Iyagi from Korea

The End

mjgulinello — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:54:04 +0000

Iyagi from Korea is officially finished. I’ve run out of energy to write this blog. Thanks for reading.

-Mike

Fourth of July

mjgulinello — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:27:34 +0000

Not much news here. We had a small party over the weekend for the Fourth of July. There were only about 4 of us Americans there, but the Canadians and Irish and the rest got into it and helped us celebrate. We played a game of American football, had a BBQ, and shot off some fireworks.

I have 2 months left at work. I’ve been enjoying the job a little more lately, but I won’t miss teaching. I have another week of vacation at the end of July. I’ll be heading to Japan for 4 days, taking the ferry. Have a great summer.

Jeju

mjgulinello — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:21:28 +0000

Here are a few pictures from my trip to Jeju Island. It’s the biggest island in Korea, off the southern coast. It’s sometimes referred to here as Korea’s Hawaii or Disneyland. It’s neither, but it’s still much prettier than anywhere else I’ve been in Korea, a particularly unbeautiful country. Jeju is a volcanic island one hour south of Seoul by plane. It’s the furthest you can go and still be in the country. There are a lot of beaches, and more noteworthy, a couple UNESCO sites.

This is Mt. Hallasan, the highest point in South Korea. The National park surrounding the mountain is a World Heritage site, as is the subject of the next photo. Mt. Hallasan is 1900 meters tall. If I had more time I would have hiked it. The best I could do was ride my scooter over the windy winding mountain road which hit 1100m elevation. Coming back over the road at night was an adventure. The drop in temperature at that elevation was incredible. I went swimming in the ocean in the afternoon and froze three hours later.

This is the lava-tube cave at Manjanggul. It was created by lava.

This is the scooter I rented and rode around the island. What a fun way to travel.

I recommend visiting the lava cave nearest you. That was by far the coolest place I’ve seen in Korea. Another popular tourist attraction on Jeju is a sculpture park called Love Land. You can look that one up yourself.

ESPN Korea

mjgulinello — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:21:00 +0000

Either I didn’t have it at first, or they were just showing soccer every night, but ESPN Korea has turned out to be a great channel after all. This week they have the NBA Finals LIVE at 10am, which is perfect for me. The games finish just before I go to work. They also showed the French Open and US Open, not to mention every game of Euro 08 which I don’t have much interest in. Sure, all the anouncing is in Korean, but it’s much better than nothing.

A couple months after I got cable, the company changed the whole lineup of channels. They removed Arirang, Korea’s only English language channel. That was fine because it was like PBS only more boring. All it showed was boring documentaries about Korean culture. Then instead they added 3 FOX channels that show American shows every night from 9 – 12 or 1am. They have a lot of good shows I never watched at home like Rescue Me, 30 Rock, Monk, Bones, and much more. Plus That 70′s Show!

From my class

mjgulinello — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:41:45 +0000

[After reading a sentence containing the word wallet in class with some 5th or 6th graders]

Me: Wallet. What does this mean? What is a wallet?

Kevin: You have a wallet.

Me: Yes, I do. But what is a wallet?

Sarah: Uh…money house.

Me: Haha, yes, that’s good. Kevin, do you have a wallet?

Kevin: Yes, I do.

Me: Where?

Kevin: —

Me: Where is your wallet?

Sarah: At home?

Me: Here? Is it here?

Kevin: Yes, it’s in your pocket.

——

[At the end of class]

Me: Do you have any questions?

Kevin: Yes.

Me: What?

Kevin: Why do you have my wallet?

Suwon Stormers

mjgulinello — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:54:03 +0000

I started playing rugby. I’ve never played before, but I like it. It’s a good game. In January, I joined the local foreign soccer team. That lasted one game because I hate soccer. Rugby is much better. In April, a few foreign teachers put together a rugby team in Suwon. There are a few teams in Seoul and other cities, but there wasn’t one here before. I guess it’s a pretty popular game outside North America.

We played in a tournament in Seoul in May. We lost the first game badly to a team of huge Australian guys. It didn’t help that we didn’t know the house rules ahead of time. It also wouldn’t have made any difference. But we improved a bit after that. On the day we ended up 1-2-1. Here are a couple pictures from our game against a team of French high school students. We are in the black uniforms.

The second tournament is coming up next weekend. Hopefully we’ll do better this time around.

Children’s Festival

mjgulinello — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 09:30:16 +0000

A couple weeks ago, a large group of foreigners in the Suwon area hosted a festival for local children. It ran from 1 to 5pm on a Saturday afternoon. An American teacher named Ryan organized the festival in conjunction with the local YMCA. It was great to see how many teachers came out to help with the planning and just to play with the children. We had face painting, arts & crafts, and various games for the kids. My station was World of Sports where we gave the kids the chance to throw a baseball or football at a target. Here are some pictures from the event, which was by all accounts a great success. There was also a big article in the Korea Herald the week following the festival.

The last picture is of the boy who won the soccer ball I raffled off. For the record, that’s not me in the pictures.

Busan

mjgulinello — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:16:38 +0000

Here are some pictures from my trip to Busan.

This is the beach where we went surfing. I believe only two people from our trip got all the way up on the board, and I was not one of them, but surfing was still a hell of a lot of fun.

This is the Buddhist temple we visited. We came the day before Buddha’s birthday. You can see the lanterns covering the entire plaza and all the walkways. I don’t know if these were just put up for the celebration or are always there.

This is the Jagalchi Fish Market by the port of Busan. It’s one of top sites in the city. Here you can see a guy vacuuming eels. Ask him why, not me. The popular dish at all the restaurants in the neighborhood is some type of raw fish. I thought it was terrible.

I prefer my fish alive and swimming around, which is why I tried to visit the aquarium before the fish market. The Busan aquarium is another one of the city’s top attractions. It’s right on Haeundae Beach, the most popular beach in the country. Unfortunately when I tried to go, there was a line of close to 100 old white men waiting to get in. For a conference. That shut down the facility to regular visitors. Because that makes sense.

This is the subway, always my top goal in any new city I visit. Let’s try an analogy. Busan:Seoul::clean:_____

This is Thursday Party. It’s the only bar in Busan as far as I can tell. If you look closely, to the left of Thursday Party is a cool bar called Thursday Party.

This is the Gwangan Bridge. I like bridges.

Annyeong.

Chuncheon & Sokcho

mjgulinello — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:58:49 +0000

Last weekend was a long weekend in Korea because Monday was Children’s Day, a national holiday. Here are some pictures from my trip east to the cities of Chuncheon & Sokcho. This was my first time out of the Seoul metro area. Next weekend, I’m heading down to Busan a city on the southern coast and the 2nd largest city in Korea.

There was not a lot to do in Chuncheon. The city sits on a lake with mountains in the background. It’s pretty, but not as much as many other places I’ve seen. The main thing to do is take a ferry to the main island, but it’s mostly for camping, so there’s nothing actually on the island. The animation museum sounded interesting, but it was on the other side of the lake, not in the city, so you couldn’t get there. Chuncheon is also famous for dakgalbi, a mix of chicken, vegetables, and rice cakes. You can, and I did, visit Dakgalbi St. where there are at least 20 restaurants serving this within 2 blocks.

Chuncheon, below, is less beautiful than it appears to be.

This is the ferry that goes to Jungdo, or Jung Island.

This is the bike path on Jungdo that I rode around on.

This is a plaque embedded every so often on Dakgalbi Street.

This is part of the Korean War Memorial in Chuncheon.

There was also not much to do in Sokcho, especially because the beach was roped off possibly due to high waves or strong currents. I don’t know. It’s only May and the water was freezing anyway. Supposedly, Sokcho is a popular destination for Seoulites in July and August.

This is the Expo Tower and Expo Center in Sokcho. I couldn’t tell you when the expo was/will be.

Everyone in Sokcho looks like this.

This is the entrance to Sokcho beach.

This is some guy standing by the East Sea.

Central Park

mjgulinello — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:44:13 +0000

Here are some photos of Dongtan Central Park, the most beautiful, amazing park I’ve ever seen. The main park also connects to another section of the park that cuts through the entire downtown area of Dongtan underneath the main streets. It’s not quite as large as its namesake in NYC, but it’s sure a lot nicer.

Here’s the river that runs through it.

Here are the six tennis courts. Three are hard courts and three are soft.

Here is the rock wall.

Here is the skate park.

Not to mention the playgrounds, the badminton courts, the track, the croquet fields, and the embedded fountains. How much financing went into Dongtan? On weekends there are choreographed water-light shows with booming movie score music like Pirates. Remember, this isn’t Disney World or Las Vegas. It’s a public park.