Teachers Day

May 15th is Teachers Day in South Korea.  Some schools close early but mine did not, of course.  Students usually present carnations to their teachers on this day but many give special gifts.  I was surprised to have gotten anything, given that I had only been at school a month, and I was quite appreciative of the gifts I received!

 

The flowers are from Kelly and the iced coffee from Gloria.

A gift set from Sam.  I love the packaging.  I'm sure his mom picked it out.  I gave him some stickers at the end of class and the rest of the students accused him of bribery.  I protested of course.  But I guess in other schools, the gifts have gotten very expensive that schools now close on Teachers Day to avoid the rampant bribery that takes place.


Ice cream from Chloe!

Soap from Kelly!

And Juliet gave me a box of pastries, super brownie points for her!  And she wore the best jacket to school that day- a Boston Red Sox jacket, so random.  Double the stickers for her!

 

Thanks, Juliet!

 Not a bad haul after only one month of teaching!

A Visit to the Anyang Art Park

I live close to the Anyang Art Park, an open air gallery featuring artistic structures in a park setting. It is located between Gwanak and Samseong mountains. A group of us visited the park back in April.  I would like to visit again this summer to check out more of the pieces and to see how much the flowers and foliage have changed.  When we went, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom and the azaleas were just starting to come out.  It was a really pretty time to see the park.

 

 We stopped for some Korean pizza (bindatteok, Korean pancake) and makgeolli, an alcoholic beverage made from wheat and rice.  The pancake is fried and can be made with seafood.  The makgeolli tastes like Cider Jack to me.  It's sweet and very delicious.  And no Korean meal is complete with sides!  So, of course we had kimchi and we also ordered tofu.

 

 

 

That's squid in there.

Shake the bottle before pouring!

 



The art pieces are all along the river and up in the hills.  There are trails for you to follow and some require a bit of a hike to get to.  Some of the pieces are very strange, but overall, there are a lot of fun and abstract structures to check out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hiked further up into the hills and one of the art structures gives you an awesome view of the neighborhood below, the mountains and the city further away.  It was so neat to see how green everything is.  One of the pieces of art is a very large Buddha, and I think there is a temple there, too.  So I'll have to check it out the next time I come. 

 



 

Can you see the Buddha statue up on the right?

 

 After a long day of hiking and art-seeing, what better way to cap off the day than with chicken and beer?



Best invention ever: the yogi button.  (I don't know if that's the official name or not.) Yogi means "here" in Korean.  You push the button when you want service and a waiter or waitress will come to your table. Your table number shows up on a sign on the wall so they know where to go.  No need to raise your hand or try to get your waiter's attention (waiters are not designated to certain tables), you just push the button and voila, someone comes to your table! 

 

Bella Praha

After the wedding, Eunice and I went shopping in Sinchon.

Something I found quite hilarious?  Snail beauty products!  They are made with the slime of snails!  It is quite popular out here.  I had to try some myself so I bought some TonyMoly (a popular Korean brand) Intense Care Snail Lotion. It is an anti-wrinkle, whitening and nutrition lotion that I use at night.  The two pics below are masks. And you thought I was nuts for sleeping with snails under my pillow at camp!  Well, it's actually quite common to have snails as pets.  Even Eunice said she had a pet snail for a while but they eat too much lettuce, it was difficult to keep up with their demand for food!

After shopping, she took me to one of her favorite cafes that she would go to when she was in college- Bella Praha!  It is a really cute cafe.  She suggested the Royal Milk Tea and it really is quite delicious.  It's like a tea latte, only better.  And she ordered a trdelnik, a rolled dough pastry you find in Prague (and maybe other parts of Eastern Europe).  I remember eating them with mom, dad and Suz when we visited Prague a couple of years ago.  It was yummy.  It was so random!  It's tucked away in some corner in Sinchon and I'm not sure I will be able to find it again.  It was a nice treat at the end of the day.