propaganda fruit!!

we’ll start with the flight. by the time we got to the airport we were sooooo freaking exhausted, nancy honestly didn’t care that she was getting in a plane and flying for 11 hours over the ocean. does that give you some indication of JUST how exhausted we were?? we slept much of the trip although we both got one movie and a good meal in between naps. the ticket lady had graciously changed our seats on our tickets so that we could sit together, which was great when it came to meal time!

during the meal we had our first taste of the generosity and patience that seems to be typical of the korean people (at least when they are dealing with foreigners – lol). we had a choice between ‘fish’ and ‘traditional Korean meal’. that’s it, that’s all we were told. so stacey picked the fish and nancy chose the traditional korean meal, that way we could try both and have a backup if one was gross!!

so we got our meals and stacey’s was pretty self explanatory, nancy’s on the other hand was a collection of small bowls and packages with one main bowl full of what looked like an assortment of vegetables, mushrooms, and meat. she started picking away at the mushrooms (as they are the most familiar thing in front of her) and an older korean man (sitting next to her with his wife) leans over and starts trying to explain that you have to mix certain things together. he was soooo patient with us as he helped us figure out that the rice gets dumped into the bowl with the meat, and then a tube of gochujang (a spicy red pepper paste), and then a small packet of sesame oil. in a bit of a panic he stopped nancy mid pour with the gochujang and had her taste it. she thinks he was afraid we wouldn’t like the spicy-ness of it because he looked genuinely surprised when we were delighted with the taste. finally, you were to stir it all up and eat it with a very long handled spoon, not with chopsticks.

all of this communication was done with a lot of pointing and hand motions as he knew VERY little English and we didn’t know ANY korean. so we split our meals in half and shared so that we could each have our first taste of a “traditional korean meal”. we both LOVED it!!! as it turns out, that meal was called beebimbap and is traditionally eaten on the lunar new year. however it is served in most korean restaurants as part of their regular menu AND yesterday we discovered that there is a vegetarian version too!!! yeaaa – all hope is not lost.

so we land in seoul, get our passports stamped, get our luggage, go through customs and find our driver waiting with a sign (in the most beautiful handwriting) that says “Welcome to Story’nKids Ms. Stacey and Ms. Nancy". yep that’s what everyone at the school calls us – LOL – it is so cute to hear the little kids call out our names!

the driver can’t speak a WORD of english, so he motioned us over to the side and made a phone call to patricia (our school’s director). she told us that it was about an hour and half drive to our apartment and she would meet us there. stace was excited about the drive through seoul because the city is so big and flat…with really cool bridges EVERYWHERE (she killed the last of her battery taking pictures – only to loose all of them later that week!! L). it felt a lot like toronto to nancy, but once we were off the freeway the drive got more interesting.

in fact, as the streets got narrower and narrower nancy began to feel like we were in an old chuck norris movie, with signs and shops EVERYWHERE. it also seems to us that, once off the freeway, the rules of the road are simply suggestions – people routinely go through red lights, drive on the sidewalk, and park anywhere. yet this is all done with a strange sort of grace and absolute confidence!

when we finally arrived at our apartment the driver just pulled up to the front door and parked. it didn’t matter that the bus was in the way of other drivers or that we had to stand in the middle of the road to unload – nope – didn’t bother him one little bit – lol. so we followed suit and helped grab our luggage out of the back. our landlord was waiting for us at the front entrance (he actually owns the building and lives on the ENTIRE top floor). he took us to our apartment and we waited in the hallway for patricia to arrive. it was a short few minutes, but seemed like looooooong many minutes because we were so tired and were standing in the hallway outside our apartment with all of our luggage.

when she arrived we were let in to our TINY new two bedroom home. honestly, it’s so crazy tiny!! hmmmm – 20’x10’ would be the entrance, kitchen and living room. then we have three doors directly off of that space (two bedrooms and a bathroom). that’s it!! oh wait, there is a small closed in balcony at one end of the living/dining/kitchen room which appears to be our laundry room. it has a small washing machine and a foldout clothes horse, all of which take up the ENTIRE ‘balcony’ space. the toilet runs constantly – so we’ve taken to calling it our “water feature”.

but it is relatively clean and recently refurbished with heated floors and a new air-conditioning unit. we actually quite like it now that we have become accustom to the size – and apparently it is a HUGE luxury suite compared to what the other teachers have. ahhhh - yet another benefit to traveling together. we’re slowly making it our home.

the next day we did a little exploring around the neighbourhood and (much to our chagrin) found a french bakery – doh!!! so much for loosing any weight while we’re here - humph!! alas, it’s on our way to work – so each morning we have a café americano and some sort of amazingly yummy (as in “have i even eaten this well at home??!!?!??”) baked goods (yes, plural) for breakfast. we’ve decided to TRY to limit ourselves to three mornings a week because there is no WAY our 30 minute walk to the school can begin to burn of those calories – lol.

we also discovered just how many restaurants and cafés there are in our little neighbourhood. in about a 15 block radius there are no less than 75 restaurants, and no less than 20 cafés!!! and convenience stores EVERYWHERE – we live right beside a 7-11! most of the restaurants are korean – but a few are american style, so when we are really in need of a fix (besides baked goods that is) we have a few to choose from. but we have been eating the majority of our meals at the korean mom-&-pop places. first because the food is SO freaking good, and second because the people are such lovely hosts!!

keep in mind that this is only restaurants we’re talking about here…there’s also clothing shops, spas, shoe stores, furniture stores, auto shops, office supply stores…pretty much you name it and we pass at least 3 on our way to work.

anyway, korean food does take some getting used to though. we were walking down the street last wednesday trying to decide which place to try for dinner. nancy looked up and found herself looking straight into a huge tank of something that looked like live water snakes (it was probably eels – but there were about 50 or 60 of them coiled around each other in the tank). nancy jumped, did an about face, and crossed to the other side of the street and made stacey walk on the outside to “shield” her. LOL! but for the most part the food is distinguishable, healthy, and soooo very very good!!

we spent much of sunday reading through the teacher manuals that patricia gave us, and so arrived at school on monday feeling COMPLETELY unprepared – lol. and we were right to feel that way. the first day was horrendous, with crying screaming kids totally uninterested and unable (or just plain unwilling) to communicate. the first week has been a whirlwind of teaching schedules and new faces, a bombardment of do’s and don’ts, and an inundation of tasks and responsibilities.

our fellow teachers are great (3 other english and 5 korean). for the english teachers, james is the head teacher at story'nkids, and gina and graham have been here for almost a year now. we all have an absolute BLAST together, which i think is pretty rare!! so we're lucky. and we're slowly getting to know the korean teachers....

the kids are freaking amazing!! not only are they smart, but they have so much energy and so very many questions. the curriculum is perfect for us, as it is literacy based and we both truly enjoy children’s books. our kinder classes are challenging because the kids are young, but hugging kids is encouraged here, which makes a big difference. our afterschool classes are more interesting as the children are older and have more to offer in terms of discussion. ALL the kids have endless questions about us and what it’s like to live in canada. for the most part the first week has been a success and we are getting our heads around organizational tactics for the coming weeks.

by the time the evening arrives, we walk home in a daze and then TRY desperately to stay awake until a reasonable time so that we can get over our jetlag and get into a regular sleeping schedule on korean time. the wireless internet at our apartment is spotty at best, so we have to get a land line installed. we’re hoping to do that this week so that we can download skype and msn.

oh oh oh – must tell you about “propaganda fruits”…

in the evening there are trucks that drive up and down the streets with loud speakers, yelling things (in korean of course). the tone of the voice sounds like in the war movies or futuristic movies where the trucks would drive the streets during curfew and spew propaganda. we discovered that it’s fruit sellers trying to get rid of there wares at the end of the day – LOL – so we call it ….you guessed it …propaganda fruit !!

so, what’s in store for next week?? well, mr. james is taking us out for dinner after school on monday and then he’s taking us to dr. fish. what is dr. fish you ask? – well so did we!!! apparently it’s a sort of spa treatment that is really big here in seoul where you sit down and dangle your feet in a pool of fish and the fish suck all the dead skin off your feet. sounds pretty gross eh!?!?!?!?! LOL – ah well – when in Rome – LOL LOL LOL we’ll tell you all about it in next week’s installment!!