Caitlininkorea1011's Blog

A Weekend Trip to Boseong Tea Fields

caitlininkorea1011 — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:13:22 +0000

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I went to the Boseong, an area about 5 hours south of Seoul where they grow green tea plants. We went for two reasons: first, the tea fields are a famous part of this province (and one I wanted to see before leaving Korea in August), and second, they were having a light festival from December – January. As a child, I looked forward to bundling up and seeing the annual Columbus zoo lights with my family and neighbors, so this was a perfect opportunity to have a similar experience and forget winter for a bit.

Boseong itself is a tiny town compared to the rest of South Korea and although we stayed in the town the first night, a rooster woke us up bright and early!

On Saturday, we moved to our pension outside of the town. We felt lucky to get this pension, since it was within walking distance of two major tea fields. However, we soon found out that the location was the only good part – the big window was drafty, and the room was not clean. It was more expensive than the place we stayed in town.

But, we made the best of it. In the afternoon, we went to the most well-known tea field, and in the evening, we walked down to the light show, which we could see from our pension!

Walking into the tea field

Walking up to the top

The View

Taking a break with a green tea latte and green tea ice cream - both are delicious!

Day View from the Pension

Night View from the Pension

Korea may have hearts everywhere, but I thought this was clever; the picture before is in the middle of the heart.

Where people could sit and take pictures together. Families were lining up to do this!

The entrance

People's wish cards for the new year

Dragon's head

Dragon's tail

A Second Christmas in Korea

caitlininkorea1011 — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 01:42:25 +0000

Christmas this year was really special. We had a Christmas Eve potluck dinner at Naomi’s (since her apartment is the biggest. ) The food and company were great, and as our friend Andy said, “We did well (with making the food). Does this mean we’re real adults now?” Naomi made mulled wine (yum) and I made egg nog. We even had a secret santa where none of us correctly guessed who bought our gifts.

On Christmas morning, I skyped with my family (for 2 1/2 hours!) and in the evening, my boyfriend and I looked at the lights downtown. Christmas here is a big holiday for couples.

With our Secret Santa Gifts

A Merry Christmas cake - common here

Part of the Christmas decorations downtown

Downtown - we stumbled upon an area where you could take pictures with different decorations

Part of the Christmas decorations downtown

For New Year’s Eve, 10 of us went to a pension in Gangwha-do. It’s a couple of hours west of Seoul, but was a great to ring in the New Year. Last year, we stayed in Seoul for the New Year’s festivities, so we enjoyed getting out of Seoul this year.

I can’t believe 2012 is here and January is over! Last year was great and I can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store for me!

New Year's Eve wasn't windy, so we could have a fire in the fireplace!

The owner said we were the first people to have a fire this year.

What would New Year's be without (fake) mistletoe?

The Outside of the Pension; we had the right side of the 2nd floor

A very windy New Year's Day! Ready to go home.

American Thanksgiving in Korea

caitlininkorea1011 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:08:10 +0000

Thanksgiving was last week, and this year we wanted to make it more special than last year’s (held in a bar, food straight out of a box, the only good part was that it was with friends!) When had heard about the American military base preparing a proper 10-12 person Thanksgiving meal for 100,000 won (about $100), we thought it was a great deal. (We were hoping for huge portions!) And they did not disappoint; there were about 20 people at this meal, some friends and others friends of friends. We ordered 2 meals and had more than enough food. It was a fantastic time; before eating, we went around the table and said what we are thankful for – about halfway through, we laughed at how we forgot to introduce ourselves and state our names. Ate three different kinds of pie, and truly enjoyed the magic of the day.

Setting the table

So much good food!

After last year's Thanksgiving meal, I refused to eat with plasticware on paper plates.

For dessert: Homemade pumpkin pie, apple pie, and pecan pie!

We ate dinner at our friend's house - this is her dog, Mandu.

And now it’s the Christmas season! I went to Daiso, the dollar store in Korea, and bought fun decorations to get into the holiday spirit. Last year, I blinked and Christmas passed. This year, I want to enjoy the season as much as possible. And of course, make it fun for my students.

Birthday Weekend

caitlininkorea1011 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 03:34:33 +0000

My birthday was November 16th, and Andy’s the 23rd, so we decided to have a joint birthday celebration from the 19th-20th. 10 of us rented a pension in Danyang, a really beautiful part of South Korea. We met early Saturday morning, took a bus from Seoul to Danyang, and after some grocery shopping…

took a taxi to Hongbongwha pension.

After putting the food away, we were on our way to Gosu cave.

Then, had a barbeque dinner:
It was so windy that the pension staff gave us blankets to wear!
And finally, we drank and ate birthday cake with friends.

During the fun, the curtain rod randomly fell. There were numerous holes in the wall and it was impossible to fix – luckily, the pension owners were nice about it – it must have happened often with how many holes were drilled in the wall!

It was a great weekend away from Seoul – the air was so crisp and clean! Danyang itself was a small, cute town.

The bridge leading out of Danyang town.

On Sunday, we hiked around the pension and took a bus back to Seoul.

What to do on a rainy Saturday in Busan

caitlininkorea1011 — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 06:35:12 +0000

Last weekend, Amy, Lin, Andy, Naomi and I traveled to Busan to see their annual fireworks festival. Last year, Naomi, Amy and I really enjoyed it, so we were excited to return. We took the Mugungwha train on Friday night. At 5 hours, it’s slower than the 2 1/2 hour KTX, but half the price, so we were sold.

Lin booked a great room earlier in the week, and it was only a 3-minute walk to Gwanganli beach (where the fireworks were taking place)! It was great, except for the fact it rained all day Saturday.

So instead of seeing famous places like Taejongdae and Gamcheong 2-dong, we spent the day indoors:

1. Ate a nice, hot breakfast at the Wolfhound (near Haeundae beach). Amy and I were both craving a Western breakfast, so this was perfect.

2. Went to the movies. We watched Paranormal Activity 3. Good stuff.

3. Had tarot done. Amy had never done this, and since Lin was with us, he could translate. 1 word: Whatajoke. Even though I still kind of like this stuff.

4. Went back to Gwanganli. Ate Pajeon and drank Makgeolli for dinner. Yum.

5. Found a spot on the beach – which was easy to do because the rain stopped just minutes before – drank and enjoyed the fireworks.

It was a good weekend despite the weather. Good friends, good fun.

Field Trip to the 63 Building

caitlininkorea1011 — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:19:23 +0000

Last week was midterms, and yesterday was a holiday (National Foundation Day). The school pays for a field trip after midterms and finals, so I met the 1st (7th) graders and other teachers at the 63 building today. I went there in July, but it was cloudy, so this was a great opportunity. Oh, and it was free! Doubly awesome.

First, we went to the observatory. The 63 Building is on Yeouido, an island in the middle of Seoul. This island is a major business area (a lot of men and women in suits ).

After the observatory, we checked out the aquarium. In this area, they were filming a Korean drama, and my female students were excited. After that, we checked out the wax museum. I seem to only have pictures of the observatory and aquarium here (others are on my phone), but it was a great day! The best part was my students all said hi to me throughout the day – 400 1st graders. Some bowed/some waved and said hi. My co-teacher mentioned it seemed like I was a celebrity. I think they just liked seeing the native English teacher in regular clothes.

Temple stay

caitlininkorea1011 — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:17:59 +0000

Last weekend, I went on a temple stay to Haeinsa, one of the most famous Buddhist temples in South Korea. It’s located in Gyeongsang province (about a 4 hour bus ride from Seoul). I met my friends Naomi and Theresa at the bus station early Saturday morning, and we arrived at the temple a little after 4:00pm. We changed into the temple stay clothes (really comfortable!) and began the stay.

The temple stay was in English and German; the monk spoke English, and we were with a group of middle-aged people who spoke German. It was fun because whatever the Korean woman translated into German, Naomi could translate into English for us! The first day, we talked about how to act around the temple (how to greet the monks, etc), we ate dinner, and got acclimated. We went to sleep at 9:00pm, and woke up at 3:00am!

Sunday morning, we watched the monks beat drums, had a meeting with our group, did 108 bows, and meditated. After that, we had an hour break, ate breakfast and had a tour of the temple. The pictures are from that tour. At the end of the tour, we were lucky to see the Tripitaka Koreana, which will be closed to the public beginning next year in order to preserve it. The monk said the mixture of cold air from the top of the mountain and warm air from the base make it an environment which insects don’t like, so it helps in preservation. One of the men in the group said it was moved to a high-tech preservation lab, and it actually did worse and was moved back to Haeinsa!

Muuido Camping

caitlininkorea1011 — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:43:37 +0000

Muuido, an island near Incheon, is a great camping area and it’s easy to get to from Seoul! My friends and I went there the weekend before last to celebrate our friend Amy’s birthday. In the end, we chose to stay in a pension (we bought a lot of food and needed utensils, a refrigerator, etc), but we want to return in the spring and camp in these huts:

We had a great time; grilled dinner, made s’mores (substituting those diget cookies for graham crackers worked well), did cartwheels in the sand, played with fireworks, and ate cake with chopsticks. Yum.

Enjoy!

Welcome to Muuido!

At least it looked pretty for a while.

After a 2 month hiatus…

caitlininkorea1011 — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 07:01:44 +0000

I’m ready to start blogging again. I’ll be honest, most of it is for my family and friends, and just to give you short updates here. So, here’s the past 2 months in a few bullets as I could find:

1. Finished district summer camp. It was great! The evening of the last day of camp, I was on a plane home for a 2 1/2 week vacation.

2. Home was WONDERFUL! Took a roadtrip to Toronto with a couple of friends, and enjoyed much-needed family time. But in the end, was ready to return to Seoul.

3. Had a surprise at the airport. Also, my students were excited to see me again! I had missed them too.

4. September 10-14: Chuseok weekend (Korean thanksgiving). The evening of September 9, I got lasek. Recovered for the next 5 days. Now I have almost perfect vision (it will become perfect in about 2 weeks). I was pretty much laying in bed all weekend, but it was worth it! I got some information here and had a great experience. The doctor spoke English and walked me through each step of the procedure. Had a long recovery period, but was taken care of. All is well now.

5. Finally visited the “House of Sharing.” I first heard about the comfort women after my first blog post (before coming to Korea), and I’m glad I finally made this trip. The 2 people giving the tour, about in their mid-20s, knew so much information on this issue. It was informative and saddening. To anyone living in Korea, I highly recommend this experience.

A typical room for the women.

This depicts what the women wanted for their lives.

This shows what the women experienced in their lives.

Part of the museum.

Will update again soon! It is so good to be back.

Squat Toilets

caitlininkorea1011 — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:43:04 +0000

As I’m ending my first year here in Korea, I’m thinking back to where I was a year ago; in preparing for this move, I was mostly scared to the point of regretting my decision to move here. But once here, I was glad I did it. I have not regretted the past 11 months. During orientation, they prepared us for life in Korea – in the school system, the culture and society… but they didn’t mention one thing… squat toilets.

On my first day of school, I was nervous. I wanted to make a good impression, and my co-workers were friendly and kind to me (they still are ). During one of my breaks, I needed to use the restroom, so my youngest co-teacher showed me the way.

Here is what I saw (except my school does not give the kids toilet paper; my co-teacher said they’d “make a mess” with it):

So I go into the bathroom, and immediately think, “What the hell is that?! They didn’t tell us about these at orientation… how do I use it?” I eventually got the hang of it, and they aren’t so bad.

Except today. We are having our district camp at another school, and something has been weird with the water pressure at this school. While one of the sinks hasn’t worked, the toilets have been fine. But today instead of flushing properly, it sprays up and hits me in the back of my skirt and down my legs. EW. Right before the last period of the day. UGH. It is hard for me to laugh as my students are also in the bathroom saying “Ew,” but eventually I laugh it off… or try to anyway. The Korean teachers helped me clean up, so all was well. I’m still working on the whole “laughing it off” thing, but it definitely works!

Also: 2 weeks from today I will be on my way home! I have a lot to do before then, but I am so excited to be home August 9-26.
Another thing: This blog is called “Caitlin in Korea 1011 (for 2010-2011) and since I’m staying another year, I will either find a new blog or just stop blogging. My ideal solution is to find something I could post pictures and occasionally write on. Will keep you updated!