FlipCam for Christmas!!

Thank you Nonnie and Pappy!!

A snippet from our Christmas morning at Dana's:

Wolfound Pub Christmas Night (our British friends LOVED this Christmas song!)

I'm so excited to have this FlipCam for our travels over here! You will probably be seeing a lot more video footage of our adventures from now on :) I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It was so much fun seeing some of yall on skype!

Love and miss yall!

Amy

Happy Holidays to All!

Dear Family and Friends all over Mama Earth,

May your holidays be filled with warmth and love!

We hope that 2011 brings yall much laughter, good health, and many smiles.

We are grateful every day to have each and every one of you in our lives!

Peace and Love from South Korea,

We miss yall,

Amy and Bryan

Free Talking 101

Every Thursday afternoon, Bryan teaches a "Free Talking" class to our students. This class is completely voluntary, and is a chance for the kids to practice their English in a less structured, more fun environment. It has been a hit at school, and the kids looove 'Teacher Bryan" :). He has done various activities with them such as setting up a 'restaurant' to practice 'ordering' dialogue, Jeopardy, and most recently, helping them write a play.

They adapted an old Korean Folklore to their own personal style. The original tale is about a wood cutter that each loses his ax while chopping wood. A ghost approaches him with a normal ax and a golden ax and asked which one was his. He is honest and chooses the normal ax. He continues to lead a happy and healthy life. Meanwhile, an evil man witnesses this and purposes loses his ax. When the ghost approaches him with the normal and golden options, he immediately chooses the golden ax. He then, consequently, is struck by lightening and dies..

They wrote the new script together and memorized the lines. They worked for about 2 weeks on it, and I was lucky enough to sit in on their performance. Its pretty adorable, check it out:

Scene 1:

Scene 2:

Scene 3:

Scene 4:

The End!

xo,

Amy

It's beginning to look a lot like Kimchi

Every third weekend of the month, the Hongbeopsa temple near Nopo-dong, Busan holds free cultural activities for foreigners to learn about traditional Korean life. The activities range from cooking many different types of food to traditional Korean instruments and music.

This past weekend Amy, Matt Hailey, and I made it out to the temple to learn how to make Kimchi!

Kimchi is a traditional fermented Korean dish, made of vegetables with varied seasonings. However, Kimchi may also refer to unfermented vegetable dishes. There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi, made with these ingredients: napa cabbage, radish, green onion or cucumber. Kimchi is the most common side dish in Korean cuisine. We've had Kimchi virtually every day since we've moved here. It's usually a little spicy, but I learned this weekend that it has only been spicy since the 1500s....Because, all peppers are New World foods (foods that were not introduced to the rest of the world until Europe invaded the Americas). Something that most people don't realize. Other New World foods include: corn, coffee, peanuts, pumpkins, chocolate, turkey and potatoes.

We met up at the Nopo-dong subway station, where the temple had vans and buses that filled up with foreigners (Weh-guks) and took us out to their beautiful temple. The temple had recently finished constructing a massive golden statue of Karishna, seated on top of the temple, that must've been 30m high. It was so big, that you can see if throughout the entire valley.

Warm faces greeted us as we entered the grounds. Upon arrival, each person received name tags, a head covering, an apron, gloves, and these forearm coverings that went over your sleeves. We made our way into an open room at the bottom of the temple, where they fed us free rice (bop) with tofu, veggies, and this awesome spicy red pepper sauce. After the quick meal, we washed our dishes and met in the adjacent room for a short powerpoint presentation-which the monks/volunteers were very excited about.

The presentation, was led by a Korean Paula Dean and a translator. We were fortunate enough that many of the volunteers at the temple spoke at least some English. She went through the ingredients and the processes that take place. She explained about the different types of Kimchi and what the type we made was like.

After the presentation, we suited up in our gear and went outside for cooking time!

There were about twelve tables set up in a circle with Kim Paula Dean at the head.

The ingredients were laid out for us already with our tools. Kim Paula Dean proceeded to show us how it's down. The spiced sauce was already prepared, but we still needed to chop and mince and mix and stuff and wrap. I'd give myself about a B..I think I could've had some more sauce in mine. I'll find out in three days, because they let us take our Kimchi home!

We're supposed to wait three days before we eat it....Amy

All the weh-guks helped wash all the dirty dishes, which had to be inspected by a Korean woman who put them into the dry rack. Amy was turned back three times..hehe. And while I was ferociously scrubbing the red sauce from my plate an old Korean woman pointed at me and said 'good housewife' with a huge smile.

Group photo.

After we de-geared, everyone went back into the hall for some kimchi-jeon, which is like a sweat flat-cake cooked with kimchi...delicious! The head monk of the temple came and said a few kind words which were translated.

One other monk got up and said.

-"I am happy. One sentence."

-"I hope you are happy. Two sentence."

-"I hope you make the people you meet happy."

We shuttled back to the subway and headed for Haeundae to a new pub that opened a few weeks ago called the Wolfhound Pub. They have some legit beers on tap. They also have a real-quark dartboard! All of the dartboards in Korea are electronic plastic ones, which do work quite well, but just aren't the same.

The pub was packed with friends. After a few pints, a group of our friends started the 12 Days of Christmas..we couldn't remember the order after about the ninth day, but we had the 5th-1st down pat. The bar started playing a nostalgic mix of Christmas tunes for the rest of the night. And by 'nostalgic', I mean awesome. It made me realize, while I was eating a delicious half-pound burger, that it is amazing to be with your family and doing your own personal traditions for the holidays; but you can have an amazingly love-filled holiday with friends and new loved ones that is just as special.

10 week Korean class- done and done!

I did it! I did it! I did it!

After ten weeks of haulin my booty across town to a 2 hour Korean class twice a week, I finally graduated :)! Now, can I speak Korean?...that part is questionable. However, I can read the Korean alphabet, and I have a much larger Korean vocabulary than I probably ever would if I had not taken this class.

One great thing that did come out of this experience were some great friends. The class started out with about 30 people from tons of different countries. I loved hearing everyone else's native languages and learning more about their cultures. One moment that stuck out was when we were learning Korean numbers, and everyone went around and counted from 1-10 in their native language. There were probably 10 different languages within one classroom...it was so awesome!

(our class playing a game during our Holiday/graduation party)

Over time the class dwindled in size...but I got to know the people that stayed in the class much better. I became close friends with 3 other girls in the class (all in their mid 20's, from America and Canada) and having them there really made the class fun. We even had a "Holiday sleepover" the other weekend- so fun!

and we went to a "trampoline city"!

I hope everyone has been having a lovely holiday season so far! Stay tuned for more posts about how the holidays are shaping up here in Busan!!

Love yall!

Amy

Hmmmm

Most of the blogs I write follow some sort of event or experience. There are many little things that tilt my head to the side every day.

Here are some of the little things that make Korea unique for me:

-At the beginning of a class this past week, I began to write the names of my students on the board for an activity. Normally, I use a blue or black dry-erase marker, but this time I had my red one. Just as I finished the first name, the entire class gasped and looked at the girl, English name-Heather, whose name was on the board. Apparently I had done something quite wrong.

So, Do NOT ever write a Korean's name in red. Not is a red marker, pen, pencil, or crayon. If you do, the person is supposed to get bad luck and/or DIE. They take this one quite seriously.

-While on the subject of superstition, the number 4 is bad luck in Korea. Which is weird, because it's actually my lucky number. Similarly to America and the number 13, many buildings here do not have a '4th' floor.

-It is illegal to spit in public. My students told me the fine is around $30.

-I didn't believe it before we got here, but it's true....Koreans can drink a ton....seriously.

-99% of ALL Koreans go to English Hagwons (private after-school academies) - English is a vital part of the public school education system's testing, but apparently, the public school's don't provide adequate education for the students to get the 'necessary' A+.

-Many of the cars here run off of natural gas tanks, not gasoline. It makes for much less pollution and cheaper gas...but much more disastrous accidents.

-Clothes dryers do not really exist here.

-Public trash cans do not exist....seriously. This is one of my chief frustrations with public life in Korea. I think it is very much worth the raising of taxes by .1% to ensure that there are trash and recycle receptacles available to the public.

-Koreans eat rice with spoons - not chopsticks.

-Remodeling in Korea is faster than light. A restaurant can close, stripped, remodeled, and open again as a cell phone store in less than a week. No joke.

-There are no 'gay' Koreans. It is a common belief (among Koreans) that homosexuality does not exist in Korean blood. Obviously, there are homosexual Koreans, but it is just not acknowledged.

-BUT it's totally fine for men to have a purse. Not a handbag, but a purse.

-As far as I've experienced, Koreans religious lives are their own personal business and it does not come up in conversation often.

-Korea is one of the only countries where Christianity has spread without missionaries. There are millions of Christians here, but that is from the distribution of the Bible and not people.

-You never pour your own glass of beer/wine/soju - in Korea, you always pour drinks for others. Just another great way to make drinking more social and generous.

-Vegetarianism is a very confusing term to translate.

-There is no Korean breakfast food. In the west, we have eggs, bacon, waffles, and breakfast tacos....they have morning rice.

-Living in a new apartment is often preferable to living in a house.

-No guns. Not even for the police. - No one gets shot in Korea.

-No free toilet paper. Make sure you're packin'

These are just some of the things I've noticed in the first four months.

Much more to come...

The Grass Is Always Greener..

One thing I was not expecting to love over here was the food. I think that came from not knowing much about Korean food prior to coming here (or ever even having it), and making my judgments based on Andrew Zimmer's show "Bizarre Foods" on the Food Channel where he visited Seoul and only ate live octopus and dog (no. thank. you.).

Now after almost 4 months of being here (time is a-flyin!) I have loved almost every Korean dish I have tried. I find Korean food to be very fresh, full of flavor, filling without having that 'too full' feeling, and still super yummy without the overdose of carbs (bread, pasta, chips, fries) that I am used to back home.

Pajeon: a Korean style savory pancake filled with vegetables and various

types of cooked seafood

Galbi: traditional Korean BBQ with marinated beef, served with a million side dishes consisting of various types of Kimchi (picked cabbage), other vegetables, garlic, and other spices.

Bibimbap: a common lunch dish made with rice topped with vegetables,

an egg, and a spicy sauce

Today I had was teaching my middle school class (4 students) and wanted more of a 'discussion' atmosphere instead of the text book "Q and A" so I decided to start a conversation ...about food (duh). I asked the students to tell me their favorite restaurant in Busan (this was somewhat of a selfish prompt so that I could learn more yummy Korean options for Bryan and I to try).

Erin (a girl, answering without hestitation): Outback.

Me: ...as in, Outback... Steakhouse?

Erin: Yes teacher.

Me: Ok...what about you 2 girls?

Sunny and Jenny (answering in unison): VIPS.

Me: Oh ok...what is VIPS? (still holding out for a local Korean fav)

Sunny: VIPS teacher! I LOVE the New York Steak there.

Jenny: Me too teacher! New York Steak..the best!

Sunny: Oh and teacher...their BREAD is THE BEST!!

Me: Ha, I do love me some warm bread and steak.... What about you Erin? What is your favorite dish to eat at Outback?

Erin: awefnakwjenfkwjne (something in Korean to the other 2 girls so they can help her translate to me)

Sunny: Oh teacher...Erin no eat Outback.

Me: But Erin, you said Outback is your favorite restaurant...and you have not eaten there??

Erin: Yes teacher. But I heard it is the best.

Yet another life lesson learned here in Busan. I might be crazy about their food, but turns out they are crazy about our food. The saying must be true: the grass is always greener on the other side :)

Love,

Amy

Friendsgiving

This weekend we hosted our first Thanksgiving, and did our best to recreate the traditional American dishes from our Korean supermarkets. We were not able to cook a turkey (no oven), but we did manage to find baked chickens, pumpkin pie, apple pie, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, Korean pumpkin porridge, rolls, and a salad! Needless to say, we were stuffed and it was really nice being with our new, and dear, friends during such a special time of year.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend back home!

love yall!

xo

Amy

감사합니다 (thank you)

Thanksgiving Day is here! Actually, it is coming to an end here in Busan, but it is just beginning for yall! Either way though, I have A LOT to be thankful for and I'm happy to have a day to reflect upon that.

One main reason for moving here was to be removed from my comfort zone in order to learn more about myself, learn more about others, and reflect on the life I was temporarily away from. The third part of that reason has left me overwhelmed with how much I have to be thankful for back home. I always knew this, but now I rreallly know :)

I have an amazing family (both immediate and extended) that has been nothing but supportive and loving during my ups and downs and crazy decision making (for example, moving across the world to Asia). I admire each and every one of them so much, and I am thankful for all that they have taught me, from day 1.

My friends are the best. I feel thankful to have friends across the country, and now the world, that I think are the coolest, most interesting, group of 20-somethings out there!! I love how each and everyone of them is finding their own path in this world. I am thankful for the laughs, the long talks, and the oozing love between us all :)

I am thankful for my life in Busan. I am thankful for each of my students, who have turned out to be just as much teachers to me, as I am to them. I am thankful for the people of South Korea for allowing me to slide into their world and for welcoming me with open arms and big smiles.

Also, I know this might embarrass him, but I dont care- I am incredibly thankful to have Bryan in my life. He has been a huge support to me during this transition, and I feel so lucky to have my best friend here to share this new world with.

This is my first Thanksgiving away from home, and as you can probably tell..its gotten me all sentimental :) Bryan and I are having a small group of close friends over this weekend for a 'traditional' Friendsgiving meal. We will work with what we can find, but unfortunately, I think this year will be a turkey-less one. Either way, it will be nice to be with our 'family away from home'. Today Bryan and I had work (lame), but before hand we did make some turkey wraps for lunch, so at least we had a little turkey!! Bryan will be tuning in first thing tomorrow morning to hopefully see the Horns beat the Ags!! (not gonna hold our breath for that victory...sorry guys)

I want to wish each and everyone of you a relaxing, delicious, and love-filled Thanksgiving! We miss yall!

love,

Amy

Our neighbors, the North

Hello everyone!

I want to write quickly about the recent activity between North and South Korea, and most importantly, thank everyone who has reached out to Bryan and I expressing their concern for us. It has really meant a lot to us to have such caring friends and family back home looking out for us. It made me feel less far away, and much more comfortable knowing that people were sending us their love and support.

I initially heard about the news from seeing facebook posts on my IPOD (hello modern technology!) during a quick 5 minute break in between classes. Im not gonna lie...I freaked. But, being a teacher now, and an "adult" (still getting use to that one), I had to put on a brave face and go teach a classroom full of kids. I could not let them see fear, because they could of been scared themselves and looking up to me for guidance. This is a little glimpse into how the class started (keep in mind, these children are about 11)

Students: Teacher Amy! War!!!! South Korea! North Korea! BOOM!!!!
Me: (nervous laughter, trying not to let them see that im turning blotchy and red) Oh yeah, I heard about that. But we live in Busan, we are safe!...right?!

Students: (laughter) Teacher Amy! Nuclear Bombs! Duh!

Me: (color draining from my face. 'you are the adult' mantra repeating over and over in my head) Oh. yeah. thats right. Well, how do you feel about this? Are you scared?

"Emo" Student: No. I want to die! (frightening)

"Dude who thinks hes a tough guy" student: No! My parents want me to fight! (making fake bazooka noises and arm-gun gestures)

"freakishly smart" student: No teacher Amy! My parents dug a big hole under our house for us to go in just in case!

Me: Great, then Im coming to your house.

So, after that class was over (thank god), I was able to get more news, and hear more about what actually happened. With the help of sweet Bryan (level headed, logical, hero), I calmed down a lot. We talked with our Korean co-teachers a lot about it, and read every possible article and watched the live news via internet when we got home. The more we heard, the better we felt. It was not a full blown war, as I had initially thought via facebook posts..

I realized that part of my fear stemmed from not knowing how to react to this kind of situation. I have never, ever, lived in a place where I felt unsafe (and I do want to add quickly, that I currently do feel safe in Busan). I think that is a tremendously lucky thing to be able to say. Granted, bad things can happen anywhere, and do, everyday. But, for the most part, they are 'random' uncontrollable things. The idea of living in a place that could potentially go to war is incredible new to me.

After thinking about it, I still have very mixed emotions about the whole thing. I truly feel that South Korea does not want to go to war. North Korea has been a 'bully' figure for quite some time now, but the South Koreans have been resilient and continues to offer humanitarian aid to the people of North Korea, and have not lashed out and attacked them yet. I also found comfort in the fact that the fighting only lasted an hour. I feel that if both sides were ready for a full-on-attack-war-mode, the fighting will have not stopped so quickly. I also feel strongly that China does not support this, and that North Korea can not do this alone, especially since we have America (love me some USA) on our backs.

Another big realization I had happened yesterday morning when I 'got out of my own head' and started to focus on the South Korean people. I was watching and admiring them on my normal 30 minute commute to Korean class (walk, subway, subway, walk).

They are really truly amazing. While I was freaking out wondering if I needed to go back to America, they continued living their lives, as normal as possible. They don't have another place to go. This is their home. The love it here, they love their lives, their families, and their friends. If something does escalate, and war does break out, it will be a completely devastating thing to see this culture get shaken again. They have gone through this so many times, and have always bounced back with their heads high. I would just hate to see this happen again after they have come so far.

So, what do we do now? Well, Bryan and I are keeping up to date with the news, and making sure we are aware of any changes or developments. We have both registered with the USA Embassy in Seoul, and will receive emails/texts messages from them if anything were to happen (have not received anything yet, which is a good sign). We have been told to carry our passports on us, just in case. And most importantly, if anything were to develop, and make us feel unsafe, we would come home. It would be tragic to have to leave the wonderful life we have created here, and I hope it does not have to come to that, ever. But, safety first :). I feel 100% safe in Busan right now, and hope with all my heart that this 'fizzles' out!

Sorry this turned out to be a bit long winded, but I have not been able to respond to everyone's emails, so I thought I could get out my thoughts in one place for now. Please send your 'peace and love' vibes to our neighbors up north, and we will keep on keepin on :)!

love you all,

Amy

Red to Yellow in Gyungju

Last weekend, we made our first trip out of the city limits since we arrived. It was a weekend of firsts, as this was our first chance at riding a bus. It was also our first time to see the Korean countryside.

After some early morning confusion about bus stations, and about an hour and a half on the subway, we made it to the bus for Gyungju. Gyungju is an ancient Korean city, where there are actually some historical sites still intact. Korean history is often quite sad. Virtually everything they built in the past has been destroyed; sometimes, over and over again. Whether it was the Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, or even fellow Koreans, the southern half of the peninsula has not seen periods of peace that last more than a generation or two. I've learned from some research and the word of some Koreans, that virtually all of their temples have been rebuilt at least once. All old architecture, as in homes or other buildings, has been destroyed multiple times. One of the most tragic things I've come to learn about their history concerns wildlife. There isn't any. I've noticed this many times on our hikes, as there aren't any squirrels, rabbits, or deer that I've seen. Apparently there are some, but they are few and far between. There used to be bears and even a Korean Tigers no more than 70 years ago. The Japanese slaughtered all the bears and the few remaining Korean Tigers, during their occupation from 1910-1940. It is very sad and unfortunate, but on a happier note, South Korea has managed to preserve some of their sites, and rebuild the rest.

Only an hour bus ride away, Gyungju lies in the middle of a valley surrounded by mountains. Autumn is in full swing and the trees were brilliant mix of reds, yellows, and oranges.

A short walk from the bus station and we entered ancient burial grounds of Korean royalty. Hundreds, if not thousands of years of kings and queens are buried under massive green mounds, nearly 50 ft. tall. The park was littered with dozens of mounds. Some of the mounds were connected, symbolizing a king and queen laid to rest together. It was a very pleasant and serene setting for royal burial. I very much appreciate the natural and humble aspect of burying ones royalty under massive mounds of soil. They will peacefully stand forever, but are not as ostentatious as the pyramids built over decades.

After strolling the parks for a while, we decided to catch a taxi into the mountains. First we visited the Seokguram grotto at the top of a mountain over looking the ocean to the East. There was a small temple complex with some statues and then a small building built into the side of the mountain. Once inside, you see a room carved out of the mountain! It was unbelievable. It is apparently some of the oldest Buddhist art in Korea. It is also some of the most beautiful statues/sculptures I have ever seen. They did not allow pictures, so we cannot share....But! You should come visit and we'll take you there!

After the Seokguram grotto, we took a nice easy path, about 2.2 km, down the mountain. This was beyond beautiful. We walked for about thirty minutes under a never-ending canopy of reds, yellows, and oranges gracefully falling from the trees. There isn't much of a fall in Texas, and I've never had the pleasure of experiencing all of it in Ohio. But wow! This was one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen.

At the bottom of the mountain, we came to Bulgulksa Temple. This is one of the oldest and most popular temples in all of Korea. It was originally built in 731 AD, and was destroyed and rebuilt many times. The original foundation has remained intact, and the current structure was rebuilt in the 1970s.

Amazing sculptures and architecture littered the entire complex. This is the third temple we've had the pleasure of seeing and it was still breath-taking.

We left the temple just as the sun was beginning to go down. After some Ssam-Bap, a kind of vegetarian style Korean BBQ. We caught a bus headed for home, in Busan.