"I Like It Like That" performed by Hot Chelle Rae
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Chong Tours is Going Global
And another month gone, and another month gone, and another one bites the dust.
Today was my last day of teaching before my mini vacation began. Not many kids have attended class since the New Year rolled around. The number of students has slowly decreased to a trickle. My most populous class of ~14 students has only seen two kids this week. Classes have been chill. We just played a review game similar to Jeopardy that I made up on the fly. I really impress myself sometimes.
Michele is flying out from Kyoto tomorrow, and we're going to spend 5 glorious days exploring Seoul and making up for lost time. We haven't seen each other since we graduated from Oxy in May 2011! We've been diligently planning our trip via Google Docs. The guesthouse has been reserved in Hongdae. An evening show has been booked. Spa reservations have been made. A detailed itinerary broken down by time slots and turn-by-turn directions has been printed. Twice. We're going to N Seoul Tower, Seodaemun Prison, Namsangol Hanok Village, Namdaemun Market, Gyeongbokgung Palace. Like I said, it's going to be glorious. Chong Tours is back and going global.
It snowed again last week. I can't get over how white everything is under a blanket of fresh snow.
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| Behind my apartment |
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| 10am on a Saturday morning. I was walking my friend's dog (Lucky), while she's away for the weekend :) He was rescued from the streets of Mokpo! |
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| "The Longest Road" Tribute to the song by Morgan Page |
"The Longest Road" by Morgan Page feat. Lissie
(Deadmau5 Remix)
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| The playground at Daebul Elementary School. The ground is brown & dusty in the Summer and just plain brown every time else. |
VIDEO: Snow Day in Mokpo whoooosh~
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I met up with a bunch of people from my province over the past two weekends.
Fun times in Gwangju (광주)!
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| Potstickers with Shirley for the Lunar New Year |
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| Chinese food, Korean style |
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| Shirley & I bought $10 worth of candy each from the Weeny Beeny and "snuck" it into Mission:Impossible - Ghost Protocol. We knew foreign candy was expensive, but not THAT expensive. We were shocked for sure when they rang up our bills at the counter. But hey, the candy was delicious! And the movie? Well after living in the boonies for 6 months, those special effects were that much cooler. |
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| Sticker pictures!!!! |
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Went back to Gwangju (광주) this weekend to celebrate a friend's birthday and chill.
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| $7 Brunch at First Alley Way: buttered toast, scrambled eggs, seasoned potatoes, & bacon The food was delicious. I'm definitely going back again. |
Monday, January 23, 2012
Food & Fun: Delete. Delete. DUH-lete.
- GWANGJU -
광주
Pizza & Pasta at Quirinale Restaurant
We ordered the Family Set and split it between 4 people.
Vegetarian Pizza
Looks can be deceiving. This dish was called the "California Roll."
Spring rolls with French fries, a couple slices of fruit, a baby corn,
a mini waffle, and a bit of sweet potato.
It actually wasn't that appetizing.
Chocolate muffin at Bari E. Cafe
Frying pan cookie: Oreos melting in a hot pan with a scoop of ice-cream
This dessert has the right idea in mind (a pizookie), but falls very short for the asking price (~$7)
- MOKPO -
목포
My 1st jjajangmyeon (짜장면) !!!
Delicioso!
Ice Blendo's at Cafe Tiamo
Ice Green Tea Blendo
"Mokpo Homegurlz were here! Delete. Delete. DUH-lete.
Oh haaay! holla holla! ♥JKLN" @ Cafe Tiamo
Mokpo Homegurlz
-SEOUL-
서울
Hangang River
Sunset over Seoul
Hangang River at night
Crunch Wrap Supreme at Taco Bell in Hongdae (홍대)
Followed by Fiesta Nachos at Dos Tacos
Trick Art Museum in Hongdae
홍대
hit and run
I'm from LA, trick
ghetto fabulous
you mess with the fro, you gotta go
I Get Paid To Eat
What's up blogosphere!
I've been pretty lazy about updating the blog. I spend most of my time eating good food, listening to music, thinking about my next shopping splurge in Gwangju, and chatting up friends on Skype.
Even though the kids are on Winter holiday, English class is still in session. I get up at the buttcrack of dawn (6:30am) Monday-Friday and meet Nari outside at 7:50am. Truth be told, I really struggle in the mornings and meet her by 7:53am at best. We take the 500 bus together. I usually arrive at school before most of the other faculty, so I bypass the morning greeting and go straight to my classroom. By this time, my hands are freezing as I turn up the class thermostat to 30 degrees Celcius, which only makes the class feel like 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
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| Sunrise over Mokpo (목포) |
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| Sunrise over Yeongam (영암) |
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One day it snowed pretty hard, which was really cool.
My first class starts at 9am, but half of the class runs in 10 minutes late, red in the face from running in the cold. My classes are divided by grades: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6. Initially, I started teaching them simple phrases such as "I am (not) a girl / boy / man / woman / student / teacher / doctor / artist / singer," "You are (not) ...," and "He / She / It is (not) ..." Then the school gave me workbooks to teach out of --where were these books 4 months ago? So now I am teaching: "I like apples / oranges / bananas / kiwis / watermelons / pears / strawberries / peaches / grapes" and "I don't like [insert vegetable here]." The older kids learned "He / She plays [insert sport here]," which gets a little confusing when they want to talk about swimming, hiking, running, or wrestling.
We play the same 3-4 games. The younger kids love this Angry Birds PowerPoint game that I tailor to each lesson; Angry Birds is the new Pokemon, and every kid is obsessed with it. The older kids like to play --what I call-- the Chair Game. One kid stands in the center, while his peers sit in the chairs around him. He says a phrase such as "I am a boy," then everyone who identifies with that phrase gets up and runs to another chair. The person left standing dictates the next phrase. My favorite game isn't a game at all. At least once per week, we make mini books, so that they have practice writing the sentence and drawing a picture to accompany it. I walk around the class and police the kids for misspellings and grammatical errors. I also pretend to be impressed by their drawings, which are actually pretty good sometimes, so I don't always have to pretend.
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| 5th grade girls working on mini books |
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| 5th grade boys working on mini books and hiding from my camera |
"I am not a singer."
"I am a Korean."
At 11:20am, I am done. After turning off the computer, the lights, and the heater, I head downstairs with Hannee to help prepare for lunch. The cafeteria isn't open, so the faculty cooks over portable gas camping stoves in the teacher's lounge. My responsibilities are limited to setting the table with spoons and chopsticks. Then I huddle near the heater, while Hannee scoops the side dishes. Lunch is the same 4 foods on rotation. We either eat kimchi jjigae (김치 찌개), fish stew, tteokguk (떡국) with mandu (만두), or ramyeon (라면).
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| Lunch in the teachers' lounge |
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| Kimchi all day, e'errrrydayyyy |
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| There's never a shortage of Korean side dishes --------------------------------------------------------- |
Once in a while, we go out for lunch. Those times, the food is really, REALLY good.
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| Raw fish! |
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| Different parts of the same fish |
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| Huge Mussels |
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| Fish Stew |
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More food, food food!!!
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| Potato wedge pizza at 난타 |
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| Red Crab Porridge -- BEST porridge I've ever had! |
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| Dessert at a Twosome Place |
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| Dessert: Tiramisu Latte + Green Tea Latte |
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| Paneer Butter Masala from First Nepal in Gwangju (광주) |
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| Dessert: Gelato at Café Tiamo |
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A bit of my cooking . . . I caved and started buying cheese one day.
I haven't stopped eating it since.
I haven't stopped eating it since.
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| Mushroom & Cheese Omelet; Mini bow tie pasta with tomatoes, kale, garlic, & mozzarella cheese |
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| Grilled Cheese Sandwich with egg, tomatoes, & lettuce |
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