Friends in Korea

I just wanted to share how blessed I have been with many friends here in Korea. Just to give you an idea of how many friends and what I have out here in Korea let me share a sample week in Gunsan with you on how I spend my time.

After working Monday at school my friend Aaron, who teaches out here and is from Ohio would come over to watch some football, our usual Monday night recorded football, since the states are behind and the games play on our Monday morning.

Then Tuesday night, over to my friend Joanna's, who is also a teacher out here and is from Canada. Her, Aaron, and I all live in the same apartment buildings, so we are all neighbors. We watch movies or TV shows and she makes me dinner, a usual weeknight if not more than that. I am usually over there more than one week night. She likes to cook and I like to eat, so it is a nice relationship. I have a lot of fun with Joanna, laughing a lot, talking about boys, sharing goon gossip, comparing our experiences in both the world of Korea and of our classes. I wouldn't have done all the cool things that I have done so far if it wasn't for Joanna. She loves the outdoors and traveling to experience new things and she has a new travel buddy in Me. She also has gotten me to start exercising more, like running and hiking and I really don't drink as much around her, she is not a big drinker and will sometimes give me crap about my overindulging in alcohol out of love. I don't think she reads my blog, but "I love you girl."

On Wednesday, my friend from church, Sungwha, might pick Me up and we go shopping at E-mart or Lotte Mart. She took me plant shopping just last night and we had dinner. I like going shopping with her because she can translate anything I want to ask about products or help me find things that I need in the store. The lady at the plant store suggested a place that had good kimchi jig-gay, which is kimchi soup with pork and vegetables, very tasty and one of my favorite dishes in Korea. I took pictures of us at the "take off your shoes and sit on the floor" restaurant, which are very popular in Korea. She has been a wonderful friend in all aspects of our relationship. We have a lot fun hanging out and she helps Me with my Korean.

One day my friend from the city school Mrs. Han came to my school during her winter break and picked me up and took Me to lunch at a place over looking the yellow sea. It was snowing that day and had been snowing all week so I took a few pictures from the restaurant. She loves to hang out, try and speak English, laughs a lot at my jokes, and is always really nice to Me even though she has a hard time talking to Me in my language. We have hung out several times, I have been to her house to meet her family and she even went and saw New Moon with Me. She is an avid follower of my blog and tells me all the time about what she reads on it, so, "I love you Mrs. Han, thank you for following."

I have been over to my friend Kenton's house to drink beers, listen to his favorite comedians online, listen to music, watch football, play guitar and games of chess. Kenton is also a teacher out here and is from Canada. He lives with his wife, whom he met out here, a foreign teacher from England named Alex, a real sweet girl and their four month old baby, Izzy, who is soo cute. His brother has been staying with him, so this last visit we turned the chess game into a mini-tournament. Kenton also enjoys teaching me Korean, since he learned to speak the language and read hongul. I call him the "forever teacher" since he always seems to be teaching and I always learn something when I am with him.

This last Saturday night I went over to another couples house, Elizabeth and Jimmy, the couple I went to Muju Ski resort with. We had dinner, listened to music, and then played poker until 1am. I did really well, taking everyone's money who played, like 30,000 Won, which is about $25 US dollars in change, since we were playing 100 Won anti or the equivalent of a dime. They are from South Carolina and both teach English in the area. We have moved poker night to once a week now, Thursdays, and the first Thursday we started playing I lost the money I won on the Saturday, oh well, you win some and you lose some. I really enjoy spending time with this couple, they are both very down to earth and will be straight up with you on anything. "Thank you to you both for holding a once a week poker night as I love to play poker."

When doing a google search online for Gunsan, I stumbled upon another person's blog who is living and teaching in this area. So we met just this last week for lunch. His name is Eric and he is from Minnesota, fresh out of college and has been here about the same time as Me. So I have a new friend, the list keeps growing. We seem to have a lot in common, he met some of my friends at the second poker game, and I hope to meet some of his friends tonight. He is also going to come over for Monday night football until the season is over, since he is a Viking fan and they are still in the playoffs, "GO BRETT FAVRE."

So as you can see, I have many friends here in Korea. I only talked about the ones I really hang out with regularly, I of course have more friends than this. I have even acquired friends in the Seoul and surrounding areas of Seoul as you have seen from my pictures. So, a shout out to all my friends both here in Korea and the rest of the world..."Thanks for being MY FRIEND, I LOVE YOU ALL, and I wouldn't be the person I am today without YOU!!"



Kenton and Joanna on his birthday singing at Noraebong.



Joanna and I at the top of Jirisan Mountain after hiking close to 6000 feet the day before.



Mrs. Han and I at lunch at the city school. I will miss our lunches and coffee once the school year starts again, as she is moving to a different school.



Elizabeth and Jimmy on the Gondola at the Muju Ski Resort.



Sungwha and I at dinner when her and the minister from the church took Me out for my birthday, the day before my birthday.



Joanna and I at Deadunsan mountain after hiking about 3000 feet in snow and sleet.



Me at dinner last night.



Sungwha at dinner last night. She was like, no pictures, my hair is messed up.



Kimchi Jig-gay and the usual array of korean side dishes. This is one of the best meals you can eat in Korea, at least it is one of my favorites. This particular place was pretty good, the cost of the meal for two with water was 12,000 Won, about $10 US dollars.



The table sits really low to the ground and you sit on a mat that is on the floor.



This is the view from the restaurant of the yellow sea and the snow outside.



Mrs. Han and I at the restaurant.

My New Babies

I went out and bought some plants to decorate my apartment with and bring it to life. My friend Sungwha said that they are so big, my place will look like a jungle. I really like the large one that I put behind the couch, it looks like a palm tree from back home. They weren't cheap, as plants never are, but I think I got a good deal on both, getting both of them with their pots for just under $150 US dollars. So, instead of traveling to the Snow Festival this weekend with Joanna, I bought some plants for my place. I refer to them as babies, because I will have to take care of them as such. My sister Paula says that I need to talk to them regularly and not to over water them. I will get a few more smaller ones to compliment them and I am really proud of my selections. The smaller one will grow flowers on it when it gets warm and I really like the design of the pot.

Ice Festival - More Winter Fun In Korea

Not only does it snow in Korea, there are also festivals with 500,000 people held in the mountains and me and my friends, Joanna and Hope, went on a tour with Adventure Korea this last weekend with 32 other foreign teachers living and teaching in the surrounding areas of Korea, where we did the following:

Ice Fishing
Bare Hand Fishing in Freezing Cold Water(with only shorts and a t-shirt)
Ice Hockey without Skates or Sticks
Tobogganing and Tubing
Mtn Sliding
Snow Hiking
Bonfire in the Snow
Ice Tunnels
Viewed Ice Sculptures
Dancing and Sledding on Ice
Go Karting on Ice
Four Wheeling on Ice
Log House in the Mtns

It had to be the best weekend I have spent in Korea thus far, the pictures will not do it any justice as to how much fun we all had. There are more pictures on my Facebook, as well as a video of us foreigners falling all over the place playing the ice hokey without skates or sticks, quite funny.



This was the hike back to the bus, the end of the journey, sorry for the pictures being backwards. You can start from the bottom of the post and move up. We had a beautiful view of the mountains on the hike, which is what we are pointing at here.



These were the log cabins we stayed in, pretty nice, heated floors, and slept Korean style, which is find a space on the heated floor with a mat, I kind of like the Korean style.




Ahh, the bonfire, great memories. Some of these pictures needed censoring, so only some were posted. This is my first bonfire in the snow!!




Great friends, great fun!!






This was our BBQ dinner we had in the mountains at the cabins, notice the pork being cooked right in front of us on a big round grill that sits in the middle of the table. You put the piece of cooked pork in a large piece of romaine lettuce, add some fresh garlic and fresh cut jalapeno, some spicy red sauce, and a few other vegetables, wrap it up like a small sandwich and throw it down. I forget the name, but very delicious. There was also some fish that was smoked in foil and of course rice, kimchi, and soup. Next to bim bim bap and kimchi soup this is one of my favorite Korean meals.







Playing Ice Hockey without skates or without sticks was quite a challenge for all. Many people fell and many people hit the ice hard, no serious injuries were incurred, however I ended up with a bruised elbow, a bruised hip, and I also reactivated my whiplash in my neck from a car accident I was in many years ago, causing soreness for a few days, but laughs and memories that will last a lifetime.




This is us in the sauna after the bare hand fishing in the freezing cold water with only shorts and a t-shirt. The idea was to get in the pool of water in only a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that they provide, mind you, we are already wearing like 4-5 layers, because it soo cold out there, and catch fish with your bare hands that you get to keep and cook. Notice Joanna is not in an orange shirt, she chickened out! Hope, me, and most of the other foreign teachers got changed and attempted to catch fish in the pool with our bare hands as the Koreans right before us did. This is a big deal here in Korea, they had TV channels and big cameras from news stations and everything. They interviewed a few of us before and after the experience. The problem was, the Koreans muddied the water, making it cloudy, as well as take all the fish. By the time we got in, there was no more fish, we looked like fools, freezing our poor feet and legs off and not getting any fish. I was the only one who caught one, just a small little guy and that was it. The water was sooo cold that it HURT!!



We have no idea here what were getting into, a couple of crazy girls!!



I am getting the heck out of this cold water here.



Look Mom, I caught one, I held on to him until I got to the top of the steps, the camera man got him on film and then he got away, he was too small to eat anyway.



I told you...IT HURT!!






This was the pool of clear water, before the Koreans muddied it, and look you can even see fish in this clear pool.



The ice tunnel was cool, it changed lights as you walked through it.






The ice sculptures were amazing, true pieces of artwork, and really blew me away in their detail.



We had to take a picture with the Soju guy.




Some random Korean kids...we were trying to take their sled, but they beat us to it before we could take it for a ride ourselves, its hard to run on the ice, you can only go soo fast.




This was one of the largest outdoor BBQ in the snow I have ever seen. This is a mass amount of Koreans cooking their fish they caught while ice fishing and other various meats they brought in tailgate fashion with Soju and all, it was a great scene.



This was my ice fishing hole...we were told most novice ice fishers don't catch any fish...must be the reason I didn't catch any. Now I can say that I have been ice fishing, My Pops would of been proud. Only one of the foreigners caught one and they cooked it and ate it at one of the tailgate BBQ sites. Of all the events, there was the most Koreans, old and young, at this event. I don't think we gave it enough patience and luck wasn't on our side that afternoon, but it fun none the less.