Gyeongju, Palgongsan, salsa

A little while ago, Kait and I went to a nearby town called Gyeongju, a little city on the eastern side of Korea - right in our neck of the woods. It only took us about an hour or so by bus. Although we didn't explore all of Gyeongju, it definitely left us with a great deal to come back to. We only made it a day trip, but while there, we saw some impressive burial mounds that belonged to ancient rulers who were essentially in power of Korea by unifying it a few centuries ago. The mounds were very large, perhaps 60 feet high sometimes, and we got to go inside of one that has been converted into a very small museum containing some ancient artifacts of the period. After we were through here, we stumbled upon what will in the spring be a vast lotus blossom field that abuts an old site where royalty used to entertain. (The lotus field was all brown and withering, but I think it will be really beautiful in the spring/summer.) The site regarding royal entertainment contained the remnants of a vast building that was next to a small, man-made lake.

Later, we went to the Korean National Museum to peruse among even more artifacts from different aspects of ancient culture. We found a giant bell that is supposedly one of the best built bells in Asia/the world because if you "ring" it, you can hear it for several kilometers. We did not stay here long, though, as I think we got a little "museumed out." But we did make our way to another ancient site, a small zen garden that contained a three-story building that was originally (they think) nine stories high. After we were through here, it was just about time to go, so we took off to return our rented bikes, and headed downtown to look for some food to eat. We found a place called, "Mr. Pizza," so we decided to check it out. (I think this was the first time we ventured to try pizza since we were in Thailand.) When we looked at the menu, we learned that the chain was especially marketed to women, as it said something to the effect of "Love for women. Mr. Pizza really knows how to please a woman." Then it went on to talk about how healthy the food was, and therefore, it was good for women. (But not men?) After Kaitlin - but not I - got all of her healthy nutrients from the pizza we ate, we headed back to the bus to go home.

Our next travel destination was even closer to home; we took a "quick bus" (a faster version of a city bus, one with less stops) to a nearby mountain called Palgongsan. We had been there once before, but we arrived too late in the day to make any real dent in exploring the mountain. This time we left Daegu much earlier, but there was a catch: some kind of festival was taking place, and there were a TON of people going to the mountain. Only one of us had a seat on the very crowded bus, so we took turns on who got to sit down. We did this because the bus ride was fairly miserable. I'm not sure if it is the way the braking/gas pedals on the buses here are designed or if it the way bus drivers drive, but every time the bus driver hit the gas or breaks, there was a jolting difference in speed. This combined with the massive traffic up to the mountain made the bus ride very stop-and-go. So you can imagine that we were very happy once we finally made it to the top, glad to be on solid ground and in a nice, cool breeze. After taking a brief repose, we went to the festival and ate a nice variety of food: schwarma (kebab), corn on the cob, big pot-stickers, and waffles smothered with some kind of sweet, sticky sauce; our bellies were very happy.

Once we were done with our dining experience, we ventured to find the cable car to the top of the mountain. (We definitely want to hike up it at some point, but we will wait until we have even more time, as it is a long hike.) Once we found it, we had to wait in line for a good 45-60 minutes before we could actually get on the cable car, but it was worth the wait once we got to the top. It was a beautiful view overlooking several small mountains ranges, and we could even see the standing Buddha's head peeking over one of the tree lines. However, once we decided to head back down the mountain, we once again had to wait in line for the cable car for about an hour.

Then, at the bottom, we had to wait in line again to get on the bus, and it was while waiting in line that we saw a peculiar site. There was a woman that I figured was kind of like a manager for the buses, and she directed the mass amounts of people onto the buses, organizing us into two lines: one for people who wanted to stand, the other for those who wanted to sit. Anyways, there was a man who apparently cut in line or something, and tried to get on the bus, and the woman started yelling and screaming, pushing him away from the bus, but the man kept persisting. After about a full minute, maybe two of this, the woman asked the bus driver to close the door so that she could push the man aside. Once this was done, we got onto the bus, and once the "standing" line started moving, I guess the guy tried to get on again, because we heard more of the same yelling and commotion. I figure that the woman finally relented because the man finally made it onto the bus. But it was really quite the spectacle.

Other than that, our salsa class has been going very well. We are learning the Cuban style - similar to a class that we took in Corvallis, so we came in with a good base understanding of a lot of the moves and rhythm. We enjoy the atmosphere there, and the pace of the class is moving along very well. Plus we get to hang out with a lot of our friends and some other cool people that we keep meeting as time goes by. Anyways, that's all for now, but we will keep posting as things keep happening.

Una Salsera Otra Vez!

Hi guys! I just wanted to give you a really quick update on our weekend, which was really fun and chill. Saturday night we finally made it to the Salsa for Foreigners class I've been dying to try ever since I got here. The class was taught by an American or Canadian woman who seems awesome. There was about 24 people there, mostly various English teachers but also a few Americans from the military base. It was a basic beginning class, but I had a blast anyways and was just so glad to be dancing again. There were a couple of leads who seemed to really know their stuff, so I had a great time dancing with them on the free songs. The teacher is starting up an intermediate class next week, and asked me to come to it- perfect timing!! Ace had a great time too, and remembered quite a bit from his Cuban and ballroom classes back home. We're both really looking forward to lessons to come.

The money we paid for the lesson also included a free drink, so we headed downstairs to a private Korean Salsa party to get our drinks from the bar. All the dancers were incredible- most were definitely competitive dancers. A few graciously allowed me to step all over their feet, and it was amazing! I forget how much I adore dancing, especially with such wonderful leads- it's the closest I'll ever get to flying :) All my friends decided to head out, but I stayed behind- the only foreigner in the club except for the 4 military people from the class. I danced a few more dances (in my heavy jeans, t-shirt and ballet flats- not ideal!) and watched some fabulous performances, then headed out to meet up with my friends. Anyways, I'm in love, and so so happy that I'm going to be able to keep up my dancing while I'm here. Next on the lessons-to-start taking list- lindy hop!

Yesterday we had a very pleasant day wandering around downtown. Rich took us downtown to show us a shoestore that carries sizes large enough for our gigantic feet. We also met up with our friend Mike, who we met through this blog. I really enjoyed poking through the shops downtown and trying to get a feel for where everything is at. There is definitely a great shopping district here! Ace and I had dinner at a samgyetung place, which was a new meal for us- unfortunately for me, I didn't look at the menu close enough to realize I was ordering an entire small chicken for myself! Samgyetung is chicken soup, but when it comes out from the kitchen it looks pretty different from the canned stuff- it's a big cast iron bowl filled with broth and a few little bits of green onion with an entire chicken sitting in the middle. The chicken is stuffed with sticky rice, ginseng and these date-like fruits whose name I forget. It was nice chicken soup, definitely something I'll crave when I'm sick, but it was so much work to try to pick an entire chicken apart with slippery metal chopsticks! Anyway, it was nice soup, but definitely not one of our favorite dishes- we like the spicy stuff!

After dinner, we came home and I went about another project I've been dying to try- rice-cooker cooking. My friend Brent told me that it could be done, but I wasn't sure how it would go. Nonetheless, lo and behold, I created a beautiful and delicious loaf of zucchini bread in our rice cooker last night!! This has definitely opened up a whole world of possibilities- what's to stop me from making banana bread, rice pudding, brownies, german pancakes, or gigantic pie-like cookies?! I feel like this is a major victory for people with under-equipped, oven-less kitchens everywhere.

A Two-Week Update (Kait)

Hi everyone! Sorry I’ve been slacking on the blog updates lately. Last week was a very busy and happy one for us, as we FINALLY got our Alien Cards and were able to get internet, bank accounts, TV, a water cooler, and all sorts of other rad stuff we needed. We also got paid for the first time, so we even have some money in our nice new bank accounts, too  Ace has been thoroughly enjoying his Hapkido classes (I guess yesterday they learned about various moves that can kill/maim a man- yikes). I’ve been enjoying my Tuesday Korean classes a lot- I’m meeting a lot of really nice MoonKkang employees from different parts of the city and enjoying hearing about their insights and experiences. We’ve been learning the alphabet (pretty simple) and vowel combinations, as well as a smidge of grammar and verb conjugations. It’s all really great, and I’m thrilled that I can sort of read now, even though it feels a little silly to be learning various ways of conjugating “to sleep” when I can’t even ask where the bathroom is or count to 10.

Last Saturday we took our first day trip out of Daegu with some of our other foreign teacher friends from the area. Transportation is really quite good here, and it only cost us about 10 bucks and an hour of our time to get to Busan on the fast train. We went for the Pusan International Film Festival, which is one of the biggest in Asia. We managed to catch two films, but, unfortunately, we picked what had to have been the two most boring ones. They were really, mind-numbingly, horrendously boring. Almost everyone in the theater was asleep for the second one. However, we had a great time checking out another city and spending time with Megan and Grete and meeting some of Megan’s friends from Seoul. It seems like a really interesting city- plenty of stuff going on, and a little more foreigner-dense than Daegu. We also saw what supposed to be the best beach in Korea, which was a very pretty, decent-sized strip of sand with some pretty nice raw-fish restaurants along side. Can’t say it compares to Oregon beaches, but really, what does? Sunday I spend all day on report cards- can’t complain, though, because we only have to do them once every two months and they are our only out-of-class work.

Ace and I both signed up for our neighborhood gym this week, which is a nice place and even nicer because a lot of MoonKkang people (Korean and foreign) go there, and the staff speaks English well. I went for the first time today and really enjoyed it, even though it was somewhat different that what I’m used to and I didn’t really know what I was doing. I guess the staff will work with you to set up a personalized cardio and weight training plan for free, so I’m going to try to do that tomorrow. Cool! There was the usual weight stuff that you see at home, but as far as cardio goes there’s just a huge row of treadmills and one lonely little elliptical stuffed in a corner. There’s also a bunch of intimidating machines that furiously jiggle every part of you or blast you with heat, and even one NASA looking thing that swivels you around and upside down and lets you dangle by your feet. Why, I’m not sure, although I have a hunch it might be something that’s supposed to make you taller. The locker room was also an experience- I was on my own there, as all the foreigner ladies avoid the public showers like the plague. There’s your usual locker and mirror area with lots of naked people, but once you go through these frosted glass doors it becomes more like the Hamam I visited in Tunisia than anything else I’ve seen. There’s a big open tiled room with all sorts of heated pools dotted around, filled with naked people furiously scrubbing themselves. Basically, it’s just like the Turkish bath, but I didn’t get my own personal assistant to pummel me with a loofah and henna here. Which is ok with me. The showers are in the open, but I didn’t mind too much. I think the whole thing is pretty fun, to be honest :) They even give you clothes to wear while you work out so you don’t have to get your own clothes all sweaty.

I came straight from the gym to the little coffee shop I’m writing in now. I’ve been meaning to check the place out for a week, and I’m glad I did- it feels like coffee shops back home, and is the first nice one I’ve found in our area. I don’t think it’s really normal for people to study in coffee shops here (there’s no wi-fi, no outlets, and no one else here), but I’ve already decided this should be my official study spot. I’d better go for now though- it’s about time to get home and get ready for work. Today is Wednesday, which means we have speaking classes today, as opposed to reading and presentation classes every other day of the week. They’re really fun, but there’s a bit more prep to do, and I usually go in early- we actually get to teach stuff, as opposed to just handing out tests, correcting speech and making students regurgitate memorized material. Not that I mind having no extra work, grading, planning or other school-related stress. Miss you and love you all! K