Matt & Andrea Arrive!

Matt, one of Andrew's best friends since his Tri-City days, and his wife Andrea moved to South Korea in October.  Originally, they had planned to move and begin work at the end of August, like we had, but Korea jerked them about a bit, so that didn't happen, and they ended up missing Judy by a month.   That was sad, but they arrived just in time for Andrew because he was starting to have a bit too much alone time.  Had it been wintertime, it probably would have been a lot like The Shining:  "All Korean and no English makes Andrew a dull boy..."  No, it wasn't that bad, but he was very glad to have someone in Korean again that he's really close with. 

One of the scary/terrible things about coming to work in Korea, is that you really don't have much of a say as to where you go.  We were hoping they'd be placed at schools in Seoul, but since they missed the major hiring period, they were kind of at the mercy of the system and available positions.  Thankfully, they were placed in Gwangju-Si, a suburb of Seoul.  Door to door, they are about 2 hours away from Andrew's via subways and bus, which isn't too bad.  It's a little farther than we'd hoped, but their still close enough to meet regularly and for Andrew to basically fulfill the role of Korean host mom and tour guide!

Finally!  

To follow their adventures, and get a fresh, un-jaded account of Korea, check out their blog @ http://worldwalkabout.wordpress.com/

Life Without A Dryer

All you people with dryers, stop taking them for granted, right this instant.  It's time you really appreciate what you've got!  Dryers are a rare luxury in Korea, and it is something we've dearly missed since coming here.  Obviously, it's a little annoying for a load of laundry to take 2+ days (even more during the winter), but clothes just don't come out of the laundry feeling as soft or smelling as fresh when they're not put through the dryer.  Once it's finally all dry, its usually a little stiff and scratchy, which are two adjectives that should never describe cotton. 

Andrew picked this washcloth off the drying rack to find it rock hard!  He even put fabric softener in with the load, but that clearly had the opposite effect.  This stiffness of laundry seems to come down hardest (pun intended) on towels and jeans, especially older towels.  Jeans will soften up after a few minutes of body heat and movement, but there's nothing quite as refreshing as drying yourself off after a shower with a fresh, clean sheet of cotton sandpaper!

sk eats...Ribs Pizza

Pizza places in Korea are strange.  Period.  They offer the standard pizzas such as cheese, pepperoni and combination, but even those come with added Korean flare.  For example, it is just understood that those three always come with sweet corn on them, which is awesome!  Things get much less awesome when you venture into the 'new' or 'seasonal' menus...  

The toppings on these pizzas can be anything the chef dreams up.  We mean anything.  Some honorable mentions include, rice cakes, chicken wings, waffle fries, mashed sweet potatoes, steamed pumpkin, mussels (in the shell), unpeeled shrimp, potato wedges and pasta to list a few.  It sometimes seems as if the Korean pizza chefs eavesdropped on a room full of potheads, hungry and stoned out of their minds.  It's pretty amazing what they dream up!

One of our favorites, that was widespread and heavily advertised, was Ribs Pizza.  It was a 'standard' cheese pizza topped with one or two pork ribs per slice.  They marketed it as a great pizza innovation, showing how regular pizza only required one hand to eat where as Ribs Pizza ingeniously utilized both hands (as if that was a concern people had when eating pizza).  We discussed the merits and flaws of ribs on pizza for a while, until we finally worked up the courage (or the hangover) to try it ourselves. 

Pizza School's Ribs Pizza

Mmmm, bones and questionable bits of meat on pizza...a tasty addition!

As imagined, the verdict was:  Not so good.  The meal was essentially just a cheese pizza with a side order of ribs, only they didn't come on the side.  Since they had to be eaten separately, there was absolutely no point for them to be on the pizza in the first place.  Needless to say, that was our one and only Ribs Pizza, but we commend their adventuresome spirit!

즐거운 크리스마스 보내세요!!!!

 The tiny, battery powered Christmas tree in Andrew's apartment

Sonny Angel in front of the tree

Our 2011 Christmas Card!

Wishing you nothing but the best, and (as always) please indulge yourself in a delicious food not found in Korea and think of us while you do it!

           -Andrew & Judy

Final Wing & Wine

Sexy pose with the garbage outside of the apartment

Notice how into the wings we were.  Judy didn't feel the need to put down the wing for the photo.  At least she pulled it out of her mouth before smiling... 

...unlike in this one!

Before & After

Watch & Learn

We'd managed pretty well to avoid thinking about our impending separation until about this time.  Wing & Wine was one of our favorite activities, so we thought it would be a good 'last horah.'  A few days later Judy headed back to The States and Andrew continued Korean life solo  ☹ 

Home Sweet Home...

With Judy not renewing her contract, Andrew had to move out of the loft apartment her school provided and move into the new apartment his school found for him.  Our Banghwa apartment was spacious but in a terrible location on the outskirts of the city.  Andrew's new apartment is just the opposite of that.  It's pint-sized, but right in the center of the city. 

So, from here on out, this is the headquarters of ours (Andrew's) remaining adventures.

To help you gauge the actual size (or lack there of) of the space, here is a quick aerial view with dimensions.   

The total square footage here is around 142.  The average one-car garage in the United States is around 200-230 square feet.  If you'd like to get a feeling for how Andrew lives, walk out into your garage, imagine about 6 feet of it doesn't exist, then put a kitchen, a bathroom, a twin bed, a desk and a closet in the remaining space.  There you have it...home, sweet home!

Looking in from the hallway

The bedroom (with accent wall), the dining room, the living room & the mud room

Kitchen & laundry room

The spice rack, the pantry, the linen closet, the medicine cabinet, the entrance to the bathroom, the desk & the entertainment center

Ol' Dusty, lookin' good in his 4th home in Korea!

The bathroom

(Yes, you can sit on the toilet while showering)
((No, the toilet paper does not get wet))

The (hastily stitched together) view of the entire apartment from the bed

sk eats...빈대떡

빈대떡

Bindaetteok - Mung Bean Pancake

   Raw Mung Beans                         Mung Bean Sprouts

The mung bean, a standard ingredient in many Asian dishes, is widely consumed in South Korea.  Generally, the highest consumption comes in the form of it's sprout in soups and salads and kimchis, but it's most delicious culinary application comes in the form of the pancake, which we discovered completely by accident while exploring Seoul's Jongno neighborhood one day.   

While walking along the main street we passed a busy market mainly selling food (our favorite kind of market) so we decided to head in for a snack.  It offered the standard Korean market fare, fried things, scary cuts of pork, etc.  Luckily, it being pretty much the same food offered everywhere, we didn't make a quick decision and continued into the heart of the market.  In the center we saw lots of stalls selling a type of pancake we'd never had before.  It was thicker and looked like it wasn't flour based like most of the Korean pancakes we'd eaten.  Everyone around us seemed to be happily enjoying them, so we waited for a spot on a bench to open up so that we could get our turn.

Not knowing what they were called (or really even what it was), we just pointed to the older couple's plate next to us when the waitress came and said 'one, please.'  The couple really liked that we ordered it without knowing how to say what it was.  They didn't, however, like that we were eating our bindaetteok unaccompanied, so they ordered us a bottle of makgeolli (carbonated rice wine) to sip while we ate.  

We think they'd be proud to know that since then, we've taken many friends back to this same stall and have always ordered at least one bottle of makgeolli with our bindaetteok!

One of the table/benches in 광장 Market

Anxiously awaiting their treat

Working their magic

The batter is made of raw mung beans soaked in water and then ground with sprouts and green onions.  Once much of the water has been strained out, the mixture is ladled onto a hot, flattop grill and cooked until golden brown.  

If you are still confused about what a bindaetteok is, it's essentially a giant hashbrown fried on the flattop but made with beans instead of potatoes.  Delicious!

As a dip, you get a small bowl of soy sauce with white onions soaking in it.  The other two bowls in the picture are our makgeolli bowls!

Andrew's School Festival

Thankfully, unlike Judy's school, Andrew's school did not require him to do anything for his school festival.  In fact, they were even surprised when he told them that we would stop by and watch some of the musical performances later in the program.  

The MCs

Choi Won Young aka 'Flo Tagger'

Won Young is one of Andrew's favorite students.  He is a high school second grader, so he was one of Andrew's students last year, which means that he doesn't get to see him too often.  The discovery that Flo Tagger was going to be making an appearance on stage was one of the main reasons he had decided to come.  Andrew had only ever had the chance to hear Flo Tagger's raps recorded on his Ipod or in videos on his blog (which you should check out), so he wasn't going to miss the opportunity to see him perform live.  

The other reason to go was to show Judy off to his students.  For the most part, they are all girl crazy.  Many have spent the last 3 years (at least) at all boys schools which has only served to form them into female-crazed monsters.  As a male teacher at an all boys school, you never want to miss an opportunity to rub "I have a girlfriend and you don't" into your students faces!

Both Judy and Flo Tagger's sound were big hits!

It's hard to tell in the photo of him on stage, but Won Young is wearing these gold and black, angel-winged Adidas hi-tops!  He's such an awesome kid.  Not only is he a good student and a talented musician, but he clearly has an understanding of fashion far beyond most people's grasp! 

Another noteworthy, fashion related thing he's done was to replace the 'LV' in Louis Vuitton's classic brown initial pattern with 'FT'.  Pretty badass!  

Bike Rental

Like the Vélib' program in France and other major cities throughout Europe and the rest of the world, Seoul also has a citywide bicycle sharing system.  The only difference, however, is that it doesn't work for foreigners.  There are many stations conveniently located around the city, but we could never get them to work.  At the kiosks, we would fill in all of our information, and as soon as we typed in our passport numbers 'ERROR' would flash on the screen and it would revert back to the home menu.  As you can imagine, it was terribly frustrating.  

Still determined to rent bikes, we headed to Yeouido/Han River Park to find a rental place manned by a person instead of a computer, where we knew we'd be able to rent without fear of getting an 'ERROR' screen.

On the way, we passed a TV or film crew shooting a scene on the street.  We watched for a little bit, but as we are only able to recognize three Korean celebrities (Rain (K-pop), Park Ji Sung (soccer) and Kim Yu Na (figure skating)), and they didn't seem to be part of this shoot, it didn't hold our interest very long. 

Choosing her cruiser

Holding the camera upside down over his shoulder, Andrew was able to get a few decent shots.  Granted, 90% of them were just of the sky or the ground, but that's the glory of digital photography, it doesn't matter!

Attempting to pass the two person bicycle

Seconds before collision!

Day at the Track

Spending a Saturday afternoon, throwing some money away at the racetrack was something we'd planned on doing since we first moved to Seoul and found out about it.  For whatever reasons (mostly because we're lazy and it was far away), we kept putting it off and doing other things.  Finally, just as our Korean adventure was coming to a close, we headed over to the track to try our luck.

As things usually go here, Korea stepped in and made things weird and not quite as fun as they could be...  Our first stop once inside the park was at a Family Mart to pick up some cold beers to enjoy while watching the races, which we thought was what you did while at the track.  Once again, the way we think is not the way Koreans think.  Seoul Racecourse Park is a dry track.  We've never heard of anything being 'dry' in Korea EVER, and certainly never assumed a racetrack would be the first.  We could have purchased and consumed beer, soju or liquor on the subway ride there, but couldn't buy any once inside.  You're already indulging in one vice, why stop there?  In lieu of cold brewskis, we ended up with some refreshing bottled waters.  ☹

On our way out of the Family Mart we noticed a grocery store.  "Hmm, that's weird," we thought, "...but maybe that's where they sell beer?"

Nope.  No alcohol of any kind.  They did, however have TONS of raw meat.  That was pretty much all they sold, actually.  Apparently, while betting on horses in Korea, you don't drink, but grill meat (on a portable grill that you carried into the racetrack) instead. 

YOU PEOPLE ARE SO STRANGE!

 Horse stats

Sweet rides

Heading to their horses

Checking the outcomes

We came expecting the crowd to be mainly sleazy, older men, but the majority of the crowd was couples and families.  Yep, FAMILIES!  Horse racing is a dating and family venue in Korea!

Big money, no whammies! 

???

Somehow we had to use this to place a bet...

All we were trying to do was use the tried and true gambling method of 'bet on the horse ridden by the most brightly dressed jockey,' but we had no idea how to translate that onto the betting sheet.  The cellphone dictionary is usually more miss than hit with the translations, and betting/racing terms were no different.  With it's 'help' we were able to guess our way through it, but we weren't feeling confident about it. 

The first race (we didn't bet on this one)

We were pretty nervous taking our completed bet-sheet to the bookie, but she ran it through the computer and gave us a ticket, so we guessed that it worked!

Jockey face

Our race!

The horse Judy bet on ended up taking 2nd or 3rd and Andrew's horse finished with an honorable, last place!

Needless to say, we made zero monies that day.

Playing with the camera...

She gets a lot of attitude when the camera shoots from this angle(because it adds 10-20lbs!)!