9 months later...where am I? Seoul!!!??? Gangnam Style? ECC? What???

In the 9 months since I have left the city of Mokpo, much has happened. I spent 6 months at home spending much of time with family, friends and eventually Jaeeun for two months. From the sprawling cities of South Korea I adjusted back to the wide open rolling hills and mountains of Idaho. It was a great time to get back to what I was familiar with. A solid year of working and teaching to relaxing and making each day different from the day before. Probably because of my desire to enjoy unemployment during my stint at home.
After numerous attempts to get a public school job in Ilsan it became clear that I would have to broaden those horizons. I pursued a public school in the Seoul area. Much to my dismay there were none to be had. After that I pursued a hagwon job in Ilsan, no dice again. Finally, I settled for a job at ECC in the now famous Gangnam area in Seoul. It was clear to me it would take a major adjustment. From a little port city in Korea to the second biggest metropolis in the world. I would move from my "neighborhood" in Idaho, which consisted of 3 other houses, to a neighborhood of roughly 1 square mile that has a total of 86,000 people within. Yes, the same amount of people in my neighborhood would equal the same amount of people residing in my hometown which spreads out over 30 square miles. Life would be and is very different here in the Daechi neighborhood of Gangnam.

The Han River looking towards Gangnam

Fast paced. Glitz. Glamour. Luxury vehicles and never ending lines in subway stations. Gangnam and Seoul in general. Not something a rural Idahoan is accustomed to. Though I had visited Seoul several times during my last year I never had a desire to live within it. Yet, here I am. There is a lot to enjoy and a lot that flusters me. I will have a lot to say about the things I have done so far and a lot about Gangnam. There is much to be said about my job too. Of course I also have a good amount to say about me and Jaeeun too! :) It's been a fast 4 months since I have arrived in Seoul. It's good to be back to blogging again and I look forward to catching everyone up!

Intermisson

It's been about 11 days since I left Korea. Leaving Mokpo and a year of memories there was the easy part. I made numerous friends and memories in my year of teaching there. I learned to live on my own, to rely almost entirely on my decisions. It provided a year long life lesson.

The hardest part was leaving Jaeeun behind. I have known her for nearly four months, it seems like she was there in Korea the whole time with me. She lifted my spirits when they were down and she still does to this day of course. We have a bumpy road ahead. It will be another three months until I get to see her face to face again. She will come to the USA at the beginning of June and will spend almost two months with me and my family. We will travel across the Western States to cities like Seattle, LA, Las Vegas and see sights like the Oregon Coast, camping in Idaho, Disneyland and the Grand Canyon. In the mean time we have Skype, Kakaotalk and Facebook. I bought an iPod touch just so I could Kakaotalk (free texting app) with her.

This isn't the end for my time in Korea. I plan on returning in July or August for another year. I am currently in Idaho working on my GRE, TEFL and learning some more Korean.

Jaeeun always seems to make the simplest statements resound the strongest in my heart and soul.

"We can do it"

"We are strong"

I love you J

I will see you soon.

Korea,

We are not done.

Last Week in the 'Po

The year is winding down in Mokpo...My 1,225 teaching hours will soon come to a close. From February 14th to February 29th I will have spent all those hours in my little cramped desk in my little classroom doing I what I think was teaching. To the children it was probably more of a show or game of charades. All those hours added up totaled 51 days of total work. A lot of fun, but also a lot of pain and suffering. Teaching in little Mokpo has been a joy and I will come away with numerous life lessons and things I learned about myself. Perhaps most importantly, I may have learned how to not raise children...some of the students being prime examples. Nevertheless I will come away stronger, wiser and more financially stable than I was the year before.

What is the plan after the 'Po? A 6 month "sabbatical" full of studying for the dreaded GRE test and learning Korean. I will have more than a month to spend with Jeaeun when she comes to visit in the early summer. Hopefully I will secure another job in her hometown of Goyang where I would work and study for another year. None of this would have happened had I not taken a chance on this job.

Take that leap of faith...

Visiting Ilsan

The time had finally come. It was time for me to finally go to Jaeeun's hometown of Ilsan. So for the weekend before Valentin's I finally made the journey to Ilsan. The night before I had a late dinner with friends at 11 P.M., my train was at 6 A.M. After an uneasy 4 hours of sleep I managed to get onto the KTX and sleep for the majority of the 4 hour train ride to Ilsan. Ilsan is a far-cry from sleepy little Mokpo. It is considered a suburb of Seoul and is connected via the Seoul Metro. Ilsan is in fact part of the larger city of Goyang, with a total population of about 1 million people. The apartments and officetels are nicer and there is certainly more to offer than little Mokpo. For my next home, this one sounds good!

The plan while in Ilsan was to meet Jaeeun at the train station where she would take me around her hometown and eventually her home for dinner with her family. Was Kyle nervous? Perhaps. I met Jaeeun at the station still feeling a bit groggy. We went out to shabu shabu with her friend for lunch. After lunch we went to coffee (my first of four that day). Next on the agenda, the arcade, yay! Jaeeun's friend had to go to work after that and we headed of to the multi-bang (much like a noraebang but it includes movies and video games in your own private room). I destroyed Jaeeun in Mario Kart, she schooled me in golf (typical Korean). We then sang a few songs with a terrible selection of songs.

Jaeeun thought it was a good idea to rent some of Goyang's "green bikes" to ride to Ilsan Lake Park in the subfreezing temperatures. We did and we froze. Jaeeun gave me a nice narrative and tour of her city and home and then it was time for dinner. Was Kyle nervous? Perhaps.

Dinner was great! It was a meal fit for kings, quite literally! Some of the dishes were specially created for Korea's long line of kings. I managed a few lines in Korean and most of the Korean I knew seemed to have disappeared from my mind. I managed to make it through with Jaeeun and her brothers help with translation. :) After dinner it was time for bowling. We had to wait 30 minutes to finally get a lane. I was scared that my bowling skills would be inadequate. Yet somehow...somehow I bowled by second best game, a 172. Success! Bowling was followed by J taking me to her old part time job, an Izakaya restaurant. We played Connect Four on the little game tablet for our table and ate some beef sashimi. After about an hour of this it is safe to say that we are now Connect Four pros. Day 1 was complete!

We planned on going to church the next day but her parents though it best for us to stay in and relax. Jaeeun made a delicious breakfast and she suggested a movie, the Sound of Music. Instead she fell asleep in her room and I fell asleep too :(. Two hours later...

We woke up appalled that we had wasted our precious little time sleeping. We went to coffee again and picked up some 똥빵 a.k.a. "poop bread" for my trip home. This 똥빵 is actually quite marvelous, little poo shaped pastries filled with different flavors like chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and *ahem* corn. We said our goodbyes at the metro station and I went to Seoul for a few hours and finally home to sleepy little Mokpo where I have been since. :(

Shabu Shabu

Ilsan Shopping Mall

Crazy Pirate arcade game!

Norae bang

Waiting for the multi room

Taking a break from video games

Ilsan Lake Park

Our rental bikes

Sticker photo!

New Year's in Busan and Gyeongju! Pt. 4

New Year's Eve didn't end on the beach, it didn't go out with a bang with fireworks.However, I didn't want the last post to end on a sour note.

After the beach and fireworks at midnight we had the urge to play darts. Me and Jaeeun have acquired a fascination for darts after her visits to Mokpo and playing darts at Moe's. Jaeeun took me to a bar she had spotted earlier that looked promising. We sat and observed and drank our nasty flavored beers (passion fruit and chocolate, not a winner). There was a dartboard with a board where you signed up to wait your turn. I wrote "Kyle" in big letters. There was another couple that came in perhaps 20 minutes later. They were clearly confused by the board and put there names before ours. We waited patiently, perhaps 30 minutes before it was our turn. The board had been messed up, my name erased by that time. We remained calm, cool and collected. The "crazy couple" consisting of a Korean girl and her European boyfriend freaked out at us. Jaeeun got a little angry :). Nevertheless I ceded and let them go first, let children be children. We played our darts eventually, I did terribly and Jaeeun cheated.

Cute as can be

The "crazy couple" as J called them

Day 4

The Plan: Wake up bright and early for the New Year's Sunrise Festival at Haeundae Beach.

The Result: We woke up late but still made it with plenty of time to spare

The Story:

A few hours of sleep later it was time for our main goal on our 4 day trip. We were destined to watch the "first sun" of 2012 make its ascent into the sky. Being in Korea we would be among the first in the world to see it. We woke up two hours late! It was still dark and as we scampered through the streets of Haeundae to the beach. We made it to the beach and Jaeeun wanted to get one of the complimentary balloons given out to be released at sunrise. We waited in line but they eventually ran out before we could get one.

We made our way through the crowded beach until we found a suitable spot to stand and wait among the hundreds of thousands of early morning spectators. It was a little chilly but I kept warm thanks to the knit hat that Jaeeun made me for Christmas. We laughed at a group of Koreans that made a plunge into the frigid ocean to celebrate New Years. It seemed like an eternity before we caught saw the orange glow on the eastern horizon, the sun was on its way. All eyes gazed east and it seemed like it was just me and Jaeeun out there on the beach, never mind the thousands huddled around us. The orange glow got brighter and brighter until at last a sliver of an orb could be seen and the huge crowd applaud. A countdown began and thousands of golden balloons were released into the sky at once with music and celebration. The sun was exceptionally big that morning, we're talking the beginning of Lion King big. It sounded silly at first, watching the sun go up on a cold beach. In reality it was one of the more special moments I could ever experience. 2012 promises to be a special year.

Waiting in the dark

Me and Jaeeun

The Korean swimmers

Waiting amongst the thousands

The first sun arrives!

Hello sun

After the sunrise we went to Starbucks which was surprisingly not crowded. It was around noon when we went to Shinsegae Centum City, the biggest department store in the world. We exited the subway station and the department city loomed before us, it was incredibly massive! We were excited as Jaeeun chased me into the store only to find...the majority of the store was closed for New Years. We settled for a visit to the bookstore, Jaeeun got me a notebook I could use for taking notes and journaling. We then went on a wild goose chase to look for a good meal. We wound up in a popular shopping and dining district. We were lost for a moment, I get cranky when I am hungry, but luckily Jaeeun puts up with me. The food was delicious! We got some snacks at a little bread shop and made our way to Busan Station for our return home on what would be a very crowded train!

Delicious food! Worth the wait and journey!

We got to the train station with perhaps 10 minutes to spare. We thought we had done well to get there early. We waited on the platform...and the mob arrived. We packed into the train with no where to sit and little room to stand. I got us a spot by the vending machine where we had to sit for 4 hours on the floor, the last hour we had to listen to two old men fighting and cussing at each other. We would eventually get to Sintanjin station again. It was biting cold in Sintanjin and we were hungry, we had to settle for Lotteria. We got in the next train to Mokpo, this one with less people but still no seats. We had to cram ourselves into one of the seats used for the pay computers for an hour or two. The closer we got to Mokpo more people left the train until we could finally get seats in one of the cars. We reached Mokpo, tired and weary but full of incredible memories.

Sardines

Me and Jaeeun on the floor

Exhausted

New Year's in Busan and Gyeongju! Pt. 3

Day 3: Gyeongju/Busan

Day 3 looked to be more promising the Day 2. We had a full day to spend in Gyeongju. Our first destination was the famous Bulguksa Temple. Built in 774 A.D. it is perhaps the most famous temple in Korea. It's stone architecture and pagodas make it unique among Korea's temples. We took a bus to Bulguksa and trekked up the little hill to the temple. I've seen many temples at this point in Korea. Bulguksa was indeed very beautiful. We enjoyed our time there and making people take our picture. I got yelled at for taking a picture of Buddha. This is a no-no. I was impressed by the age and detail in a lot of the wood and stonework. We breezed through quite quickly in about an hour's time.

Jaeeun looking dangerous

Walking up to Bulguksa

Bulguksa

Outside of Bulguksa

Stones inside Bulguksa

Dabotap (L) and Seokgatap (R)

*Dabotap is the pagoda on the back of the 10 Won coin*

We then took the bus back to Gyeongju to eat lunch. On our way to lunch we went and looked atCheomseongdae, which is the oldest astronomical observatory in East Asia. It was built in the 7th Century. The whole time we were there I wanted to climb inside. Jaeeun suggested I not, because of her I am still alive! We then went to eat Sundubu! Sundubu is tofu soup that can have seafood, meat and vegetables. This Sundubu was delicious but extremely hot!

Very old indeed

Looking good with our stylish glasses

Yet even more tombs

Sundubu

I admit it, the tombs are quite incredible. We had to see them and see them up close. So we went to Daereungwon Tomb Complex which is maybe a five minute walk from downtown. The tombs are bunched together and look like something from out of this world. Daereungwon has a beautiful park atmosphere. It's great for a leisurely stroll among dead Korean royalty. You can even go inside a tomb! After Daereungwon we left Gyeongju and headed back to Busan on a sweltering hot train. This time directly back to Haeundae, because Jaeeun is smart!

Tombs, Tombs Everywhere!

It was quite beautiful

You can even go inside! Indiana Jones tourist style!

One of the many things Busan is known for is fish. What does Jaeeun love to eat? Fish. What do we like to look at? Fish. Where did we go next? Busan Aquarium. I loved the aquarium. It's pretty sizable and does include a walk through fish tank. We spent a good two hours at the aquarium. I had the camera and Jeaeun told me what pictures to take. We had to closely examine each tank and fish. Jaeeun told me which fish were good to eat. I came away with valuable knowledge. Win!

We emerged from the aquarium exit directly to the beach. We had a short time to play on the frigid beach, certainly a Kodak moment. Kyle had a craving for a hamburger, Jaeeun obliged. We went looking for the giant Centum City department store, the biggest in the world. We couldn't find it but we found the most delicious bakery in the world, or perhaps Busan. It should be mentioned that Jaeeun say she isn't hungry a lot. However, I will say that I am hungry and we will go get some food, Jaeeun will end up eating it. The bakery was an example. :)

Eventually midnight rolled around. Haeundae Beach was the perfect venue for our celebration. We sat on the beach along with the small groups of people who came out to ring in 2012. We had no T.V., no official countdown or party. It was just us and that's what it made it so special. A group of Koreans eventually started the countdown, 3-2-1! Me and Jaeeun rang in 2012 together. We hope to make 2012 a year to always cherish and remember.

It wouldn't be complete without fireworks

The Year of the Dragon

The New Blog

I have mentioned that I created another blog that chronicles my relationship with my Korean girlfriend Jaeeun. Here is the link. If you are interested I hope you enjoy!

http://kyleandjaeeun.blogspot.com/

New Year's in Busan and Gyeongju! Pt. 2

Pt. 2 from my other blog

Day 2: Busan/Gyeongju

Gyeongju is one of the most famous sites in all of Korea. The city itself is like a giant open air museum. It boasts hundreds of historical sites from the Silla Dynasty, one of Korea's "Three Kingdoms" (Baekje, Silla, Goguryeo). The Silla Dynasty lasted from the 1st Century AD to the 10th Century. Temples, royal tombs and dozens of other sites frequented by the Silla kings of old. It is a must see if you are going to Korea. Me and Jaeeun planned to make the most of our trip there.

Phase 1: We made little plans in advance, only to see some of the hotspots.

Phase 2: Getting There

We awoke somewhat early the next day of our trip to head to the famous city of Gyeongju. Gyeongju is about 1 hour north of Busan via train. We again had difficulties finding a train from Busan Station, we made a connection in Daegu and then to Gyeongju. We later found out that Haeundae Station has a regular train to Gyeongju :(.

Phase 3: Gyeongju

We arrived in Gyeongju rather exhausted. Our first stop was to get some famous Gyeongju bread...which was absolutely everywhere!!! After that we walked around trying to find a place to stay. We figured New Year's in Gyeongju would be fairly quiet, we were wrong. We spent a good 2-3 hours looking for the guesthouse we originally wanted, Sarangchae. It is a guesthouse with individual buildings based on traditional architecture. We finally gave up and decided to look for food which we originally found to be very difficult. We eventually found a little restaurant in an inconspicuous looking building aside the tombs.

Inside the little restaurant

Yum yum!

We never found our guesthouse and they never answered our calls. We settled for a hostel which I will not name. This hostel was terrible, dirty and expensive. It was already evening at this point and we had accomplished very little. So we went out to the famous Anapji Pond! It is a site where the Silla royalty used to throw parties. It was originally built in 674 A.D. My love of history and passion for archaeology was kicked into full throttle! Me and Jaeeun loved Anapji. It is beautiful at night and the surrounding sites were decorated with beautiful Christmas lights.

Anapji Pond

Enjoying the lights

After Anapji we went on a quest for ssambab. Ssambab is a traditional meal where you wrap vegetables, sidedishes and meat in lettuce with rice included. We found an incredible restaurant. It too was like a museum inside full of Korean antiques primarily from the 20th Century. I though the food was great! Like a lot of Korean food it was very salty though.

Antiques everywhere

Ssambab

Ssambab, like a boss.

Ssambab was consumed. We walked to downtown Gyeongju. I learned to eventually like the town. At first it was easy to get lost, but like Mokpo, everything is very close together. On the way we passed dozens of tombs. The tombs range in height, some only a few feet tall and maybe 10 ft in diameter to tombs that soar fifty feet in height and 100 feet across. I used my imagination, imagining a zombie apocalypse, Jaeeun though I was crazy for being so creative. I went on a little rant about how Peter Jackson could have filmed some Lord of the Rings here, Jaeeun put up with me. Truth be told these tombs are quite terrifying at night, especially in the moonlight. My traumatic experience was rewarded with gelato. Day 2, success.

One of the many tombs

Gelato