Lunch

Today I thought I'd share about some of the food that is eaten here in S.Korea. Instead of giving long descriptions...that's what wikipedia is for; I took pictures for a week of the lunches I ate at school. Wongangnim (vice president of the school) cooks lunch for all the students and teachers every day. There's always rice (a staple must have for every meal), soup, kimchi, and some kind of protein. I usually eat lunch with the 6 year old kids, which can get a bit crazy sometimes but they're great kids to be with.

 



Monday

For lunch we had: tonkatsu (breaded deep-fried pork cutlet), rice, radish kimchi, bean sprouts, and bean paste soup.

Tuesday

For lunch we had: rice, sweet & sour pork, radish kimchi, squash, bean sprout and baby shrimp soup, and barley tea. It's not common to drink something with your meal. Maybe that's why there's usually soup? If there's something to drink it's usually barley tea, warm water, or get your own drink.

Wednesday

For lunch we had: rice, seaweed soup, squid, seasoned potatoes, and radish kimchi.

Thursday

For lunch we had: bibimbap (mixed rice), cabbage kimchi, corn, fried egg, fried tofu bean paste soup, and a fruit cup (from Harry's (7s class) mom). Sometimes the parents will bring food and desserts for the students and teachers.

Friday

Before lunch I went out with wongangnim (vice-president of the school) and Maria to look into getting a smart phone for me. Afterwards we got some street food. The following pictures are of popular snack foods here.

Odeng (fish paste that's formed into cakes and cooked)

Tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes and fish cakes) and deep fried noodles.

For lunch we had: rice, spinach soup, bulgogi (marinated beef), spinach, squid, radish kimchi, and some iced coffee (from Maria).

Spring Time and Cherry Blossoms

It's spring and the cherry blossoms have arrived!
This past weekend I went to Sajeongkongweon with Carien, HeyIn, and Karen (my Pastor's wife) to enjoy the cherry blossoms. It is a popular area for people to visit in the spring time. It is located close to the Daejeon O World zoo. It was a beautiful spring day, with lots of pretty flowers, no crowd, and the constant buzz of bees at work in the trees above us (not a problem as long as they stay up there).

With Carien, HeyIn, and Karen.

Is that a tree? Nope, it's a street lamp designed to blend in with the scenery.

These people are headed out for a "serious" hike. It is the trend here to go all out on hiking gear, even if  you're just going for a little walk.

A willow cherry blossom tree.

We also saw some beautiful magnolia trees in bloom.

 Can you guess what these are? They're air hoses for people to blow the dirt off of their shoes after their hikes.

After our walk, Karen took us out for lunch at the Traditional NoodEL House. Gotta love konglish. 

The guy here is making noodles from scratch.

We had bibimbap (mixed rice) for lunch. It's served in a stone bowl that keeps your food hot throughout your whole meal.

We finished off our day with dessert at Krispy Kreme. Yay for yummy kiwi smoothies and doughnuts!!! It's probably a good thing that this place is not open yet when I walk by it every day on the way to work.

Ramen Day

Every other Friday afternoon we plan something fun for the Elementary kids to do. On our last "fun" day, we had ramen. Ramen for kids in S.Korea is the equivalent of pizza and ice cream sundaes for kids in the U.S.
Before eating ramen, we had the kids play a game. The point of the game was to find the candy in the flour, using nothing but your mouth.

Sarah setting up the game.

The kids are ready to go. There are six classes in total, but they're split up into two groups. The first group is at school from 2:30-4:00 PM and rotate three classes; Phonics, Grammar, and English Conversation/Writing. The second group is at school from 4:00-5:30 PM.

The vice-president of the school having a little fun at Dennis' (the president's son) expense.

Dennis, Antonio, and Stella after the game.

I asked my little monkey, Jade, to pose for a picture. This is what I got.

Lots of ramen (also known as ramyun).

A picture with the first group of kids and a few of my co-workers. They really love their ramen here.  It's a very cheap snack/meal too. My school is located right next to a middle school, and there were kids walking by the whole time saying "Oh, that looks so good! Can I have some? I'm hungry!"

The second group of kids have arrived and they're ready to try out the game.

Dave and Brian have successfully gotten their candy.

Wendy and Clara show that they've gotten their candy too.

Clara, Kelly, Wendy, and Julie wait for their ramen to be ready.

Best buds John and Eric. John is the boy I named. His Korean name is Uan.

After eating ramyun the kids go back inside...to eat more snacks.

A lot more snacks...most of which I've never heard of before.

Daniel kept on hiding from the camera, so the other kids made sure to get him into at least one picture.

The Laugh Corner #3

In Korea it's common to not have an actual shower space in your bathroom. Your shower head is usually connected to your sink with a drain in the middle of your bathroom floor, and if there's anything you don't want to get wet (i.e. your toilet paper) either stick it in a cupboard or outside the bathroom.

An important thing to remember after taking your shower is to turn the knob on the side of your faucet, which will stop the water flow to the shower head and direct it to your sink. Very important to remember!

Well...today was one of those forgetful days. Let's just say that the next time I used the sink, the location that the water came from was quite a surprise.

Nighttime picnics and tree blossoms

After work yesterday, the bosses took myself and a few of the other teachers and their kids out to see the tree blossoms at night. They hadn't quite bloomed yet, but we wanted to beat the rainstorm that came today. We drove for about 40 minutes and came to this pretty hill with a little forest.

The weather is warming up, and the trees are starting to bud. This picture was taken from the top of a walkway that goes above the forest. Once all the flowers bloom it's going to be beautiful!

With Chris and Dennis.

 This place is known for their hoddeok. Hoddeok is a chewy pancake that is fried and has melted brown sugar in the middle. It's usually sold only in the winter time, so we decided to take advantage of having some before  spring officially arrives.

Enjoying a nighttime picnic!

Kimbap and fish cake soup.

Hoddeok. So yummy!!!

After we finished our picnic we found this restaurant covered in lots of pretty lights and decided to make a stop and enjoy the lights and the outdoor fireplace.

With the bosses and teachers' kids (Hannah, Chris, Minnie, and Luna).