Sunday, December 13, 2009

Christmas in Korea





We've been trying to keep busy here which is hard to do since we're in this small town...anyway, Santa paid us a visit on Friday evening and left us some presents as well as a very non-traditional Christmas dinner. Then we went out to the karaoke bar and sang some very non-Christmas-y music. The next night we went out with Misty and Brian to play some pool and had a great time! The Koreans are really fond of billiards but they don't have pocket holes. The pool hall has bright lights, no music and many older, Korean men pushing balls around on a table. They'll wear special gloves, drink and smoke. Anyway, there was one regular pool table so we played, or tried to play there.

The next time we post may not be until 2010 as we leave on Friday!!!!!! So we wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Deagu Part Two





We went to Daegu on Saturday for the day to do a bit of shopping and just to get away from Pohang. It was a fairly chilly day, but sunny. We arrived at about 11am, had some coffee and then headed to the shopping area. Compared to last time, we found way better deals and we now know the stores that we like and actually look forward to going inside them. There are certain stores here which you can tell are supposed to be the equivalents to GAP, Old Navy, Abercrombie, etc. The insides of the stores look and even smell the same as certain stores at home. Anyway, we sometimes joke around with each other about clothes we've bought, like "Oh my god! Is that coat a COAX?" "Sure is." "And it's not a knock-off?" "Nope. It's the real deal." Obviously, it's the small things that amuse us here in Korea.

We went out for lunch at the best pizza place we've found to date. Most of the pizza here tastes a bit off...with globs of mayonaise, large chunks of mashed sweet potatoes and other curious things for pizza. This restaurant was called Poppa Johns and tasted almost identical to pizza at home.

In the evening, we went to see New Moon which we thought was really good, but not great. This was probably mostly due to the crazy foreigner who sat beside me and kept staring at us every time he laughed. At one point he turned to me and said "do werewolves eat vampires?" to which I replied "I'm not really sure." He smirked and said "cause I never learned this in high school." There is something to be said about foreigners who choose to stay in Korea for longer than a year. They all seem to be crazy!

We headed back to Pohang at about 10pm on a bus which was about 150 degrees. The Koreans seem to prefer extremes when it comes to everything and temperature is not exception. A room will either be freezing or unbearably hot.

Anyway, it was nice to break up the time between now and Thailand. 11 days and counting!!!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Conversations with Koreans

Yesterday I asked my high school student about Christmas.
Me: Do you celebrate Christmas in your family?
Student: Yes
Me: What are your Christmas traditions?
Student: I play with my friends
Me: Oh...okay. Do you have a Christmas tree?
Student: No
Me: Do you exchange Christmas presents or have a special dinner on Christmas?
Student: No
Me: Oh. What religion are you?
Student: I don't know.
This is the part where I switch to another subject trying to get more responses. Usually in my high school classes, the only noises are the sound of my own voice and the ticking of the clock.

Also yesterday, I was talking with my grade 5 class about how food gives us energy and how some foods can give us energy in a very short amount of time. They were having trouble thinking of what types of foods these might be so I said "these are foods that kids REALLY love, but are usually not allowed to eat often." Several children shouted out: "Meat!"