Dinner Party

On Saturday night I decided to invite some of my friends to my place to celebrate. Youngsu got her first job working in international trade before she had even graduated university. Then she surprised us even more by revealing that on Friday at her univeristy graduation she received an award for having the highest academic performance out of her graduating class. We had even more to celebrate!

I had already started cooking and had made japchae and tuna egg rolls. So when they got there we just popped some rice on to cook and started up the electric cooker to make dak galbi. I am the BEST at making dak galbi. At least I think so.

In Korea it is very traditional for people to bring paper gifts when they first visit someone's home, particularly if it a housewarming party. At first it was funny watching Jay walking down the main street with a 30 pack bag of toilet paper. When it was explained to me it started to make sense and it was a very lovely and thoughful gift. Youngsu also brought me a plant. I have had a bad track record with plants so I was glad to hear that it only needs to be watered once a month. Phew... I think I can do that without killing it.

It was a lovely night and I am glad I could cook for my friends. It is my favourite thing to do and I was so happy to spend time with them. I really have made the most amazing friends since coming to Korea. Here we are enjoying dinner.


Maybe you spotted the makguli and cider in the window sill - it is the best place to put bottles of drink to get cold. Usually I leave it ouside the window until I want to drink it but I had to get rid of the cooking smells:( Sooo cold!

Afterwards we decided to walk off the food and head to Gwangalli for coffee. It was freezing and the wind was strong. We just made it to the coffee shop before becoming icicles... but not before we had this picture taken. I love the machines on the side of the road that takes your picture and emails it to you. Unfortunately Jay couldn't stop moving! kkk. Dynamic Busan!


In two weeks we are having a showdown to see who can make the best ramyun! I know what I'll be eating for the next 14 days! Bring it on!:P

What did you do at work today?

It's really lovely teaching adults. I really enjoy the adult conversation. Even when I teach the lower level classes I hear really different opinions and it is such a joy when they express themselves using the expressions that we study. Today one of my students who has difficulty with English blew me away when the presented on the benefits and drawbacks of being a woman in a male dominated workplace using expressions like 'one the one hand', 'if we look at it from a different angle' and 'the benefits often outweigh the drawbacks'. My heart absolutley melted. When a woman who is usually so quiet in class grows in confidence and talks nonstop I am jumping with joy on the inside. It just reminds me of exactly how much I love being a teacher both in Australia teaching history to teenagers and in Korea teaching adult English conversation.

Today was an absolutely lovely day. It was a bit out of the norm. At my work it is required that we take students out for an 'excursion', going for coffee, dinner or drinks. For many of my classes that day was today. Here is why my day was so special.

7:40am - A great class with wonderful people talking about ways we can disagree with others, looking at whether there is gender equality in the workplace, whether it's better to attend co-ed schools or single sex schools, if it's better to get married or stay single, or if it's preferable to be a male or female in Korea. Such great debates.

9:00am - Coffee at Starbucks discussing movies, films, music and literature.

10:00am - A repeat of 7:40am lesson - this time with 11 people instead of 5. That is HUGE for an English speaking class!

11:00am - Very blokey discussion about the role of alcohol in Korea and legal drinking ages around the world and whether teens drink responsibly.

12:00am - Repeat of 7:40am and 10:00am class, after a long discussion about one of my student's alcohol binge week - He just graduated from high school and this was his first time drinking. It explains why he has missed class for the last 3 days. This week is university orientation aka. drink with the senior uni members week so I'll expect him back in two weeks with many more entertaining stories.

2:00pm - Starbucks coffee and baseball cage practice for an hour. Lots of fun.

3:00pm - Met students at Pukyong University and took them to my favourite coffee shop for lots of light talking.

4:00pm - 3:00pm students stayed to to talk with my 4:00pm student. Great discussion about history and politics - two of my favourite topics. I loved this.

Maybe this is not everyone's cup of tea, but this was definitely my favourite day at work so far. I hope for many more days like this!

Friends, Daily Life and Stuff

So it's no surprise that again I write about Gwangalli. By now, you'd probably have figured out that I love this place to bits and would love to claim it as my own private haven. Unfortunately, it is not an unknown secret but the single best place in Busan. Some people love Seomyeon for the shops and restaurants and the downtown location. Others prefer Haeundae and all the trappings of the large stretch of beach with millions of foreigners. Still more like to hang out in Kyungsung - my area - which I do love for it's convenience, sense of home and really, as I have been told many times before, you can live in this area and never leave it. What more could you need apart from restaurants, cafes, bars and young crowds? There is one simple answer. Gwangalli.

Yes I am obsessed, but seriously who wouldn't be? It is one of the most gorgeous areas with the stunning beach, the lights from Gwangan Bridge, cafes, cheap restaurants, a million seafood restaurants if you like that sort of thing and friendly people.

I personally love walking from Kyungsung to Gwangalli, having coffe, and then continue walking along the beach, to the river and along the boardwalk. You can pass Shinsegae in Centum City and even further. Here are some wonderful shots from my latest walk with a friend.







What else happened this week? It's actually pretty short because Friday is a day off work as we only work 20 days per month.

Tuesday for Valentines Day I make my students chocolate covered strawberries. They tasted really good, despite their unusual appearance. Here is one really fuzzy picture of one of my classes sampling the yumminess. Then there they are posing for the cover of our 10am English Conversation Class Cookbook that will be produced this week and cost like a million won!



And of course I can't forget my coffee date with Blaire, one of the most wonderful women on the planet. I think she is trying to convert me into become a Kpop idol fan but she won't sway me - K-ballads and K-HipHop/Rap all the way!


Catching up with Yoonseok is always a joy and we have a fun time eating, shopping, walking and gossiping about boys and relationships. Such a girly night!


My Brit co-worker and friend showing off his Valentines day collection.


Hehehe... mine is bigger!:P

The Most Amazing Trio Ever

I am currently addicted to this video clip. It is from MusicBank a few years ago and features Park Hyo Shin, Eru and Lee Ki Chan. Their voices go perfectly together. The three songs that they sing are:
1. Lee Ki Chan - Beauty
2. Park Hyo Shin - Memories Resemble Love
3. Eru - White Snow

I watch this clip every day, more often than not, more than once a day. I really recommend you watch it. They have amazing voices, unlike the idol group singers.

Jenna and Jin Tie the Knot: A Korean Wedding

One of my students from January got married today and she invited me to her wedding. I am so happy that I got to see her get married. Jenna is a beautiful person, inside and out. After her honeymoon she will move with her husband Jin to Cairns in Australia so she is heading to my neck of the woods. I will be disappointed to see her leave Korea as she is such a lovely person but I will be happy to see her in Australia when I return. I'll have to visit her in Cairns and she can visit me in Sydney.

Today I was tossing up whether I should go to the wedding by myself. I almost talked myself out of going because I was nervous to go alone. But I am glad I didn't.

The wedding was held at the Imperial Convention Centre in Centrum City, right across the street from the largest department store; Shinsaegae. The wedding was being held on the 13th floor and there were masses of people lining up for the elevator and the lifts were not stopping to pick people up. With the way it was going I thought I'd miss the wedding, so in killer heels and a tight dress I walked up 13 flights of stairs instead of waiting for the lift. Other guests had also chosen to take the stairs rather than wait and I am proud to say that I made it, and did so by actually overtaking many young men on the stairs who struggled to walk up 13 flights. Considering I was wearing a constricting dress and high heels, I think that's an amazing achievement (although I have to say the last 10 stairs nearly killed me)!

When I arrived at the reception hall it was interesting to see that it was completely different to Western style weddings. It is a wedding hall for many couples. There were two main rooms for the actual ceremony that you could look into. Popping my head into both rooms I saw that neither were Jenna's wedding. In fact, the couple gets married in about 20 minutes, take photos with guests for about 10 minutes and then vacate the hall for the next couple to get married. Because the other couples were getting married, the couples that are waiting to get married have an area where they can sit and pose for photos with guests before the wedding. Here are some photos of me with the bride and groom. They both looked wonderful.



It was quite an interesting experience being there and I was a bit embarrassed to have drawn so much attention. 1. I was the only non-Korean there, 2. I am taller than most Koreans but adding the 12cm heels and I was towering over them, and 3. I was wearing a dress like I would to a wedding in Australia, only to find out that here it is much more casual (some people were wearing jeans!).

After taking the photos before the wedding I put the gift money in an envelope and gave it to the people in charge of receiving the money and in turn they gave me a voucher to eat at the buffet reception room. There is no normal wedding reception here in Korea where the guests eat, dance and drink to celebrate the new couple. Instead, after the wedding the guests from all different weddings go to a buffet/restaurant and are given a seat on a shared table where you could be sitting with people from a different wedding. I was lucky to have met a wonderful woman called Sunny who is a friend of Jenna's so we ate together and have plans to meet up in the next few weeks. I love meeting new people and seem to be doing so all the time!

Anyway, back to the wedding, the groom walks down the aisle and waits for the bride to be escorted down after him by her father. The celebrant talks (I don't quite know what he says) and then someone sings to them and finally the groom sings to the bride. They pay their respects to their parents by bowing to them and there is the traditional cutting of the cake. The couple then walk back down the aisle and then return to the podium where they take photos with the guests. The whole ceremony, including photos takes about 30 minutes. After that people head to the buffet.

Love the moves!



Some interesting things I noticed about the weddings here that I didn't like:
1. Some people just come for the food. They walk in, hand over the gift money, receive the food voucher and go straight to eat, not even sticking around to watch the couple get married.
2. While the ceremony is on, people are seated at tables and at the table in front of me there were a whole bunch of ahjummas - they did not stop talking the entire time and not once did they look at the bride and groom. Then they got up before the end of the ceremony and went to lunch.

But the thing I LOVED was when the groom sang to the bride. In this case Jin was not shy and he even danced for Jenna. It was adorable. I definitely want my future husband to do that at my wedding!

It was absolutely beautiful!

The Korean Chemist

I have been feeling a cold coming on since this morning. Probably because late yesterday afternoon I walked with a student from Kyungsung past Gwangalli and on to Shinsaegae in Centum City. It only took just over an hour to walk there but it was pretty cold and a bit windy walking on the coast. I have definitely picked something up.

Coincidentally, today in class the topic for level 4 was health care. I was given some interesting advice as to how I should cure my early symptoms of the cold. The most interesting one, and one of the more traditional treatments is to have a shot of soju with chopped red chilli in it. Needless to say, when I finished work, I just headed to the local chemist.

I had one of the ladies at work write down my symptoms on a piece of paper so I could just give it to the pharmacist. So when I walked in she just gave me two packets of tablets. I am just going to pump them in so I don't get any worse. it;s amazingly cheap here - I only paid 2,000 won for one package of tablets and 2,500 won for the second package. If I am taking the dosage correctly that's a whole course for 4,500 won - about AU$4.00!!! That's unheard of in Australia.


I can't afford to get sick here. There is no such thing as taking a day off. Expecially in an adult language institute. It's not like in Australia where they can just call a casual in. Here, it means that another teacher at the institute has to cover your class. But unlike at home, we don't have 'free periods' and people teach all different languages. Having said that, I have covered for one woman with a class when she had an accident falling down a flight of stairs. Technically, in my contract I have 10 sick days but I really don't want to have to use them. Besides that, this is an important weekend for me. I am attending a friends' wedding tomorrow at Centum City and catching up with friends on Saturday night and also on Sunday so I don't want to be laid up in bed.

On the Campaign Trail

Today I was asked to help my boss with his election campaign by going with him and another foreign teacher and talking to people on the street, handing out election name cards and having our photos taken with him. Here is a pic of my boss who is running for election.

Weird Rapport with Rapperd

How funny... even at the moment I am blogging this post it is taking a long time because Rapperd is Facebook messaging me. We are taling about our favourite Korean music. I love it when I tell him about a hip hop artist he has never heard of. I don't know if I blogged about him before, he is the one who rapped for me on my birthday. His recommendations:

Rapperd: "Dynamic Duo(다이나믹 듀오)-Ring my bell(I sang this song on your birthday), Go back(고백)<--You can find. Write Korean. and ballad song are MC the max-사랑은 아프려고 하는 거죠, 임재범-너를 위해, 다비치-안녕이라고 말하지마 teuroteu is 장윤정-어부바 배치기-마이동풍"

So if you are interested in Korean music you could check this out. My recommendations are:

Me: "A'ccel in a Story, Epik High, Leessang, Brown Eyes - Your Eyes, I like the Dynamic Duo Series 5 album, J-Walk - My Love, MC Mong, Park Hyo Shin, Drunken Tiger and T(asha), V.O.S, Vibe"

You have no idea how happy I am that I have found someone to talk music to! Finally someone who has the same interests as me. lol... no joke this is getting weird... here are the next few messages:

Rapperd: "MC Mong-죽을만큼 아파서, Drunken Tiger-Good life, 너희가 힙합을 아느냐?(It has 2 versions Kor ver and Eng ver), 8:45 heaven, monster, T-Memories, Leessang-광대, 발레리노(Ballerino), Brown eyes-언제나 그랬죠, 벌써 일년, With coffee, Park Hyo shin-바보(I really like this song), Vibe-Promise U, 미워도 다시 한번, 술이야, 미친거니, 그 남자 그 여자, 사진을 보다가, 오래오래"

If you didn't notice they are the EXACT artists I just messaged him about.

So if that wasn't freaky enough, here are the next few messages:

Me: "There is a foreigner group in Korea called Wisecrue who are really great. One guy is from America and the other from England. This is their song. (attached song). One guy is called Black Ilumin and this is a link to his solo stuff. He has an AMAZING voice!!! Listen to the song called 'Lavita'"

Rapperd: "Hey I saw him at the club near Kyeongseong Univ. I drank with him last summer. His name is Black illumin. My facebook friend. A few person who know Wisecrue. So they are not famous. Im amazing you know him. good!"

Me: "this is getting so strange!!! I am like the female version of you. Or maybe you are the male version of me!"

Why does he have to move to Canada next month? Now I'll have to find someone else to talk music to!

End of Month Dinner with Students

I have been blessed with the opportunity to have so many different people in my classes during the month of January. What makes it even better has been that most of them have resigned for another month of my classes - I won't say the extent a few had to go to to get into my class again. I'll just say that when they told me I was shocked. Spending 5 days a week together for the duration of my stay here so far has meant that we have bonded extremely well and the classes are not those of teacher and student but of families.

On the last day of class for January one of my students Rapperd (that's his English name, not Korean name) asked if we could have a party. So we organised to go out to dinner that night. One of the students, Ginger, a very warm motherly woman, asked us if we would like to go to her house for dinner. She said she would order pizza and fried chicken. We all agreed.

I met Rapperd and Frank at my work when I finished for the day and Salena picked us up from there and drove us to Ginger's house. Ginger had not ordered pizza and fried chicken but had in fact cooked a feast of seafood, prawns and mussels, green bean and strawberry salad, vegetables, beef ribs and chops and so many other yummy foods.
This is just a small sampling of the food she made:


We all had a wonderful night talking, eating and playing Taboo.

Rapperd and Frank:


Ginger:


Salena:


Such a cute group:



I think about how lucky I am to have so many lovely, beautiful, wonderful, welcoming and amazing people in my life right now. I am so happy.

Excess Baggage Weight Loss Show

Being out of the country has made me realise how much I am out of the loop with what is going on with my friends and family. Luckily for Facebook I have had heaps of regular updates. One friend, a beautiful woman Sarah, started a weight loss and overall health and fitness regime journey on Australian TV. The show she is on is called Excess Baggage which pairs regualr Australians with celebrities as they all try to gain a better level of health and fitness. Unlike The Biggest Loser it is promoted as a show which is less like a compulsory bootcamp and places more emhasis on personal choice and drive. It doesn't merely require contestants to lose the most amount of weight, but to boost one's health. Therefore the judging is not simply based on weight loss but overall improvement in health and fitness.

I tried visiting the Channel Nine website to stream the videos but unfortunately they don't play outside of Australia. I did, however, find a Youtube channel that streams complete episodes. Here is episode one.


Paired up with a previous winner from Australian Idol, Sarah is on the Pink Team and I wish her all the best. Check out the show!

http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/excessbaggage/bios/sarah