School lunch.

Every work day at 11:50am two foreigners and a Korean from the English department head down two flights of stairs to the cafeteria. We call it "our favorite part of the day"!

I am so impressed with school lunches in Korea.
They are versatile, well-balanced and healthy.... not to mention pretty tasty, as well.

Korean survival skill- don't be a picky eater. Try everything. If you don't like it, try it again!

Here is a typical week of Saemal cafeteria food:

Monday

Seaweed soup is actually pretty good. Except today they had minuscule shrimp (with they shell still intact) added in, which kind of tasted like you were eating bugs.

Blood sausage. What an interesting name. It's actually the worst thing I've ever tasted... I loathe the stuff. Blood sausage isn't even sausage. It's noodles encased to look like sausage and then cooked in cow blood. If you think it sounds terrible, well you're right. It is.

Tuesday

The soup is called Sa-long-tong. It's one of my favorite dishes. It's really filling because of the rice noodles.

Wednesday

Caramelize anchovies are surprisingly tasty.
So. Much. Rice.

.

Thursday

The students love fried chicken. They kept going up for seconds. Ok, I'm not going to lie... so did I.

Friday

Seaweed becomes an acquired taste, and very quickly because it's in almost every soup.

Did you notice the different kinds of kimchi?




Students eat free. I pay 2,000 won a day (less than $2.00) for these meals. Pretty nice, eh?

Humbling home.

I realized that you wonderful people never had the opportunity to witness my teeny-tiny living space. It's called an apartment. In Korean, we like to say a-pa-tuh.

As a foreign teacher I receive a free a-pa-tuh. Thanks, boss!
I pay heat (30,000 won/month= 30USD) and electric (7,000 won/month= 7USD)

It's small, quaint, humble and very Korean. And I love it!


My kitchen.
My toaster has Hello Kitty on it.

Gas stove. No oven... and I don't want to talk about it.

Sleeping quarters.

Laundry room/drying room. No machine dryer.

Bathroom. 
Yup, no separate area for your shower. 
But I've discovered the toilet becomes handy when shaving the legs! 

My bathroom slippers.
Because the floor is wet. All the time.

Desk/dinning table. And my TV with strange Korean programs.

Water heat, floor heat, and room heat controller.

Light controller.

What do you eat?? (I get this question a lot.)


So....check out my fridge and freezer.

Yeah, I like eggs.

And my solo food cupboard.

Well, hope you enjoyed your tour today. That will be 10 cents, please.

Go take a hike. Dobongsan

Dobong Mountain. A beast of a mountain. In fact, some parts would totally be deemed unsafe by American standards. But it was beautiful. This mountain is very popular because it's close to Seoul and is very accessible by public transportation.
It took 2 hours to get up and 1.5 hours to descend. The mountain stands at 739 meters (2424 ft).

From my apartment, I jumped on the 72 bus and within 40 minutes I was standing at the mountain entrance.


With any sport, most Koreans go all out. They have the latest clothes and gear-- materialistic conformity anyone? I felt a bit deviant without a hiking stick, sun hat and a colourful jacket. And I could have purchased all of the above as I walked through the mountain entrance where store after store of hiking accessories were on display.

These women were all ready to go. Notice the similar clothing and gear?

At the entrance there was also food available for your hike up.
Here we have rice cakes:

Want a slab of pig for your hike?

Even some Makali (rice wine):

This was our destination: Jaunbong peak!

Trail map:

Route distances and estimated times:

The pink highlight is our route:

I'm not entirely sure why air hoses are a big thing here, but it most likely has to do with an obsession over clean feet. After your descent, you use the nifty hose to clean off unwanted dirt from your hiking shoes.

Heading up- most of the trail was rocky.

I love hiking in Korea because of the awesome temples you stumble upon!!

Buddha statues:

(Thanks for the hiking pants, Kate!)

good luck drinking well

Cheunchuksa temple:

An hour and a half later we reached a rocky plateau:

This was our view:

Desperately needed to rest:

Man made rainbow of colour:

I wish I would have taken a picture of the trail to the peak... it almost seemed impossible. They had a hand rail and some rope for you to use as you climbed the rocks. It was a steep (maybe 70 degree) incline.
But once you got to the top you had an amazing view!

When in Rome... a kimchi and kimbop lunch on the peak's top.

I am so impressed by how many older Koreans were hiking. Some were well into their 60's and 70's. Something you don't see too often in the States, huh.