bowing to traffic

As I was biking home from shopping, I happened to notice this at the intersection near my apartment:

Ok, so I've seen all kinds of people out on the streets (in front of electronics stores), and in stores dancing around to songs (Homeplus!) to advertise their businesses. And some places like to have people outside directing traffic and bowing (Lotte). But there's only one reason I've seen human advertisements at intersections bowing, etc. Elections, or as Koreans sometimes say, erections! My favourite is when they're being driven around in bongo trucks while music is being played. No better way to get people to vote for you! I don't see why male candidates only seem to have females lined up doing dance routines though... ok, I do, but come on.

ready to eat military vegetarian meals

I bought one of these my first year, in Korea. There are some places around that sell American military items, not really the interesting stuff I'm looking for, but they do have some vegetarian meal pouches!
This is the first one I tried, cheese tortellini, menu no. 13:

and its contents:

Crackers, peanut butter, cider powder, m&ms, cheese tortellini, spiced apple pieces, etc.
It was good, not amazing, but it's a vegetarian, military meal pouch, my expectations weren't high.

Now, about two years later, I decided to give another vegetarian meal pouch a try, this time, lasagna:

It's a thick plastic bag, that contains more plastic bags!

And the contents. Baby bottle of tabasco sauce!! Along with carrot pound cake, which I took one bite of and decided that it wasn't happening. If I was starving, or trapped somewhere without food, I would eat this. But essentially it's a dry brick imitation of baked goods. It also came with iced tea, hot cocoa, salt, matches, moist towelette, napkin, spoon, gum, mixed fruit, lasagna, peanut butter and crackers. No m&ms this time.

To "cook" the lasagne you need to put the lasagna pouch in the plastic bag with the special heating pad and then fill it with hot water. Give it time and then open and eat!

I decided to pour the lasagna out onto a plate. You know, make it slightly presentable... I took one bite and my first thought was "this tastes like beans." I read the ingredients and sure enough, I found re-fried pinto beans. It's not just any old vegetarian lasagna, it's re-fried bean lasagna!

I'm not crazy about canned fruit, so I figured it was best to skip the fruit pouch. But I did try the peanut butter and crackers.

 They were, shockingly, not stale. I'm not exactly sure how long this food lasts for or when it expires. Or how old it is, or any vital information like that really. All I know is, this is the second pouch I've tried and I have yet to feel any negative repercussions, aside from some unfortunate tastes.

So, it's probably not for everyone, or pretty much all non-military people. But when it's only 5,000 won, less than $5, and says vegetarian on it, it's hard to pass up. It's like those small surprise bags of candy I remember seeing as a kid. I knew that if I picked out what I wanted, for the same price the surprise packs cost, I would have more of what I liked. But it was always too hard turning down the surprise. This is like the surprise pack for vegetarian adults.

sunday night dread

Tomorrow is Monday, the start of a new week. I'm not dreading it, like I used to when I taught middle school. But I'm not excited for it either, it's going to be a long four days until the weekend. And potentially someone will be going into my apartment tomorrow while I'm not home to do something gas related? But my handler left me the relieving note "don't worry about safety ;)" without any reason as to why I shouldn't be worried. But maybe the winking emoticon is supposed to make up for that...

Either way, here are some awesome moments from the weekend:

Abby has a sock fetish. Wear socks and she attacks your feet, it's a pretty normal response.

Mac and cheese, with broccoli and sriracha sauce.

Getting chauffeured around the mountains by another teacher, in a little van. It's still snowing at the end of March. Chungju is a lot colder than Daegu.

Having a stowaway in the back of said van. Keeping it classy.

Posing with weird pepper statues while giving the thumbs up. 고추/gochu/pepper is slang for penis in Korean, so that may explain why the statue is very enthusiastically giving the thumbs up with the giant pepper.

And the pièce de résistance:
I went on a biking trip to the biggest  문구/stationary/art supply store in Chungju along with a friend and I mentioned that there was a McDonald's beside it. He opted to buy a hamburger while I was sorting through the supplies, which tends to be a lengthy process. He came back with the food and was going to eat it outside, but they told him to go and eat it in their small back room kitchen/storage area, which was a huge conversation topic among the store owners and shoppers. I walked outside after making my purchase, at which point, one of the shop owners busted out the door, wildly miming eating and shouting "friend, hambuhguh, friend!!!"
I returned, and sure enough, there he was nonchalantly eating a hamburger in their mini kitchen, at which point they made it clear that I should sit and wait until he was finished. They were so thoughtful. Especially since it was so cold and windy outside, and their kitchen had ondol (floor heating) that was nice and toasty.

my apartment

This is the third apartment that I've had in Korea, and it's the biggest, but it's the first I've had that is only one room.

The view from the entrance of my wall-less living room and dining space. Abby was sleeping on the couch, her second favourite sleeping place, so she missed out on the photo shoot. Lots of Buddhist art on the walls, plus a mini framed picture of Kali, my favourite Hindu god. I love Buddhist and Hindu art.

Art area, entrance to my bathroom, closet, and bed area featuring my awesome mannequin that was a find my first year in Korea. Another Kali by my closet and a small one by the entrance.

 The kitchen and entrance. My washing machine is in a closet like space to the left. This is also the first apartment I've had that doesn't have a tiled washing/laundry room.

Some of my furniture was provided by my university, but a lot of it was purchased by me. In my contract they stipulated that furniture would be provided, as it was for me by my two EPIK schools. Which is great, if you don't care what you get. Schools will buy whatever is cheapest (some don't care how old, used or unfortunately ugly it is) and then you're stuck with it.

I like most of what I was given, the tv stand, bed, storage cabinet, kitchen cabinet, and table. But they also gave me an incredibly ugly (seriously, it looked like it had been used and abused in a love motel) couch and busted old tv. This is my third year in Korea, I want nice-ish things, not whatever is the cheapest option to cover contract requirements. I asked if they could take away the stuff I didn't want, many, many (10+!) times. Which they agreed to, but that was over a month ago... Thankfully another teacher is holding onto them for me (since they haven't fully furnished their apartments yet). In my experience, foreign teachers' living conditions are pretty damn low on the list of the school's concerns, but thankfully my current situation is much better than my past two (and I can only seriously complain about my first place).

 My bathroom, also the first I've ever had that's tried to separate the shower and toilet area. Ok, it's just a panel of glass, but it's nice that the toilet doesn't end up showering with me all the time like at my last two places...

The best part of my apartment, the view.

It's really nice having a lake with mountains off in the distance to look out at each morning and night.

Biking in Korea

In the two years I've been in Korea, I've had two bikes and biked the entire time. My first school was a 25 minute walk from my apartment and the fastest option was biking. I started with a small, red, folding bike and bought it fairly cheap.

My second year, I decided to upgrade. OK, I didn't really spend much more, my new bike cost around 200,000 won, or less than $200, but I was tired of having a little folding bike. I lived within walking distance of my school, so didn't bike as much. But I prefer biking places rather than relying on buses, subways, or taxis.

Parked at the library near my office, the purple and black cruiser is mine.

Now, I live about a 20+ minute walk away from school, again, so biking to work is back on. Plus Chungju is kinda small and it's easier to just bike places than getting a bus (there aren't any subways here) and I'm not a fan of cabbing it everywhere. And I always come across interesting little places when I just bike around for the fun of it.

It's fairly safe to bike, I find that people are much more lax about where you bike (you can bike everywhere!) in comparison to back home. Sometimes there are bike paths, on roads or on the sidewalk, but people generally accept you biking all over the place. Not that it's safe to do that... As per anywhere, you have to be careful and bike like everyone is trying to run you over, and there are a whole ton of scooters all over the place that blatantly disobey every traffic law.

I've been lucky and haven't had any issues with theft or vandalism, and have found it much more bike friendly here than anywhere I've lived in Canada. Bikes are more of an accepted form of transportation. The only thing is, as a foreigner you're already an attention grabber, but as a foreigner on a bike, you get even more attention! My students, middle and university, always love telling me whenever they see me biking.

Even random people around town like telling me when they see me biking. I've been exploring Chungju a lot, by bike recently, and stopped in at a Korean art store the other day. The shop keep, who also happened to be bleeding from his forehead, immediately mentioned/mimed that he saw me biking the day before. Here's my awkward drawing of the guy:

 He was pretty cool, dropped some comments about Canada, and gave me a free folding fan, after I purchased some paint and a brush. But it's times like these that remind me just how much I stand out sometimes...

Be kind to trees

One of the things I like about Korea is their approach to trees, putting up guard rails and giving them support beams. It's always nice to see.

This weekend was spent biking around Chungju, finding new art and stationary stores, visiting temples and just unwinding from the past week.
Some of the sights:

Guards at the entrance gate to a Buddhist temple.

Pagoda and Buddha at the temple, it's always nice to stumble upon a temple in the middle of the city and be able to escape all the cars, ads and noise. Some people think once you've seen one temple, you've seen them all. But I feel like I always experience something new with each temple I visit.

Some of the eats:

Jjin bbang (sweet red beans inside a steamed bun) at the market.

Kalguksu (noodles in anchovy broth) at the market.

More sweet potato pizza! So much pizza, in such a short amount of time.

And some of the randomness:

S-club (!!!!!) diet dance ad on a van!

 My amazing new sketch book that says:
Do yourself. Nobody is invited on your life. Fill out your own style. Only your own sketch is available on and valued. This book is the reason to exist.

...and the mural from art night!

work life

Two more classes and I've survived the first week on a full schedule and it's the weekend!
Some events of the past two weeks:

We were told one day during our first week that we would be going to a "meeting" the next day. It was an awkward meeting where lots of grandiose ideas were told to us, then we were ushered into a van and off to a restaurant.

Since two of the three of us are vegetarians, which thankfully they were aware of and cared, we got a pretty decent spread of veggie friendly foods.

It was a pretty snazzy restaurant.

Then we headed back to the school and were left on our own to prepare for the next week of an insane schedule of classes...
As a welcoming present to myself, and to make up for my lack of vacation, I ordered a massive quantity of stuff from iherb.com. I love iherb.

 Artichoke hearts, rye bread, indian food, brown basmati rice, mac n cheese, chai tea, sauerkraut, chips, and vegetarian gravy.

I should've added this to my pizza post, but here's sweet potato pizza from Pizza School! Chocked full of sweet potatoes, corn and onions, with a mystery sauce! Sounds horrible, tastes delicious! And it's the perfect lunch when you've got an 8 hour break in between classes. Yes, 8 hours.

Some awesome university student art:

Hello! I'm Dayoung and Eunbyeol friend Kiring. I'm 19 years old. I from Africa (I miss you mommy!) I'm a hair designer my monthly pay is fives leaf. My dream is have a boyfriend. Please call me! I'm sexy.

And some awesome cubicle art:

Tonight will be a mug wine and art night at the cat cafe in celebration of surviving the first week of an intense work schedule. Just two more classes to go.

randomness

This is the first week of full time classes. So far things have revolved around choosing textbooks, trying really hard to get those textbooks (seriously, they didn't want to give them to me even though I'm a teacher), figuring out students' English levels, writing course outlines/syllabi, replying to random, and I mean random, student emails, and wandering around campus trying to find out exactly where I need to be. And the wonderful experience of getting lost and being late to class... which is extra horrible when you're the teacher. Yeah, that happened.

Thankfully, there's lots of this available to drink.

And plenty of good Korekan food around.
We've had mini celebrations for finishing little tasks, like getting pizza after the semi first day... which I don't really consider a celebration, but whatever. After finishing this week, I think it'll be about time for a real celebration. And getting back to epic photo moments like this:

 Time really flies... when you've got so much work to do.

Having pets in Korea

This is Abby, she's about 10 years old. She's lived with me for about 6 of those years, and 2 of those years have been in Korea. I got her while I was in university, living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Then she moved with me to Ontario, Canada, then Daegu, Korea and now Chungju, Korea.

She hates traveling. Well, she seems a lot more ok with it now. In the beginning, she'd meow bloody murder every time she was in her carrier and outside of the house, only for about the first hour of traveling and then only a bit after that... now it's just the first 10-15 minutes. She's really mellowed out!

Taking her to Korea from Canada, in 2010, meant making sure she had her rabies vaccination, 30 days prior to arrival, and a health certificate. I ended up booking Air Canada, with an additional fee of course, because they were the only airline that would allow her in cabin at her weight. Yeah, she's a big cat. The whole situation at the airport was another matter though, going through security with pets takes things to a whole new level. I had to take her out of her carrier, so that her carrier could be scanned, while I held onto her. It didn't help that the lady behind me, waiting to go through security, was terrified of cats. Or the fact that Abby HATES traveling. I was terrified at any moment she would freak out, claw me to death, and run off into the airport... But once we got onto the airplane, and eventually to the airport at Incheon in Korea, it was a breeze. Actually, I had to find someone to check her papers and make sure she was good to go. They didn't really check that closely, I could've just walked out no problem...

We traveled for about 24 hours from Canada to Korea total, and while it was stressful, she was totally fine once we got settled in and she's adapted well. During the move from Daegu to Chungju, (2+ hours) she barely meowed and actually slept, which is especially surprising for her since she's a really chatty cat. Although I feel like it isn't fair that she's had to move because of me so many times, I still think it was for the best for both of us. I don't know what would've happened to her if i didn't take her, and I've been so happy to have her around. Sure there are tough times, but it's worth it.We're a team.

In our new apartment.

I've noticed that a lot of teachers in Korea get pets while they're here (for 1-2+ years) then leave them when they go home/elsewhere. Yes, it costs more to move them, and requires planning (rabies + health certificate, and potentially more depending on country). But it's worth it. And they rely on you, wait at the door for you, you're all they have. So make sure you're committed to having a pet, and what having a pet means, before you take one on. And if you can't commit, then foster! There are great organizations out there, here's one for  starters: www.animalrescuekorea.org

 And yeah, it can seem like a lot of money to keep a pet, especially as a traveler (vet bills, supplies, food, transportation costs, etc.), but for me personally, it's totally worth it.

Restauranting on the go in Korea

There are restaurants all over the place, with a huge menu that are cheap, fast and a good place to try new things out. Usually they're called kimbap 김밥 something, nara, mania, pasa, cheonguk... and usually they're orange and look something like this:

And here is an example of a menu you'd find in one of these restaurants:

Yeah, they have a ton of stuff... The quality of the food varies place by place as well. Here's a picture of bibimbap I got on the go at Food 2900:

It came with kimchi, odeng (fishcakes), soup (really just broth with a couple slices of green onion) and a rolled omelet as banchan/sides. It was ok, cost 4,500 won, which is kinda pricey (but things in Chungju seem to be).

And here is a picture of boribap (ok, I eat a lot of bibimbap/boribap) that I got at a restaurant that specializes in boribap and kalguksu:

Same price 4,500 won, located not too far from Food 2900. It came with two kimchis, spinach, onions, lotus root, doraji, and little fish. Granted I was with a friend and that's their chunggukjang in the middle. But as far as the quality of the meal goes, it was so much better at the specialty restaurant (of course).

Kimbap places are everywhere and have a vast selection, making them a great starter place, for those unfamiliar with Korean food, to build up a repertoire of good dishes. But for the best food, you need to go to a place with a downsized menu. And when the prices are comparable, and you're comfortable with Korean food, why wouldn't you?

First week...

I've had a few classes so far, but have yet to start my crazy schedule, which will be happening next week. So far I've just decorated my office a little and wandered aimlessly around campus hoping to find someone with a colour printer that's willing to print stuff for me. And these are some nice things that I've stumbled upon along the way:

A bike going up the art building, and it's not just any bike, it's a couple bike!!!

I was pretty tempted to knock on their door, but that probably would've been incredibly awkward...

                                                    Lies.

My fantastic cubicle, nicely decorated, and it even has an appropriated laminator! Out of sheer annoyance with the ridiculousness that's happening around my workplace, I've decided that the best way to soften the blow is to hoard office supplies.

My awesome background of the coolest place around, the cat cafe!