January 19th: Sweet

A Korean style coffee sachet. Very sweet, quite creamy and delicious.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Potential caffeine fiend

January 18th: Something you bought

A couple of weeks ago I tried to order pizza in Korean. After two unsuccessful phone calls to a certain pizza place in town, I tried again to just order a pizza for collection, as my first two calls had given me the knowledge that this pizza joint doesn't do delivery.

Ring ring, Ring ring, Ring ring, and so it went on. Maybe they're closed, I thought. I guess I'll just go and get a kimbap roll. While outside the kimbap shop, something made me go and check out the pizza place just to check if they were closed or maybe they had missed my call. I had a big pizza craving that night.

Upon arriving, it was open, and the phone went off while I was in there. It's volume could be compared to that of a bomb siren, so I was then under the impression that they had just ignored me. I cried myself to sleep that night. Only joking. Not really.

Anyway, I still go back there and this is a Hawaiian pizza that I ordered for lunch today.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Can't hold a grudge.

January 17th: Water

Today we went ice skating in Iksan. The photo above is after the ice skates had started to take their toll on our feet and rest stops were frequent. The ice hadn't been smoothed in quite a while so it was a nice bumpy skate too.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Didn't fall over.

January 16th: Morning

This morning I had another 'holy crap I need to get to school moments' and consisted of me rocketing out of bed as though it were on fire and sprinting around my room throwing on any clothes I could find. Luckily my santa beard, long johns and spare bedsheets weren't in my path (of destruction) as I hurtled around my apartment, or it would have made for one of my most adventurous teaching outfits (costumes) yet.

The photo above is how my bed looked after I leapt out of it. Getting into my mentor teacher's car, I was told 'I haven't had time to brush my hair yet either'. Later on I was told I looked like an ostrich, once again down to my bedhead.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

This minus the greenery, I didn't have time for breakfast.

January 15th: Happiness

I am currently teaching at Jugsung Elementary winter camp. One part of the winter camp schedule has been making giant chocolate brownies and decorating them with cream, cornflakes, chocolate bars and fruit. Some truly terrific cakes have been created, ranging from outrageous castle like structures to more haphazard creations, as well as carefully put together tasty works of art.

The cream and cornflake fortress above was made by fourth grader Jin Wook. I swear there is a brownie under there somewhere. I'm curious as to how this cake will be cut and served, or whether it is just a 'bury your face' kind of dessert.

Making the cakes made the students very happy and they were all very proud of their creations.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Sous chef to every student at Jugsung Elementary

January 14th: Something you're reading

Today I climbed the mountain just a few minutes away from my house for the second day in a row, as an effort to succeed in my 2013 resolutions. Upon reaching the pagoda on top, I thought 'what a better place to practice my Korean'.

I read a cute sentence in an article a while back, and while I can't remember where it was or what the surrounding article was about, one sentence stuck with me. A mother, about her young son who is grasping the ability to read with both hands said "he went from reading virtually nothing, to reading as though it were his job."

This is something I try to do in a way. Anything written in Korean, I read it. I'm getting faster but I won't be reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Korean version) in two days any time soon like I did with the English version all those years ago (and that was without the use of a time turner)

Gamsahapnida for reading,

The Man on the Mountain

January 13th: In your bag

Welcome to the contents of my bag, consisting of:

• Notebook, pen and pencil.
• Hair product
• Vaseline
• Toothbrush and Toothpaste
• A christmas card I'm yet to deliver.
• A pile of rubbish. 
• Gloves - warm and fuzzy, at an agreeable price. Thanks Daiso.
• Ssanghwatang - Korean throat medicine (you drink the whole bottle and every time I do it I imagine the looks of people if I were to do it on the streets of England)
• Moisturiser
• A Korean-English dictionary
• Phone charger
• My passport - I'm still carrying this around from Hong Kong. 
• A stick on googly eye, as a security method.
• A 100 won coin.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Not quite this (yet)

January 12th: Close-up

This is a burger. This burgers name is 'ambulance', and that's BEFORE I asked for bacon as an extra topping. It is from a place named 'Salon burger' in Bukdae, Jeonju. This particular burger has a beef patty, fried egg, a hash brown, salad and barbecue sauce and was created by the owner, a very friendly man named Ji Cheon.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

'Healthy living in 2013' posterboy

January 11th: Where you sleep

Like I said in one of my earlier posts, being in a moving vehicle puts me to sleep. I guess it's similar to taking the baby out for a drive.

Here is a picture of your typical Korean bus seat, one of the places that I often sleep.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Bus narcoleptic

January 10th: Childhood

Here in Korea, children seem to have a fascination with angry birds. They come as teddies, as erasers, on socks, and I've used pictures of them plenty of times in classes and it's gone down a treat. This is something I won in an arcade grabby machine. I was actually hoping for the red one but winning this was a fluke as it got stuck on the mechanical hand. Me: 1, Arcade Overlord: 0.

At some point I hope to utilise this little bird in my classes, I have no doubt in my mind that it will excite the children. Some of them might even faint.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

#1 target of the arcade mafia.

January 9th: Daily Routine

This is the three locks on my front door. I'm grateful for my safety, but every time I do these three locks before I go to bed, I feel a bit like Will Smith getting ready for a night in 'I am legend', except I don't sleep in my bath with a gun. I don't have a bath (ever).

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Ready for the zombies.

January 8th: Your sky

Surprise! The sky in Korea is the same as the sky in wherever you are, perhaps Korea (I can hardly believe that the sky in Korea is the same as the sky in Korea either).

Tonight I went to see The Hobbit in 4D. It included moving seats, scents, flashing lights for lightning and blasts of air whenever anything moved or did something which made for lots of air blasts. Korean 3D glasses are snazzier too, but to be honest I expected nothing less. Then I put egg on my face. Nothing more on that, I'll leave you to wonder why in your free time.

Until March I'm teaching mornings. It's a test for me waking up early as teaching afternoons paved the way for some glorious lie-ins. This morning I woke up at exactly the time I was supposed to leave the house and made it out of my door in three minutes. Bed head: check. Flies undone: check. Trousers tucked into my socks: check.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Johnny Egghead

January 7th: Favourite

Maybe you remember, maybe you don't, but since living in Korea I have tended to opt towards more nautical themed mugs. The mug above is my favourite of the three nautical mugs I own. Big, good handle and a nice pattern.

What a lovely mug.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Not a very good pirate.

January 6th: Makes you smile.

Pictured above is Esther, Becky and Anna, some friends living in Jeonju that I visited this evening for dinner. These lovely ladies, as well as fried chicken, make me smile. We didn't have enough chopsticks to go round so we used them as pokers. Esther seems to have made a little kebab.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Stabbystick wielder

January 5th: Something you wore

In Korea, most people wear slip-on shoes so that when they go into their houses or a restaurant it's easy to take them off again (no shoes inside!). The shoes above are my most Korea-friendly in that respect as they're easy to slip on and off.

In the last week I've become a bit of an amateur ice skater in these shoes due to their terrible grip. It also means that I look overdressed on excursions, especially when I go for a quick ice skate down the alley to pick up eggs from the shop. 

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Slippy McSlipperson

January 4th: Letterbox

This is my letterbox. It's not exciting and it's not interesting, and all I get through it is bills. Since living here I've only received one gas bill, and I've been using my floor heating a lot, otherwise I would end up like this. When I get my bill, I will probably be like this.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Million dollar bill payer.

January 3rd: Something you adore.

This was a special treat from my mother as part of my Christmas package. I actually got three of them. Only one remains. I'm actually coming near to the end of all the treats I got. All that remains is this, half a packet of ginger nut biscuits and some jammy dodgers, which is quite impressive considering the box arrived around three weeks ago now. Were I able to buy special home treats this easily here in Korea, I don't think the box would have made it the five minute walk home from where I had it sent.

Gamsahapnida for reading,

Suprisingly self-controlled.

Adventures in Hong Kong, and in my belly.

Happy New Year! 

For the Christmas part of the festive season, I journeyed to Hong Kong to visit the lovely Perdy, a friend from university who I hadn't seen for two years previous. The journey there was long and not fun. The meals on the plane were fine except for a mysterious article which I suspected was cat food. It was jelly, in a tin shape, with bits of meat in it. Of course I tried it. This was setting me up for a week of new culinary experiences, which you will read about soon enough unless your computer decides to install updates or you get bored. Anyway, it was cat food in taste as well as appearance. In conclusion, it was cat food.

Over the next four days, I travelled by:

• Foot
• Car
• Cable Car
• Speedboat                                                
• Ferry
• Bus
• Train
• Subway
• Mini-bus

Hong Kong was overtaken by 'Hong Kong WinterFest', a city wide decoration festival and they were really creative in ways to make your average Christmas tree unusual and interesting:

Christmas Day

On Christmas day, Perdy and I met up with her mom for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We (me) ate A LOT at this dinner, and everything except a fish stomach was delicious. 

Alice, Perdy and I.

This is called a century egg, because it's been encased in clay which makes the egg more alkaline and it goes black, green and blue and solid without having to even cook it, after weeks to potentially months of sitting waiting in its clay home. This was one thing I REALLY wanted to try on my trip, and coming in a pork rice porridge soup, it was tasty and something I'm glad I tried. I'm not sure how many of you will be convinced. It's like you don't want to eat old eggs!

Another course in our feast was chicken feet. There's an interesting and quite invasive method of eating these. The trick is to suck the meat off the knuckles until you break them off, and then move onto the next knuckle down. Not much meat on them (look at your own fingers, about that much) but they were tasty!

Cake a la Hong Kong.

Some tasty beefy balls.

Some tasty porky balls. The pork was similar to that which you get in a pork pie.

Afterwards, me and Perdy wandered round the markets, a railway museum and then went to meet her friend Blueky at his family's Hong Kong Style barbecue. See below:

Afterwards, we drank wine and played a board game (Mahjong... better described as a game on a board). This combined with the ritual stuffing of myself with lots of food actually gave way to a traditional style Christmas, just on the other side of the world.

Miscellaneous Food

On display here is beancurd 'sauce' (chinese cheese) covered green beans, deep fried oyster and pork in rice in a hot stone bowl, making the rice nice'n'crispy. Following this we ate snake soup. 

This was my final meal in Hong Kong: Breakfast. It included French toast, noodles with sauteed beef, pineapple bun with butter (not cheese, although it looks like it in the picture) a sausage keeping warm under a lovely ham blanket, egg and a piping hot cuppa tea.

And so, after my culinary journey of Hong Kong, it was time to say goodbye.

Goodbye.

Photo Challenge

Moving onto more festivities, a few friends and I spent New Years Eve celebrating in Seoul. It was fun. I stumbled across a photo challenge on fatmumslim.com.au for the new year. Each day, I will take a photo, as according to the list:

I'll be uploading my photos here (hopefully daily) so keep on checking back.

Day 1: Me

This was very early in the morning of January 2nd, so I'm already not doing it to the rules, but it was at this time I found out about the challenge. You can see my little froggy friend in the background.

Day 2: Breakfast

I didn't have time to grab anything more substantial, so a tasty cold caramel coffee had to do. I was not disappointed.

Gamsahapnida for reading and check back tomorrow,

Cat Food Connoiseur.

P.S. K-ballad 'Don't Forget' by Baek Ji Young.