Dinner in Shinae

Last weekend we went to Shinae, which is one of the two downtown areas in Ulsan. Shinae is considered the "old downtown," compared to the new downtown which is full of international designer malls and department stores (Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc.). We went with another couple that we spend a lot of our free time with, Ramin and Tahereh. Ramin grew-up in Cameroon, Africa and Tahereh grew-up in Brazil, but they are both of Iranian decent. We have a really good time with them! We went to a really good Italian restaurant and then to our favorite coffee shop, Angel-in-us.

The Italian restaurant was actually pretty amusing. It's called "Casa Rosa," which they took very literally. The entire restaurant was pink, including the furniture and walls. The booths were decorated with lace curtains, chandeliers, and pink rose wallpaper.

Ramin had his camera with him...here are a few of his shots at the coffee shop.

Hiking and Samhojeong Pavilion

Today we went hiking for the first time since we've been here! We found a really nice trail near our apartment that goes up the ridge of the mountains surrounding Ulsan and a huge cemetery. After we hiked up for about 1/2 an hour, we came across the Samhojeong Pavilion. The views of Ulsan were beautiful up there! They also had an area with exercise equipment as well.

A huge cemetery

Melissa inside the Samhojeong Pavilion

Frank enjoying the view

Exercise equipment on the mountain

Frank trying out some of the equipment

View of Ulsan from the mountain

DVD Bong

Today we went to our first DVD bong. The word "bong" in Korean means room. They have all kinds, like PC bongs (internet cafes), karaoke bongs (where you sing in your own private room), etc. It's really popular here because apartments/houses are so small that people usually go to a bong for some space. A lot of the teachers we work with go to DVD bongs often, so we decided to check it out for ourselves. We first went into a lobby area that looks like a video rental store, except with dimmed lights. Surprisingly, the movie selection was about 80% English movies! We chose a movie, "Juno," and gave it to the guy at the counter, along with 10,000 Won (about $10). He then brought us to our own private theater room with a big comfy couch and a huge projector screen with surround sound. It was heated and comfortable. I think we'll now be avid DVD bong goers!

It's Snowing!!!

We had our first day of snow this week! Unfortunately it only lasted for about an hour. All the kids ran outside and seemed to be enjoying every minute of it. The weather here is similar to Virginia. Since we're on the southern coast of the country, it's a lot warmer here than the rest of Korea...it's a good thing cause I don't think Melissa could handle anything colder! Every day we bundle up and go walking around a lake near our apartment. It's about a mile around the lake, we usually go around a few times. It's been fun to watch it freeze a little more each day. It's almost completely frozen now.


The lake has swan paddle-boats like Lake Eola in Orlando!

The lake is part of a huge sport's complex. The stadium in the back is where the World Cup Soccer tournament was held in 2002.

Our apartment is next to the ones seen here on the right of the mountain.

Teaching English

Teaching here is much different than in Japan, and of course much different than back home (thank goodness!!!). We work from 2:30-10:00pm M-F and we have the option to work Saturdays from 4:30-7:15pm for extra money. We work for ELC, which is a big company with locations throughout all of S. Korea. Our school is a five story building and has about 1,000 students that come 5 days a week. There are 7 foreign teachers and 30 Korean teachers. On the first floor and 1/2 of the second floor, every teacher has a desk with their own computer and Internet (pictured on the left). The other 4 floors are all classrooms. We teach anywhere from 6 to 8, 38minute classes a day and we use textbooks, so not much planning is needed. We're also encouraged to do additional activities with the kids, like crafts and games. Each student has a total of 10 periods they come a week, which usually works out to 2 periods a day, 5 days a week. They meet with Korean teachers for 8 of those periods, which is mostly vocab., grammar, and sentence structure. The foreign teacher meets with the students for 2 periods a week, which focuses on pronunciation and speaking. The school also offers what they call "Genius classes" for students who are much more fluent in English. These students only meet with foreign teachers. Most of the kids English is unbelievable, especially compared to the Japanese kids (which we only taught for 45 minutes, 1 day a week). We teach students ages 7-16. On Christmas Eve, the school hosted an event called Market day for the elementary students. The school had various classrooms set-up with various activities and games.

Here is a video of one of Melissa's students reading a letter she wrote to Santa Clause. This is so cute!

Her letter says:

"Merry Christmas, Santa Claus. I'm pretty Ally. This year I would like a doll, a hamster, sneakers and a cute dog. My name is Ally and I am 8 years old. I live in West Tower. Oh, how old are you? I think you're 100 years. I was a good girl this year because I bought vegetables for my mother. I also was a nice friend. Please give me the presents. Bye-Bye mister. Ta ta.



Here are some pictures of "Market Day":
This is James, the director of the school, dressed as Santa

Showing off our hand tattoos

Melissa playing games with students.

Face Painting
Snack Room

Karaoke Room

Horoscope and Tarot card readings>

Annyong Haseyo! ("Hello" in Korean)

Happy New Year!!! We're so excited to finally be able to start our Korea blog. Today marks our 4th week in Korea and everything has been great so far. We arrived on December 4th after a 15 hour non-stop flight from Atlanta. Unfortunately our over-the-counter sleeping pills didn't work and we only slept for 2 hours! At least we were able to catch up on some new movies. We started working the next day, regardless of our jet lag. So far, we've spent most of our mornings before work exploring the city and getting accustomed to transportation and how things work here. The city we live in, Ulsan, is on the south-eastern coast of Korea. It has about 1.1 million people and our area is considered to be the upper-class part of the city, with many of our students' parents being doctors, lawyers, etc. Also, KIA and Hyundai manufacturing sites are based in Ulsan; operating the largest ship building facility in the world, which employs many of the parents as well. The map below shows where Ulsan is. We're about a 5 hour bus ride or 50 minute flight to Seoul, and only a 45 minute bus ride to Pusan, which is S. Korea's 2nd largest city.

Everyone's been asking us "How does Korea compare to Japan?" and to tell you the truth, there is almost no way this experience can beat our time in Japan. With that said, we think the food is much better here and much more people speak English, which is great since we've only learned about 3 words in Korean since we've been here! The food here is very flavorful and spicy. They eat a ton of pork and kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage) with every meal. Things here are much cheaper than Japan and the states. We can eat a meal for 2 consisting of Korean BBQ, rice, kimchi, and many other small side dishes for 11,000 Won, which is less than $11! Western restaurants are much more expensive, though. Our city has TGIFridays, Bennigans, and Outback, as well as McDonald's, KFC, Baskin Robbins, and Dunkin Donuts. When we first arrived, our apartment didn't have a fridge yet, so we were forced to eat out every meal. At first, we were eating McDonald's every day, but we eventually got sick of it and ventured into some Korean restaurants, which was nerve-racking, but fun! We now have our fridge and cook just about every meal. No one rides bikes here, so to get around, we either have to take a bus or taxi. The grocery store is about a 10 minute taxi ride, which costs about $4 each way, so we usually only go when the other teachers need to go shopping and we can split the cab fare. On the upside, a small outdoor market sets up every 5 days that is just down the street from our apartment and we always go there to buy fruits, veggies, and chicken from the local people. It's SO much cheaper than the grocery store! We can get a huge bag of oranges for $4, a package of 4 chicken breasts for$3, and a basket of about 3 dozen eggs (with the feathers still on them!) for $4.

Here are some pictures of the outdoor market: