Discovery of the week: Cherry Coke

Holy moly Korea. When did you get down with the cool kids?! Cherry coke is here. Hazzah! (Not that I needed more sugary goodness.... Korea hates my teeth) 

Contracts!

Unbelievably the time has arrived to resign our contracts. It is almost incomprehensible how fast this year has gone. When we all arrived here we were fresh faced new teachers and to be honest I still feel that way. I have learnt Hangeul and I can speak basic Korea, I have traveled Korea quite a bit as well as neighboring countries and I have friend I feel I have known forever so It should feel like I’ve been here a life time.

The decision to resign or go home is a big one. When I came here I thought it would just be a year as I had a master plan of moving on to Australia and Canada but this small and busy country is such a fantastic experience that I almost need another year to catch my breath and assess what’s been going on.

I know a lot of people will be leaving which does effect my decision. It will be agonizing to see close friends head back out into many different parts of the world but I think us staying is the right decision.

There are some contractual changes I want to talk about with my school (if they even want to keep me that is) but I’m hoping it will be smooth sailing.I'll also do a post once its all been sorted for all you people wondering who happens during the resign time.

I have also found out today that one of our very close friends will be staying another year which is already making me excited for the year ahead.

We will be in one flat that is a lot larger than our current home and I plan to be more adult and get a bit organized. Get an oven and cook more, learn to sew, decorate and maybe even foster a cat (because they need all the help they can get here, poor kittens!)

Australia and Canada will still be there in a year and if some how I can pay off my debts and visit a few more places (Indonesia and Kyoto I’m looking at you!*) then it would be a dream come true.

I always had a list of places I wanted to see in the world. It has always been long. I thought that traveling would mean I’d started to knock things off my bucket list but it feels as if experiences breed the need for more experiences. I am adding places to the list by the day. Having friends spread all over the world definitely helps the urge to see the places they live. India and South Africa are now both firm additions to the ‘places to see’ list.

Maybe I’ll be a travel bug forever! I don’t think that’s such a bad thing J

Saying all of this, I’ve never been more excited to go home. I read that the UK are having massive storms this week and all I want to do is be cuddled up on the sofa with my family. Christmas can’t come soon enough.

It’s a bit of an oxymoron to be a home bird who loves traveling but I’ll find a way to combine my two loves I’m sure.

Bring on 2014!

* Also Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Guam, Philippines, Taiwan….ect (too many places to see!)

Helpful Korean Phrases

Tomorrows the day, Tomorrows the day!!!!
Tomorrow one of my favourite people in the whole world and also one of my oldest friends will be travelling all the way from the uk to visit me for two weeks.

I can't tell you how touched I am that she is going to be heading across the world to catch up with me.

Luckily she isn't traveling alone, she is bringing along the beautiful and lovely lady that is her housemate so I will get to have a girlie night in Seoul.

A few weeks ago I wrote a little list of things she should expect but I also sent her a few choice phrases to help her get by. This isn't official it's just my list to help some lovely tourists.

I thought i'd share it with you.

Korean Phrases

Hello – An-nyong-hasaeo 안녕하세요

Where are you from? – Awdisaw-o-syay-aw-yo 어디서 오셨어요?

I’m from the UK – Cho-nun young-gook saram imneda 저는 영국 사람 임니다

Goodbye (when you are leaving) - annyeonghi gyeseyo 안녕히 계세요
Goodbye (when you are staying) - annyeonghi gaseyo 안녕히 가세요

I don't speak Korean –Hangookah-lul mo-habnida 한국어를 못합니다

Where’s the toilet? – hwa-jang-schil-E Awdi-a-o?  화장실이 어디예요?

Thank you - kamsa-hamnida 감사합니다

( the first Korean number is when ordering food and the other is for counting objects…I know…its weird!)

One----- Hanna / il

Two ---- Duel / ee

Three ---- Set/ Sam

Four ----Net/ Sa

Five ---- Dasa/ O

Six --- Yasa / yuck

Seven ---- ilbon / chill

Eight --- yudail/ pall

Nine --- ah-hoe/ goo

Ten --- yull/ ship

Can I have one beer please – Mik-jew han jan gesaeo

Can I have two bibimbaps please – Bibimbap Du gay gesaeo

(Gesaeo = please

Jan = bottles

Gay = objects

Myoung = People)

mik-jew = beer

Soju = sweet potato vodka…very cheap and very strong

Makgeolli = Milky rice wine … very potent and if flavoured its amazing!

Wine = Wine (for some reason they hear white as red so pro-nounce-i-ate!)

Cider = Cider is lemonade in Korea

Bibimbap 비빔밥 = mixed rice with selection of veg and a red pepper hot sauce..the staple of Korea, you probably had it on the plane. Very good. When you get it use the spoon to mix all the ingredients up and then eat with a spoon.

Kimbap 김밥 – looks like Sushi but is bigger and normally filled with a few different ingredients like radish, ham, cucumber and sometimes meat or fish.

Kimchi 김치 – like it or hate it this food sums up Korea. Its fermented Cabbage in garlic and hot chilli’s that they store in pots underground for 2 years. You will get it free with every meal and drink you buy.

Sam Gyap Sal – Korean BBQ. You will see these restaurants everywhere. They give you the meat and you cook it infront of you. You have to put the meat in a lettuce leaf with sauce and wrap it into a parcel. Then you eat in one bite! Delicious

Mandoo 만두 – very similar to Chinese dumplings. Lots of different types and all really nice.

Dabokkie – Weirdly this spicy red sauce tastes a lot like English spaghetti hoop sauce. Then they put rice cakes which are basically Gnocchi in it.

Chicken 닭고기 (Dak gogi)

Beef 사고기 (Sagogi)

Pork 돼지고기 (dwae ji gogi)

Tuna 참치 (Cham Chi)

Seafood 해산물 (Hae san mool)

Water 물 (mool)

Address 조수 (Joe soo) – (almost always the taxi drivers have GPS so if you say ‘Joe soo’ and then show them the address you should be ok.

In Seoul taxi’s are very hard to find. Avoid the orange ones as they don’t use a meter and like to rip you off. Koreans might be a little wary of forginers (Waygook) but they are normally very nice.

Pharmacy – When you see 약 it normally means they sell medicine.

Hoff – hoffs are bars but they do like you to order at least something to eat. The food is normally cheap and nice though with very big portions.

Toilet 화장실 (hwa jang shill)

Subway 지하철 (ji ha chawl) but most Koreans know the word subway

Station 역 (Yock)

Bus 버스 (busu)

It sounds weird but if in doubt just try adding vowels on the end normally works. Change is Changie, Coke is Coke-u, nice is nice-u (seriously!!!)

Discovery of the week: The Gym

About a month ago I joined a new gym. This is the second gym I’ve joined in Korea. Not because the first gym was bad but it was just a little too far away for me to get to it everyday and knowing myself I need it accessible to push myself to go.

This new gym is very dinky and small but lovely. The lady who runs it works so hard to maintain the place and is always there even though it’s open from 6am to 11pm.

The nicest element of a lot of Korean gyms is the fact they provide you with gym clothes. They give you shorts and t-shirts (In fabulous pink for the girls of course) and they also provide you with your own locker. Since I love going to the gym straight from school this is fantastic. I can leave my trainers, water bottle and ipod there so I’m always ready to gym it, any time of day. I now have no excuse.

I have been aiming to get a morning session in before school but I love sleep a little too much. A warm bed is a hard place to leave.

The downsides of Korean gyms, especially this one is the lack of personal space. The last gym I joined wasn’t so bad since there was a room to do floor exercises such as push ups and sit ups but this gym doesn’t have that. Koreans like to stare a little anyway and at the gym they are in creepy staring overtime, seem to find westerners fascinating. I am sweating up a storm only to look over and see 7 confused looking Korean men staring back at me.

Everyone is lovely; they just find us exercising interesting since they have never seen it.

The place has weight machines of all kinds (including a rodeo machine that lets you basically ride a mechanical bull in the gym) and running machines. This gym even has a cross trainer with is a rarity in Korea so I will probably stick with the place purely for that…and the fact its cheap compared to others. I’m counting the pennies as well as the pounds.

Over all it’s a nice space to work out, combined with the proximity to home , the very fair price (90 000 \ for 3 months or about 15 pound a month) and the fact its next door to Mcd’s (yes I realize the irony of going there after working out)all these factors mean its just a perfect little get away. Well I could do without the 6 flights of stairs to get to the entrance but it does slightly give you a rocky moment when you get to the top.

Let’s hope I can stick with it. Fingers crossed I’ll be new and improved sooner than you can say dumbbell!

Seoul in photos

Lotte World, my least favourite place on the planet...never go

Amazing western chinese at 'Ho Lee Chow' in Itewon

Gangnam

Best coffee i've had in a year, even before Korea.

Mac and Cheese omlette.

I'm in love with these Korean characters

A really cool pager in Holly's coffee.

Seoul food pt 2

Our time in Seoul wasn’t all just brunches and burgers (although the pictures I took tell a different story)

We did manage to visit a few different areas of Seoul itself and get to grips with the lay of the land.

Hongdae is a great area if you want to dance. There are bars upon bars down every tiny street and in every building. It can almost be daunting to pick.

We wanted to try some craft beer as Lee has been missing his tasty ales. These are rare in Daegu and you are lucky to decide between Hite or Cass.

The first place we headed was Oktoberfest. We knew it was actually Oktoberfest in Germany so expected the place to be packed to the rafters but the bar was pleasantly empty. Lee’s eyes went straight to the dark larger on the menu and ordered himself a stein of Dunkle. I’ve never seen such a happy man. I was hoping for some wine but no lucky so begrudgingly tried a larger and lemon mix . IT was supriginly delisoucs . So much so that I bought myself another. After about two my jar started to ache for the acidic sourness but it was still great.

After this (and by that I meant after I dragged Lee out) we headed to the second most famous craft beer bar in Seoul ‘The Castle’. This is in more of a built up area so once again I was expecting the place to be packed but we had a vast choice of tables.

This time Lee went for a lighter beer and was happy with his choice. I got to have a wine so I was a happy bunny. The castle is based on a Cezch castle and you won’t be able to miss it from the outside. The detail that has been spent making this place feel like a German fort is impressive and makes for a pleasant drinking experience. We could have stayed there all night. Luckily we were on a bit of a mission so carried on our travels.

The next to places we went weren’t anything special. We went to a bar named the ‘Yellow bar’ where we shared a lovely garlic pizza before going to a bar that resembled an 80’s nightmare, unfortunately the music wasn’t 80’s but the drinks were tasty and well made. I’m a sucker for a good cocktail.

The evening was a great one. We were ripped off by the taxi driver. My advice would be to avoid the orange taxis in Seoul as they make you pay upfront and don’t have meters. A 10,000 won ride quickly became 20,000won. One guy wanted 30,000won!

Seoul’s Hongdae is definitely the place to go if you have a few people with varied tastes. It also helps that there are so many bars that many places are rarely busy. Hongdae is just a larger Daegu downtown. Beer was drunk and we were both merry.

Seoul Food. – Pancake Original Story

Korea celebrated a national holiday this week. It is a day that celebrates god opening the heavens and creating Korea.

Lee and I were lucky enough to be given an additional day off in-between the holiday and the weekend so we used it the best way we could think of. By eating good food in Seoul.

Lee and I have only been to Seoul once properly (airport visits don’t count) so we were excited at the prospect of investigating the areas we had read lots about. The last time we visited we concentrated on the touristy aspects of Seoul so this weekend was allocated for relaxing.

Daegu is a lovely city and compared to other places in Korea it does have a lot of amenities but Seoul has a special host of restaurants and ingredients you can’t get anywhere else.

Our first stop was brunch. Brunch is one of the best meals of the day so if you are going to do it, you should do it right. We went to Pancake Original Story in Yongsan-gu which has been voted by many as the best place to eat in Seoul. Oh boy it did not disappoint.

My first impression was how small the place was. For some reason when I hear that a place is the best I imagine it being big enough to accommodate a lot of people but this place was very bohemian and small. We put our names down for a table but we only had to wait about 5 minutes before we were seated and placing our order.

We both went for the French toast breakfast and it was in front of us before we knew what had happened.

The eggs were perfect, the toast fluffy and the sausages divine. It was exactly what I fancied and the right amount of food. Normally I find that a place with a good reputation will sometimes give you bite sized portions because they know they can get away with it but pancake story is honest, good food.

The price was 15,000 won which is a little pricey but we didn’t need to eat until later that night so it was definitely worth it.

I am just sad I couldn’t sample more of the menu. If you aren’t familiar with Seoul you may struggle to find this place but we followed Happydalkis's fantastic guide to getting there and it was as easy as can be.

Pancake Original story scores an easy 10/10