Troubles in Turkey

I promised I'd give an update on the Thanksgiving turkey and so here goes. I have to say that I did my absolute best to cook this stubborn bird but let's just say it weren't no Butterball!

After a crazy mixup about where we could actually cook the turkey, I finally decided to use my school's oven in the cooking room. (Mind you, they never once mentioned the school had an oven the whole time I was ordering my turkey, talking about not having an oven, brainstorming ideas on where to cook it, etc) That would be too easy! But after some help from another coteacher, I got set up at about 3:30 in the afternoon on the Monday night we had our Thanksgiving celebration. I washed, coated in butter, added salt and pepper, stuffed the insides with onion, apples, celery and poured chicken broth, apple juice and water over it and put it in the oven. I was doing just about every substitution I could find to make this all work.

I sat at the computer and caught up on "The Office" (with my boyfriend Dwight Shrute) in between taking the turkey out and basting every half hour or so. The party was supposed to start at 7:00 and I knew we'd be cutting it close but I was determined that we were gonna have turkey on Thanksgiving!

After 1 and a half hours, didn't seem like we were making much headway. I had followed the directions as best as I could, converted the oven temp to celsius and didn't know what the problem was so I prayed and just keep cooking. At the 2 and a half hour point, I only had one hour left to cook, clean up the room and take the turkey in a taxi over to Kayleigh's house. Time was running out! Finally at about the 3 hour and 15 minute mark, I felt like we could be quite sure it was done. I was working without the luxury of a meat thermometer so I just went on instinct alone! It looked right, smelled right and I hoped for the best.

Well, I hadn't planned out very well how I was going to execute my next step. Phase 3, delivery! The turkey was covered in foil, but still extremely hot and I had a lot of equipment to carry as well. All the teachers were already gone for the day but luckily a few students were still milling around. I thankfully ran across a student who is in my top English class and asked her if she could call me a taxi. She was happy to but didn't have her cell phone and as luck would have it, my cell phone minutes had just run out the night before so I couldn't make outgoing calls either. She ran off and tracked down another phone, called me a cab and then helped me carry everything out to the front road near my school. I was very indebted to Lucy at this point!

I got in the cab very carefully and held onto that bird for dear life. Taxi drivers are not well known for their smooth, peaceful rides and this was no exception. As he sped off, I could feel that the turkey juices were precariously close to tipping out the sides and all over the taxi floor. I pulled the foil as close as possible and prayed for the quickest drive ever. Kayleigh happens to live at the top of a giant hill and her school has several speedbumps in the parking lot. Well, we went over the first and I knew I was in serious trouble. The juices had sloshed over the sides and I caught it with my lap, desperate to save the taxi, not knowing how I would explain to him or apologize for making his car smell like poultry. I had him pull over even before we reached her house. I was getting out of there as fast as possible.

Right as I exited the cab, Kayleigh called me cause of course, I was running late at this point but I couldn't set the turkey down and hand the driver money and answer my phone all at the same time. So I missed her call and unloaded my stuff. I still had about a 3 or 4 minute walk to get to her house and really wanted some help to carry everything but of course, I couldn't make any phone calls. I walked with everything as far as I could, arms burning and muscles aching, until I had to set the turkey down in the grass on the side and make 2 trips. When I finally got everything into the house, I was so exhausted and smelled like turkey juices, it took some time to pep back up and get into the swing of the party.

I set a guy to work on carving and helped Kayleigh get the rest of the food on the table. We let him go at it, but despite our best efforts, the turkey was pretty chewy and there actually wasn't that much meat on it. However, everyone was very gracious and so thankful to have turkey at our Thanksgiving feast. We all got a little bit and had plenty of other goods to keep us full and satisfied. It was a great party with about 16 other foreigners and tons of food! I was thankful for many things that night but probably most of all that I never had to even think about another turkey for at least a year! I will not be volunteering for that again anytime soon!

Christmas posts are coming soon! Stay tuned!

Top and Bottom things of Korea

Top (and bottom) things about KOREA according to Kayleigh...

Things I love…
1.) Public transportation. It is amazing I can go to big city or small via bus and usually for under $10.00. But the best is the Seoul Subway. It blows my mind! I think it should be nominated for one of the seven man-made wonders of the world. Check it out at…http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/TR/TR_EN_5_1_4.jsp

2.) Reading the Korean Language. Reading the Korean language is rather easy (unlike reading Chinese, MUCH harder). Without being able to read it, life would be more difficult. I especially love that many words sound so similar to English words (only with a bunch more syllables!). For example:

Elevator à el-li-bay-ee-toe * can you hear it the similarity!?

(not the standard Romanized Korean, just my interpretation of what it sounds like, you have to study the Romanized Korean vowels to be able to read them properly).

3.) Festivals! The festivals in Korea during every season are so much fun! In January I am going to an Ice-fishing festival. They have festivals for butterflies, fruits, spices, teas, nuts, mud, lanterns, fish, film, moon, cherry blossoms, you name it….they probably have a festival for it. If they don’t you could easily make one…Just gather a bunch of people together, bring SoJu (famous alcoholic drink), some food, and make everything “themed”. Really, so much fun!

4.) People! The people are friendly and curious about foreigners. They will always welcome you to a dinner to try and get to know you better, even if you can’t understand each other. It is a very warm attitude.

5.) Hot water machines. Thank you! Restaurants, school, mini-stops, vending machines, everywhere has hot water! Thank you KOREA! I am limited to cold drinking fountains in my wonderful country (yes, to me it is now wonderful, I appreciate the USA much more!).

Things I don’t exactly love…

1.) People are really in a hurry in Korea! There is always something to do or someplace to go right that moment. You eat lunch as fast as you can, get out of the lunchroom as fast as you can, bag your groceries and pay as fast as you can (I am very slow at this, everyone in line always has to wait for me), get your bus ticket and move on as fast as you can, pretty much if you are doing something, you have to do ASAP.

2.) Appearance is REALLY important and emphasized. I can only remember seeing on one or two occasions where someone was in public and dressed ‘casually’ meaning, sweatpants and a sweatshirt (or for the women, anything not high heel). There are mirrors EVERYWHERE, and I mean that. And they are used well. Guys and Gals alike take a moment in every mirror to put a hair back into place, or just do a double take.

3.) Constant supply of fermented vegetables. In fact, I think that is the only way to eat vegetables. I do like some of them, but sometimes I just want a vegetable that hasn’t been sitting in vinegar for weeks.

Thank you Korea! The pleasant and not so pleasant.

Much to be Thankful For!

This month we've kind of slacked off on the blog but that is probably because we've been out of town 3 out of 4 weekends. It's been an extremely busy month for us but also very challenging. There have been several hard things we've dealt with culturally, personally and in the lives of our families. So needless to say, we have been feeling worn out! But our God is faithful to see us through these times and we have so much to give thanks for as we navigate through this holiday weekend away from home.

The first weekend in Novemeber we had a chance to visit Cheonan, the capital city of our province. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and everything fell into place so well that we knew it was a special gift from the Lord. We took a bus early Saturday morning and basically shopped till we dropped! Kayleigh needed lots of winter clothing items and I was her "What not to Wear" fashion consultant. We actually both found several things we needed and went back and forth to a few choice stores. We stopped for lunch and ate delicious sushi. It was on the revolving little assembly line just like what I was used to seeing in Japan. It was a very fun treat since we can't find it in Gongju!

Then it was back to business. When we could no longer carry our bags any further, we pitched them in a locker and headed to the upstairs movie theatre for a taste of America. It's funny how you forget where you are and we have to remind ourselves as soon as it's over that we're in Korea and, yes, we don't understand anything. It's a nice escape into English World!

After the movie we ate dinner at this amazing salad bar buffet. They also specialized in BBQ but we were so full on salads, soups and breads, we didn't even try the meat. Next time! It was a beautiful day and we walked around the city and even got a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Yum!

Another gift that arrived soon after that was also a little bit of home. Kayleigh's mom sent us 3 packages filled with all our favorite goodies. Thanks Karen!!

We had an opportunity to catch up with some friends from AZ last weekend. Our sweet friends Bok Ja and Bae Hoon used to work and live in Tempe and returned to Korea about a year ago. They are living in Seoul and so we worked out a plan to go visit them. They have adorable twin girls and it was really fun to be around some kids for a change. We visited some shopping/art districts, Itewon (known as foreign town) and then went to Seoul Tower to get a good view of the city. My pictures don't do it justice at all! In Itewon, they have about every foreign restaurant imaginable and Kayleigh and I splurged on some mouthwatering Mexican food. Words can't describe how happy we were.

Sunday after visiting our friends, we headed to Daejeon to go to church and they had a "Thanksgiving" potluck after the service. There weren't ALL the usual dishes but it was more than satisfying. We ate and ate and then ate some more. I even got apple and pumpkin pie! Who can ask for more? This week has been a little hard teaching every day about Thanksgiving yet knowing I wouldn't be at home to experience it. But God blessed both of us in different ways on Thursday and it has ended up being a great holiday. All the foreigners in Gongju are getting together on Monday night to make a Thanksgiving Dinner. It should be a blast and there will be more to come about my first attempt at cooking a turkey and how God absolutely provided one for us without us even asking. I am so glad that He is especially fond of us! I hope you have enjoyed a special Thanksgiving with your loved ones and look forward to the coming Christmas season!

Conquering Sobaeksan!

This month we went on a trip with a group called Adventure Korea. They plan weekend trips for foreigners to travel around Korea. There is literally something every weekend and so we took our first trip with them in mid-Oct. We headed about 4 hours away to a Ginseng festival where we were able to see the "many" benefits of eating, drinking and ingesting ginseng. We had a ginseng peeling contest, tried fried ginseng, stuffed our feet in ginseng powder to improve circulation, made ginseng wine and harvested our own to take with us. It was a fun cultural experience and we learned that ginseng takes 4-6 years to be ready to harvest. After our tour of the festival we stayed the night in a traditional Korean village. We fit 4 of us in a hobbit home complete with a little door we had to crawl into and walked around exploring the beautiful trees and scenery. Wasn't much to do after dark so we had some serious card tournaments and went to bed early.

The next day we were going to hike Sobaeksan mountain. Now if you know anything about Korean hikers, you know they are intense. They've got the gear, hats, backpacks, Northface jackets, hiking sticks etc. They ain't messing around. So we knew we were in for a climb. I did not know however, how difficult it would really be. We got dropped off by the bus and had to climb up a steep curvy road to our starting destination. I was already out of breath and the hike hadn't even started! Yikes!

We began hiking and were able to go at our own pace, Kayleigh's was speedy and mine was not so speedy. She was actually one of the first people to reach the peak. Big surprise...sigh. The hike was a grueling 4 and a half hours and extremely steep. There were probably about 200 stairs too. I felt like I was Frodo making my way to Mordor. There was a section that we had to use handrails to pull ourselves up and I thought I'd never make it. But I was determined to do the best I could and even though, I knew I could turn back at any point, I managed to make it to the top! I was exhausted and hurting but proud that I had made it. The view was beautiful and I enjoyed seeing all the fall colors. It was some good alone time for me and God. I just keep repeating Phil. 4:13 "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me!"

We finished the hike and ate lunch and shortly after headed back to Seoul where we'd get a bus back to Gongju. On the way back, Kayleigh and I decided to brave the public baths. It was quite an experience which I won't go into detail but I will admit, it felt great to sit and soak my hurting muscles. Now we're true Koreans! :) Hope you enjoy some of the pictures. Fall is in full swing!

Stereotypes Part 2 Americans

Here are the stereotypes about Americans.

Americans are have, eat, want, like, etc.

1. individualistic
2. many wives
3. free education
4. blond hair, blue eyes
5. outgoing
6. small faces
7. engage in lots of PDA
8. eat too much fast food
9. many homosexuals
10. overweight
11. violent
12. big feet, attractive, tall
13. wide noses
14. all Hollywood stars and like to party
15. direct
16. open minded and free
17. use gestures when talking
18. racial discrimination
19. gansters
20. big houses
21. too busy
22. free style
23. many divorces
24. are protective of possessions
25. show a lot of skin
26. impolite
27. friendly
28. see UFO's all the time
29. love Halloween
30. need lots of space
31. watch lots of talk shows
32. many hereos
33. cute babies
34. everyone has a cocktail dress
35. wears blue jeans all the time
36. drinks coffee everyday
37. wears "bling"
38. always smile
39. has too many holidays
40. too much free time
41. loves football
42. always wears bikinis
43. always goes to baseball games
44. likes variety
45. big sweet 16 birthday party

Stereotypes

So the past couple weeks, I've been doing lessons on stereotypes with my students. This is a list of stereotypes that they compiled about Koreans and Americans. You might find it shocking, entertaining or enlightening. Enjoy!

Koreans are, have, eat, drink etc.

1. swear too much
2. in a hurry
3. formal, polite
4. kimchi, dog, rice, garlic
5. care too much about appearance
6. mothers are protective
7. sexist
8. wear glasses
9. black hair, small eyes
10. short, small, too skinny
11. smoke too much
12. dirty streets
13. workaholics
14. traditional
15. hate Japanese
16. smell like garlic
17. plastic surgery
18. always honk in traffic
19. quiet
20. eat healthy
21. have a nice attitude
22. respect elders
23. drive drunk
24. beautiful and smart
25. collective
26. love TV dramas
27. hot-tempered
28. patriotic
29. have bad breath
30. like fashion
31. spit on the street
32. like "red Devil" (Korean mascot)
33. too many internet ads
34. fight too much
35. long history
36. many high rise apts
37. noisy
38. homogenous
39. lots of pride in electronics
40. segregation of sexes
41. stubborn
42. always late
43. kind hearted

Gongju's Got Talent!

So this past weekend, Kayleigh and I went to a chesnut festival that was happening literally in my backyard. We knew it would be there all weekend but we weren't sure what would happen or what the main attractions were. We soon found out that it was very much a cross between a fair and walking through Zoo Lights. There was a floating bridge set up on the river with a little cafe, games to play, chesnuts to sample, and music performances to watch. Friday evening we walked around and tried our luck at some carnival games. Threw some darts, knocked over some pins and shot some hoops. None of which we were very good at, and not to mention that whenever we tried a new one, we drew a crowd of people cheering us on or ready to laugh at the Americans! No pressure! At the balloon/dart board Kayleigh took the first two shots and mananged to hit the only hole in the entire booth. The wall was covered with balloons but both times, she got it right in the hole. It was so funny! But we each managed to come away with a cute little pillow, they may have just felt sorry for us!

We asked one of the ladies to take a picture of us with our winnings but unfortunately I don't think she had ever held a camera in her life. First of all it was aimed backwards so that the photo would have been of her and second, after we got her switched around, she held the button for about one second and then immediately handed us back the camera which at that very moment, the picture took and we got a nice photo of the ground. We thanked her and figured we'd try someone else. :)

Next it was off to try out the food. We had a variety of strange things to choose from including some kind of larvae, pig roasting on a spit, whale, octopus balls, corn dogs, waffles and as many chesnuts as we could ever ask for. They even had some chesnut wine which we sampled. We soon learned that if you stood there long enough looking and trying to figure out what was what, they would just shove some food into our hands. The people of Gongju are very kind to foreigners!

After getting our fill of food, we headed over to the stage for some live music. There were several good performances but throughout the weekend, we definitely had a special place in our hearts for this amazing saxophone player. He was fantastic and on Saturday night, we became friends when he let us pick out a song and he dedicated the Titanic theme to us! Near, far..wherever you are...

To kick off the show on Friday night, they had a fantastic fireworks display and in the background was a song by Yanni. Many of you may not know who this is but if you grew up in the Hixson house, you most certainly know! My dad is a huge fan and it was fun to hear such a familiar song from so far away. We sat and listened/watched many performances and while the crowd thinned out, we moved closer and closer to the front so that by the end we were in the second row. Towards the end of the night, after much chesnut wine had been consumed, we found ourselves sitting amongst a very cheerful group of men who quickly starting speaking to us in whatever English they knew. They said things like "Congratulations!" and "It's my birthday!" and "Old friends." It was hilarious. The guy sitting next to me was singing along to every song at the top of his lungs and so Kayleigh and I just decided to join in. Soon we were making up words and cracking up at our situation. But when it got to a point where we were attracting more attention than the people onstage, we knew it was time to make an exit. As we left, they shook our hands and said "Sa rang hae" which means I love you. We were laughing so hard by this point!

On Saturday night, while watching the sax man, he recognized someone from the crowd and people starting applauding. We had no clue what was going on, so we just followed suit. A few minutes later, the guy came and stood by us, introduced himself as the Mayor of Gongju and gave us his business card. He then took my hand and made me take Kayleigh's and started waving our arms in the air to the beat of the music. He must have held my hand for about 4 long uncomfortable minutes but it was so funny that there was nothing I could do about it. Mind you, we were the only ones waving to the music. haha!

To culminate the event on Sunday night, they had a giant stage set up at the park near the river. We were told that a major popular rap artist named Drunken Tiger would be performing. So we chilled out on the floating cafe and waited for him to get started. There were tons of opening acts but finally we heard enough screaming that we knew it was his turn. We leisurely made our way to the stage and literally about 10 seconds after we got there, he finished. He walked offstage and this crowd starting rushing him. We were like, what? That's it? He only did maybe 2 or 3 songs. They had been building up to him all night and as soon as it started it was over. Oh well, culture difference. I found out later that this is the norm. Overall we had a fantastic weekend! It really felt like we were part of the community because every night we would run into people we knew from school or church or other foreigners etc. It's nice to feel more at home here. Thanks Gongju!

My strange-named students

During the very first class, my students were able to pick an English name. I had a list of names they could choose from or they could make their own. Here are some of the funny and creative names that the students made for themselves.

Harry Potter

Animal

Head Shot

Many girl names including Jessica, Sophia, Abby, etc…

English

Bush

Pig

Octopus

Bobo Club



Every week we have a listening test. They always write little notes to me on the tests when they give them back after the test. Here are some of them…

“heart breaker”

“the best in the history”

“sleepy”

“common boy”

“I love Ms. L”

“Would you marry me?”

“hello!”



Every day brings interesting stories!

Death by Taxi

This last weekend Michelle and I met up with some friends in a city called Incheon (it is a suburb of Seoul). It was the first time to take a bus to Seoul and costs about 8$ and is 1.5 hours. While we were in Incheon we went to a Bboy Tournament at a festival being held at the fairgrounds. It was a lot of fun. (FYI: Bboy are break-dancers). This was an international competition so we saw teams from all over the world, such as Holland, Taiwan, Japan, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, USA, China, Poland, etc. We would like to give a shout out to the South Korean team (who we think should have won against Holland) and the Taiwan team! The Taiwan team in our opinion was one of the best! The finalists were Russia and Japan, and Japan took the gold! Check out the videos we posted. Now, although Korean transportation is indeed wonderful, the competition ended after the last bus to our city (Gong ju) left! So, we had to resort to paying for a ticket to a nearby city (Daejeon) and then take a 20/30min taxi drive to Gongju. Once we got to Daejeon a taxi diver was available to take us to our city. It cost 40,000won (little under 40$) and there were 4 of us to split that. It just so happened our taxi driver was a former NASCAR champion; he was a speedy little guy! We were weaving in and out of cars going 120-140km/hour! At one point we hit a top speed of 160km (99mph)!!!! It was seriously like a rollercoaster at Six Flags. We thought we might die on several occasions but said “well at least we die having fun!” While the sudden stops and curves throughout the race track on a little 2 way highway and even city streets didn’t phase our driver, he delighted us with a couple stanzas from some American songs. At about halfway through our journey in the taxi, he told us that his car wasn’t going as fast because we were weighing it down (there were 4 Americans in this taxi!). We’re thinking 99mph was plenty fast :)

You Can't Make this Stuff Up!

This past weekend, Kayleigh and I went to Daejeon, had a great Costco samples treat day and learned how to use the subway and other bus routes. It was a nice day and we enjoyed hanging out with a new friend from church. As we were walking around, we happened to bump into someone else that she knew, also from our city, and we four enjoyed some pizza and hot dogs! On our way to Costco, while on the subway, we were all standing and chit-chatting and then our exit came up. I started to walk off the subway car, but didn't get very far because a Korean man was pulling on my shirt and saying something. I was like, Sir, this is my stop. Let me go! I soon realized why he was hanging onto me. We were attached. Somehow a stray string from my shirt had wrapped its way around the button of his sports coat and we were literally connected. I started laughing and pulled at the string muttering, Mianhamnida (I'm sorry) to the poor man. I barely made it off before the doors closed and I rode to the next stop! My friends were already ahead of me and hadn't noticed my predicament. So funny!

Then today while I was at school, I had my students create their own dialogues of "small talk" using vocabulary words from the lesson. This was what one of my students wrote. It was awesome!

A: Did you have a good night?
B: No, it was terrible
A: what's wrong?
B: Last night, I watched the TV program and I go to the toilet because I'm constipated.
A: Oh, that's too bad.
B: So I stayed to the toilet for a long time. Last, I went to my bedroom at 2:00am
A: Oh, what a pity!

I laughed so hard...God is good to me~! I really love the girls I teach! Couldn't resist sharing.

Really Fresh Food...Fear Factor Here I come!

So I thought I had experienced my fair share of Asian cuisine but no, I was totally unprepared for the meal I had last week. My co-teachers invited me to come eat with them after school. I was told we were having prawns. Ok, fine, I can do seafood right? So they picked me up and we drove to this restaurant about 10 minutes away. The table was typical Korean, long tables where we eat on the floor. I saw frying pans with salt in them, placed intermittently on the tables. Then we all started taking our seats and I waited as the food began to come out.

Well the waiter brought out three giant tupperwear containers filled with shrimp. LIVE shrimp. I was thinking, what did I just get myself into? So these shrimp are seriously jumping in the container, flopping around this way and that. At one point they bumped the top off the container and one jumped and landed right in my soup. It was trying to make a run for it. I screamed as others began to follow suit and quickly pushed back from the table. My co-teacher, Mr. Kim, put the lid back on as though this was normal behavior and I got embarrassed for screaming and began laughing and really couldn't stop. So my teachers were laughing at me and I said that I had to take some pictures. They didn't mind so I busted out my camera and got a few good shots. Well the waiter came by and began taking the live ones out and plopping them in the frying pan. There went the shrimp, twiching as the last bit of life was sucked out of them. I felt a little bad for them. Heads, eyeballs and all thrown in the pot. Then Mr. Kim proceeds to take a live shrimp out, pop the head off and offer it to me. I knew I couldn't refuse so down the hatch. I totally ate a grey, just been killed, shrimp and it was not "on the barbie". Not even close.

So throughout the course of the night, soju was passed around (Korean whisky) and each time a new teacher joined us, they gave me a shot of soju and another raw shrimp as though this was some kind of honor. I took a sip at a time and focused on eating yet another raw shrimp. As the night wore on, Mr. Kim got livlier and livlier, yet his English got worse and worse. It was hysterical since he was the only one who even had a chance of interpreting for me. I ended up downing 4 or 5 by the end of the night.

Eating the cooked shrimp also provided another challenge as I had to then pop the head off and de-peel it. With chopsticks! I consider myself a fairly proficient chopstick user, however, I learned that I cannot under any circumstances pop the head of a shrimp off using them. I had to go American style. Using the old fingers. It took me about 5 minutes to eat one or two shrimp cause I had to wait till they cooled off. I consumed a fair portion throughout our 2 hour meal and thought it was over, but no, I forgot about the rice. Where did I think I was? There is ALWAYS rice! I tried to muscle a few bites down but seriously thought I was gonna puke. Might have been the raw fish rolling around in the stomach. Anyways, had an enjoyable night overall and got to experience my first Korean karaoke night. They call it noriban here. Good times!