My favourite Korean food - Sam Gyup Sal

I have finally found some Korean food that I LOVE! We went out for dinner with our friends Corey and Paul this week, bumped into another EPIK teacher called Ben from South Afria and we all headed downtown for some tasty Sam Gyup Sal. We found a great little restaurant just off 5th St (the main pedestrian area) and set about cooking our dinner.

Sam gyup sal = three stripe bacon

Tasty little blighters cooking away.

So, sam gyup sal is basically really thick rashers of streaky bacon - you sit around a round table and in the middle is some form of cooking plate (this one has a flat plate but some are griddles over a bucket of hot coals). You get your bacon along with various other veggies including lettuce leaves, spicy green onions, garlic cloves, chillis, bean sprouts and anything else they feel like serving. Oh, and of course, kimchi. You cook your bacon and as it cooks you cut it in thin little slices across the grain leaving bite size pieces of delicious meat! Then you take a lettuce leaf in the plam of your hand, put some bacon in (dipped in spicy red sauce if you like), put in some onions, garlic and chilli, fold it all together and then stuff it in your mouth. Amazing.

Happy campers munching away with all our dishes

And its really cheap, costing only about 5,000 Won per person (£2.50). You get served mineral water for free or beers which are about £1.50 for a big bottle. Can you see why I like it?

Empty dishes = great meal!

Bogyeonsa Temple and Naeyeonsan Waterfalls

After talking about this trip for weeks, we finally got a nice sunny day and decided to travel to our first Buddhist Temple in South Korea. About an hour bus journey from Pohang is Bogyeonsa Buddhist Temple which is set in the forest at Mt Jungnamsan with Naeyeonsan waterfalls which flow up beside the temple.

So, I researched online that we needed to get bus 500 from the Intercity Bus Terminal and take it as far as it goes to Bogyeonsa. We met Corey and Paul at the station at 10am and hopped on bus number 500. However, it was only after we got on that we realised we did not know which side of the road we should have caught the bus from and so asked the bus driver. He immediately signaled to the opposite side of the road but by this time we were moving. He gestured for us to sit down and intimated that the bus would soon turn around and we could go back the way we came. After 15 minutes, we got a bit anxious as we turned into a bus depot and the bus parked. The driver shepherded us into the "staff office" and told us to wait. So, we waited. A cleaner lady came and went and we waited. There was a weird yellow plastic pig sitting on top of the TV which had one eye upside down. We knew not the significance of this but it amused us.

Squint-eyed pig.

I saw a bus 500 pulling out the of station and, thinking that the driver had forgotten about us, we all ran for the bus. The driver quickly chased us and told us to get back to the terminal - that bus did not got to Bogyeonsa apparently. Our faith in him was fulfilled however as a few minutes later he signalled for us to get on another 500 and it did indeed take us to our destination!

Map of the 12 waterfalls and the Buddhist Temple (bottom right hand corner marked by what looks like a Nazi symbol but is in fact a Buddhist symbol)

When we arrived at Bogyeonsa (after Corey having to rush to the loo), we were all a bit hungry so decided to have some lunch. There were a few Korean restaurants so we chose one and ordered by pointing at pictures. Garry and Paul had bibimbap, Corey and me shared some Korean spicy beancurd and veggie soup with rice. We also got some Korean pancake which is delicious and the usual assortment of side dishes.

Lunch - the large circular yellow plate is the Korean pancake made from a dough and green onions, very tasty.

Penis juice - no idea what it actually is but really? A ceramic penis you can take home after you have finished your juice. A little old school perhaps.

Bellies full, we set of up to the temple and spent some time exploring. It was a beautiful little temple and so quiet set in the mountains. We started our walk up the 12 waterfalls and about an hour and a half later reached where we thought was the top - however, after consulting the map we think we only got about half way! Oh well, some of the waterfalls were amazing and it was really nice to be out in the countryside seeing some of the real Korea. Garry and Paul were trying to outdo each other in manliness and kept trying to get the closest to the top of the waterfall - without falling over.

Entrance to the Temple and path to the waterfalls.

Buddhist artwork painted on the outside of the Temple.

Buddhist art work painted on the wooden Temple.

Buddhist wooden statue inside the gates of the temple protecting the inhabitants.

Buddhist lanterns hanging around the temple in various colours.

The notes attached to the lanterns are prayers and wishes.

Golden Buddha statue inside one of the temples for prayer.

Bells that hang on many of the corners of the temples.

Door knocker and wooden door.

View from the top of the grounds around the temple.

Waterfalls!

Me.

Me hanging around a sign that probably says "Don't stand here, its not safe".

Baby waterfalls.

Japanese writing on a large rock by the side of the waterfalls.

Big waterfall!

Flowing water.

Aw, us at the top of the waterfall.

Me under a crashing waterfall.

Posing and getting wet.

Paul climbing up the side of the waterfall.

View from the top of the waterfall.

Garry and Paul playing chicken at the top of the waterfall.

Corey and me climbing down the hillside with only a rope for grip! EEK!

We walked back down and caught the last bus at 5pm back to Pohang. And, once again, we headed downtown to munch on sam gyup sal - we went to a different place this time and feasted liked kings for a pittance!

Tired faces, full bellies.

All in all, a fab day in SoKo with some great friends, great food and beautiful countryside.

Exploring Pohang and Some Interesting Koreanisms

So, after settling into school we spent some time exploring Pohang, our new home. We are only 5 minutes walk from the biggest and best beach in Pohang called Bukbu Beach. We also took a walk along past the beach to Hwanhoe (Sunrise) Park which is a big wooded park set on a hill which has many trails as well as a observation tower where you can see round the coast for miles, a mini zoo with some small animals and an art gallery. I love being so close to the beach, we both love living near the water and so are vary happy that we are in Pohang!

Bukbu Beach

A sunny day in early March

Feet on the beach.

The beach and the boardwalk.

There is also a great group of foreigners here who have welcomed us into their bosom like old friends which really helps with the homesickness. There are a mixture of EPIK and hagwon (private English academies) teachers and everyone seems really nice. We came to Pohang with 27 other EPIK teachers, even a few from the UK, so it doesn’t feel quite so scary!

A hangover day on the beach with Corey and Paul, EPIK friends who are from the UK too!

An interesting find for us was our first ‘outdoor gym’ area which you can find all round town and cities in Korea. Basically, it is a small play park sized are where there are a whole variety of basic exercise machines (self powered of course, no treadmills here). So, after hiking up a hill what else would you want to do but some pull ups, sit ups, arm exercises (as well as others that can look very suggestive). This may be why Koreans are all so slim - seriously, the girls are stick thin and so are lots of the guys. You occasionally see a slightly chubby Korean but no often. They put this down to their diet of mainly vegetable, rice (which apparently is highly nutritious) and that everyone loves kimchi.

Outdoor gym equipment.

Definition of kimchi = is a traditional Korean dish which is usually made of fermented vegetables (but not always fermented) with spicy seasoning. The most common veg used is cabbage but they also use radish, cucumber, green onion as well as hundreds of other varieties. It is served at EVERY Korean meal, without fail, including breakfast. All Koreans love Kimchi and it is rated as one of the Top 10 Healthiest Foods on the planet due to the healthy bacterial content. I think I will stick to Activia thanks.

Yum, tasty plate of fresh kimchi.

Other interesting things about SoKo so far:

1. They have underfloor heating in all homes which is great, warms your toes and heats up really quickly.
2. They have ‘wetroom’ bathrooms where there is a shower head over the sink no shower curtain. Everything gets wets but hey, its a bathroom and is waterproof.
3. They are amazed by Westerners and I am famous. Seriously, despite there being about 1 million Westerners now in Korea they are still surprised to see one walking down the street. You will often her the word “waygookin” which means foreigner and you quickly get used to saying “hello” a million times a day. You get stared at wherever you go and often people want their picture taken with you. Love it!
4. Blue eyes confuse many Koreans. One of my kids asked “Teacher, teacher, can you SEE?”.
5. Koreans do not wear their outdoor shoes indoors which I personally agree makes a lot of sense. Mostly. At home, we take out shoes of at the shoe area, there is a shoe cupboard and everything. We have separate bathroom shoes (kinda like jelly shoes) as the floor is often wet from it being wetroom. However, where this makes no sense is in school. The kids and teachers all have school indoor shooes. BUT they walk into the school and to their classroom before changing. They also go out into the playground with them on. Is this not outdoors I ask?
6. Koreans are very friendly and polite except if you happen to be walking past them/next to them/around them in the street. They WILL bump into you, despite there being loads of space and will not apologise. Apparently this has roots in Confucianism and the importance of relationships - if they do not know you, they have no relationship with you and in big cities it id impossible to have relationships with everyone SO no relationship = no person. You are a nobody and will be bumped.
7. Koreans are very bad drivers - they pull out from nowhere but all seem to slow down. And taxi drivers are mental!
8. They have no cheese (unless you count the rubber slices as cheese but I certainly do not. Help, I need cheese to survive!
9. Koreans love karaoke which in Korean is 'noraebang' - literally meaning singing room. They go out, get drunk on soju and then head to noraebang - these are not like western karaoke places, but have individual rooms that fit from 4-20 people, you have your own large screen TV, book of songs, microphones and even a tambourine!
   

So this is where you dispose of your pets.

Camambert in s squeezy bottle??? I think not.

Noraebang in a travelling van. Just what you need at the beach! She is definitely enjoying it.

Week One: Doing Nothing

Well, after a 3 day weekend courtesy of Korean Independence Day (freedom from Japan in 1919) we had our first day at school. Up early, breakfast and the short (seriously, for me its 3 minutes) walk to school I arrived bright and early. My co-teacher had not yet arrived and the office staff had no idea what to do with me. I was sent from one office to the other until Jenny arrived and escorted me to our staff office. In my office there is me, 3 Korean English teachers (Jenny, Emily and HyoJoo) and a female PE teacher (whose name I can never remember). To my surprise, the first day the kids are sent home at lunch time and all the teachers go out for lunch! I like this idea.

Pohang Hangdo Elementary School

It's quite a big elementary school with approximately 1000 students.

School gymnasium

Kindergarten building behind the kindergarten playground.

Stone at front of school - I have no idea what it says!

However, for the remainder of the first week I was left sitting in the office with nothing else to do. It turned out that week 1 of term is when teachers plan their lessons (except homeroom teachers who of course have the kiddies) but with no computer, no textbooks and no guidance from my co-teacher, I was left sitting about literally doing nothing but listening to Korean conversation for 4 whole days! The other teachers chatted amongst themselves but rarely included me, even Jenny who had been so talkative the week before on the drive to Pohang. Needless to say I found this first week very hard. I was so used to an office where everyone chatted, we were all so busy and I had a really close group of friends who I missed immensely (and still do, particularly at lunch times!). Garry was a star these first few weeks and really helped me through some tough old days, taking me for pizza and letting me eat lots of fried chicken.

Elementary English textbooks for Grades 4, 5 and 6.

My desk (busily working on facebook and with a newly bought school computer)

My office, there are 5 of us in total.