Going to Seoul

Junag-ah bounced into our room bright and early and we got ready for the day. We had big plans shopping around Chuang-ju and then off to Seoul. We were planning to spend the night in Seoul. So we packed our backpacks and headed out. After eating breakfast of kimbop and dukbokee, I love KOREAN FOOD! The first offical purpose of the morning was to find and buy a hombok for Destiny. A hombok is a traditional Korean dress. We looked at quite a few homboks before Destiny decided on a pink one. The fabric was gorgeous but we would have to wait until Monday to see the finished products. Next stop was Seoul.

It took a couple of hours to get to Seoul. Once there we head over to a popular foreigner spot. It was fun but everything was expensive so Destiny and I didn't buy much. We did get to see a demonstartion on how to make duk (rice cakes). I always explain duk as being smashed up rice and it literal is smashed up rice. I'm smarter then I knew. Isn't that little girl have a great time.

Since I love Korean food there must be a side note about what we eat for lunch. We had bulgolgi for lunch and yummy kimchi. I love eating all the kimchi I want!!
After shopping we tried to find the Seoul temple. We were so close but we never did find it. At this point we were all getting tired and decided to find a hotel for the night. I was tired of carrying around my backpack. Here is a little side note about Korea. . . the have a lot of love hotel. You know the types of hotels that you rent by the hour and not by the night. Destiny and I were not sure that we wanted to stay in a love hotel. The dark entryway, the hidden counter and the wallpaper covered with huge red roses was just too much. We decided to head over to the 63rd building while we considered the love hotel options.Destiny loves Korean mini series. She has gotten me addicted to one called "My name is Kim Sam Soon." So I love them to or at least I learning to love them. I guess the popular spot to declare your love in a mini series is the top of the 63rd building. So we had to check it out. I had been there on my mission during the day but never at night. The view at night was amazing. I glad I went again.

At this point everyone was starting to get tired. We made the joint decision to see if we could catch the bus back to Chuang-ju. We had a sweet taxi driver who drove like mad and we managed to catch the late bus to Chaung-ju. We also grabbed a few snacks for dinner. The end of another day in Korea.

KOREAN TRADITIONAL FOLK VILLAGE

We got up fairly early, not hard for Destiny and I because we always get up early in Taiwan. Juang-ah dropped us off at the bus terminal where we meet up with Dae-muk and head off to Suwon and the Korean Folk Village. We spent most of the day at the folk village. It was set up to look like a traditional Korean Village. We saw all different types of houses and learned how to carry and use your own fececes to fertilization you rice fields (this may explain the Asian bizarre fascination with poop).

We also watched two show explain what Koreans did with their free time back in the day. It was amazing to watch and scary! It also made me unimpressed with how I use my free time.

Then we attended at "marriage." For some reason they used live chickens as part of the marriage ceremony.

After the folk village we walked around Dae-muk's college campus. Then he took us to his favorite restaurant. . . a sushi restaurant. Now I like sushi but I have never eaten the amount of sushi that I did that night. They keep bring out more and more raw fish. I may never eat sushi again! We got back on the bus and made it back to Juang-ah apartment were once again I crashed for the night.

Going to Korea ~ Day One

Destiny and I got up early and head off to the bus stop at around 7:00 am. Our bus left at 7:30 and we had a few earns to run, getting food and money. Our bus was on time and it was off to the AIRPORT. Excitement was growing!!!! We were so excited to leave, we got to the airport early and had to wait for the check in booth to open. Due to our early arrival everything went fine (except for a bit of sitting in the airport boredom, which we easily combated with Starbucks and ENGLISH MAGAZINES!)

We made it KOREA got our bags and walked out of the airport. Now was the hard part finding the bus that would take use to Chung-ju City. As we were getting are bearings a cute Korean girl walked up to Destiny and started talking to her, calling her by name. WHAT!!! Turns out that Destiny's Korean friends (Day-muk and Juang-ah) had asked her to meet us and help us get on the right bus. Koreans know how to be amazing friends. We easily made it to Chung-ju where Junag-ah and her coworker Alice meet us and took us out for dinner. It was amazing food and I gave up being a vegetarian. . . it was too hard in Korea. We got to sit on the heated floors and eat kimchi and beef. We were given thin slices of raw beef and rice wrapped in lettuce. You dipped the beef in a hot broth to cook it and then ate it as a wrap. It was amazing and I got compliments on my chopstick skill! Then they brought noodle and added it to the broth. I was stuffed but so happy.

Next Alice needed to go home to her family. We meet up with Destiny other friend Day-muk and he took up into the mountains (yes Destiny and I did giggle in the back of the car that for all we knew they were going to kill us) and showed us an amazing view of the city. We were also told that we would be spending the next day with Day-muk at the Korean Folk Village in Suwon. The evening was close to being done but not quite. . . up next NOR-E-BONG aka KARAOKE.

Karaoke was fun but I was fading fast. Destiny had a blast sing all the Korean music that she loves. Finally we made it to Juang-ah's apartment were I quickly fell asleep.

Sun Moon Lake

The day after the Easter party was our Branch activity. We spent the day touring around the Sun Moon Lake area. I am the activities coordinator in our Branch. Which means that I do what ever the branch president or his counselors ask me to do. This time I collected the money for the bus. I had quite a bit of money for about 10 minutes on Saturday. . . to bad it wasn't mine. Anyways, it is a nice way to get experience planning activities with out being fully responsible. (he he he)

Our first stop was the Chung Tai Chan Monastery. It is a Buddist monastery. It is huge and beautiful. The building we toured had at least 12 floors. The campus also houses a boarding school for grade 1 to 12. It would be interesting to have a monk for your teacher.

After the monastery we stopped at a temple that was in front of Sun Moon Lake. I had seen it last time I was at the lake so I spent the time shopping. I bought a cute piggy bank, which was much cuter the the pig in front of the temple. It was part of some kind of offering.

Our last stop at Sun Moon Lake we hiked up a ton of stairs and found a pagoda. I can't remember what it was called. It was fun because you could climb to the top of the pagoda and gong the gong as I like to say (it is fun to say fast "gong the gong, gong the gong, gong the gong.") Here I am gonging the gong. Not only did they have the huge bell you could whack there was also a huge drum that you could jump and whack . It was great for letting go of any pint up stress.

Easter In Taiwan

It was time to celebrate Easter at Berhan. It fell under my responsibility to plan the activity. I was nerve about being in charge. Both the morning and afternoon classes all had Easter parties. We played games, made treats and of course had an Easter Egg Hunt. The kids appeared to have a good time. They were all smiles.

I ran the egg hunt for two of the three groups and they were ecstatic about their 3 plastic eggs filled with candy and toys. I also started to have fun once I realized that it wasn't hard to organize a "party" with all the help I had from the teachers and secretaries. Emmy, the secretary over the Easter party, even gave me a shoulder rub during the last egg hunt of the day. Easter was a success!!!

By the way, I wasn't the only one tired by the end of the day. Check out these cute but very tired MKers. The spent at least half of the day running around. I was covered in kids sweat by the end of the day.

Together, Together, Everyone!!!!

This past month I have be teaching the story and music class in AK. At first I tried teaching the types of song I used in MK. The kids quickly let me know that they were "baby" songs, yucky song, crazy songs aka they did not want to sing them songs. So I started searching, vented my frustration about all the songs they didn't like and finally found a solution I hoped the would like. I decided to teach them a song from High School Musical. The result were absolutely adorable. At least I think it was cute. Here you go. . . straight from the Afternoon Kindergarten Berhan Class Winter 2008! Enjoy!



I have two videos because there are two different groups. Each group was a little different and being their teacher I couldn't imagine just putting one group on my blog. I won't be offended if you only watch one. Their last semester teacher will watch both so the space won't go to waste.

I adore these kids but as you will see they are not the best behaved kids. There are no tears when 4:30pm rolls around and we all say goodbye. In fact Friday is Happy Day for a reason. We all know that we will be back tomorrow (or Monday) and 3hrs, five days a week with this group of kids is just right.

My Amazing Dinner! Yes I am proud of it!

Okay, so I have been trying to eat better this semester. Last semester I had a grand time trying new foods, stress eating, social eating, teaching kitchen and all other sorts of digestive fun. As a result I gained about 15 pounds. Wonderful, I know. So this semester I have refocused and I am trying to eat better. Which hasn't been easy. So far in the first two months of this semester we have had 3 birthdays (mine included) and at least 4 holidays. For example, the Chinese New Year sugar feast. Still, I am trying hard to avoid the junk. As a result I have been spending time looking for recipes on the internet. One website I found was about Bento lunch boxes. They are the Japanese equivalent of a lunch box but much cuter then the ones you find in America. I have seen the in the store here and had wondered about them. They seemed awful small. But the whole ideas is to pack a colorful space saving lunch which equals low cal and good eating. Here is my first and so proud attempt at Bento eating (it is even vegan). Yes, I took a picture of my food. I really like my bento it has monkeys on it and only cost 55 NT.I ate my dinner during my night class and the kids were all over it. They liked my bento but were not convinced about eating raw veggies. For some reason it is a strange thing to eat in Taiwan. They prefer their veggies cooked in oil over high heat. Got to love cultural differences! They all approved of my fruit selection. I have no idea what they are but I really like them. It's a cross between an apple and a pear. It was a great dinner and I got to eat before 8pm this way!