tee hee hee :)

Concert time!

Guess who I get to see in concert? :) (I know it isn't really a good guessing game if I post the picture...sorry!) Jason Mraz! He is coming to Seoul in about a week and a half! I know it is a little early to be posting this news, but I am really excited!

Boryeong Mud Festival

This weekend was the Boryeong Mud Festival, the number one festival in Korea (land of a million festivals). The idea?: transport tons of "healthy" mud from one beach to the next, invite the foreigners and the TV stations, set up a large stage for musicians and dancers and let the party begin! You can see from the picture above that we got dirty...a mud slinging contest. No, just kidding! They had paintbrushes set up for us to paint our bodies with lots of mud! We let it bake into our skin for awhile before washing it off to reap all the health benefits. In the pic: me (in the only bikini pic you will see posted on this blog--posted only to show you the mud), Kara and Marc. (I didn't get their permission for this, but they both look good, so I hope they don't mind!)


One of the many things set up for us to fully enjoy the mud! :)


The body painting booth.


Rice cream. I plan to pass on the next free rice cream cone that is offered, and I certainly won't be paying for any! Weird.

In other news, I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL!!!! WOOOHOOO! :) My last day was Friday! I have to teach for two weeks at an English summer school, but that is all! My Korea adventure is not over, but the public school teacher part is!

Shabu shabu!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu-shabu

This is what I ate tonight! :) Yum! It was a big pot of vegetable and beef broth, which we mixed lots of fresh veggies and thinly sliced beef (Australian beef, to be specific--they are still extremely afraid of getting mad cow disease from our USA beef, but that's another blog entry all together). After we scooped out the veggies and cooked the meat, the ajuma (lady/waitress) came and mixed some noodles into the broth (which continued to get more flavorful). After we ate those, she came back and scooped out the broth leaving only about an inch in the pot. She added rice to the mixture, as well as fresh mint leaves and a couple of other spices. The result? Delicious! It was like three meals in one! I want to eat shabu shabu again and again! It's fun to say too! :) I heard that there are a couple of shabu shabu restaurants in LA, and I wouldn't be surprised to find one in the lovely, cultured city of Minneapolis! :)

NANTA Theater Performance

This past Wednesday night, Martin, Kara and I went to see a kitchen-themed theater performance in Apgugeong. It was a two-hour performance where the actors use kitchen items (knives, brooms, water) to create a non-verbal, rhythmic story about the preparation for a wedding dinner. Of course, they needed a bride and a groom. Who do you think they chose to be the bride out of a whole auditorium of people? Me? Why, yes. They chose me. I had to go up on stage, wear a funny hat and eat some soup. At the end of the scene, I had to walk arm-in-arm with my new Korean "husband" to the front of the stage as the wedding march blasted over the speakers and the audience roared with laughter. As a prize, I was given a phone charm and a blurry picture of my 5 minutes on stage! Oh well, it was a fun night out--Kara and I talked about going to see NANTA for months! Finally we can cross it off the list! :)

Weirdest food experience of my life?

who: me, Martin, Kara
what: "sannakji," or live baby octopus
where: Noryangjin Fish Market, Seoul, Korea
when: last Sunday afternoon
why: because one must not pass up the opportunity to sample such a wonderful local delicacy


Yes. It was still moving as we ate it and its tentacles did suction onto our teeth and tongues.
No. It did not object nor scream as it was being cut up into small, bite-sized pieces.
Yes. It was a once in a lifetime occurance for me, but I cannot speak for the others.
No. It did not taste horrible, in fact, it made up for its lack of flavor in chewiness.

Gyeongbokgung, Noraebang

Changing of the guards at Gyeongbokgung Palace, "the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty."



A vending machine outside the restrooms in the subway station.


Martin's trip to Korea wouldn't be complete without a little noraebang! :) Kara joined us for an hour's worth of singing time after going out last weekend! Lots of fun...

Busan with Martin

Sokcho and Sorak-san

Dr.Fish, Korean Baseball, Fresh Crap Pizza

Off to Dr. Fish for some breakfast, coffee and exfoliation! I honestly didn't think Martin would be able to tough out the 15 minutes of pure ticklish torture (he can be very, very ticklish), but he impressed me by keeping his feet in the water long enough for the greedy fish to give him a pedicure!


Next, we hit up a Korean baseball game between the Doosan Bears and the Samsung Lions. The skill level of the game was played sub-par to American games, but did provide plenty of entertainment with thundersticks for all fans! The game was a non-stop cheering fest! We couldn't believe how the stadium would erupt after each play! The highlight was the stage area. There were four girls and one guy dancing the ENTIRE game! They had little cheers and dances for everything! If I can figure out how to upload videos successfully, I will provide you all with a little sample of this spectacle!


Finally, it seems that the most popular pictures and blogs I post tend to be filed under the "funny English" section. Here you go...serve yourself up some Fresh Crap Pizza! Mashita!

DMZ--my trip to North Korea.

As soon as Martin's plane hit the ground a couple of weeks ago, we had nearly every hour planned for the first few days! Right away Friday night, we were invited to my co-worker's house for dinner and some cultural ceramics making! It was a fun night hanging out with them, but we had to call it a night early because of our busy weekend schedule! Saturday morning, we had to meet at the USO in Seoul to go on our DMZ tour. After signing a waiver, we loaded onto the bus and drove north.


At this point, we were still on South Korean land, but we were surrounded on three sides by North Korea!


The soldier in the back is there for intimidation--he has his taekwando stance and aviator glasses ready to face the enemy! We heard lots of interesting bits of information about the division between the Koreas. I'm glad our country doesn't have the same hostility within our boarders!


Here is a South Korean soldier facing his enemy. He stands half behind the wall and half out in case he needs to move quickly. There is a horizontal line between these two buildings that divides the north and the south. As soon as the North Korean soldiers came out to curiously watch the tourists, the South Korean soldiers discretely placed their hands on their guns...creepy!


We were told that we witnessed history as this group of officials crossed back into South Korean territory. I have a couple of quotes (basically saying the same thing) and links to news articles to show what happened if you are interested in reading up on your current events:

"In a symbolic move to show its commitment to the international nuclear deal, North Korea toppled the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing reactor on Friday." (http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/pek298375-korea-north/)

"In a gesture demonstrating its commitment to halt its nuclear weapons program, North Korea blew up the most prominent symbol of its plutonium production Friday." (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/world/asia/28korea.html?hp)

We broke for lunch and ate bipimbop and these appetizers! Pretty good meal...

Something else cool that happened on this trip is that I re-met a girl from MN who I met for the first time on my trip to Japan! It was so cool--I love when this stuff happens! When I was in Tokyo, I stayed at a hostel where I was quite sure I was the only person from MN. Well, some of the British and Australian guys were telling me they just met a girl from MN--I could hardly believe it, so I went over and talked to her for a few minutes! It turns out she is from Thief River Falls and had been living in Japan for two years! Well, on the bus two weeks ago at the DMZ, I noticed a girl sitting nearby wearing the same shirt I was, but in a different color. As I mentioned to her that we were wearing the same shirt, she realized that we had met before! So weird, right? We figured it was fate--she was in Seoul for a couple of days (her first time here)...how does that stuff happen?? We exchanged info since we figured someone, somewhere wanted us to meet... I will keep you updated if anything comes of it! :)

Getting back to North Korea: The last stop our tour bus made was at one of the tunnels the North Koreans built to be able to quickly and secretly invade South Korea. The tour guides invited us to grab a hard hat and go inside. After walking down a long, crowded hallway, we entered the tunnel and started lumbering through the damp, dark passageway. The tunnel was wide enough for two or three people to walk side-by-side, but wasn't quite high enough for all of us westerners to comfortable walk through. I could walk the majority of the tunnel upright, but had to duck my head many times. Overall, this tunnel was not the highlight of the tour. The best line I heard all day was from Kara, who isn't really a huge fan of tunnels...she commented in a very sarcastic way something like this: "we're walking in a tunnel. to North Korea. what are we, crazy?" The one thing that made me smile throughout the weird tunnel experience was hearing all the western guys scrape their hardhats on the moist rock ceiling before letting out an utterance of pain! :)