China? Yes, Please!

Alright. So I've had a chance to recuperate from the trip and am ready to attempt telling you all about it. As you may have read on Mullen's blog, our Chinese vacation got off to a bit of a bumpy start. But the second we landed, our awesome tour guide, David, took the reins and the trip ran very smoothly. If anyone is looking to travel from Seoul, I definitely recommend using Xanadu. Typically it's a bit difficult for foreigners to get around Beijing because their public transportation leaves much to be desired and so few people speak English, but every detail of our trip was taken care of for us - including three meals a day!

When we first left the airport we were running behind schedule because of flight delays (again, Boo Air China!) so we had to push back the Temple of Heaven and went straight to the Peiking Duck restaurant (so delicious). And for the record, to everyone from college that I ever ate Chinese food with that didn't order communal dishes. I have now BEEN to China and Chinese food is MOST DEFINITELY served FAMILY STYLE!!! So I was right (no shit, Sherlock) and you were wrong and I hope you have all of that wasted food hanging on your consciences nice and heavy-like. From there we went to a Chinese acrobat show that our tour company called a circus. I was expecting it to be sort of similar to the atmosphere of a luau in Hawaii...sort of folksy and cultural. However, this "circus" really ended up being more of a recital type show for some random acrobat school for teenagers. While it was impressive, I felt awkward being there. There was an audio-visual section of the performance that told us a story behind each performance, which was poorly translated into English warranting phrases such as "Watch how the umbrellas booms with floweriness." One of the highlights of this performance was definitely the warning before-hand letting us no that smoking, pirating and waging nuclear warfare were strictly prohibited.


Then of course there was the 10 year old tight rope walker. Saying this kid was impressive is an understatement. After he got his balance on the rope, he took to swinging it side to side and riding it like a wave. After he'd gotten that down he started to do the splits - on a tight rope up in the air, he did the splits! And then finally he started flipping on it - big deal... ! After he'd finished he flipped off and then at the last moment gave a shooter/thumbs up to the audience. Mega cute. Other than that, I'd have to say the final act took the cake for me. It was a trick bike riding segment - but don't think BMX. Like 10 kids all came out on to stage and started riding bikes in circles.... then, one by one, they all stood up and balanced on their seats, and still managed to keep their bikes under control spinning around on the stage. After a bunch of variations of that, one of the riders continued to ride in a circle, while each of the other acrobats climbed on to some part of his bike. By the end, he was riding around in a circle with probably thirteen or fourteen people configured into a pyramid on his back. Crazy impressive. After they'd finished that, all of the acts came out, the MCs asked us to "give them our hands in clapping" and sang a song called "Number One!" while jumping around on stage. It was eerily similar to "Can You Do It..."

After the circus we just went to the hotel - which was the nicest Best Western I've ever stayed in. I would say it was more comparable to an Embassy Suites. - and hit the sack so we could be up bright and early for the next day of our trip: Ming Tombs, "Jade City" (jade factory), The Great Wall, and


Anyway, Chinese circus. Check.

Stay tuned for details from the rest of the trip, probably a post a day but I'm not making any promises.


Peace,
Erica



PS: And for those of you wondering, I have fully mastered the art of using chopsticks and am not offered a fork at any dining establishments.

See? (Dinner at a Szechwan restaurant - SPICY!)

Chuseok in China - The Cliff Notes

Trying to sum up the last seven days of my life is sort of a challenge. When I try to put it into words I almost don't believe it all myself... So, I guess I'll just stick to the basics for now.

This past Tuesday was the Korean National Holiday of Chuseok, which is similar to Thanksgiving in the US. Because of that, we all got Monday through Wednesday off from teaching - and we consider ourselves extra lucky that Chuseok fell on a Tuesday this year because that meant we got 5 consecutive days off from work. Perfect for a mini-vacation! So, after being in Seoul for just about a month, Andrea and I opted to spend our five days off traveling to China. We booked a tour that spent 4 days and 3 nights (Sunday through Wednesday) in Beijing and included all our meals as well as the typical tour guide-y stuff. The trip was nothing short of spectacular. It got off to a bit of a rocky start because our flight was delayed and customs was a mob scene, so we missed most of the first day. But our Chinese tour guide (David) and our Korean travel agent (Jenny Lee) were awesome and adjusted the itinerary so that we would still be able to see everything we'd planned on.

China is a really wonderful country and Beijing is awesome, of course. The sites were gorgeous and the entire city had a sort of mysterious feeling to it. I really had to pinch myself. We visited a bunch of things over our four days there - each of which I will detail in its own post. ... anyway, more details to come later but that's all for now!


Peace,
Erica

High Times, Hard Times...

My title describes the life of any sports fan... and for sure any sports fan that follows sports in Southern California.

This post has little to do with Korea - but hey, we all need a break now and then. I had an easy Friday night with Mullen consisting of dinner at Fridays and coffee at Starbucks. If it weren't for the grape flavored dinner mint or the tiny portions we might have forgotten we were in Korea! On our little excursion we passed the MLB store in Meyong-Dong (shopping district) which I ran to like a kid on Christmas... only to find it A) closed and B) filled only with Giants and Yankees gear. I threw up a little in my mouth at that point. Anyway, when I got in tonight I caught up a bit on my sports teams. I've been following the Chargers, but football season just started... and the horrible record of the Dodgers as of late has made me not want to read the team news. So I was just browsing dodgerblues and reading the asshole of the moment section and I read that Brett Tomko is a Padre...? WTF? When did that happen? Not that I care, he pretty much blows. But seriously, it's so weird to be out of the loop.

I miss sports, so much. And I'm not lying when I'm secretly pleased that the Dodgers are going to miss the post season. I would die if they won the world series - or even made it TO the world series and I couldn't be in at least the US, if not LA to watch. Football is another story altogether - I can't watch any of it here and I miss it so much - but I want the Chargers to contend this season. I don't want them to win it all, but I don't see that happening in Norv Turner's first year... but I feel like the Chargers are just starting their climb to dominating the NFL and have no doubts that I will be in the US to watch their dynasty unfold and to throw it in the face of every Oakland. Raiders fan. LT for life, San Diego SUPER Chargers baby!!!


Peace,
Erica

Boo Air China! BOO!

I just got an e-mail from the travel agent that Mullen and I booked our Beijing trip through and apparently Air China over-booked our return flight. So I get a 100,000 won refund and one day cut off my trip.


Boo Air China... BOO!

First Round of Pictures

As promised, a few pictures from the past three weeks.

One last good, strong cup of coffee for awhile. "Venti" doesn't exist here!


Killing time at LAX during while our flight was delayed.


Patrick served as official ipod holder while Mullen and I watched Prisoner of Azkaban.


Uhm, we're in KOREA!!?!


Leaving the airport.


Ladies and gentlemen,

...my...

... view.



WOW!


Movies in Korea are crazy cheap.

And, they have churros too.

This is where we went for dinner on my Birthday.



Best gift ever (from Mullen) -- they really love California here.

Coffee Bean for dessert

Liz and Kirsten bought me a (DELICIOUS) cake from Paris Baguette

Mullen and I found Greek food in Itaewon

The food was so amazing -- it warranted a picture.

At a "Western Bar" called Gogo's ... they played Sublime here!

Just in case you thought it was a fake one

Would you like some waffles with your coffee? Because you get them.

This is one of their malls. (This sign made me think of Tolmie)

A 'musical fashion show' started behind us at 10 pm on a weekday...

And then there were fireworks, but Mullen and I thought they were gunshots.
(No Joke)

(no caption needed)

This is Korean BBQ -- so good.



Soju, it's ike Korean vodka., and they drink it A LOT.

This was supposed to be an "early night" ... yeah, right.
.

much love - fin!


Hope you liked them, stay tuned for more.

Peace,
Erica

It's a BOGO blog

The post I wrote last week got lost in cyber space, so this week it's two-for-one.

I: Can You Do It? YES, I CAN!

Last Sunday (9.9.07) my school held its first annual SLP Mini-Olympics, complete with opening ceremonies, pyrotechnics, half-baked family competitions, and prizes (Kleenex and kitchen gloves for the mothers, rice and beer for the fathers...) It's hard to pick a highlight of the day. It could be the game called "Pop the Sphere" where Moms and Dad tied a balloon to their kid's arm, and then held them up between them as the kids went after each other trying to pop each other's balloons. It was freakishly violent... Or maybe it was the one called "A Father's Love" where the Dad who could do the most push ups with their kid sitting on their back won - that's the one they got the beer for. But I think I have to say that the moment that takes the cake is when the kids put on the song and dance they'd been rehearsing for three weeks called, "Can You Do It?" Words can't describe it so I've uploaded a video below. Please Enjoy.



II: A View, China and Projectile Spaghetti

I FINALLY MOVED INTO MY APARTMENT! Living here is so much more real now that I have my place. Not that I've really unpacked or anything, but hey, give me time. My family is amazing and they sent me a bunch of things from home including new sheets and the quilt from my bed. It's nice to have a few familiar touches around. I definitely hit the jackpot as far as my apartment is concerned. It's pretty big (by Korean standards), I have an automatic lock and a pin number so I don't have to worry about carrying keys, there's a 7-11 and a Bakery in the building, along with 3 restaurants, a Christian dance club and a dry cleaners. PLUS, I'm on the 12th floor facing west so I've got a beautiful view of downtown , and on a clear day I see a gorgeous sunset... I feel really lucky.

I'm heading into my second week of teaching on my own, and it's already going better than my first did. Last week wasn't really bad: if you don't count that on my first full day of teaching one of my students threw up at lunch (which all of my other students mimed for me since they didn't know the English word for 'throw up'), a bee got caught in the classroom, I taught music to the most awfulyl behaved 5 year music and made one them cry. Eh, whatever. The job's fine - but it's definitely not my life's calling. I'm here to live in Korea, not to further the minds of Korean pre-schoolers. Sorry . With that in mind however, I'd like to brag to everyone that in exactly one week I will be in the Forbidden City and touring The Great Wall of China with one miss Andrea Mullen --- read her copycat blog at mullenskoreanconnection.blogspot.com --- yup, we're going to China. We have 3 days off from work for the Korean Holiday of Chuseok (which is like American Thanksgiving) and since this year those three days fall on a Monday-Wednesday, we took this chance to do some impromptu traveling. We found a tour with a company called Xanadu that is 4 days, 3 nights all inclusive blah blah blah. Long story short: I'm going to China, be jealous and look for postcards and pictures.


Love to everyone. Watch lots of football for me - I'm not too disappointed in the somewhat poor performances of my favorite teams because then I know they can't win "the big one" while I'm 20,000 miles away with no way to watch. :)

Peace,
Erica

Gonna party like it's my birthdaaaaay...

So I am officially 22... which is 23 Korean (they count time spent in the womb in your age). I got e-mails for a day and a half because of the time difference between the US and here. Work was normal: I followed around about 6 classes total. It's typical for the teachers and students to spend 5 minutes asking each other how they are that day, and so any kid who asked found out it was my birthday. So for most the day I got a lot of "Erica teacher! Happy Birthday!! ...Cake?" After work I went out for Thai food in Itaewon with my friends from home, plus our new friend Peter who is from Australia. Afterwards we took the delicious cake that Liz and Kirsten brought me to a Coffee Bean (Yes! They have Coffee Bean in Korea!!) and had dessert. There are a lot of foreigners in Itaewon because it is near the US marine base, so it was nice to see a diverse crowd for the first time in a few weeks.

I wasn't able to get a phone because you need either your passport or your alien card to buy one. I don't have my passport because it is at the immigration office so that I can get my alien card. That's a nice catch-22, isn't it? So - I am phone-less until sometime next week. I have to work on Sunday because my school is having "Mini-Olympics" ... which is basically a field day. It should be fun, and we don't have morning classes the next day so that makes up for it. Plus, I will be sad to see Amy (the teacher I am replacing) go, but I will be SOOOOOOO glad to move into my apartment. At this point, anything is better than the motel. The people there are nice, but my stuff is enveloping me and I'm feeling slightly clostraphobic.

I hope everyone's well at home. California's going through an awful heat wave and here it won't stop raining! It's funny to be in the rain, it makes me feel like it's Christmas. I refuse to ever adapt from my Californian tolerance for weather, ever.


Peace,
Erica


PS- For my birthday, Andrea bought me the best, most tacky "California Girls" trucker hat you've ever seen in you life... hoping to post a picture soon.