Moving Day

I have moved my blog here!!

밥

밥 (bap) means rice in Korean. Rice tends to remind me of home because there were few dinners where it was absent. As a child, I thought all rice was cooked in the microwave. During college, I learned how to make it on the stove.

I bought a rice maker off one of my co-workers who's headed back States-side. Since Korean rice is very sticky, I'd rather not have to spend hours cleaning out the pot every time I want a taste of home. Rice makers are really easy to use....so I thought.

Oh, to be six years old again....

One of my kindy students has an awesome pair of shoes.

Oh, to be six years old again....and they light up!!

Totally just saw that there's a subway station named Juan. Now, I just have to find someone named Juan living near Juan station and I will have seen everything.

Side note, I met four of our new foreign teachers tonight. They all seem really nice and excited to be in Korea. Besides the massive jet-lag, they seemed to have gotten here without any issues. Yay, good day!

Pay My Bills!!

South Korea has an awesome system for making bill payments! First you go to your local bank. Then you find the handy dandy bill paying machine. Swipe your passbook to start (a passbook is a basically a checkbook with a magnetic strip, but you can put it into an ATM and it prints every transaction neatly for you). Next, click the top bill button and insert your bills one by one (bills here have a barcode that can be scanned, so these machines tell you how much the total is). Finally, you punch in your pin and voilà. Your bills are paid. The only thing left to do is update your passbook at an ATM.

New music

I have been away from the States for about seven months now. I need something new to listen to on my iTunes. What do yall recommend?

"Commies"

China, The Middle Kingdom. Holy crap!! I cannot express how incredible this trip was. Everything was a piece of cake, our travel agency even did our visas for us. Here’s the itinerary we loosely followed:

On day 1 we:

arrived

had lunch near Tian An Men Square.

visited Tian An Men Square and the Forbidden City.

Entering Tian An Men Square. We had to enter a security checkpoint just to access the square. Our guide informed us the checkpoints are there to prevent protests.

I have never seen so much military patrolling one single area. There were uniformed soldiers and police, but our guide told us there were also plain clothed officers and undercover secret police officers.

Mao's final resting place. It was closed.

The China National Museum. You have to request tours months in advance. It was also closed.

The main gate to the Forbidden City and Mao's portrait.

It's huge after you pass the first few gates....

and it gets even bigger.

Part of the rock garden located towards the exit.

View of the Forbidden City from the back, moat and all.

went to a Chinese tea ceremony.

saw a Chinese acrobatic show.

had a hot pot dinner.

checked-in to our hotel.

On day 2 we:

visited a jade factory.

climbed the Great Wall.

After our hike up to the top of the Great Wall at the Juyong Pass.

had an awesome lunch.

went to the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace from the entrance, again, it was way too cold to walk up there.

The entrance to the longest outdoor corridor in the world.

visited a pearl factory.

had more awesome food for dinner.

Day 3 was our free day, so we:

haggled for souvenirs at the Pearl Market.

rode the Beijing subway.

ate Szechuan chicken in the restaurant strip of Ghost Street.

went to the Yonghegong Lama Temple.

had dinner on the Wangfujing Snack Street.

Yes, I had fried scorpion for dinner. It tasted just like buttery popcorn.

celebrated 2012 in our hotel.

On day 4 we:

took a rickshaw tour through the traditional hutong neighborhood of Beijing.

Hutong means alley in Chinese and most of the houses in these neighborhoods do not have indoor plumbing. The government built these public restrooms where you shower and go to the bathroom with your neighbors (and there is absolutely no privacy, like no dividers between toilets kind of privacy).

talked to a kung-fu master.

went to the Temple of Heaven.

Probably the most beautiful thing I saw in China.
The park surrounding the Temple of Heaven serves as a popular meeting spot, somewhere to play games, somewhere to exercise, and a nice relaxing atmosphere.

had more incredible Chinese food for lunch, including Peking duck.

left to go back to Seoul.

32F + 1 Shitty Bike = 1 Sore Ass

Seokmo-do is an island south of North Korea (do means island). It’s located right off the coast of the port city Incheon. The plan was to go bike around this island for a whole day and get out of the city. It was an awesome daycation. I got some well needed fresh air, exercise, and I got to see a really cool Buddha statue. The temple was originally built in 635 A.D. and there is an inscription on the cliff face above the temple. I did not walk up and see it because it was way too cold.

The only damper on the trip was that my bike was a piece of shit. The gears had rusted over and got stuck, so I couldn’t switch out of the low gear setting and had to do a three hour bike ride in 32 degree (Fahrenheit that is) weather at a turtle’s pace.

Here are pictures:

The ferry to the island.

Quiet road along the ocean.

The first thing you see after a very steep hike up.

This incredibly huge Buddha on it's side.