An Awesome Welcome with Chicken!
Okay, so today we left the temple and arrived at the high school. We were warmly welcomed by everyone and then introduced to our home stay students, before they took us all to dinner. I am staying with Se-jin and she told me that we would be staying at her Grandma's apartment. The joke among the Lander students is that she won't speak any English and our dinner conversations will be "Anyohaseo, Chunnun Rachael imneda. Camsa imneda." "Hi, my name is Rachael. Thank you." Haha! I will find out soon enough. Dinner tonight was chicken! How I've missed it. The chicken was kinda spicy, but that's okay. There was also some sort of soup, which I was highly confused by and it had bean sprouts and tasted kinda weird. There was an omelet thing that was supposed to be like pizza. It was good, but it wasn't pizza. Se-jin is really nice and I quite enjoy talking to her. Oh yeah, and I had my soju and sprite mix again tonight. I had two of them. It was good!
Temple visit and bitter cold
Guess what? Grandma doesn't speak any English, but she is so sweet! I also met Se-jin's sister and her sister's boyfriend. Everyone is so nice! Anyway, today, we visited a temple which was interested, but I was still worn out from the temple stay so I was kinda out of it. Anyway, it was pretty there and Josh did a few prostrations which was funny.
I'm quite glad that my host family is Catholic. I was scared they would be Buddhist. Well after the temple visit and looking at some cool scenery, we went to lunch. I had bibimbap. It was good, but my throat has been bugging me for the last few days so I didn't want the spice in it.
Finally, we headed to a mountain. I don't know what mountain, but it was a mountain and we took the skytrain up to the top and then hiked to the peak. Or at least I went all the way up. It was cool! They don't block you off from potentially dangerous things in Korea like they would in the U.S. I like it. I have freedom to explore. I quite enjoy my freedom. Well, it was bitter cold up there in the mist and that probably wasn't good for me, but I went up anyway.
So dinner was simple. We ordered Chinese. Which was very good, but there is always so much food! Cool thing about it is that they deliver it in some nice plastic dishes and then you stick them in the provided bag and they pick them up again later. It was so cool and unusual to me! I quite enjoyed my meal. :) Oh and Grandma asked me about "Makali" (pronunciation: have referred to it it as mul-gok previously) and poured me a coffee mug full of it. I will sleep well tonight!
I was supposed to meet Se-jin's parents tonight, but Grandma saw I was really tired and told me to take a shower and go to bed instead. I could meet them tomorrow. I really like her. She's so sweet!
I'm quite glad that my host family is Catholic. I was scared they would be Buddhist. Well after the temple visit and looking at some cool scenery, we went to lunch. I had bibimbap. It was good, but my throat has been bugging me for the last few days so I didn't want the spice in it.
Finally, we headed to a mountain. I don't know what mountain, but it was a mountain and we took the skytrain up to the top and then hiked to the peak. Or at least I went all the way up. It was cool! They don't block you off from potentially dangerous things in Korea like they would in the U.S. I like it. I have freedom to explore. I quite enjoy my freedom. Well, it was bitter cold up there in the mist and that probably wasn't good for me, but I went up anyway.
So dinner was simple. We ordered Chinese. Which was very good, but there is always so much food! Cool thing about it is that they deliver it in some nice plastic dishes and then you stick them in the provided bag and they pick them up again later. It was so cool and unusual to me! I quite enjoyed my meal. :) Oh and Grandma asked me about "Makali" (pronunciation: have referred to it it as mul-gok previously) and poured me a coffee mug full of it. I will sleep well tonight!
I was supposed to meet Se-jin's parents tonight, but Grandma saw I was really tired and told me to take a shower and go to bed instead. I could meet them tomorrow. I really like her. She's so sweet!
Presentations, runny nose and an island.
So I woke up this morning and was greeted with a feast. I felt bad because I couldn't much of this amazing food. It's a huge cultural difference that breakfast is the biggest meal of the day over here where as back home it's dinner. Well, there was spicy tofu soup with clams, bulgogi, kimchi, omelet, glass noodles, rice and a few other things. So much food! I met Se-jin's mom this morning. She is really nice too! I swear all Koreans are super nice! Well, then we went to the school and I remembered I was presenting about 5 mins before we had to leave so I threw on some nice clothes, stuffed some comfy clothes in my bag and we ran out the door. My throat hurt this morning! I was just hoping to make it through the presentation without my voice dying on me. Thankfully, I did. They gave us tea in the president's office before we went in and the herb tea did help. :)
After the presentation (which Boyoung translated for us), we went to lunch. Which consisted of some sort of pork dish. Se-jin wasn't sure what it was either. It was good whatever it was. Then we were reunited with students and headed off to Nami Island.
It was such an experience. We took a ferry, saw an ostrich walking loose with a bunch of small children poking at it's butt, did a paddle boat ride (which Se-jin had never done before), saw some awesome signs about "don't feed the rabbits", and quite a bit of other randomness. It was a fun day! No I don't have a picture of the ostrich walking loosely around the island with the small children chasing it because I was took shocked to do anything but stare at it. Sorry!
When we got back we wandered around a market for about an hour. It's such an interesting experience because anyone with food for sale lets people get free samples. It looks like some serious profit loss, but I guess it works for them.
Finally we headed back home and I was still full from breakfast and lunch so I had to skip out on dinner. But I told them I wanted to make them dinner tomorrow night so we went shopping for ingredients.
After the presentation (which Boyoung translated for us), we went to lunch. Which consisted of some sort of pork dish. Se-jin wasn't sure what it was either. It was good whatever it was. Then we were reunited with students and headed off to Nami Island.
It was such an experience. We took a ferry, saw an ostrich walking loose with a bunch of small children poking at it's butt, did a paddle boat ride (which Se-jin had never done before), saw some awesome signs about "don't feed the rabbits", and quite a bit of other randomness. It was a fun day! No I don't have a picture of the ostrich walking loosely around the island with the small children chasing it because I was took shocked to do anything but stare at it. Sorry!
When we got back we wandered around a market for about an hour. It's such an interesting experience because anyone with food for sale lets people get free samples. It looks like some serious profit loss, but I guess it works for them.
Finally we headed back home and I was still full from breakfast and lunch so I had to skip out on dinner. But I told them I wanted to make them dinner tomorrow night so we went shopping for ingredients.
Last day in Chuncheon and Korea. :(
Well this morning started out with cereal. I like light breakfasts. Then we headed to the movie theater to see Avengers. We met up with Ashlin, Paizley and their hosts. Avengers was awesome! Now I really need to see Captain America as that's the only one of the set I haven't see yet.
Afterwords, we went to a 4-D roller coaster. Paizley and I definitely enjoyed it; mostly because our hosts were screaming the whole way through and we were just dying with laughter. Then we parted from them and were picked up by Se-jin's parents. They are both such kind people. They took us to a pasta place that was definitely upscale and had an AMAZING view of Chuncheon. Chuncheon is known as the city of lakes and it is so pretty. I'm just amazed by everything. The pasta was good and the four cheese pizza was great! No I didn't get pictures, you know what pasta with basil sauce looks like. Then we headed to another area of town and they dropped us off at the local carnival rides.
They have the disco pom-pom which Ashlin had us all fearing would kill us, the hurricane and one of those viking ships. Well Se-jin and I jumped on the hurricane thing and when it started I very quickly realized that the thing that comes down over your shoulders didn't latch near as much as it should have and without too much pressure it started going up. Of course we have versions of this thing that go upside down, but the operators over here don't pay near as much attention as the ones in the states so he didn't notice when I was trying to point it out before it got too far so I just held on and prayed we didn't go upside down. I was having a serious panic attack as we kept swinging back and forth getting higher and higher, then we started spinning and we finally stopped climbing. I calmed down a little as I realized that we weren't going to go upside down and I may actually survive this thing, but not much because we started spinning faster. So eventually I did survive and got off and was shaking and just ready to sit down and not do anything. I had just eaten like 20 minutes before hand too, which didn't help. Then as we were heading somewhere, I heard someone yell my name and I spun around to find Josh. I was like hey! Next, Paizley showed up and we got on the disco pom-pom. That was fun. It wasn't near as bad as Ashlin made it out to be. She had us thinking that if we fell, we would like hit the concrete and die. We enjoyed it. Though I have bruises on both my arms now and some on my legs as well. Haha!
Then we went back on the hurricane and I was cringing again, but I sat in a different seat and this one locked correctly so I felt better, but this time we went faster and higher, still not more than 80 degrees from the ground, but still scary enough for me. When I got off it the second time I was feeling quite nauseous which ruled me out for the next couple of rides. They did the viking ship and the disco pom-pom again. I would have loved to do the disco pom-pom again, but I was not going to throw up on any one.
Finally, we headed down the street a little and rented three dune buggies which all the American's drove since we all have driver's licences since our hosts aren't old enough to drive over here (you have to be 19 their age, 18 our age). So we drove them around for an hour. It was a lot of fun. We learned to drive Korean. Translation: We learned to drive like we owned the road, because that is the only way you get anywhere here and with as crazy as people drive, I have only one car being towed. Then we headed to the subway station and were picked up at the other end by Se-jin's mom. It was a fun day!
I took a shower and noticed that my laundry had been done by Grandma while I was gone. She is amazingly sweet. I literally adore her. So then Se-jin, her mom and I headed to the kitchen and started working on dinner. It took a little over an hour. My green beans turned into green peas as Grandma had pulled them all out of their pods while we were gone. They still tasted pretty good and were a huge hit over here. The saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." didn't quite apply, more like, "When life gives you limes instead of lemons, improvise." Haha! Since the only shredded cheese they have her is mozzarella or "pizza cheese" and the only cheddar is like the Kraft singles, my cheese sauce didn't quite turn out right. It was really heavy even with butter and milk added to it. They also don't have elbows or shells pasta, but they have "macaroni" noodles. Which is like the short, hollow sticks of pasta. That was fine. It doesn't make that big of a difference. And I didn't see any whipped cream either. They had whipping cream, but I wasn't entirely sure how much cream I needed so I got just enough to make the mousse but not enough to make the topping. Which was fine, cause mousse is awesome either way. Oh and steaks over here are tiny or like $6/lb. So we got tiny steaks. That turned out to be just enough too.
Well, the steaks turned out perfectly, I decided to cook them to be medium/medium-rare to be closer to true southern tradition. They were good and it's so easy to do. They seemed surprised that with just a little butter, some salt and pepper you could have flavorful meat. I love steak. My green peas were cooked with onions, potatoes and bacon. Korean bacon is thick and wide. So we cut it up into small pieces and the potatoes were peeled when I got them, so no soft potato skins and they were falling apart left and right. Se-jin was surprised that after the steak was like burning the skillet bottom, I poured some water in there and rubbed a scrubby along the bottom to remove the burning. It's such a simple thing, but I love it! The mac and cheese was a bit strong. Okay that's a little understated. It was quite strong. I kept trying to make it less strong, but it didn't quite work. It was definitely cheesy though. Probably the biggest hit here was the green peas. Se-jin apparently doesn't like beans, but she liked the peas. Her mom seemed pleased by that. I thought they were going to finish them all. Personally, I think they needed more salt, but with peas and green beans, if I can taste the pea or the green bean, it needs more salt, so I dealt with it. The chocolate mousse was perfect. It was absolutely perfect. I was so happy about that! I mean, without an electric mixer, measuring spoons, and whipped cream, I was concerned, but it was awesome. :D
Then we got on skype and Se-jin and I talked to my parents, Nana and Poppy for a bit before heading to bed. Tomorrow we leave from the bus terminal at 5:15 a.m. :(
Afterwords, we went to a 4-D roller coaster. Paizley and I definitely enjoyed it; mostly because our hosts were screaming the whole way through and we were just dying with laughter. Then we parted from them and were picked up by Se-jin's parents. They are both such kind people. They took us to a pasta place that was definitely upscale and had an AMAZING view of Chuncheon. Chuncheon is known as the city of lakes and it is so pretty. I'm just amazed by everything. The pasta was good and the four cheese pizza was great! No I didn't get pictures, you know what pasta with basil sauce looks like. Then we headed to another area of town and they dropped us off at the local carnival rides.
They have the disco pom-pom which Ashlin had us all fearing would kill us, the hurricane and one of those viking ships. Well Se-jin and I jumped on the hurricane thing and when it started I very quickly realized that the thing that comes down over your shoulders didn't latch near as much as it should have and without too much pressure it started going up. Of course we have versions of this thing that go upside down, but the operators over here don't pay near as much attention as the ones in the states so he didn't notice when I was trying to point it out before it got too far so I just held on and prayed we didn't go upside down. I was having a serious panic attack as we kept swinging back and forth getting higher and higher, then we started spinning and we finally stopped climbing. I calmed down a little as I realized that we weren't going to go upside down and I may actually survive this thing, but not much because we started spinning faster. So eventually I did survive and got off and was shaking and just ready to sit down and not do anything. I had just eaten like 20 minutes before hand too, which didn't help. Then as we were heading somewhere, I heard someone yell my name and I spun around to find Josh. I was like hey! Next, Paizley showed up and we got on the disco pom-pom. That was fun. It wasn't near as bad as Ashlin made it out to be. She had us thinking that if we fell, we would like hit the concrete and die. We enjoyed it. Though I have bruises on both my arms now and some on my legs as well. Haha!
Then we went back on the hurricane and I was cringing again, but I sat in a different seat and this one locked correctly so I felt better, but this time we went faster and higher, still not more than 80 degrees from the ground, but still scary enough for me. When I got off it the second time I was feeling quite nauseous which ruled me out for the next couple of rides. They did the viking ship and the disco pom-pom again. I would have loved to do the disco pom-pom again, but I was not going to throw up on any one.
Finally, we headed down the street a little and rented three dune buggies which all the American's drove since we all have driver's licences since our hosts aren't old enough to drive over here (you have to be 19 their age, 18 our age). So we drove them around for an hour. It was a lot of fun. We learned to drive Korean. Translation: We learned to drive like we owned the road, because that is the only way you get anywhere here and with as crazy as people drive, I have only one car being towed. Then we headed to the subway station and were picked up at the other end by Se-jin's mom. It was a fun day!
I took a shower and noticed that my laundry had been done by Grandma while I was gone. She is amazingly sweet. I literally adore her. So then Se-jin, her mom and I headed to the kitchen and started working on dinner. It took a little over an hour. My green beans turned into green peas as Grandma had pulled them all out of their pods while we were gone. They still tasted pretty good and were a huge hit over here. The saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." didn't quite apply, more like, "When life gives you limes instead of lemons, improvise." Haha! Since the only shredded cheese they have her is mozzarella or "pizza cheese" and the only cheddar is like the Kraft singles, my cheese sauce didn't quite turn out right. It was really heavy even with butter and milk added to it. They also don't have elbows or shells pasta, but they have "macaroni" noodles. Which is like the short, hollow sticks of pasta. That was fine. It doesn't make that big of a difference. And I didn't see any whipped cream either. They had whipping cream, but I wasn't entirely sure how much cream I needed so I got just enough to make the mousse but not enough to make the topping. Which was fine, cause mousse is awesome either way. Oh and steaks over here are tiny or like $6/lb. So we got tiny steaks. That turned out to be just enough too.
Well, the steaks turned out perfectly, I decided to cook them to be medium/medium-rare to be closer to true southern tradition. They were good and it's so easy to do. They seemed surprised that with just a little butter, some salt and pepper you could have flavorful meat. I love steak. My green peas were cooked with onions, potatoes and bacon. Korean bacon is thick and wide. So we cut it up into small pieces and the potatoes were peeled when I got them, so no soft potato skins and they were falling apart left and right. Se-jin was surprised that after the steak was like burning the skillet bottom, I poured some water in there and rubbed a scrubby along the bottom to remove the burning. It's such a simple thing, but I love it! The mac and cheese was a bit strong. Okay that's a little understated. It was quite strong. I kept trying to make it less strong, but it didn't quite work. It was definitely cheesy though. Probably the biggest hit here was the green peas. Se-jin apparently doesn't like beans, but she liked the peas. Her mom seemed pleased by that. I thought they were going to finish them all. Personally, I think they needed more salt, but with peas and green beans, if I can taste the pea or the green bean, it needs more salt, so I dealt with it. The chocolate mousse was perfect. It was absolutely perfect. I was so happy about that! I mean, without an electric mixer, measuring spoons, and whipped cream, I was concerned, but it was awesome. :D
Then we got on skype and Se-jin and I talked to my parents, Nana and Poppy for a bit before heading to bed. Tomorrow we leave from the bus terminal at 5:15 a.m. :(