ESL Adventures

Teaching in South Korea

Archive for the 'Off time' Category

Happy 2010

I’d like to wish everyone a very happy New Year.  As we big 2009 goodbye, I hope everyone has had a productive year.  I hope the same is true for 2010.

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Fun things,Holidays,Home Life,Off time and have Comment (1)

Merry Christmas

I’d like to wish all my friends, family and readers a very Merry Christmas.  Stay safe this holiday season.  You are all important in my life.

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Holidays,Home Life,Off time and have No Comments

Happy Chuseok!

Hello everyone!  Today is 추석 (Chuseok).  It’s basically the Korean Thanksgiving.  It’s a festival celebrating the harvest.  People usually travel to the cities and towns where older relatives live.  Many of my students go to their grandparents’ house.

One traditional dish served on Chuseok is 송편 (Songpyeon).  Songpyeon is a chewy rice cake () filled with a sweet filling.  My favorite kind had chesnuts and brown sugar in it.  You can also get them with other fillings such as sweetened red beans.

For Chuseok, people wear 한복 (Hanbok).  Hanbok is the traditional Korean clothings worn for special occassions.  Wikipedia has a nice overview of the history of hanbok.  By the way, that’s a long O and an A like in father.  So it sounds more like hanboke.  I said it incorrectly for a long time because of the weird Romanization of the word.

posted by Kathryn in Celebrations,Food and Drink,Korean Vocabulary,Off time and have No Comments

Busan Aquarium

I spent the day yesterday in Busan.  We had a staff lunch, then we went to the (apparently Guiness World Record Holding) largest mall in the world.  Meh.  Whatever.  Afterward I went to Busan Aquarium, which is right on Haeundae Beach.  It was a beautiful day in Busan and I had a great time.  Enjoy the pictures.  They’re not the best in the world because the flash kept reflecting off the tanks.

I really enjoyed seeing the fish and other aquatic life.  The sharks were amazing.  The coolest thing was probably the giant octopus.  The pictures don’t do it justice.  It was huge.  I mean really huge.  And I think the people who get in and go scuba diving with the sharks are nuts.  Two of my coworkers are planning on doing that.  Hopefully they won’t get eaten.

posted by Kathryn in Busan,Fun things,Korea,Off time,Pictures and have Comments (2)

Dalk-yachae-bokum-bap

Better known as cheesy rice. I get mine in a dalk-galbi restaurant in Shinae. It’s cheesy and meaty and spicy and just plain yummy. This time, I got beef instead of chicken. I’ve had similar dishes with seafood as well. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant off the top of my head, but it’s right above Loteria. It’s on the same road in Shinae as New Core Outlet is on. The Megabox movie theater is on that road as well.

You start off with some kimchi and the usual cabbage salad. The put the burner on under the big pan in the middle of the table. Once you order they bring out the food, which is cooked at your table. They start with some basic veggies. Once those are moving along well, they add the meat, spices and rice. That gets all nice and mixed together. To finish it up, they add the cheese, mozzarella in the case of this restaurant. Pair with a bottle of Coke, and you have a meal fit for a queen (or king as the case may be).

posted by Kathryn in Food and Drink,Fun things,Home Life,Korea,Korean Vocabulary,Off time,Pictures and have No Comments

Chon Dak

On Saturday, I went to Samson Dong for lunch.  One of my favorite places to go is Chon Dak.  I love their spicy chicken dish.  It’s chicken, small rice cakes and vegetables in a spicy sauce.  They top it with cheese, a hard boiled quail egg and a few shrimp.

They start off by giving you some pickled radishes and a cabbage salad.  The dressing somewhat resembles French, but I highly doubt it is.  The chicken comes with a bowl of rice.

One of the ladies who works in the kitchen speaks a little bit of English so we usually have a short chat.  Between her limited English and my limited Korean, we get by ok.

Enjoy!  Just don’t drool on your keyboard.

Outside of the building

Outside of the building

Close up of the sign

Close up of the sign

Salad and radishes

Salad and radishes

The whole meal

The whole meal

Chicken close up

Chicken close up

posted by Kathryn in Food and Drink,Fun things,Home Life,Korea,Off time,Pictures and have No Comments

9 Course Chinese Meal…

… but only 8 pictures.  In my excitement, I forgot to take a picture of one of the courses.

Backstory:  There’s a little Chinese restaurant right up the street from where I live and work.  It’s owned by a very nice Chinese couple.  Prices are very reasonable and the food is pretty good.  You can get an 8 course meal for 15,000 Won per person.  I’ve never seen so much food in my life.  We actually got a 9th course.  The four of us greatly enjoyed ourselves.

Pictures of the food.  I don’t even remember what was in the dishes.  I was too busy eating, and eating and eating.

posted by Kathryn in Food and Drink,Fun things,Home Life,Off time,Pictures and have No Comments