The Adventures of a Korean Car Accident:

On Monday I got into a small car accident with 2 co-workers on our way home from school. While waiting for a red light, some guy who was paying more attention to his cell phone/TV than to actually driving rear-ended us.

I assumed we'd have to talk to the police and maybe get a few x-rays as a precaution, but no. I was told it was "standard Korean process" for every person who's in a car accident to spend at least one night in the hospital. Really? All for a small fender-bender? Ok. So, me and my 2 co-workers headed to the hospital where we got not only X-rays, but also CT scans, an IV, multiple injections, and monitored with an EKG. A little over-kill if you ask me.


We have been warned that Korea is the land of unnecessary bureaucracy and huge amounts of useless paperwork. Indeed, I discovered this first hand when trying up the loose ends before being released. I guess you could say the frustration paid off, however, because I was informed that I would  receive 800,000Kwon (about $750) from the insurance company. Sweet!!

This picture is a little ridiculous but I wanted to capture the craziness of the whole experience. So here I am, neck-brace and all, completely and 100% fine but being kept in the hospital to be extra, extra, extra safe.

Bye for now, and remember, safety first!!

Suncheon Marathon!

Hello everyone! We're back from a day full of running!! Unfortunately Emilie's bronchitis did not clear up in time for her to be able to participate, but it was definitely a good decision on her part not to run as for the last few weeks she's been doing nothing but popping Korean pills and hacking up her right AND left lungs. While I crossed the finish line you can bet Emilie was my number one cheerleader! 


The route itself was pretty typical with a few hills, but mostly flat. Everyone seemed to be excited that there were some foreigners were participating, and along the way I got lots of encouragement from spectators as well as those running alongside me. I heard the Korean equivalent of our "good job!" which sounds like "highting!!!" about 1 million times during the run. My time was 1:05, about the same as it was for the Times Colonist run last April. The coolest part about the race was the time chips they used - on the back of our number that we pinned to our shirts was a little black rod, about the size of a que-tip. Apparently the rod recorded our time when we crossed both the start and finish line. AND to top it off, as soon as I crossed the finish line I received a text on my cell phone telling me my time! So cool!! I wonder when that technology will come to Canada??

some korean dancers lead us in some group stretches. 

fini!!

The Wonderous Korean Bath

As the weather gets progressively chillier, we are learning more and more about the various ways to warm up in Korea. This is especially important as the schools are downright freezing. All windows and doors are left open to allow for "air changee," or fresh air, which is of course important, but means that I keep my jacket on for most of the day. Plus a scarf, sweater, and turtleneck.

Ondol, or floor heating, is the way we heat our apartments and is really quite lovely. We turn on the hot water, and it runs through pipes in the floor to make the apartment nice and toasty. Its not cheap, but it also only needs to be on for a few hours a day to keep the place warm.

Today, after choosing to try out the gym by our apartments, I decided to also give the bath there a whirl. We had been told that these places were godsends when the weather cools off. Firstly, do not let the term "bath" fool you. This is not a public bath in the form of a big pool with a bunch of naked bathers crowded together. Picture instead a luxurious water spa, with various pools of varying temperatures to try out, as well as little pools with massaging jets and rain-like showers. There are also several sauna rooms and steam rooms, and even little nooks with bamboo beds on which to nap. What else could you ask for at the end of a long, cold day?

The spa-bath at this particular gym is an entire floor, and is separated by gender, of course. That is the one catch about these places -- no bathing suit option! Everyone is naked, naked, naked. It feels a little weird at first, especially because the "stare at the foreigner" rule is not spared at the public bath. Before long, however, I was the happiest bather in the place, trying out all the cool options of jets and showers and hot and cool tubs. The steam rooms and saunas were especially soothing to my phlegm-filled chest, and will have surely helped in the laborious battle I have been having with this cough.

The mercury is going to drop further, and I sense that more frequent visits to this wonderful, warm place will be a large part of our Korean future!

Halloween in Korea

Well our first Halloween in Korea has come and gone, and although it was up to the foreigner population in Korea to keep the spookiness alive amongst a people who don't celebrate the ghoul-ish holiday, we all felt the halloween spirit nonetheless. The Suncheon crew headed to Mokpo, and us girls dressed up as "liquors" (see pictures below!) Emilie was Crown Royal, Catherine was a White Russian, Liz was a Jaggerbomb, and I was Fireball whiskey. 

 Fireball, Jaggerbomb, White Russian, and Crown Royal

...we had to get pretty inventive with our liquor bottles..

Halloween also meant we got to teach our classes a little bit about the holiday. Most of the kids had heard about Halloween, but really didn't know anything about it. Em and I both showed our kids the "This is Halloween" song on youtube from the Nightmare Before Christmas, and played Halloween-themed games. While I'm not sure how much they took from the lesson, I still have kids coming up to me and saying, "Teacher, candy? Trick or treat!" They don't quite understand it's a one-day only kind of thing.


After the festivities of last weekend we hope to have a semi-quiet weekend here in Suncheon, although we may head to 광 양 시 (Gwangyang) to watch some of our friends play in the annual rugby tournament. And yes, as you may have guessed our Korean classes are going swimmingly! We are now fully able to read and write the Korean "alphabet" Hanguel, and are onto learning key words/phrases and some grammar rules. I can definitely appreciate how hard it is for our students to learn english... it's hard enough for us to learn Korean, and Korean is a language that's actually logical in the way it follows grammar rules with few or no exceptions! English, however, is another story...



Next weekend is our 10k run for the Suncheon Marathon, and the weekend after that is my birthday weekend and our 2nd trip to Seoul!! A little nervous for the run as my vice principal has announced he will be there cheering me on... haha, Korea is so weird.


On a somewhat sentimental note, Emilie and I realized we've had matching halloween costumes 5 years in a row now! I wonder where we'll both be next year, and whether we'll keep the tradition alive...?!

Bye for now!! Lots of love,
Jenna & Emilie

Korea's the best, but....

UVic MIGHT be better! Feeling small bits of homesickness today as I discovered this video on youtube. Here's the story: Last summer, pretty much every UVic student was logging on to youtube to watch a video made by a "University of Victoria" in SPAIN. A few months later I guess our competitive nature got the best of us and we just had to show up this Spanish university who stole our name. Seeing the UVic spirit definitely makes me miss my days as a student at the best school EVER.



If you want to see, this is the first video from the summer, which inspired UVic to create their own

Seoul's got Soul!

Emilie and I are back from another GREAT weekend adventure. On Friday after school we met at the bus terminal and took a 4 hour bus ride to SEOUL! When we arrived we had to navigate the subway system to get to our hostel... We got a little lost at first, but, as usual, a group of friendly Koreans offered their help and we found the our hostel no problem. Our new Korean friends also gave us KOREAN NAMES which we have been wanting for a while and was soo cool. So, from now on, you can call me 민 영 and Emilie 슬 기 (Miin-Young and Suul-Ki)!! Every Korean name means something, so my new name is a combination of bright, pearl, and sky, and Emilie's is a combination of clever, rising sun, and eternal.

Our friend Alison, who's on exchange in Hong Kong this semester, met us at the hostel along with her three exchange friends from Denmark. Emilie, Alison, Linnea, Sørn and Sørn (who we call the Sørn's - funny what names are common in different parts of the world) and I all spent a great weekend together. It was great to see Alison and so cool to meet new friends from Denmark! Between our stories about Korea, their stories about life in Denmark, ours in Canada, and their exchange in Hong Kong, we had a lot to talk about! One of the best things about traveling and meeting people from around the world is sharing stories and comparing the similarities/differences about what life is like in different parts of the world. 

...New Danish friends!

Our first day in Seoul was spent shopping during the day and in the university district (drinking Soju!) at night. The shopping in Seoul, as we soon found out, is absolutely insane. First we went to Namdaemun market, a traditional Korean market full of little shops selling pretty much anything you can think of. Alison even got a pair of prescription glasses for only $50... we walked into the glasses shop, they took her prescription, and told us to come back in 30 minutes. So cool! As much as some things seem backwards in Korea, they definitely make some things a lot easier... like getting glasses! The market is HUGE, with so many little alleys leading you to even more stores... it would definitely have been very easy to get lost in there! Next we went to the Myeong Dong district, one of Korea's main tourist areas. In Myeong Dong we went to Forever 21 which we were all excited to find because it's one of our favourite shops at home. As if we hadn't done enough shopping already, next we went to Dongdaemun where Korea's biggest department store, Migliore, is located. Dongdaemun is Seoul's largest commercial district with both traditional and western shops to choose from. We also visited Cheonggyecheon Stream, a 5km-long stream that flows nearly 15ft. below street level. The stream runs parallel to Sejongro, one of the busiest streets in Seoul, but when you walk along the river you can barely hear the traffic above. Very cool! 

Ceonggyecheon Stream

MyeongDong Market

Even though it was Alison and the Dane's first time in Korea, ironically we chose sushi for dinner... not exactly the traditional Korean dinner we should have had, but delicious nonetheless. On our way back to the hostel, we picked up a few bottles of Soju and once we started drinking it disappeared pretty quickly. From the hostel we headed to the downtown university district with some of the people also staying at the guesthouse. We didn't really know where we were going so it ended up being a lot of walking and standing outside, but still so fun because the streets were full of people doing exactly the same thing! Eventually, though, we settled on a Music Bar and spent the rest of the night there.

The next morning we checked out of our hostel and made one last quick trip to see Gyeongbokgung Palace, constructed in 1394 and whose names translates to "Palace of Shining Happiness." We opted not to do a guided tour but instead sat in the shade (it's almost November and we were too hot sitting in the sun!) on the grass outside the palace and just enjoyed the music/scenery. Sitting of the grass was nice and restful until I woke up this morning with huuge bug bites all over my body! My co-teacher even wanted me to go to the hospital because some of them were so big, but I talked her into letting me go to the school nurse instead... the hospital seemed a little too dramatic for a few swollen bug bites! 

After Gyeongbokgung Palace Emilie and I headed back to the bus station and Alison and the Danes continued their trip. Unfortunately we had to be back to teach for Monday morning, but they don't leave until Thursday. It was so nice to see Alison and great to meet our new Danish friends... Emilie and I really want to try and visit Hong Kong before their exchange is over in December. Hopefully we can make it happen!

It was such a great trip and I'm so happy to have been able to visit Seoul, but there's definitely much more to do/see and a few more trips before the year is over is definitely in order! We're hoping to get a group to go for my birthday weekend and for the Harry Potter movie premier (...guess who suggested that idea? =) ). We also really want to check out the DMZ (de-militarized zone) between North and South Korea next time we go. Our Korean tour book says that the DMZ is the "scariest place on earth" and yet they do guided tours and the Joint Security Area has become a huge tourist attraction... so strange! Emilie and I will post more Seoul pictures on facebook so look for them sooon!!




Love, jenna and emilie 

The parking situation is GRIM

I'll admit this video was shot after maaybe a few too many soju cocktails, but this will give you a good idea of the craziness that is the parking situation at our apartment.