group of friends: Fran (Can.), Dan(UK), Glenn(Can.), Andrea(Can.), Jamie(Kor.) & Richard(U.K.)...
Me and my best friend in Korea!
L to R: Dan, Glenn, Richard, Andrea, Jamie, Fran
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