Cory And Katy

After only a month into this adventure, I have been exposed to what may be my favorite cultural difference between South Koreans and U.S. Americans.  In SK, workplaces take out their employees on a somewhat frequent basis and actually ENCOURAGE the employees to drink too much.  We got to experience this cultural difference firsthand when Katy’s elementary school took us out to a seafood restaurant last week.

While you may be thinking, “Wow! A country where you get brownie points at work for drinking with your co-workers on someone else’s dime?!?! What could be better?!”  Well, stop thinking that.  When I say seafood restaurant, I mean a raw fish restaurant… and not good raw fish.  And when I say drink, I mean soju.  Soju is the Korean go-to alcohol, and it basically tastes like a weak vodka.  Raw fish + soju = fake swallowing.  Don’t get me wrong; we definitely tasted a few new things and did some obligatory shots of soju with the principal and vice-principal, but we were not to the point we couldn’t stand up straight, like many of our fellow teachers.

Mmmm, doesn't it make your mouth water?

How's that snail, Katy?

That good, eh?

What about that red-pointy thing, Cory?

Are you ready for seconds?

So after raw fish and soju, all of the teachers headed next door to noraebang.  We have some great videos of the event, but we’re still working on formatting them so we can embed them on our blog.

In other news, we now have internet at our apartment, so fear not, readers.  You will be getting more Cory and Katy action in the future.  Prepare yourselves accordingly.

We are now settled and getting cozy in our town of Gijang. Cozy is a nice way of putting it, because our studio apartment Katy’s school set us up in is very, very… cozy. Actually, we just learned that the Korean name for such apartments is wonrum. Get it? Get it? No worries though… this type of apartment is generally what English teachers get. Ours is at least clean, somewhat modernized, and within walking distance to everything we need. The only con is that we basically have to do a backbend over our bathroom sink to wash our hair.

In one shot you can see our kitchen, laundry room, bathroom, dining room, living room, and bedroom.

Over the weekend, we decided to explore some neat things our town has to offer. We hiked up a nearby mountain and got a great view of Gijang. We could even see how close the sea is to our house! Lots of other people were hiking that day and when we reached the peak, a couple of different families offered us some of their food after seeing we only brought a couple of oranges with us. Apparently, the big thing is to bring a huge spread up to the top of the mountain and eat there for lunch. We heard some families even bring grills with them! Anyway, one family in particular made us sit down and eat their meal with them. Delicious!

This is the view of our town from the top of the mountain.

The happy hikers.

This is the nice family who shared their kimchee with us.

We took a different way down and came across a small Buddhist temple. Some of the women in the kitchen made us come in and they gave us fruit and coffee. One of the monks even sat down with us and tried out some of his English. After we ate, we were full and we hadn’t even paid for any food all day! So far in our journey, we’ve encountered nothing but hospitality and generosity. After a short tour the facilities, the monk pointed us up towards a fresh spring, and we followed a path up to find some of the most delicious water we’ve ever had.

Buddha-belly luck!

It's like you can see the inner peace in my eyes.

Best. Water. Ever.

Sorry it’s been so long between posts. We’ll try to be better! Don’t forget about us! We’re still alive!  And if you want to see more pictures, you can check out our gallery in the sidebar or my (Katy’s) facebook page.