Erection Day!

Yes, that's what I heard all Tuesday, "Kaserine Sansangnim (Katherine teacher) do you know Wednesday is erection day? No school!!" Ah... yes I know, and I think you need to practice your L's a bit more. heh heh heh.

So on erection day, I went on a picnic with Rob and some teachers (and their wives and children) from my school.

walking...some trees... it was a really cold day, at least 5 degrees celcius. brrrrrr!
getting close to the source of the Han river...


My co-teacher, Cho Sansangnim, Rob and I at the source of the Han river... Strangely, we didn't actually take a picture of the source... But apparently the legend goes that a dragon was trying to reach the sky, so he swam up this river. For some reason he got stuck in a small pond and could go no further. Some Korean people trapped the dragon in the pond, by trapping him in a crevice or something, where he now still waits to be released.

My friend, Jibi Sansangnim, his wife and their son. Jibi also needs to practice his not just his r's and l's but his v's as well. He pronounces Robert as Lover... or Lubber...
Here he is saying, "Lover, have some grapes." Rob was confused, was Jibi coming on to him?
Delicious food. Cute kids. Good times. The End.

just an addition

it was very beautiful at the summit of taebaeksan, this is my second full ascent, the first time the weather was nice. Spring is here, even though there is some snow on the ground at the top, but it was still quite warm.



here is one of the 1000 year old yew trees i mention on the video, these trees are very ancient and majestic and only seem to grow at the summit of the mountain, not quite a pine tree, not quite deciduous, but something in between.



This photo was taken by a randomly passing Ajjumah, with our friend Pearly. Pearly also lives and teaches in Taebaek, and she too is a Canadian from Vancouver. Canada has practically invaded Taebaek by way of English teachers, we hold at least half of the foreigner population here (which is like 5 of us)...

On Saturday we go to Gangneung to see the Cherry Blossom Festival, I am very excited to see the beautiful flowers. The Cherry Blossom trees line many of the streets and in their prime are very very VERY beautiful, expect many photos. Until next time. 안뇽히 가세요!

Mashisoyo! (It is delicious!)

I've had many people ask me, "What the H E double hockey sticks do you eat in Korea?"
Well, let me show you! Below are pictures of my current favourite meal "Paek Bun". That roughly translates into rice dinner. It's a good compromise for Rob and myself, as I get delicious Dwen Jang Jiggae (spicy tofu soup) and Rob gets whatever the meat of the day is. The first time we went together, he got chicken. The second time, he got squid. Rob says that squid is quite tasty, but personally I feel a bit queasy when I see him eating the suction cups and the little pointed head. Poor Squidward. (side note: I accidentally got a bite of squid in my Sin Du Boo (soft Tofu) soup yesterday, it feels like eating... maybe a tire? ugh...)

Here I am spooning out some delicious soup into my bowl of rice. Often though, when you go out to eat with Koreans they will just share the bowl of soup and eat directly out of it. They like to share; it's a friendship thing. They share spoons and soju glasses too. Also, you may notice the plethora of side dishes. These are always different.
Here we have yummy squares of kim (dried seaweed), spicy gimchi (fermented spicy cabbage), fish flesh, bean sprouts, and the dish of meat (spicy chicken?).



My favourite soup! Dwen Jang Jiggae mmmmm...Mashida! (Yummy!)



And here are some more random side dishes, you never know what you'll get! Here we have little fishies, bean sprouts, hot peppers, radish gimchi, and molassessy peanuts.




Ah! Our other staple food Kim Bap! Kim = seaweed and Bap = rice. You can get many different kinds of Kim Bap, I prefer mine sans ham and fish flesh. Up in the corner is another type of gimchi. This kind of gimchi is not spicy, but tastes more like saurkraut... only vaguely. It's some sort of pickled radish anyway.

Mashisoyo? Mashisoyo!
(another side note: In Hangung-mal you often answer the question with the question. It is delicious? It is delicious!)