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| Looks like a dinosaur! |
This past week or so has been full of new adventures some of which have certainly shown us a new view of Korean culture. If you ever want to know more about a culture, eat with a native and go to the funeral of a native. That's what we did, at least.
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| Whale bones! |
At work, Trevor is supposed to teach an English conversation class to any interested teachers at the school. There is only one teacher who actually attends the class. He is a math teacher who goes by Mr. Lee (so foreigner's like me can pronounce his name correctly ;) ). Mr. Lee was kind enough to show us around Ulsan and take us out to dinner. We started the day off going to the town hall to see if we could sign up for some free Korean classes. Afterwards, Mr. Lee took us to a whale museum where they have facts and artifacts of the whaling industry that was very popular in Korea. It was cool to see some of the whale bones and get an idea of just how big they are.
Next up was dinner. Mr. Lee treated us nicely by taking us to shabu shabu (read about it in my early post about food if you can't remember) which is probably one of the longest running meals I've ever had. It basically has 3 courses which are all boiled individually by the ones eating. Basically it takes the chef out of the equation and only requires food prep staff ;). After dinner, in order to digest our large meal, Mr. Lee showed us a path along the main river in Ulsan which lead up to a traditional Korean building which was cool to see especially when it was lit up as the sun was setting.
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| empty bowl of patbingsu |
Since I had never tried it before, Mr. Lee then insisted that we go get some patbingsu which is best described as shaved ice. Traditional patbingsu has red bean paste and rice which is supposed to taste sweet according to Koreans which is not particularly how I would describe it. Our patbingsu had oreo cookie crumbles and mango slices with two small scoops of ice cream on top. I know most of you think that snow cones need syrup for flavoring but Koreans are perfectly content with just the basics. I think maybe I just prefer creamy to watery ;). Mr. Lee was so nice to take us around and pay for us to have a fun night!
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| butterfly the size of my hand so pretty! |
Another adventure we had this week was quite an unfortunate one. A member in our branch sadly passed away so we attended part of a Korean funeral. To spare any disrespect that might go toward the family of the deceased, I won't go into too much detail because I'm sure that an affair like this does not need to be shared with the general public. Usually, Korean funerals last 3 days with various ceremonies and paying respect for the dead. We only went to the last day of this funeral and it was a different experience and the whole time I dreaded doing anything that would be disrespectful. If you want a more detailed description of went on that day, you can ask me personally.
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| It ate a piece of our map! Meanie! |
To lighten up the mood, I'll transition to something more joyful. This weekend, Trevor and went to a botanical garden here in Ulsan. It was very pretty and I guess either it's not a popular sight-see or we just happened to go when nobody else was there. We had to whole park to ourselves! There were a lot of beautiful flowers and greenery that was a perfect way to just relax with my love! <3 <3 <3
In the gardens there was a building that had a small aviary as well as some reptiles and a few mammals. Although the rest of the park had been very pleasant, being reptile advocates (especially Trevor), we were somewhat disappointed in the enclosures they had for the reptiles. Most of them were just glass tanks with the animal and maybe a little food dish. We had heard that you could hold some of the animals there, but there wasn't a worker there to let us hold them so we had to walk away with sullen heads. It was easy to regain our happiness though because there was still much beauty to behold.
We came to one place that was a big open grassy field with a few small trees that looked like the beginning of an orchard. At the top of the hill there were some sleds which I usually associated with snow but there were also a few sleds at the bottom of the hill. Trevor and I naturally assumed that everyone has a blast racing down the grassy slope on these little sled. We decided to give it a go. Luckily I decided to video the ride down. I think you'll love it!
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| View from top of the hill |
After going through all of the gardens, we decided to walk all the way down to a bus stop instead of taking a taxi which is how we got up there in the first place. I was glad we did because the way down was just about a scenic as walking through the gardens. It was such a pretty walk! We ended up at a place a few bus stops from our apartment and ended the day with some pizza. It's simple adventures like these where I just get to enjoy nature and Trevor's company that I love the most!
Ok, I know that this is a long post but I will end with one more story. Another teacher at Trevor's school also wanted to have dinner with us so we decided to have dinner at our house and I would make something American for our new friend. I decided to make potato soup (with American bacon, of course) along with some broccoli and toast. I think he liked it because at first he had kind of a small bowl just in case he didn't care for it but it disappeared quickly and he asked if he could go get more. His second bowl was near to overflowing and it didn't last long either. I was glad to see that some good old American cookin' could satisfy a Korean around our same age. After dinner we talked for a while and enjoyed some cream puffs that our guest had brought with him. I have to have people over for dinner more often!
Readers beware! My next post will most likely be about bugs!
At work, Trevor is supposed to teach an English conversation class to any interested teachers at the school. There is only one teacher who actually attends the class. He is a math teacher who goes by Mr. Lee (so foreigner's like me can pronounce his name correctly ;) ). Mr. Lee was kind enough to show us around Ulsan and take us out to dinner. We started the day off going to the town hall to see if we could sign up for some free Korean classes. Afterwards, Mr. Lee took us to a whale museum where they have facts and artifacts of the whaling industry that was very popular in Korea. It was cool to see some of the whale bones and get an idea of just how big they are.
Next up was dinner. Mr. Lee treated us nicely by taking us to shabu shabu (read about it in my early post about food if you can't remember) which is probably one of the longest running meals I've ever had. It basically has 3 courses which are all boiled individually by the ones eating. Basically it takes the chef out of the equation and only requires food prep staff ;). After dinner, in order to digest our large meal, Mr. Lee showed us a path along the main river in Ulsan which lead up to a traditional Korean building which was cool to see especially when it was lit up as the sun was setting.
Since I had never tried it before, Mr. Lee then insisted that we go get some patbingsu which is best described as shaved ice. Traditional patbingsu has red bean paste and rice which is supposed to taste sweet according to Koreans which is not particularly how I would describe it. Our patbingsu had oreo cookie crumbles and mango slices with two small scoops of ice cream on top. I know most of you think that snow cones need syrup for flavoring but Koreans are perfectly content with just the basics. I think maybe I just prefer creamy to watery ;). Mr. Lee was so nice to take us around and pay for us to have a fun night!
In the gardens there was a building that had a small aviary as well as some reptiles and a few mammals. Although the rest of the park had been very pleasant, being reptile advocates (especially Trevor), we were somewhat disappointed in the enclosures they had for the reptiles. Most of them were just glass tanks with the animal and maybe a little food dish. We had heard that you could hold some of the animals there, but there wasn't a worker there to let us hold them so we had to walk away with sullen heads. It was easy to regain our happiness though because there was still much beauty to behold. 
After going through all of the gardens, we decided to walk all the way down to a bus stop instead of taking a taxi which is how we got up there in the first place. I was glad we did because the way down was just about a scenic as walking through the gardens. It was such a pretty walk! We ended up at a place a few bus stops from our apartment and ended the day with some pizza. It's simple adventures like these where I just get to enjoy nature and Trevor's company that I love the most!
Ok, I know that this is a long post but I will end with one more story. Another teacher at Trevor's school also wanted to have dinner with us so we decided to have dinner at our house and I would make something American for our new friend. I decided to make potato soup (with American bacon, of course) along with some broccoli and toast. I think he liked it because at first he had kind of a small bowl just in case he didn't care for it but it disappeared quickly and he asked if he could go get more. His second bowl was near to overflowing and it didn't last long either. I was glad to see that some good old American cookin' could satisfy a Korean around our same age. After dinner we talked for a while and enjoyed some cream puffs that our guest had brought with him. I have to have people over for dinner more often! 
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