Don't Try This At Home

After a severe craving for popcorn and a lack of microwave, Chantelle, Jason and I decided to try making stove-top popcorn with the limited materials we found in Jason's Korean kitchen.  Needless to say, it didn't end well.  Now that everyone is safe, it can hopefully serve as a hilarious anecdote of what not to do.

How to (almost) burn your apartment down on a Tuesday night...

Step 1: Pick the shoddiest pot you can find. In this case, Jason's ghetto pot-pan hybrid.

Step 2: Place pot-pan on burner and fill with 3 tbs of olive oil.

Step 3: Use another pot as a lid, creating a double-decker death trap.  Ensure the heat is on too high.

Dear Jason, please invest in a lid for your pots and pans soon.  With love, common sense.

Step 4: Test with three kernels, which consequently burn immediately.

Step 5: Ignore the signs of danger.

Step 6: Remove the pot as it catches fire and panic as you run it out the door.

Note the blurriness of the photo.  It really illustrates how much of a "mad dash" was made in panic mode.

Step 7: Decide that putting out the fire with tap water is the best option, even after an onlooker (Chantelle) warns you that "you're not supposed to add water to an oil fire... I think".

Step 8: Turn your back and sprint towards the bathroom (three paces away) while the fiery explosion engulfs the kitchen.

Step 9: Check your eyebrows and arm hair to ensure you haven't suffered any major damages.

Step 10: Breath, laugh while you replay the life that just flashed before your eyes and be happy you didn't just lose the deposit on your apartment.

Movie Matinee

Today I had my fourth movie-going experience in Korea and, as per usual, it was fantastic!  Feeling inspired by David Letterman's list making ways, here are my top ten reasons for loving Korean movie theaters.

10. Getting to ride an escalator up to the movie theatre floors from the concession stand --like Rainbow Theater in London, ON.

9.  Being able to bring in would-be contraband goodies without scoffing from movie theater employees; in fact they have vending machines stationed just outside of the theaters.

8. Visiting the nearby arcades before and/or after the movie.

7.  Having a chance to see a movie after hearing reviews from home since English movies often have a later release date here.

6.  Sipping pop through a straw in the "couples" pop lid which has two separate straw holes on different sides of the lid.

5.  The hook on the back of the chair in front of you, so that you may hang up you purse or man-bag with ease.

4. Relaxing in the most comfy movie theatre chairs I have ever sat in.

3. Not having to deal with noisy movie-watchers coincidently placed right behind you or extraordinarily tall people right infront of you.  Koreans aren't known for either of these traits.

2. The delicious "sweet popcorn ". They Unlike theatres at home, they cook the popcorn which particular flavours (original,  sweet, cheese and onion) rather than using popcorn shakers after its popped.

This is our large tub of popcorn, which is equipped with a divider so I can have my sweet popcorn without impeding Paul's desire to have original.

... and the number one reason I love going to movies in Korea...

1.  Reserving your seat when you buy your movie ticket, much like when we buy tickets for theatre productions at home. That's right,  you pick your seats ahead of time allowing you to walk in two seconds before the movie and get your favourite spot for movie-watching.

High Tech Security

Chantelle, Jason, Paul and I just made our way to I-Park Mall/Techno Mart at the Sinyongsan subway stop. With the unexpected beautiful weather (after yesterday's downpour)  we went looking for a place to dump our coats. The lockers, strategically placed beside the Children's Playroom, turned out to be far more advanced than the usual turn-key lockers you find in most malls.

 While still only costing 1,500 won for a locker of substantial size, this locker required a finger print for a highly sophisticated locking method. Good thing four people were wanting to use this locker because it took one person to read the instructions, one person to hold their fingerprint down, one person to feed the coins into the slot and one to take the picture. Now Paul holds the key to our jackets in the tip of his finger.

How many foreigners does it take to lock a Korean locker? At least four.

See if you can make sense of this.

Red Mango Brunch

Less than five minutes from my apartment there is a shopping centre called New Core Department store. Kim's Club, the aforementioned grocery store I usually go to, is in the basement of New Core, but on the 6th floor there are a handful of restaurants.  My first evening in Korea, my boss took me to a restaurant here to experience my first true flavour of Korean food.

While he had walked me around this floor to see my options I had been most intrigued by the waffle place, Red Mango, but I wasn't about to request dessert for dinner from my new employer. Since that night I have wanted to visit Red Mango for a post-dinner delight or a mid-morning treat but it just hasn't happened yet... until today.

The front counter of Red Mango, dedicated to fresh fruits and organic juices.

I am now sitting in Red Mango salivating for the arrival of my Banana Pecan waffle.  It's been about 10 minutes since we've ordered and we're the only two customers at this time (a rarity in Korea), so they must be making these waffles fresh.

Banana Pecan Caramel Waffle, with a special guest appearance by cherry.

...and the verdict is: yum! Over the past six months I had built up high expectations for a delicious brunch and this waffle, if anything, has surpassed my expectations. Mmmmmm!

Wine Train to Snow Fest

With the intention of keeping this short and sweet, I am going to focus on the best parts of the Wine Train to Taebaek Snow Festival.  Before I get started on that though, I should mention that I am part of a facebook group called WinK (When In Korea, formerly known as Discover Korea) that is ran by a man named William Cho, and he is responsible for putting together day trips and weekend events to explore Korea.  There are currently 3, 396 members that are a part of this group, but there were only enough room for 42 on this trip.  When I read "Wines, Trains, and Winter Wonderland. It doesn't get any better", I thought: It certainly does not!  Where do I sign up? Originally the only trip to the Taebaek Snow Festival was being held the previous Saturday (aka, Wonderland's Presentation Day) so I was quite disappointed when I thought my only chance would not work.  Thankfully, WinK put together a day trip for this Saturday (with the addition of the wine train), so I wasted no time signing up and getting my deposit in.  

Ta da!

From my group of coworkers/friends, I was able to get Hilary, Chantelle and Paul on board.  Since January and February are the snowy months of Korea, most people I know are already booked, spending weekends doing winter activities like skiing, snowboarding, etc.  It's also a bit tricky to convince people to get up at 5am with the lure of wine tasting at 9am or spending 3 hours outside, especially with the kind of low temperatures we've been experiencing lately.  All that being said, having a group of four worked out perfectly because the tables were set up in groups of four or two, and a great time was had by all.


Here are a couple of the highlight's from the trip:

*having enough time to eat McDonald's hotcakes on the floor of the Seoul Station before departing on our trip and then gaining the nick-name "Hotcakes".  It was bestowed upon me by a couple of guys (Ace and Jason) from Georgia.  When I ran to throw out my garbage, they had told Chantelle and Hilary (in a Georgian accent): "She went to town on those hotcakes", "Yep, she had one thing on her miiiind and it was hotcakes."  From that point on, any question or instruction meant for me was preceeded by "Hotcakes!"

*seeing the sunrise from behind the mountains, and some other breath-taking views during out train trip to the Snow Festival

When we entered the subway station in Gwacheon, it was 530am and dark. 
When we walked into Seoul Station, it was 630am and dark.
When we were on the train, it was about 730am and there was light and it was good.

A wonderful shot of the beautiful mountains and snowy landscape.  Photo credit: Hilary

 *playing Gawi Bawi Bo (scissors, rock, and paper)

If you beat the other person, you got to put a silly-faced sticker on them.  By the end, I had 3 stickers on my face and Paul had too many to count.  Note the sophisticated decor of the wine train, and William Cho with the mic in the background.

 

*watching the S(e)oul Train dance off, particularly when Chantelle won the women's round by doing the worm down the isle of the train

She happily recieved the bottle of wine as a prize, and not-so happily accepted the nick-name: "The Worm"

*the delicious snacks that were served after the wine-tasting had begun (roughly 9am).  Before Saturday, I had never eaten breakfast food with wine.

A nice spread of orange, banana, muffins, hard-boiled eggs, gimbop... and wine

 

*the sheer size and variety of snow sculptures; there was a range from the octopus-looking character from Pirates of the Caribbean to the Taj Mahal

Chantelle and I posing with our fellow Sagittarian, the centaur (aka, The Archer)

This picture was a must, not only because Steve Jobs happens to be incredibly popular here --his biography was published in Korea and is almost 1000 pages in length (vs 656 pages in the English version) because of the hangul (Korean) characters -- but because the child posing in the picture is trying to make it look like he is picking the great late Steve Job's nose.

*sipping hot cocoa within a snow cafe, a surprise feature of the Taebaek Snow Festival

The entrance to the Snow Cafe --an igloo that was serving up coffee and hot chocolate inside.

As you ventured around the igloo, the path was lit by LCD lights and you could pick an ice table and chairs to sit on while you enjoyed your hot beverage.  It was even more amazing than it looks.

*the florescent minerals featured in the Coal Museum, another unexpected place of tourist delight --the Coal museum also proved entertaining because in addition to its beautiful collection of different rocks and minerals, there were also some wonderful examples of Konglish (Korean-English).

While there were many fascinating rocks and minerals to look at, my personal favourite were the florescent minerals that glow like this under the presence of black light.  Geology rocks! (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

This section of the Coal Museum featured all of the different devices they used underground, in offices and on men for personal protection.  Although this particular segment was displaying the many modes of communication, the English translation on the sign said: "Telecommunication Equipment Prevention".  That doesn't seem right.

*the landscape around Taebaek City

On the upward climb, you come across this area of small shops and restaurants.  At this time of year, most visitors are here to climb the mountain and they mean business.  Expect to be poked by at least one mountain climbing pole and stomped by a mountain climbing cleat.

Looking out and seeing all of these mountains makes me eager to see BC.

*brown-bagged snacks.  The dinner on the train back was served like most traditional meals in Korea, cold, so it was fortunate that we had the foresight to bring such things as PB&J sandwiches, Pringles, ginger snaps, rice cakes and gummy bears. 

*the cozy trip back to Seoul Station --the heat was pumping as much as the music.  While some of the passengers slipped into "rare form", Paul bought cards in Taebaek, so Hilary had her first game of Euchre while Chantelle thoroughly enjoyed her first train ride.  I felt it necessary to explain that not all train rides would be as entertaining or enjoyable as this one was.

Saavy Sundays

With no offense to Lover Boy (circa 1976), I'm not a person who is "working for the weekend".  I also am not a person who likes to watch opportunities pass me by, so when the majority of last weekend was tied up with a work-related obligation, I tried to make the most of the Saturday evening and Sunday that was left.

For the past couple of months, we have been preparing for "Wonderland's Presentation", which can be aptly described as a well-lit, well-staged, well-costumed version of Elementary talent shows wherein all the BT (kindergarten) classes put on 20-minute musicals of different Disney movies --Lion King, Aladdin and Rapunzel --then come together for a couple of kinder dances and a chorus of do-re-mi to finish the show.  Before I get into too much detail about the presentation (because I am sure another blog on that topic will be coming along soon) I will move on to the agenda that reclaimed my evening/weekend as my own.

We finished cleaning up the stage, dressing rooms, props, etc and toting materials back to Wonderland by 7pm last Saturday, which left more than enough of the evening to enjoy.  After arriving home and dropping off my stuff, myself, Hilary, Paul, Andrea and Kirk (Andrea's boyfriend who was visiting from Canada for a couple of weeks) were off to enjoy some Korean BBQ.  About twenty lettuce-wrapped pork pieces later, we headed home with plans of McDonald's dessert.  One hot fudge sundae later, I fell asleep watching Spirited Away --which I will need to re-watch in the future, of course, given how confused I was when I woke up to frogs giving advice about dragons. 

Anywho, moving on from sundae to Sunday, I ended up having a couple of Skype dates, doing my dishes (that usually get neglected until my four of everything is exhausted), and running a couple loads of laundry through the wash.  After accomplishing enough around the homestead, I still had time to watch a movie with Hilary at her place (Definitely Maybe --"you're the happy ending") and do some writing upon my arrival home.  When I went to sleep, I fell asleep with the sweet feeling of productivity and motivation for Monday. 

I have no doubt that I will be falling asleep tonight with the same feeling.  After a delightful Saturday spent on a Wine Train to the Snow Festival in Taebeak (and back), this Sunday seemed to follow last Sunday's suit.  I woke up with the rare desire to wash my dishes, so I ran with it, and once I had repossessed my dishes from the depths of despair in my sink, I looked forward to using them for a tasty meal.  As the fairly new owner of some genuine Canadian Maple Syrup (thank you Aunt Mel!), I had been craving a beautiful brunch in which to use it. 

I played Sous Chef in the production of French toast and back bacon, and coupled it with a nice glass of mango juice.  After brunch, Paul and I ventured over to Starbucks for early afternoon reading and relaxing --and, by relaxing, I mean marking.  Arriving home, I put my newly purchased Swiffer look-alike to work and was excited to see how well the dry cloth-wet cloth combo worked (and smelled).  After hanging up the load of laundry, Chantelle came by my apartment and we headed to Hilary's for grilled cheese, ramin noodles and a movie.  Keeping with the ever-presence of dance this weekend, we opted for the fluffy film Burlesque and reminisced about our wonderful Wine Train experiences.  Going to the snow fest also gave us the opportunity to test out our winter gear --boots, mitts, tights, etc --for our Sledding field trip that is taking place tomorrow.  I suppose now all that is left to do is to drift off with sweet dreams of Saavy Sundays and Sledding Mondays.

Classroom Cute (Part 1)

There have been many incidents of cute that have occurred in my classrooms over my almost 6 months here, but since its during teaching time I don't often get a chance to write about it right after the fact.  Since the realization that I am in my sixth month here, I am going to attempt to blog more often --especially about the thing that brought me here: teaching.

So, without further ado, I will share my run-in with cute from this Friday.  After lunch I had two periods with my Kindergarten class, Blueberry.  The overly affection crowd of kinders were particularly interested in what Jennifer teacher was pulling out of her basket on Friday.  With the incredibly cold weather (-27 C), my skin has been quite dry so I had began applying hand lotion when a couple of my Blueberries approached me. Quickly my application of hand lotion turned into a mauling by two of my girls who wanted to get some of the lotion onto their own tiny hands.  Turns out everyone's hands were feeling a little dry because I became surrounded in kinders pawing my hands.  With their powers combined, it was the best little hand massage I've ever been privy to.  Not only was it the most relaxing moment I've had in the pressence of Blueberries, it was beyond cute as they cooed: "teacher more!"