Hey everyone!
Colleen here for the birthday update! Thanks to everyone for the b-day wishes and gifts, namely all the pencils and erasers I received from my thoughtful students who probably purchased them minutes earlier from the stationary/candy store located directly underneath our school. The month of August has just flown by, and we can't believe we are already two months in! It has been fun, frustrating, tiring, hilarious, exciting and absolutely dumbfounding at times, but the overwhelming consensus is that coming to Korea, and Ulsan in particular, was probably the best decision we could have made after graduating. We are already able to pick out certain words when listening to Koreans talk, and can order several dishes at restaurants that don't have pictures on the menu or wall. We've got two "How to read/speak Korean" books that came with the house, and sometimes you can hear me annoyingly repeating the "awe" "ooo" and "uhhh" noises, slowly and unassured as I attempt to read the Hangul symbols.
Anyways, onto the post topic of birthdays!
As I'm hoping all of you are aware of, both Jake and my birthday have passed in the past week or so and they were both fun and memorable. First up was my birthday, on August 23rd. On Aug. 22nd, Jake and I decided we would head down to Ilsan beach for a casual beer or two. We went to the WA Bar (the only Western themed bar in the area) and got some beers. Just to put a Korean Western bar into context for you, they sell "Western" dishes that you have never seen in the west. A popular one is pork cutlet in sugar-gravy with a strange vegetable on it. All Koreans assume every restaurant in the West will have this dish, and that it is the best seller too. Another head scratcher is the Koreans obsession of associating Western food with pickles. If you order pizza, it comes with pickles. French fries- you get pickles, spaghetti - you get pickles.... you get the drift. It's like some Korean a while back went to the "West" and informed the entire Korean population of the food we ate, but was sorely mistaken, or just couldn't remember the real recipes. (Probably the exact feeling Chinese people have when they eat at a "Chinese restaurant" in the West for the first time) So at the WA Bar, our favourite western food is shredded cabbage in a mustard-yogurt sauce with chicken, pickles, cherry tomatoes and jalapeño peppers on the side. Sounds just like home, right? Once midnight struck, and it was officially my birthday we headed to the beach, got a beer at the convenience store, and set off some fireworks. After fending off a drunk, soaking wet and feisty man by offering him a sparkler, we went back into the convenience store for one last beer, calling it a night, we had decided. However, when we got to the store we were greeted by a table of Sri Lankens and some Korean HHI workers (Hyundai Heavy Industries basically employs 90% of the city's population, give or take a percentage point). So, semi-well versed in English, we were invited to their table for soju and mekchu (beer in Korean). We obliged, and several hours later, not to mention a haphazard Joe Louis birthday cake and a fire work or two later, we stumbled home and went to sleep.
An hour before I turned 22 for real (at 8:01am) I was awoken by a phone call from my mom. Jake made me some breakfast while I snoozed a little longer and I opened my presents from him (jewelery, a singing card and a spa facial) and my mom (a card and pasta sauce in the mail) Work that day was fun, as I gave my students candy and a word search - I wasn't interested in doing much mo
re. My boss served us birthday cake for lunch and I got lots of gifts from my students, some more useful or touching than others, such as 4 red roses from a shy boy named Dong Gew, or a wallet and notebook from cute Tay Eun and her sister Day Eun. We were too tired to go out that night, but strolled to Ilsan beach to play a few games- basketball, batting cages, and rock, paper, scissor machines.
Saturday we were treated to a joint birthday lunch by our boss. All of our coworkers attended, as well as Mrs. An's son and nephew. She took us to "the most expensive restaurant" in the area, which was a traditional Japanese restaurant where her husband has very important business meetings. Unfortunately for me, the entire menu was shellfish, and it was a set menu for everyone. She was well aware of my shellfish allergy, she even wrote me a post it in Korean saying "I am allergic to shellfish. Please do not serve me food with shellfish in it" for me to show at Korean restaurants. However, I think she was so excited getting reservations that she temporarily forgot my allergy. So, while strange snails, squid, eel, sea cucumber, sea urchin, sea squirts, and other indistinguishable foods were being cracked and consumed, I had a bowl of plain rice, kimchi and some tuna.
In the evening Simon and Min He came to our place for some pre-drinks, and we set off to the beach for a long night of football (Man City vs. Man United - Simon "obviously" roaring and screaming for Man. city through to their defeat). We enventually ran into the Sri Lankens we met the other night, and arrived home around 6am.
(Oh God, I write waaay too much... sorry)
Jake's B-day went well. We went out the night before for some
Booldak (Fire chicken - seriously the hottest thing we have eaten in our lives, but soooo good despite the fiery hot pain!) and beer. We witnessed our second WA Bar birthday party; the lights go out, weird birthday music comes on and the bartenders juggle flaming bottles and make the b-day boy drink some fiery shot ..... its wild. They usually set off fireworks inside too. Thankfully we witnessed someone else getting the WA Bar b-day, don't worry, it wasn't for Jake. We played some games, and headed home in the pouring rain. Because it was well after midnight, Jake decided to open his gifts from me, and save the ones from my mom and his family until the morning. I got him some stretched canvass, acrylic and watercolour paints, and two books - a compilation of Nietzsche's work and F. Scott Fitzgerald's. The morning was a bacon and egg breakfast, complete with a talking picture frame from his family. A cake was consumed at lunch and he received pencils and letters from his students.
So there you have it, our birthdays mingled into one.
**Jake's pictures**
**Colleen's pictures**
Colleen here for the birthday update! Thanks to everyone for the b-day wishes and gifts, namely all the pencils and erasers I received from my thoughtful students who probably purchased them minutes earlier from the stationary/candy store located directly underneath our school. The month of August has just flown by, and we can't believe we are already two months in! It has been fun, frustrating, tiring, hilarious, exciting and absolutely dumbfounding at times, but the overwhelming consensus is that coming to Korea, and Ulsan in particular, was probably the best decision we could have made after graduating. We are already able to pick out certain words when listening to Koreans talk, and can order several dishes at restaurants that don't have pictures on the menu or wall. We've got two "How to read/speak Korean" books that came with the house, and sometimes you can hear me annoyingly repeating the "awe" "ooo" and "uhhh" noises, slowly and unassured as I attempt to read the Hangul symbols.
Anyways, onto the post topic of birthdays!As I'm hoping all of you are aware of, both Jake and my birthday have passed in the past week or so and they were both fun and memorable. First up was my birthday, on August 23rd. On Aug. 22nd, Jake and I decided we would head down to Ilsan beach for a casual beer or two. We went to the WA Bar (the only Western themed bar in the area) and got some beers. Just to put a Korean Western bar into context for you, they sell "Western" dishes that you have never seen in the west. A popular one is pork cutlet in sugar-gravy with a strange vegetable on it. All Koreans assume every restaurant in the West will have this dish, and that it is the best seller too. Another head scratcher is the Koreans obsession of associating Western food with pickles. If you order pizza, it comes with pickles. French fries- you get pickles, spaghetti - you get pickles.... you get the drift. It's like some Korean a while back went to the "West" and informed the entire Korean population of the food we ate, but was sorely mistaken, or just couldn't remember the real recipes. (Probably the exact feeling Chinese people have when they eat at a "Chinese restaurant" in the West for the first time) So at the WA Bar, our favourite western food is shredded cabbage in a mustard-yogurt sauce with chicken, pickles, cherry tomatoes and jalapeño peppers on the side. Sounds just like home, right? Once midnight struck, and it was officially my birthday we headed to the beach, got a beer at the convenience store, and set off some fireworks. After fending off a drunk, soaking wet and feisty man by offering him a sparkler, we went back into the convenience store for one last beer, calling it a night, we had decided. However, when we got to the store we were greeted by a table of Sri Lankens and some Korean HHI workers (Hyundai Heavy Industries basically employs 90% of the city's population, give or take a percentage point). So, semi-well versed in English, we were invited to their table for soju and mekchu (beer in Korean). We obliged, and several hours later, not to mention a haphazard Joe Louis birthday cake and a fire work or two later, we stumbled home and went to sleep.
An hour before I turned 22 for real (at 8:01am) I was awoken by a phone call from my mom. Jake made me some breakfast while I snoozed a little longer and I opened my presents from him (jewelery, a singing card and a spa facial) and my mom (a card and pasta sauce in the mail) Work that day was fun, as I gave my students candy and a word search - I wasn't interested in doing much mo
re. My boss served us birthday cake for lunch and I got lots of gifts from my students, some more useful or touching than others, such as 4 red roses from a shy boy named Dong Gew, or a wallet and notebook from cute Tay Eun and her sister Day Eun. We were too tired to go out that night, but strolled to Ilsan beach to play a few games- basketball, batting cages, and rock, paper, scissor machines.Saturday we were treated to a joint birthday lunch by our boss. All of our coworkers attended, as well as Mrs. An's son and nephew. She took us to "the most expensive restaurant" in the area, which was a traditional Japanese restaurant where her husband has very important business meetings. Unfortunately for me, the entire menu was shellfish, and it was a set menu for everyone. She was well aware of my shellfish allergy, she even wrote me a post it in Korean saying "I am allergic to shellfish. Please do not serve me food with shellfish in it" for me to show at Korean restaurants. However, I think she was so excited getting reservations that she temporarily forgot my allergy. So, while strange snails, squid, eel, sea cucumber, sea urchin, sea squirts, and other indistinguishable foods were being cracked and consumed, I had a bowl of plain rice, kimchi and some tuna.
In the evening Simon and Min He came to our place for some pre-drinks, and we set off to the beach for a long night of football (Man City vs. Man United - Simon "obviously" roaring and screaming for Man. city through to their defeat). We enventually ran into the Sri Lankens we met the other night, and arrived home around 6am.
(Oh God, I write waaay too much... sorry)
Jake's B-day went well. We went out the night before for some
Booldak (Fire chicken - seriously the hottest thing we have eaten in our lives, but soooo good despite the fiery hot pain!) and beer. We witnessed our second WA Bar birthday party; the lights go out, weird birthday music comes on and the bartenders juggle flaming bottles and make the b-day boy drink some fiery shot ..... its wild. They usually set off fireworks inside too. Thankfully we witnessed someone else getting the WA Bar b-day, don't worry, it wasn't for Jake. We played some games, and headed home in the pouring rain. Because it was well after midnight, Jake decided to open his gifts from me, and save the ones from my mom and his family until the morning. I got him some stretched canvass, acrylic and watercolour paints, and two books - a compilation of Nietzsche's work and F. Scott Fitzgerald's. The morning was a bacon and egg breakfast, complete with a talking picture frame from his family. A cake was consumed at lunch and he received pencils and letters from his students.So there you have it, our birthdays mingled into one.
**Jake's pictures**
**Colleen's pictures**
No comments:
Post a Comment