Cats and Christmas

Been a bit busy the last couple weeks.  It's so great to be back at school and getting into the rhythm of teaching again.  The first day was fun because all the kids would see me and be so surprised that I was back.  Most teachers only do one year and then move on.  I was also gone for about two months so to see me back was shocking for some.  But hearing the dulcet screams of "EVAN TEACHER!" throughout the day was delightful.  I don't really have a lot more duties as the "Supervisor Teacher" but they did give me a nice big desk all to myself!

About a week after I got here, one of Kodi's coworkers heard about a stray cat that needed a home.  I had thought about getting a cat my second time around but it's obviously a bit commitment, and the biggest issue is what to do after the year is up and you head on to new ventures.  Some people take their pets, but the immigration and quarantine laws can be rough.  Other pets just get passed down from one teacher to the next.  Kind of a cool idea but not everyone wants a cat over here.  So Kodi and I talked about getting this cat and bringing it to my apartment.  The only problem is that Kodi is allergic to SOME cats.  So we figured we'd give this little kitten a chance and see if he wouldn't set off her allergies.

But first, there's a bit of a story behind this guy.  Originally, some students came to one of Kodi's coworkers and told a story about seeing an old woman throw a kitten in the trash on the street.  There are lots of stray cats that live on the streets and live off the garbage piles.  Quite sad.  So these two students took the kitten to the roof of their apartment building and bought him a sweater and some food to keep warm.  The teacher told the students that it was much too cold to keep the kitten on the roof and that it might die but they didn't want to tell her where it was because they thought their parents might be angry.  She gave them her phone number and told them to call her if they needed help.  A couple days later the students said that the cat was gone.  Presumably the parents found it and put it back on the street or it just wandered away.  Then a few days later another foreign teacher in the area found the kitten again on the street and took it in.
 
Kodi got the kitten one night from the other foreign teacher who found him on the street.  He stayed at Kodi's apartment for one day and then we brought him to my apartment.  He's a really fun kitten.  Full of energy and cute, like all kittens.  But unlike most kittens, and all cats really, he likes to play fetch!  You can sit there and throw one of his little fuzzy balls across the room and he'll go get it and bring it right back to your lap to throw again.  I've never seen anything like it.  He's quite sweet too and loves to rub against you and lick you.  After a few days, we realized that it just wasn't going to work out because he was driving Kodi's eyes and nose crazy.  She even got conjunctivitis (pink eye)!  My two coworkers Misha and Catherine agreed to take him until we could find a good home for him to go to.  I hated to see him leave but a kitten does require a lot of attention and I'm gone for most of the day so I felt bad leaving him alone all day.  Hopefully it won't be too hard to find someone who wants him.  He is a kitten after all, and who doesn't love kittens?!

Naughty kitty after I came home from work.

Playing fetch!

Last week I had a nice Christmas with Kodi and we exchanged lots of presents!  I got a loaf pan and muffin pan for my new mini convection oven.  I've been cooking and baking loads more this year already.  Having an oven is great, especially for making cookies!  I also got some new shirts and a new jacket.  But my favorite gift, by far, was the pair of custom made shoes with my name stitched on the back!  Kodi designed the color scheme and everything.  Now I have a very unique pair of shoes; the only pair in the world!  On Christmas day we first went to my coworkers' apartment where we had  nice meal, and then on to Kodi's friends' apartment for some more delicious food and a game of White Elephant.  If you don't know, White Elephant is where everyone brings a presents and puts them in a pile.  Then everyone draws a number and you pick out a present to open depending on the number you drew.  If you want, you can steal away a present that someone else has already opened, and then they will get to open a new one or steal another present.  Pretty entertaining game.  There were some good gifts and some terrible ones, but everything had to be about $10. 

Whoaaaaaaaaa!

Explaining White Elephant.

Kodi is a bit cold.

At school we had a Christmas party for the kindergarten classes.  One of our coworkers dressed up as Santa and all the kids got presents.  Then we sang songs and had snacks.  And we didn't have to teach!  How excellent.  The only downside is that we don't really get much vacation.  We got off December 30 and 31, but that's all the vacation we get in Winter.  There will be more days in Summer, and plenty more national holidays in between.

This weekend we're going on a massive ski trip to one of the ski resorts a few hours away.  There will be about 70 people on two large buses and we're all staying in some executive sweets at this resort.  It should make for an interesting New Year's weekend.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Round Two

Well, here we are.  I'm back in Korea after a 2+ month vacation (unfair, I know) and I'm about to start work again for another year.  My last post on this blog was about six or more months ago.  I feel like I started out well last year but then dropped off about half way through.  It wasn't that nothing interesting was going on-- quite the opposite.  I just got lazy.  So this is me trying to start out on the right foot. 

What's that?  Perhaps I should first gloat about my extended vacation?  Sure thing!  After I finished my first year-long contract here in South Korea I headed back to Seattle.  I had a few weeks in Seattle to visit with the family and friends I hadn't seen in awhile.  Unfortunately, some of my dear friends had decided to leave town and move to other parts of the country, and I was unable to reconnect in person.  Though a surprise video chat was set up by some of my friends in New York and I got to see them.  I even made a trip to Bellingham (my college town) for a night and see some friends there.  After only about two and a half weeks in Seattle I headed down to Australia for about a month.  I studied in Newcastle, Australia for a semester back in 2008, so my main goal was to visit with all of my friends from my time down there, as well as some additional traveling and merrymaking.  I started out in Sydney for a few nights and did a nice tour of the iconic Opera House and even saw a concert in the grandiose main hall.  After Sydney I went to Newcastle for a week to stay with my friends and catch up.  Being back with all my friends in that relaxed, "no worries" atmosphere was perfect.  Managed to see almost all of my Aussie roommates and bum around on a few couches.  Even got a few early morning surfs in.  It was a fantastic week but with finals coming up people were starting to get busy and it was time for me to move on. 

One of my good mates Ryan and I on the way to the beach!

 

 

On a hike with my friend Nat in a national park near Newcastle.  There were leeches in that rainforest.  Not a good time to wear sandals.

I headed up to Surfer's Paradise for four nights of lounging and partying.  The beaches there are what you would expect from a place called "Surfer's Paradise."  White sand stretching for miles.  Didn't actually get up to much here but a nice place to have fun and get some serious sunning in.  After the glitz, glam, and sleaze got to be too much, I headed down to Melbourne, a city of art and architecture.  I had heard a lot about how nice Melbourne was, all the inspiring sculptures and building designs, but it was incredibly refreshing to see such an aesthetically pleasing metropolitan city, especially after the blandness that runs rampant in Korea.  I had a good five days there exploring museums and markets, riding the trams, and listening to plenty of podcasts during my many hours spent wandering the streets.  I mainly listen to comedy podcasts, so I often have to stifle laughs or grins so passersby don't think I'm insane.  I also did a tour of the Great Ocean Road, famous for its limestone cliffs and the Twelve Apostles.

View from the helicopter ride I took along the Great Ocean Road.

Wild baby koala.  Mom was right above him.

After the second-biggest city in Australia it was time to check out Tasmania, the down-trodden little island to the south.  The mainlanders like to make fun of Tasmania to no end.  Kind of like Americans making fun of Canadians, but worse.  Tasmania is covered with protected forests and bushland, so there are great hikes and sightseeing opportunities.  I went on a couple of day-hikes the first few days.  I went to a nature reserve to see some local animals, including the Tasmanian devil.  These little guys are suffering from a contagious cancer that has wiped out 80% of the wild population in only the last 10 years.  It's expected they'll be extinct in about 20 years or so.

Wineglass Bay in Tasmania.

Young wombat.  So cute.

In case you're wondering what devils look like.  They're pretty small, but they are voracious eaters, devouring bones and all.  Fun fact: their jaws have four times more biting power than a pitbull.

After my time in Tasmania was up, I headed back to Sydney to see a friend I had made while in Korea.  After he left Korea about six months ago he headed to Australia he's still there!  Then it was back to Seattle for a little less than two weeks.  Had a nice Thanksgiving there and saw my friends a few more times.  We even had a little snow storm while I was back.  Not the best transition going from warm beaches in Australia to snow in Seattle. 


But Seattle wasn't my last stop before Korea!  On the way back I hung around in Taipei for a few days.  Taipei is a pretty great city with lots of museums and other amazing buildings.  Like most other Asian countries, its history goes back thousands of years, as opposed to just a few hundred.  As a result, you're left with a mix of old and new styles and values, which somehow mesh together without clashing.  Taipei also has the world's second-tallest building, which I ascended to behold some mighty views.  But my favorite thing about Taipei was the night markets.  There were many of them throughout the city and I made it to three of them.  A mix of clothes, shoes, wares, crafts, massage parlors, and a myriad collection of street foods (my favorite).  Korea has some good street food, but the variety is a bit lacking.  I couldn't even try a fraction of all the kinds of street food I saw in Taipei.  There are also sections of the night markets where you can find more... exotic consumables.

Temple near a night market.

Yummy fruit.

WARNING:  The following section has some possibly gross pictures.  

One night I went out with an English guy from my hostel to check out some weird eats. We first tried frog soup.  Then we decided to partake of pig knuckle and tail.  After that we were able to find Snake Alley and try some snake blood and other snake "fluids" mixed with alcohol, as well as fried snake.  Last we tried a fried chicken foot.  There were also turtles and their decapitated heads but we didn't eat any of that.  Most of the stuff was pretty darn cheap, except the snake paraphernalia.  And to be honest most of it was pretty good.  Some of it, like the frog, was more trouble to eat than it was worth.  Not enough meat for all the bones you have to pick through.  I had a number of videos from Taipei but I accidentally deleted them before I put them on my computer.  It's ok, you probably didn't want to see still-moving decapitated turtle heads anyway, right?  Sorry if any of the pictures unsettle you.

I ate the whole frog (minus the head).  Texture and taste quite similar to chicken.  Skin didn't taste like anything.  Just so many bones to pick through.

Yummy toes.

Various pig parts.

Pig tail and knuckle.  Very rich and fatty.

Snake blood and other snake fluids (supposedly) mixed with alcohol.  The pot had a broth with snake bits in it.

Anxious about snake stuff.

Two giant snakes used to lure people in.  After you dine you can take a picture.

I'm pretty sure these snakes are just for attraction, not for eating.

Haha!  So weird looking.

I'm going to tell my students that I ate a dragon foot.

So now I'm back in Daegu and just hanging out until I start teaching next Monday.  I've heard my student miss me and keep asking about me, which is sweet.  I'll have different students this time around, but I smile every time I think about the little ones and I'm excited to go back to school and see many of them, as well as my coworkers.  I saw one of my little kindergartners at E-Mart over the weekend.  He saw me from a ways away and screamed "EVAN TEACHER!" and got down from his dad's shoulders and ran over to hug my leg.  It was a bit embarrassing because everyone looked and his father did not seem happy.  But always nice to see them outside of school and how much they seem to love me. 

I'm a bit nervous about starting to teach again because it's been so long.  But I'm also very excited because it's something I really enjoy doing and I think I'm good at it.  This time around I have a few benefits at my school.  Because I signed on for a second year and I'm the senior teacher, I now have the very official title of Teacher Supervisor.  Fancy.  Along with a few additional duties such as interviewing/corresponding with potential future employees, I get a pay bump and the apartment all to myself (sorry Teresa).  That means I have an extra bedroom, so if anyone wants to come visit, you can stay for FREE!

Goings On

So I've got a few things to report on since my last post.

I'll start with the most recent.  This past weekend I went on a FREE overnight trip to a small town called Yeongcheon, which is about an hour busride from Daegu.  Yeongcheon has a famous Star Festival every year in May, which is why we went.  Let me back up for a second to explain why the trip was FREE.  I just love that word, so I'll say it again: FREE.  Basically, the city of Yeongcheon is trying to promote itself and the festival, so it arranged a free trip through a Daegu company called Daegu Pockets, which produces a foreigner-centered magazine each month with random articles, reviews of restaurants and movies, information on upcoming events, and detailed maps of various parts of the city.  Anyway, I was cruising Facebook one day, as I'm wont to do, and checked out the Daegu Pockets group page.  I saw a post about a FREE overnight trip (okay, I'll stop capitalizing it) and that there were only about 5 spots left.  Without even reading what the trip was about I quickly emailed the coordinator to see if there were any available spots left and, LO, I secured my spot on the list.  Normally I talk with friends about the trips to see who else is going and what else might be going on during that time, but I figured I couldn't really pass it up, and I'd meet some cool new people anyway.  As it turned out, I did know a few people on the trip and I did meet a bunch of other cool people. 

Well I got up bright and early on Saturday morning after a late night out for a friend who was leaving.  Moseyed on down to the meeting point and met up with the group.  We had one big bus and a little less than 40 people.  We headed first to a very old school out in the country.

500 year-old school.

Then we visited a large tomb up on a hill.  The tombs in Korea are simply large mounds of earth.  The size of the mound denotes the importance of the person or family.  The tomb we saw was one of the biggest I've seen.  We were told that it's a very famous site.

Hami: trip organizer, translator, and friend!

After that we headed on to a local wine school.  We went on a brief tour of the facility and then had a wine tasting.  I've never had a penchant for wine and I've never really liked drinking it, but this wine wasn't bad.  They even had a soju wine, which is pretty much what it sounds like.  After the tasting we went to the bottling area and we were each allowed to fill a bottle, put the cork in, and put a seal on.  Then we got our pictures taken which were put on sticky labels to affix to our bottles.  Now I have a nice bottle of wine with my picture on it!

Wine samples.

Bottling my own wine.

Next we made a long drive up into the mountains to visit an observatory and the largest telescope in Korea.  Living in Daegu, which is completely flat and in a valley, I sometimes forget how mountainous Korea is.  Well, we had quite a great view from this place as we were on one of the higher "mountains."  We did a brief nature walk with a guide and learned about some local plants.  Did you know that kiwis (the fruit) are endemic to Korea and China?  Weird.  Then we were allowed to go see the massive telescope but as it was daytime, we couldn't look through it.  During our time up near the observatory, there were hordes of photographers taking pictures and video of our group.  We all thought it was weird and mostly tried to ignore them.  It occurred to me later that they were probably hired by the city to document us having such a great time so they could use it for future advertising.  So don't be surprised if you see me in some brochures for the Yeongcheon Star Festival next year.

Nature walk.

Rocks stacked for wishes.

Mountainous.

After the observatory it was time to head to our pension and get set up for the night.  A pension is basically like a bed and breakfast, or at the very least a type of accommodation.  We stayed at a very nice, and seemingly new, pension by a small lake.  There were a bunch of cabin-like buildings scattered around a small hillside.  In traditional-style pensions you are supplied with a mat and pillow and you sleep on the floor, as was the case at this place.  I really don't mind sleeping on the floor, and because there were so many of us, it was easier to fit everyone in.  We had a buffet dinner outside by the lake.  There were other people staying there as well but we were the only foreigners (though there were some Koreans on our trip as well).  After dinner we went down by the lake where they put on a show with dancing and singing performances.  About 5 huge telescopes were set up so we could look at all the stars.  The area is known for having very clear skies, which is why it's famous for star gazing.  The stars were out and quite bright.  We were actually able to see Saturn, including its rings!  Pretty amazing that people brought their expensive telescopes, set them up, and then left them unattended for strangers to use.  Couldn't do that in America!  After the events we congregated by our cabins for some drinking games, merrymaking, and fireworks!

Two of our cabins.

Group shot.

No beds, but comfortable mats and pillows!

Singers and dancers performed.

Setting up telescopes for everyone to use.

The next morning we headed off to do some horseback riding, which I was pretty excited about.  I am by no means an expert rider, but I have gone on a number of occasions and I enjoy it.  However, I was soon disappointed as we learned that we could only ride the horses inside or on a circular track outside.  I was really hoping for some kind of walk through the woods, but no such luck.  So I rode a horse around a small indoor circular track about 10 feet in diameter as it was being led by one of the people working there.  I got bored after about a minute.  What I enjoyed a little more was walking around the stables and visiting some of the horses there.

My sweet helmet.

Bonding with a horse named Navajo.

 
After parting ways with my horse friend we headed to the actual Star Festival.  There were a bunch of booths set up selling and advertising various products.  We walked around for a bit and discovered that the majority of the setup seemed targeted towards children, but it was still fun.  We went inside a planetarium and had a crash course show about identifying some of the major stars.  After walking around a bit more we made our way back to the bus and headed on to our final stop: Cyan Art Gallery. 

Entertainer at the festival.

Looked like fun!

The building itself was an old elementary school which had been bought and converted into the art gallery, which housed works from three Korean artists.  The art was okay, but I was more impressed with the building itself.  They had kept the old wooden floors, and the attic interior was a large open space.  It really reminded me of my own elementary school with the classic creaky wooden floors.  Really cool.  Outside was a large field with some steel sculptures.  There were tons of people there on picnics or playing soccer.  A pretty nice area.  And with that, it was time to board the bus and head back to Daegu.  Overall, an awesome weekend with great weather, great activities, and a great price.  Again, all of this was paid for by the city.  The only fee we had was 4,000won for insurance.

Checking out the cool sculptures.

Advertisement shot!

Last week I went to the dentist.  I had been meaning to go for some time, but for some reason hadn't gotten around to actually going.  The office is in a little shopping square just across the street from my school.  Max and I went over to see about making an appointment and he got one the next morning and I got one the next day.  We were told it would cost 60,000won for a cleaning.  We wondered about insurance but the receptionist said cleanings weren't covered by insurance.  Well I went in for my cleaning and it was very quick and just like a dental visit back home would be.  Before the hygienist started, the dentist looked at my teeth and said, "Your teeth are diamond-like... perfect."  Perhaps a compliment for my dentist back home!  And in the end it was only 30,000won, though Max and I weren't sure why the price had changed.

Wednesday this week is Children's Day, a national holiday, so we won't have school.  Children's Day is really just a time to be nice to your kids.  Parents give presents to their children have picnics or go on trips to zoos, etc.  Not sure what I'll be doing yet, but the weather has been improving, so a trip to Busan for a beach session isn't out of the question.  It's starting to feel a lot more like Spring since this weekend.  It was almost 80 the past few days and clear skies.  Almost too hot too soon!  Starting to feel like bike weather!  I've been here over 7 months now without a bike, but I think purchasing one might be in the cards.  I'm also considering buying a scooter.  Bikes are pretty affordable, at about 250-300 for a new one or 60 for a used one.  But a scooter could also be fun!  We'll see if I can find a cheap one.

And finally, Kodi will be here on Friday night!  A great way to end the work week.  We've got some weekend trips planned and the weather will be nice, so it should be a great time!