Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

I am still in my orientation week here in Seoul. One new and interesting experience for me has been the kimchi. This is an important part of the cuisine here consisting of fermented vegetables mixed in a variety of hot sauces. Mostly these vegetables are either cabbages or radishes. They make my mouth feel like it's on fire and I don't particularly like it...yet! I hope that it will come to grow on me and by the end of this year I will crave it--I will be eating it a lot! The food is pretty good in general, however, we eat essentially the same thing each meal. There have been a few things on my plate that I couldn't quite name, but I am mostly up for an adventure! Last night we ate whole mini-squids for dinner. They were mixed in with some potatoes and meat. They tasted like calamari and I actually thought they were really good! :) I have the feeling my taste palate will change a lot! I am looking forward for tomorrow...I get to go to my school and see where I will be teaching! The morning will be spent at the school and, in the afternoon, all of the native English teachers from this group and I will be touring the National Museum. I haven't actually been downtown yet, so I am anxious to get out of this conference center! We will all have one more night here after tonight then we will be staying at our apartments. I guess it will be very small and not necessarily so nice, but I am going to wait and see before I say too much! Things are going well and I can now say that I am excited to start the school year. I really needed a little time here to get back into the mindset of a school teacher. Now I am coming up with lesson plans and beginning to think about how I would like to run my classes. I will keep you updated about stuff!

Training in Korea

Day two of my Korean life... I arrived safely into the Seoul airport the night before last. I had one layover in Dubai, but otherwise I only traveled for 15 hours. Yesterday and today have been easy days to rest before the busy year begins. This morning Kara and I went hiking near the conference center where all of the native English speaking teachers are staying for the week. We discovered this secret path while walking yesterday and decided to check it out further today. We saw some helpful signs along the way to guide us as we dodged in and out of the jungle-like vegetation. We saw also some strange looking Korean bugs and I would have taken pictures if I hadn't been running away from them! :) After lunch, all of the new English teachers were required to attend a Korean dance/music workshop. We learned the steps to some traditional dances and had to put on a performance for the group. I thought it was a fun way to get to know people and to be introduced to the Korean culture. So far, everything is good. I feel really good and amazingly enough, no jetlag. The food is mostly delicious...but I don't always know what I am eating! I try to taste everything in small portions and there have been things I really like and some things that set my mouth on fire! I will find out later this week where I will be teaching and will meet my co-teacher. He/She will be Korean and will help me in class to teach. Next weekend I will get to see where I will live (fingers crossed for a good place) and will finally be able to settle into a place for one full year. I was thinking back to all my years away from home and I have never lived in one apartment for a whole year. I have always been off doing something in the summer, so nine months has been the longest. This year, I will be breaking my own personal record! I will also try to force myself to experience as much as I can of this culture and region of the world. Despite my previous apprehension about coming here, I can say that I am excited for this year!

It's Here!

My visa is finished! I picked it up this morning in Bern. I am glad to be finished with this process! Whew! Now, I can leave on Thursday without worrying if I will be refused admittance into Korea!

Street Parade, Zurich

Street Parade, Zurich

I think it would be safe to say that Swiss city people have a reputation for being very serious, punctual, precise, and sometimes a little uptight--you know, bankers and businesspeople all wearing suits and looking at their watches. Last weekend, Martin and I met up with some of his friends at the annual, one-day-only, Zurich Street Parade! It was so crazy and wild...I couldn't believe this was the same Zurich that I have visited many times before! There were close to a million people in the streets dressed in costumes with dye in their hair and boas around their necks! The parade was, basically, lots of semi-trucks with empty, flat trailers. On top of each of the trailers was a DJ, loud music and energetic people dancing their hearts out all dressed in matching colors! The streets were filled with people and these people surrounded the semi-trucks. It looked like a sea of people pushing semis down the street to a beat! It was the biggest party I have ever been to! There were people everywhere and it was sometimes difficult to turn around! To save space, garbage bins were omitted. Therefore, people had no choice but to leave their garbage on the street! But, even this was funny to me--I watched person after person carefully place cans on the ground and neatly crush them first in the middle, then on each end until they were flat and unobtrusive. The streets are normally impeccable and I guess after training a city to properly dispose of its garbage, it is hard for some people to carelessly throw it on the ground! Still, there was so much garbage from hours of partying (even if it was "neat" garbage) that the place was a mess! (I was told that it would all be cleaned by the next morning so one would never even know there had been a party the day before.)

Outside a Glacier

Inside a Glacier

There are many glaciers in Switzerland and we had the chance to visit one of these glaciers a couple of weeks ago. My eyes have now been opened to global warming...it is unbelievable! There was a sign a couple hundred meters from the opening of the glacier indicating where the glacier was ten years ago. There was another sign much further back (near the road) showing where it was fifty years ago. It is sad because a large amount of this glacier has melted over the last fifty years, and I can only predict that in another hundred years it will be gone! I don't think I have ever seen the effects of global warming in the States as clearly and as obviously as I have here. Sure, in the States we have had strange weather patterns, but these glaciers are daily, visible reminders of how our actions affect our planet. I am glad I got to see this and experience a feeling of panic about it! It is good to realize my responsibility as a citizen of the Earth (sounds like I've turned green, doesn't it?). Anyway, I have posted a picture of the glacier from the outside and from the inside. We walked inside and got to see what it is like inside a huge chunk of ice...cold. There were hikers on the top of the glacier, but I guess it is pretty dangerous--if you take a wrong step, you could slip through one of the huge cracks and have a long fall to death! There is no rescue for these people who fall into the ice...it is way too dangerous. It is beautiful inside, though. The ice is really pretty, it is a whole palate of different shades of blue.

The Cottage in the Alps

Swiss National Day

August first is a special day for the Swiss, it's their day to celebrate their country (kind of like the 4th of July). I went up into the Alps the 31st of July for two days and two nights with Martin and his stepfather, Bruno. This picture was the room that we ALL slept in...EVERYbody: grandparents, kids, and everyone in between! The beds didn't have any space between them so each person most likely would be sleeping right next to a complete stranger! Each bed was covered with a scratchy, wool blanket with two more were folded up at the end to cover up with. Since it can get pretty cold up in the mountains, those blankets were really valuable! Plus, they helped guard against any unwelcome cuddling from one's neighbor! On the 31st, we drove a few hundred meters up from the base of the mountain and had to hike the last two hours to reach the cottage. We chose a hiking path that was a true mountain trail--straight up!! It was a challenging climb and it felt really good to reach our destination! We spend the day of the first hiking in the morning and playing Jass (a very popular card game over here) and battleship on paper. In the evening, all the hikers/lodgers gathered out on the deck to watch the high fires. These high fires are fires lit in the mountain villages and were used for communication--think Lord of the Rings...very cool! Also, we were able to see fireworks, but since we were over 2000 meters up they looked pretty small! :) The lady who owned the cottage brought out hot, mulled wine for all the guests and we all sipped it near our own fire as we watched the celebrations. These couple of days were really great--it was so relaxing and so cool to be included in this Swiss cultural tradition. This was something I would love to do again! The mountains are so beautiful and there are so many trails and paths to explore! Oh! One more thing: there were herds of sheep up in the mountains (the biggest ones I have ever seen--really, they were huge!) and they were spray painted blue and red and some wore bells around their necks so their owners could find them! Ha! It was great! :)

My New Home

This castle is in Germany near the Austrian border. I have no idea how to spell the name of it, but it is pretty famous...next time you watch a Disney movie, look at the shape of the castle at the beginning--this is the one they modeled the Disney castle after! Anyway, I really enjoy life in Europe and I like being able to make day trips to places like this! This castle really looks like it is out of a storybook! Although I have enjoyed every day here this summer, I am looking forward to settling into an apartment and not living out of a suitcase anymore! By this time next week, I will be packing up the remnants of my summer and preparing to head off to a land I don't know much about...I have to admit that I am a little scared! Anyway, the summer went way too fast...it always does!