Dear China

Dear China,
Hey, it's me Jinuk. I've got to tell you, I really try liking you. I really, REALLY do. I mean, come on now, practically everything I own is made by you! Sometimes it's hard to like you though. Why? I'm an English teacher in Korea and let me tell you something, you have caused absolute chaos in my life!

Now I have I was really forgiving in college when I took all of those Chinese history classes. Let me tell you, sometimes it was hard to forgive ya because reading some of those books, learning those names, remembering ALL OF THOSE YEARS AND DYNASTIES... whoo.. it was rough. I moved on though, I got over it. I continued to like you.

You're not always so nice to Tibet and do some jacked up things in Africa but that's okay. Sometimes its hard to like everyone and to be nice to everyone. It's understandable. Totally forgivable.

And the Olympics? Okay, maybe you cheated, maybe you didn't. Whatever it is you have some freakin good gymnasts. It is okay by me. Cheat or don't cheat, it all looks good.

BUT recently is where you've crossed the line and this is a line that should never EVER BE CROSSED.

As everyone in Korea knows, snacks are a HUGE part of the Korean diet. Delectable goodness such as Chocopie, Kkancho, Pepero have all been staples in the diets of Korea's youth for years. Until, say, 3 weeks ago, eating snacks wasn't an issue. Then MELAMINE from China snuck its ugly little head into chocolates in Korea and the country has gone crazy since.

How does this effect a 22 year old English teacher?? Any English teacher in Korea can attest for me and say that in between classes children munch of snacks like they haven't eaten for years. They also love sharing their snacks with their teachers. I love this about Korean children. Sharing really is caring. Lately, though, snacks have been a little strange. Lately all of these childrens snacks have been homemade. Homemade is generally good, right? Probably, however, I don't know if Korean moms know how to bake things properly. Cookies come out like hard, tasteless cardboard. Strange concoctions like Saltines and ketchup have been making appearances. It is all a little terrifying..

So China, for the love of God, the love of Capitalism, and the love quite possibly one of your only supports in the Republic of Korea, please please please stop this melamine madness. It is not only hurting you. It's hurting me too..

With Love,

Jinuk!

I'm still alive!

Fear not world! I am still alive. I've just been a bum and haven't been updating. Anyhoo what have I been up to you ask? Well work has been the same ole same ole. Go to work at 2, plan for two hours and then work until 10. Come home, grade papers, go to bed, repeat. Weekends are usually spent out with friends. Fun fun fun.

This past week was a little special though. Why? Because it was a holiday meaning we had Friday off! WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!

Diana finally made it safely to Korea and spent the weekend at my place. Another woohoo!

At night we went out with my coworkers but during the day we wandered around Seoul.

We managed to see Gyeongbok Palace. Now, I've been there before, but it was at night so seeing it during the day was a totally different experience. It was so picturesque and seriously looked exactly like it came from a period piece drama.



Don't let the picture fool you, they're real people!

Big drum BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM


Reunited and it feels so goooooooooooooood!

Since Diana was here this weekend it was the perfect excuse to see Ms. Stephanie. We all did Camp Adventure in Korea two years ago and it was the first time all three of us had seen each other together since. It was definitely a lot of fun.

As the day continued we managed to make our way to Yeouido. This past weekend there was a fireworks festival thing in Yeouido. The fireworks were pretty amazing but the lame part was that A. there were trees in our way and B. there were soooooooo many people around. Oh well, I am determined to see fireworks again sometime soon (perhaps New Years???).

Anyway these two things were probs the highlight of the weekend. Long weekends are always fun but it SUCKSSSSSSSS going back to work on Monday. Oh well. I leave you with some fabulous eye candy. Or should I say eye foody?? Eye desserty? I don't know..


*green tea chiffon cake. on the right is a yogurt fruit cheese roll.
I love you Migo. You have the yummiest cakes EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR

First real post in Korea

Hello world!! So I've been in Korea for a few days and have settled in a bit. At first things were pretty rough for me but they're slowly getting better, day by day. I have a really cute apartment. I made a video tour but youtube wont let me upload and it won't let me upload here so my video tour will have to wait.

Onto better things...
So yesterday I finally went out and had yummy food and some fun. Since I've gotten here I've been cooking for myself in my apartment because I haven't found the courage to eat by myself at a restaurant (all of the other foreign teachers at my school are on vacation so I haven't been able to meet/make any coworker friends). Luckily my friend Jill is in Korea and we were able to meet up!! We went to Myeongdong.

It was super great to see a familiar face. It was even better to be able to eat delicious food with a friend.

Some pictures of food we inhaled for ya:



Okay, so when we were actually eating I didn't take pictures but this is a picture of the exact same stuff Jill and I were eating from the same restaurant! We chose from a set menu. In our set we got Samgyupsal (Korean bacon), another kind of pork, and beef in addition to lots of yummy side dishes, onions, and mushrooms. Oh yeah, we also got a bottle of soju as a "service" but we didn't drink too much of it.

After a delicious dinner we decided to walk around and decided that having dessert was a really good idea. So we stopped by Lotte Department Store and went up and down looking for this one cute cafe like place that I went to last year. We eventually found it and got two beautiful and delectable desserts!



Super yum! Jill got the fruit one and I got the round one. Can you guess why I chose the round one? For those of you who know me, you know I love hearts (yeah, it's a bit silly, but everyone has their thing). If you look closely at the round cake you'll see that there are tiny little hearts on it.

One weird thing about Jill's cake was that there were two tiny little berries on it. We couldn't figure out what they were but when we tried them we came to the conclusion that they were tomatoes. Oh Korea... while tomatoes are indeed a fruit, they aren't really sweet.. and on a dessert? Nice try but no cigar.

After lovely dining we took it to the streets. Myeongdong is a fashion district and so there are tons of clothing stores and lots of street vendors selling their goods. One thing that's really great about Korea is that Koreans love to use English randomly. A lot of things don't make sense but if its in English, you've got yourself a winner.

This sign was the best of the evening.



People never believe me when I talk about how big Dunkin Donuts is here. Korea really loves Dunkin Donuts as you can see in the picture. Here it is in all of its glory.


Pretty sweet if you ask me. Didn't go in but I will definitely go sometime soon because yeah, that looks pretty sweet!

Well that's all for today so enjoy!!!