Today Amber and I went to our classrooms to do some work and then after spending 5 hours in the school building, we went across the street to the Lotte Mall to eat lunch. We went to the Lotteria, which as I have mentioned is Korean McDonalds. We are just sitting there eating and noticing how many Korean women either are pregnant or have recently just given birth (which is going to be a future post), when Amber starts laughing. I turn around and there are these three Korean people (a husband and wife and their 20-something daughter; their daughter has a short skirt on and heels which will become relevant later in this story). In order to understand this, I need to explain how the place is set up. The mall has a series of connected restaurants that they consider to be the food court. Lotteria and the place next door each have their own entrance to the outside area, plus they have a door that connects them... the door is a sliding door that is electronic and opens when you press the button. These three are on the Lotteria side of the door, so they came through the Lotteria main entrance and are trying to get next door... so they are facing the other restaurant and have their backs to us. They stood there for a good 2 minutes pressing the button and nothing happened. Instead of walking around the 10 feet to the main door, they continue to try to get the sliding door to open.
I had turned around once to see what Amber was laughing at and I too chuckled because it was funny watching them stand there. I then turned back around to take a drink and a good 30 seconds passed. I turned back around to the door to see if they were still there, and I am then greeted by this sight. I have turned around to see that the daughter with the skirt, had lifted up her skirt to the point that I can now see her butt and what underwear she has on. The girl essentially completely flashed me just so that she could itch her behind... I have never quite seen that before, but all I could do was say "dear god" and turn back around to my food... sometimes things like that happen here and the only thing that you can say is "only in Korea".
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Our Chinese Food Trip
Last night we decided that we would attempt to get to an American Chinese restaurant that is in the city of Daegu. One of the problems with living in a large city like this one is that you need to rely on mass transit to get to different places and that can often take a decent amount of time. Amber and I decided to invite our friend and fellow teacher, Samantha, to accompany us on our trip. The trip started with us boarding the bus in order to get to the subway. The bus was super crowded and we had to stand up... at which point I informed Samantha (after she had begun to talk loudly on the bus) that it was not a good idea because it upset the Koreans (they don't like people talking loudly on the bus). We traveled along and finally got to the subway entrance. We boarded our subway and traveled along the way looking for the transfer station... where we were suppose to make a train shift. When we got to the transfer mark, we exited the station and began to walk around looking for the restaurant. Along our way, we found "dog alley" which is a row of pet shops that all sell dogs... I may have mentioned earlier that in Korea, they like making commercial areas sell all the same things, so you will see a pet shop alley, a cell phone alley, etc. The dogs were so incredibly cute, especially one of the miniature dogs that was wearing a tiny green vest. It was at this point we realized that there was no restaurant in sight... I then made the comment, I don't even see the bank... it was at that point that Amber realized we had gotten off at the wrong spot since we did not transfer trains.
We went back to the station, switched trains, and finally got to the right location. The next issue became trying to find this place. We walked in one direction and found nothing... so we decided to go the other way... still no place. Eventually we stopped for directions at a chicken place and found out where to go. Our directions were fine up until the point where it said to leave the station and walk 200 meters south... we neither had a tape measure or a compass, so we had issues figuring out which direction and distance that would be. After an hour and thirty minutes, we arrived at the restaurant only to find out that it was closed for the holiday... At this point we were so hungry that we tried to find a new place to eat at. I said "how about Japanese" and we stopped at the place only to realize that the place had no English menus, and that it was a Japanese restaurant with a Korean waitress who had no idea what the menus said because she did not read Japanese.
We finally settled on a Korean BBQ place and had a nice meal. On our way home we decided to stop for ice cream only to realize that place was closed too... it was one of those days, but we did have a fun time regardless of the issues.
We went back to the station, switched trains, and finally got to the right location. The next issue became trying to find this place. We walked in one direction and found nothing... so we decided to go the other way... still no place. Eventually we stopped for directions at a chicken place and found out where to go. Our directions were fine up until the point where it said to leave the station and walk 200 meters south... we neither had a tape measure or a compass, so we had issues figuring out which direction and distance that would be. After an hour and thirty minutes, we arrived at the restaurant only to find out that it was closed for the holiday... At this point we were so hungry that we tried to find a new place to eat at. I said "how about Japanese" and we stopped at the place only to realize that the place had no English menus, and that it was a Japanese restaurant with a Korean waitress who had no idea what the menus said because she did not read Japanese.
We finally settled on a Korean BBQ place and had a nice meal. On our way home we decided to stop for ice cream only to realize that place was closed too... it was one of those days, but we did have a fun time regardless of the issues.
Our Place
This one has been long overdue, but I have finally gotten a chance to write about our place here in Korea. While we are working in Korea, we will be living on the campus of DIS -- this makes life very easy. All of our meals are covered while here and it is great for work because we just have to walk a short distance, across campus, to our classroom buildings. Amber and I live on the fifth floor of the dorms, which is only occupied by married couples with our without children. Up here, we have two different rooms... we have our bedroom and we have another room that is set up as our living room. Our bedroom has a king size bed, a bathroom with glass shower, and a "balcony" which is a glass-enclosed area that is sealed off from elements and has sliding glass windows that can open up with screens... so we can have fresh air.
Our living room has a coffee table, a leather couch, a microwave, and a refrigerator. It also has the same bathroom and balcony set-up as in our bedroom. The living room is perfect for sports... especially for the NFL... which we now can watch because of the NFL gamepass. The room has all that you need, a fridge, a microwave, and its own bathroom which is perfect because they are all within close proximity to one another.
The campus is made up of the dorm building, the library, the gym, the kindergarten building, and the large school building. Dorm life here at DIS is very much like college life, and that is just fine for a pair of recent college grads trying to start a teaching career.
When you look at the pictures you might notice that Amber has all of her nail polish... all 35 bottles of it. Those bottles are arranged pretty much in a color-coordinated system and set in two nice lines.
Our living room has a coffee table, a leather couch, a microwave, and a refrigerator. It also has the same bathroom and balcony set-up as in our bedroom. The living room is perfect for sports... especially for the NFL... which we now can watch because of the NFL gamepass. The room has all that you need, a fridge, a microwave, and its own bathroom which is perfect because they are all within close proximity to one another.
The campus is made up of the dorm building, the library, the gym, the kindergarten building, and the large school building. Dorm life here at DIS is very much like college life, and that is just fine for a pair of recent college grads trying to start a teaching career.
When you look at the pictures you might notice that Amber has all of her nail polish... all 35 bottles of it. Those bottles are arranged pretty much in a color-coordinated system and set in two nice lines.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The Butterfly Museum
Today I accompanied the DIS science club up to the Daegu Butterfly Museum which is a short 10 minute or so walk from our school. The museum is located along side the giant lake near the school. The lake, which I took pictures of, has wake boarding, paddle-boats, a walking path around it, and various courts and sitting areas. It is nice and cool up there due to the breezes off the water and there is plenty to do... especially to see the butterfly museum.
The museum is in two piece. It has the actual museum area which has all kinds of butterflies that have died and have been put into stasis in glass cages. There were butterflies there that I had never seen before with some of the most amazing colors I have seen... some of them had markings like you would see on a tree, and others had these bright, bright blue wings that looked like they had been painted. I have seen some of the biggest bugs ever while I have been here in Korea, and these butterflies were no different... I was also able to take pictures of some of the other bugs that they had in the museum.
Once we had exhausted the tour of the "dead" bugs, we went to the other area that had live butterflies inside a green house. These butterflies floated and flew around you as you walked the rock path around the green house. The butterflies were really fun to watch and I managed to snap a couple of pictures of them when they landed on plants... I also took plenty of pictures of the flowers and plants within the greenhouse... that had some of the best colors that I had ever seen.
All in all, I had an excellent time tagging along on the science, after-school field trip. I felt like I took some amazing pictures and I am happy to know that I can go up there when I want and spend more time taking a look at the different species of butterflies here in Korea.
The museum is in two piece. It has the actual museum area which has all kinds of butterflies that have died and have been put into stasis in glass cages. There were butterflies there that I had never seen before with some of the most amazing colors I have seen... some of them had markings like you would see on a tree, and others had these bright, bright blue wings that looked like they had been painted. I have seen some of the biggest bugs ever while I have been here in Korea, and these butterflies were no different... I was also able to take pictures of some of the other bugs that they had in the museum.
Once we had exhausted the tour of the "dead" bugs, we went to the other area that had live butterflies inside a green house. These butterflies floated and flew around you as you walked the rock path around the green house. The butterflies were really fun to watch and I managed to snap a couple of pictures of them when they landed on plants... I also took plenty of pictures of the flowers and plants within the greenhouse... that had some of the best colors that I had ever seen.
All in all, I had an excellent time tagging along on the science, after-school field trip. I felt like I took some amazing pictures and I am happy to know that I can go up there when I want and spend more time taking a look at the different species of butterflies here in Korea.
IAAF World Track Championships
The IAAF World Track Championships were held in Daegu, Korea this year, and I was lucky enough to be able to attend them. We took a school trip to the Daegu Stadium (originally built for the World Cup) where the events were being held. The stadium is massive and very, very cool. It would be really amazing to see a soccer game in this stadium because of the closeness to the field and the massive screens that show you the field.
The day that we went, it was incredibly warm. The heat index, I was told, was 98 degrees and it was miserably humid out. I drank 2 water bottles, an energy drink, and my entire big water bottle that day... and I was still thirsty. Luckily, I did not get burned due to my neat little visor (see pictures) and the massive amount of suntan lotion I had on. We had excellent seats, almost on top of the field, and the area to our right was where the athletes would walk up in order to change and talk to the international press, so that was how I managed to get some great pictures of the athletes.
The day we went, we watched the women's javelin, the men's shot-put, the women's high jump, the men's long jump, and a plethora of races. It was also really cool to see the man they call "blade runner". He runs for Jamaica, and he has no legs below the knees... instead he has the running blades that he uses to race... I am amazed that he still competes like that and I couldn't help but to cheer. I was also able to see the runner, Caster Semenya, who has had disputes a couple of times due to her gender... she is considered a hermaphrodite, and some question her the legally of allowing her to race against women.
The last big event that day was when some of the South Korean team came and sat down only 2 seats away from where I was sitting. The ladies sitting there allowed me to take their pictures and even posed for them... which was really cool. All in all, aside from the heat, the trip was excellent and I am so glad that I was lucky enough to get to go and see the World Championships of track.
The day that we went, it was incredibly warm. The heat index, I was told, was 98 degrees and it was miserably humid out. I drank 2 water bottles, an energy drink, and my entire big water bottle that day... and I was still thirsty. Luckily, I did not get burned due to my neat little visor (see pictures) and the massive amount of suntan lotion I had on. We had excellent seats, almost on top of the field, and the area to our right was where the athletes would walk up in order to change and talk to the international press, so that was how I managed to get some great pictures of the athletes.
The day we went, we watched the women's javelin, the men's shot-put, the women's high jump, the men's long jump, and a plethora of races. It was also really cool to see the man they call "blade runner". He runs for Jamaica, and he has no legs below the knees... instead he has the running blades that he uses to race... I am amazed that he still competes like that and I couldn't help but to cheer. I was also able to see the runner, Caster Semenya, who has had disputes a couple of times due to her gender... she is considered a hermaphrodite, and some question her the legally of allowing her to race against women.
The last big event that day was when some of the South Korean team came and sat down only 2 seats away from where I was sitting. The ladies sitting there allowed me to take their pictures and even posed for them... which was really cool. All in all, aside from the heat, the trip was excellent and I am so glad that I was lucky enough to get to go and see the World Championships of track.
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