Pickles & Pizza!

 Love pickles?  Love pizza?  Why not eat them together?  In S. Korea there is a strange custom of eating pickles with your pizza! When you order delivery pizza you can bet that your order will come with a side of pickles.  These aren't your typical dill pickles either. They are a Korean version of sweet pickles.  So, all you pickle lovers out there next time you order pizza bust out your chopsticks and some pickles!

Oh, Cass!

Oh, Cass!  My first night in Korea I stumbled upon this can of Cass Lemon in the fridge.  After carefully weighing my options to what this mystery can might hold, I determined that it must be some sort of lemon drink similar to Sprite or some kind of energy drink.  Notice the "Sound of Vitality" statement in English at the top.  Thirsty, and afraid to drink the water I decided to take my chances on this mystery can!  I opened the can and took a big ol' swig, and much to my surprise it was beer!  Wait? Beer?  Maybe I was just really jet lagged.  So, I took another drink.  Yup, lemon beer!  Not what I was expecting.  But, after traveling for more than 32 hours on a plane (I had a lot of layovers!)and finally arriving at my destination in the middle of the night this Korean lemon flavored beer wasn't to bad.  

Sinbok Rotary

Located by the University area in Mugeo-dong.  I use the Rotary as a sign post to find my way home.  It comes in handy since I'm prone to be directionally challenged!  

Easter Sunday

This Sunday as I celebrate Easter in S. Korea I am thankful for; the religious freedom that I have in America, my family who took me to church when I was a kid, and my grandmother for buying me my first Bible.  While, I miss the family dinners, dying Easter eggs and of course Easter candy the true meaning of Easter has never been clearer.  This week while, teaching a new class of middle school students we were discussing generations gaps.  We talked about things like fashion, food, music, curfews and boys (it just happens to be an all girl class).  Then after discussing all of these things the topic of religion was brought up.  The question of whether or not you and your parents disagree over religion was presented.  As we went around the room answering the question many of the girls said that they nor their parent were religious, some said either one parent or one grandparent was Buddhist and one girl said her and her family are Christian.  In Korea around 30% of the population has no religion at all and a large portion are Buddhist. As we continued to talk a girl in the room said that her and her family disagree about religion.  After asking her to explain, she said that her father was Buddhist but she wanted to be Christian.  She than told us that she had asked her father to go to a Christian church because she liked Christianity and he hit her!  This comment took me by surprise.  It got me thinking a lot this week about how truly lucky and blessed I am.  I am very thankful to have grown up with a family who took me to church as a kid, being allowed freedom of religion in America, and most of all to know Jesus Christ who died on the cross for my sins!  I hope you all have a Happy Easter and remember the true reason for this day!

Dollar, Dollar Bills Ya'll!

Well, its actually 10,000 won which is only equal to about $10.00 in the U.S.  But, it made this Okie feel Rich!

Day 2

I woke up on day 2 of my adventure excited about the day would hold!  My first task at hand was to take a shower.  I made my way into my new tiny blue tiled covered bathroom and took a look around.  This was going to be an interesting experience!  The toilet is also a family bidet (more to come in another post!) and my shower consists of a shower head mounted on the wall in the corner.  No bathtub, shower divider, or shower curtain of any kind!  You just shower there in the corner and all of the water runs on the tile floor to a drain under the sink.  I discovered this is why many Koreans wear shower shoes.  Thankfully, Amanda left me a pair at the apartment to squeeze my big size 9 1/2 feet into.  A size 7 1/2  in American woman's shoes is considered extremely large here!  I am considered lucky to have my shower in the corner since most small apartments have their shower located right over the sink!  After successfully taking a shower, I got ready for the day and prepared for adventuring out into my new city.
Linda stopped by to pick me up for lunch and on the way gave me a tour of my new neighborhood and where I would be working.  We ate lunch at Loteria a Korean fast food place.  I stared at the menu confused on what to order.  I pointed to the picture of a hamburger and hoped for the best.  It was defiantly different but, at that point food was food!  The fries where about the only thing that where the same.  She then took me to buy a pen and notebook.  I would be needing one to write down important things like my apartment code, how to get to work and did I mention my apartment code!  Yeah, its the little number you have to know to actually get into your apartment.  I forgot mine, and had to have Linda call our director so I could get back into my house.  I was extremely glad she was with me since, I didn't have a cell phone and my laptop with internet access was in my apartment! 
After a quick trip to the grocery store (where at one point, I'm pretty sure she called me Barbie!) she dropped me off at my apartment and made sure I had written down the correct directions to get to work, important phone numbers and my apartment code!  Then she said her goodbye and left.  This left me all alone and jet lagged standing in my new apartment.  What was a girl to do?  I quickly put away my groceries and fired up my laptop in attempt to find wifi again to make any connection with the world back home!  Hello Facebook!