I've seen these questions on Catherine's and Dan/Amanda's blogs and thought they were fun so I thought I'd try it too. It also gave me an idea for one of my last English Corners of the year. Tomorrow I'm going to have the students fill out a slightly simplified version of these questions and then we are going to talk about celebrating New Years and making resolutions. I don't know about you, but I'm excited. Anyway, here's my 2010 year in review:

-- What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?

Eat chicken and pig feet, live with a Chinese roommate, get a frequent flier miles card, wear jeggings

-- Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I have no idea what my resolutions were last year and thought I might make some new ones with high hopes and good intentions (study more Chinese, run more, get up earlier, watch less TV and movies) but I’ll probably forget them soon after I make them

-- Did anyone close to you give birth?

My college roommate, Mary and childhood friend Kim. Elementary classmates Mandy and Meryl and college dormmate Corrie

-- Did anyone close to you die?

I don't think so

-- What countries did you visit?

Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and South Korea

-- What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?

1) To earn more than $600/month 2) a crown for one of my teeth - my dentist says it's absolutely essential but it costs over a grand ...see #1, 3) health/dental insurance.....see #s 1 and 2

-- What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

The day Sean proposed. I don’t remember the actual date. I have a horrible memory (seriously) but I know it was definitely in July or August

-- What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Getting my students to think critically and creatively (haha, yeah, that didn't happen, but I tried), I was pretty excited to spend about an hour writing an essay for a study abroad/teaching contest and winning a $500 Amazon card

-- What was your biggest failure?

After writing a letter to United concerning customer service and receiving two free travel vouchers worth $200 each, I didn't use them before they expired. Fail.

-- Did you suffer illness or injury?

Unless you count the occasional and invariable bouts of Montezuma from living in China, then nope

-- What was the best thing you bought?

A netbook with the gift certificate from Amazon. Love it. Also a long down-filled parka that I, literally, wear all the time.

-- Whose behavior merited celebration?

My mom and dad for being so patient with me and helping me in every way possible to plan a wedding while I am half a world away

-- Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Corrupt Chinese government officials - I hear new stories from brave students all the time, the whole Nobel Peace Prize situation is crazy considering nobody in China even knows that one of their own won (it's kept pretty much a secret/downplayed/viewed very negatively), North Korea's actions were pretty ridiculous as of late

-- Where did most all of your money go?

Plane tickets/traveling

-- What song will always remind you of 2010?

Any Korean/Chinese/Japanese pop song, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Miley, Beiber (he's huge in China), Love the Way You Lie, Ke$ha

-- Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder?

b) thinner or fatter?

c) richer or poorer?

happier, fatter and poorer

-- What do you wish you'd done more of?

Study Chinese, take the bus instead of taxis, work out, keep in touch with family and friends better

-- What do you wish you'd done less of?

Napping, watching TV series on DVD, watching movies, sleeping in

-- How will you be spending Christmas?

This year with Chinese friends, foreign friends and Sean, next year hopefully with family

-- Did you fall in love in 2010?

Yes - with Chinese food, it was just ok last year but this year I think my tastes have changed because I love it and crave it. Either that or my body had developed an addiction to MSG.

-- What was your favorite TV program?

I currently love watching Dexter (now on Season 4), How I Met Your Mother (now on Season 5) and I wish I could get a hold of Glee (saw Season 1 last year and loved it)

-- Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

Nope

-- What was the best book you read?

I really enjoyed reading books from former profs at Hope College this year. Two that were fantastic were: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (Rhoda Janzen) and You Don't Look Like Anyone I know (Heather Sellers). Also I have enjoyed several books by Anne Lamott - she's awesome!

-- What was your greatest musical discovery?

The Givers (Saw You First), Lenka (The Show)

-- What did you want and get?

An engagement ring and a gym membership - one of the private students that I tutor surprised me with one

-- What did you want and not get?

A Kindle - because Kristin surprised me with a Nook instead!

-- What was your favorite film of this year?

Eat, Pray, Love, Social Network

-- What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 29 and went on a date to Pizza Hut with Sean (to be fair, it's considered fine dining in China)

-- What's one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

If I were fluent in Mandarin

-- How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

Nonexistent, or whatever concept occurs to me 10 minutes before I'm supposed to be at class while I'm ripping off my pajamas

-- What kept you sane?

Baking American treats like brownies, cupcakes, muffins and cookies (and all the packages and goodies sent from home!)

-- Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Ryan Reynolds. Love him.

-- What political issue stirred you the most?

Health Insurance

-- Who did you miss?

My family. Skype just doesn't cut it.

-- Who was the best new person you met?

Ariana - the new female foreign teacher here who is a godsend

-- Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:

Discipline/motivation doesn't just happen on it's own

-- Quote a song that sums up your year:

Glee's version: "Don't Stop Believin'/Hold on to that feelin'"

I'm still grading the mountain of final exams from my culture class. They take a lot of time because of the amount of questions and the final essay. I am spending a lot of time on them because I am planning on handing them back next week when Sean has the same students in his last class.

The most enjoyable part of grading the exams has been reading the essay questions. For this exam there was only one essay question which covered cultural differences between China and the West. I told the students ahead of time that the essay would be on cultural differences; the rest of the test focused on information about the specific Western countries that we studied.

Teaching culture was a big challenge for me. I wanted to cover the smaller, interesting and entertaining details like tipping in restaurants, food, holidays etc. but I also wanted to get at the more complicated differences like cultural values, ways of thinking and lifestyle in general. Some of the students were completely lost on the more abstract concepts but many were able to get it (I think). The essays are more helpful to me than the class evaluations in seeing what the students actually took away from the class. Some are horribly disappointing, others are completely surprising, a few are offensive, several are impressive and many are just plain hilarious and adorable. A lot include information that is a) just plain wrong, b) topics we never talked about in class and I have no idea where they heard it/learned about it, c) slightly skewed advice that we did talk about in class, d) super creative and funny observations that seem to be original.

Needless to say, reading these 160 essays on the Chinese perspective concerning Western cultural differences could be a whole book in itself. It's pretty eye-opening and I'm enjoying it immensely. I just hope that the students took more away from the class than simple surface-level cultural "oddities" like firm handshakes, waiting in line and putting toilet paper in the toilet instead of throwing it away.

Here's the final exam essay question and one example that looks similar to many of the essays I have read so far:

One of your Chinese friends from your hometown sends you a message on QQ and says that he/she is going to study in America for a year and wants to know if you have any advice for them. You decide to write an email explaining many of the cultural differences between China and the West. Your email to your friend should be an organized essay of at least one page that shares, in your own words, at least 8 differences in the lives/opinions/culture/mindset of Chinese compared to Americans. Do not simply list your ideas, you must explain them in essay form as if you were truly writing an email to your friend. Be creative, use complete sentences and be sure to include specific details and examples.

Dear Button*,

I am so happy to know that you are going to study in America. As we all know, there are many differences between China and the West. We grow up in different environments and the food we eat and the education we receive are completely different. Children in the West are more independent, they are equal to their parents in the family and they must move out of their parents’ house when they turn to 18. Because of this, they begin to take part-time jobs at a young age, maybe 15 or 16. So, perhaps almost every student in your school will have more work experience than you.

Now, I am going to tell you some different details in daily life. First, if you want to shake hands with somebody, remember to shake with some strength or others will think that you are weak or not friendly. Second, try to line in a queue when you do everything. Third, never talk too loudly in public or you will be considered to be rude and impolite. Besides, you are supposed to leave a tip for the waiter or waitress in a restaurant. One more thing, in the West they usually take a shower in the morning while we do that in the evening.

When you first arrive there, maybe you will be surprised that people there are so open. It is easy for them to kiss in public, to say “I love you” and so on. Do not feel strange; it’s normal there. However, to sing in public is considered a little scary and embarrassing there while it’s normal in our country. What I am now worried about is the food, which is really different between our nation and the West. Food there will be bread, sandwiches, apple pies, fried chicken and so on. I hope that you can get used to that. What’s more, they would like to drink some cold drinks even in the winter, which seems crazy to us. At last, I want to tell you that please say “thank you” all the time. Wish you a happy life there! Good luck!

Yours,

Selena*

Last week I did an English Corner at Web on backpacking and traveling (an English Corner is basically just an hour-long interactive presentation) to students interested in learning/practicing English. To many Chinese, traveling by yourself or backpacking seems crazy as most choose to go with a travel agency or travel with a group. Students always say to me that I like to travel "DIY" (do-it-yourself). I don't know where they learned that acronym but it has definitely caught on in China.

To me, trip planning is half the fun of traveling. It gets me more excited about what I am going to see and do, I learn a lot more and I feel more in control and just generally more satisfied when I travel by myself. True, trip planning by yourself is a lot of work and can be more difficult, but it is also usually cheaper and (I think) a lot more rewarding. This year Sean and I have been working hard at getting ready to travel this winter. After weeks of searching on different airlines we finally committed to dates and bought our tickets (with the help of Daniel - thanks Daniel!) Daniel, a teacher from last year, is going to join us for part of the trip - it should be a good time!

Here is what we have so far:
January 7 - Shanghai to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia (Sean finishes teaching on the 6th)
January 19 - Kuala Lampur to Jakarta, Indonesia
February 3 - Bali, Indonesia to Singapore
February 8 - Singapore to Cebu, Philippines
February 24 - Manila, Philippines to Shanghai (We begin teaching again on the 28th)

We were pretty stoked that the cost for all of these flights for both of us was only about $1200 total. The airlines that we used were Air Asia and Cebu Pacific.

Here are some of the tips that I presented to my students about DIY travel.

1. Read as much as you can about where you are going and talk to other people who have been there to see what they have to say
2. Get a guidebook - there are many different kinds but we like Rough Guides or Lonely Planet
3. Check airlines for prices early - sometimes there are promotions
4. Get some travel insurance. I've used (and others have recommended) "inext"
5. Make sure to check the temperatures and weather of the places you are going so you know what to pack
6. Register with the US government so they know where you are if you have a problem. Also, they send you travel/safety updates on the places you are going
7. Check the CDC website for required vaccinations/medication.
8. Check if any type of visa is required
9. Make sure that your passport is not expired (or anywhere near 6 months of expiring) and that you have enough pages for new visas/exit and entrance stamps
10. Make sure you have multiple sources of money - i.e. ATM/debit cards, Visa/Mastercard and cash (write down the customer service numbers of your cards in a safe place in case they are lost/stolen)
11. Print out and make copies of everything - i.e. flight itineraries, passport and visa of permanent residence
12. Call your credit cards and bank to let them know where and when you will be traveling
13. Make a packing list and start throwing things in a bag
14. Make a list of the most important things you want to see in each place so you don't waste too much time figuring out what you want to do
15. Make a budget (for this trip, ours is about $50/day for each person - that is probably way more than we will need for these countries but we want to be safe)
16. Check the voltage in each country and pack any adapters/converters if you need them
17. Make sure you take along some addresses if you want to send any postcards (I love post cards!)

There are probably some other tips I'm missing, but that's all I could remember on the top of my head for English Corner. We're excited to travel this year!

Whew! It's been crazy busy lately so blogging has kind of been pushed to the wayside. A couple of people have asked what I do for Christmas here in China so I thought I'd do a post on how I'm celebrating Christmas this year.


The week before Christmas I worked a lot at second jobs downtown since I didn't have anymore classes at the university. I work 10-5 at Web and then 6:30-9 at another place that prepares students for the TOEFL and IELTS tests. Before and after work Sean and I were busy Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, grocery shopping, trip planning, exam grading, lesson planning and party preparing. We spent all of Monday in Shanghai at the American embassy adding more pages to our passports. Last year this process was free but this year it cost $82 each - Yeah, I wasn't happy about it - I wrote a letter.


Sean and I just decorated my place since that's where everyone hangs out. It's kind of hard to decorate for Christmas in a 'classy' way in China so we went all out tacky. We have a tiny tree that we put purple, green, red and silver tinsel and lights on and added the cheapest ornaments that we could find - including a really creepy plastic Santa that almost gives me nightmares. Sean sprayed fake white and red snow on my windows and I added some paper snowflakes. We received a lot of cards and packages from friends and family that we added to the tree and table. My favorite decoration is the tiny Santa hat that used to go on a cactus but since it died we added it to the top of a wine bottle.


Tuesday night we enjoyed a deluxe banquet hosted by the foreign language department at the hotel. The night was filled with awesome food, a lot of toasting and much singing. Wednesday, Jordan had us all over to his place for homemade chicken enchiladas, re-fried beans, tortilla chips and salsa and Coronas. Thursday night we all watched the movie the "Polar Express" and on Friday the German teachers hosted an incredible party complete with sausages, German potato salad, lots of cheeses, wines and desserts. Sean even dressed up as Santa for some of the foreign kids (they were terrified of him) turns out he makes a pretty convincing Santa with the right costume.


But after all of the crazy Christmas celebrations I was happy to just sleep in and spend Christmas day with Sean and Qin Chen. Sean made a breakfast casserole, bacon and real coffee and we opened presents - it was a blast! It was especially fun to watch Qin Chen experience a true American Christmas. Sean surprised me with a Chinese/English Bible, some couples' key chains, chocolate and a movie. I got him some traditional lucky red Chinese underwear and a fried egg mold in the shape of a heart. Thanks to Mom and Dad for the backpack lock and headlamp! They will be awesome for traveling and my sister also sent us some sweet travel towels that we plan to use. Sean's sisters sent a box of food mixes and some goodies from Hawaii including some matching couples' shirts and Hawaiian coffee. Jay and Mary sent a chock full box of sweets and Kristin and Brian sent a gift certificate for the Nook so I am excited to pick out some books for the trip! Joe and Linde sent some goodies from Colorado and Sean's dad sent all of the ingredients to make Kahlua cake - including a bunt pan and a huge bottle of Kahlua! We feel a bit overwhelmed and completely blessed to have such generous family and friends!


After opening presents and eating brunch, Sean and I watched "Miracle on 34th Street" which I had never seen before (I really liked it). Then we started cooking a big Christmas dinner - it was a lot of fun! We made roast chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, stuffed mushrooms, gravy and pumpkin pie (thanks to Jenny who sent all of the ingredients to make it delicious and easy!). Tonight everyone is coming over to watch "Love Actually," another Christmas favorite and then I plan on Skyping with my family back home. I love Christmas! A Christmas away from home is never quite the same but a holiday spent with new and old friends and good food is a close second. Merry Christmas or should I say 圣诞快乐!

One place that I really wanted to visit on Jeju Island was Samyang Beach. I wanted to check out the beach because it is well-known for its sand. Samyang beach has the darkest sand on the island and it turns jet-black when wet. The guidebook said that there might be people there even in the off-season because the sand is believed to have special properties. "Join the locals and bury yourself in the iron-rich sand for a therapeutic sand bath, said to relieve dermatitis, arthritis and athlete's foot."


Sure enough, when we arrived there were older people sitting around up to their knees in sand while chatting and just hanging out. The beach was really interesting because it was actually had two kinds of sand - tan sand and black sand. The black sand was a lot heavier and was always on the bottom while the lighter tan sand formed the top layer.


Why was I so interested in the sand on the beach? It's because of my dad. For those of you who don't know, my dad is kind of a sand connoisseur and has a large sand collection from all over the world. I've had a lot of fun snatching samples from wherever I travel (sometimes my friends have even collected some sand for him as well!). The most interesting samples are the unusual ones like the sand with little rubies from Montana or the samples from faraway places like the Galapagos Islands or Zanzibar island in Africa.


Sean and I had fun walking around the beach, gathering sand and writing our initials in it. The pictures don't really do it justice but it looked really cool in person as the outer layer was tan and the words came out dark black. Cheap thrills I guess. Anyway, checking out the beach was pretty interesting and I hope my dad enjoys the sand samples!

Our last day in Jeju Island was packed with activities. We got up really early to take the bus to see Manjanggul - the world's longest system of lava tube caves. Although taking the public buses was cheap, they didn't always go directly to our destinations which in turn required a lot of walking and map reading.


The lava tubes were really neat! They were about 14 km long and huge inside. It was like being in any other cave except for that the formations inside looked totally different. The walls were swirly from the lava flow which made for a pretty cool effect. We were able to hike about 2km of the tube before we had to turn back.


On our way back to the bus stop we stopped at Gimnyeong Maze. The maze was a huge labyrinth made as a fun activity for those up to the challenge. We thought it would be easy. It wasn't. Eventually we made it out, but not after I panicked a little bit. Fortunately Sean is pretty good with directions and I had taken a picture of the map before we went in just in case. All in all, the experience was pretty a-mazing . . . he he he.

After hiking all morning we wanted to check out a park near our hostel where you were supposedly able to learn about the history of Jeju. The park turned out to be a little anticlimactic when we learned that the focus and reason for the entire park was three holes in the ground where the original gods of Jeju were thought to have sprang from many moons ago.


Fortunately, there was a 15 minute film in badly translated English that explained the legend of the three "demi-gods." The colorful and animated Disney-esque movie explained that three brothers, Go, Bu and Yang came out of the three holes and founded the Tamna kingdom with the help from three princesses who arrived by boat along with cattle and horses from a neighboring kingdom. The brothers divided the island kingdom into three sections by each shooting an arrow and taking the piece of land where the arrow landed.


You can actually visit the other special places on the island that have to do with this legend. For example, you can see the place where the three brothers shot the arrows up in the air, the hoof prints in the rocks where the first horses landed and the caves where the three brothers spent their honeymoon with the three princesses. We did not visit any of these places but a lot of the tour buses sure did.


The highlight of the visit was checking out the 250-year-old harubang at the entrance of the park. The harubang (which means 'grandfather') were statues carved out of lava rock (see above picture). These symbols were seen all over Jeju and kind of reminded me of the Easter Island carvings. The original harubang were carved around 1750 and placed outside the island's fortresses. Of the original carvings, 45 still exist and two were at the shrine that we visited. No one really knows their original purpose or significance but their images are everywhere: as telephone booths, as souvenirs, on T-shirts and on buildings and signs. Did we buy a tiny harubang to bring home? Of course!

Hiking up Mount Hallasan is apparently a must for every visitor to Jeju Island. It's famous for being South Korea's highest mountain and also one of its most famous national parks. You are supposed to be able to see some spectacular volcanic scenery from the top including lots of craters, crater lakes and volcanic cliffs.


We got up really early in preparation for the hike and took a public bus to one of the trail heads. It was a cold but beautiful and clear day as we started the steep climb. The trails were well-marked and clean and the other Korean hikers were very friendly. We didn't see any other foreigners the whole day - just other Korean visitors and local hikers (It seems Koreans are really into hiking and when they go hiking they are always decked out in the latest gear).


We climbed up for about three hours and started hurrying because of some clouds moving in and a rapid temperature drop. At the top there was a little shack where we warmed up with other hikers and had some instant noodles. Many Korean said hello to us, asked us where we were from and welcomed us to Jeju. Some even gave us some candy and chocolate. Many people reminded us to take our trash with us and keep the national park clean (a HUGE difference from China). When we were served our noodles, the attendant gave us a plastic bag to carry our trash back down the mountain. I was pretty impressed.


On the way down it was kind of cold and foggy and we were happy when we made it back to a different trail head and someone offered us a ride to the bus stop. The national park office let us in to sit next to the little gas stove while we waited for the public bus to take us back to Jeju City. It was a fun day but I was ready to be done hiking and warm up again.

On Monday Sean and I got up early to go to the airport for our flight to Jeju Island in the South of Korea. Derek had helped us find two one-way flights for about $40 each so we couldn't really resist. The flight was only about 45 minutes and included glasses of tropical punch and super enthusiastic flight attendants who walked around and made balloon animals for everyone. The plane felt like one big party because everyone who is on their way to Jeju is probably either on a vacation or on their honeymoon. We were headed there because we were interested in a) warmer weather and b) the volcanic scenery which was supposed to be fantastic.


Before we boarded our flight I looked up from reading my guidebook to see a gaggle of high school girls literally drooling over Sean. They inched closer and closer to us until they were practically sitting on our laps. After gathering enough courage they began speaking English to us which led to much posing for pictures. They gave us chocolate and welcomed us to Korea and even wrote some notes and letters to us. They were ecstatic about going to Jeju and nervous because it was their first time on a plane.


When we arrived in Jeju the captain came over the loudspeaker and said, "Welcome to Jeju. We welcome you and we love you!" While he was saying this, all the flight attendants, male and female, formed a shape of a heart with their hands on their chest and smiled at us. It was pretty adorable.


Sean and I took a city bus into town, found a cheap hostel and then started exploring. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a snack (they had sweet potato and tofu-flavored donuts) and finally ended up getting some Mexican food for dinner. The temperature felt great and was a nice change from freezing cold Seoul. After dinner we headed back to the hostel where the greeter gave us some tangerines and reminded us to take off our shoes on the heated floors. While munching on fresh tangerines we paged through the guidebook and decided on the activities for tomorrow.

Since we had stayed up so late the night before we all slept in until about two in the afternoon. Last night we learned that Koreans have special and traditional drinks for everything: barbecue, hiking, snacking, dancing etc. Today we learned that they have special dishes to eat after going out; dishes, that is, to relieve hangovers and fill you up. Derek took us to try one which was basically like a spicy version of American pot roast. It was really good!


After pot roast, we walked around the down town and shopping was in full swing. The shopping was incredible in Korea in particular the skin/face/beauty product stores. Derek had been invited to a real Thanksgiving dinner at his friend's house near the army base so we headed there for the evening and enjoyed a real turkey with all the trimmings while having fun meeting some of Derek's friends.


The next day we visited down town Seoul for Derek's favorite place to eat pig feet. At first I was skeptical, but the meat was unbelievable tender and if you didn't think about the fact that you were eating a foot, it was awesome. The pig feet were accompanied by sweet rice soju and a squid pancake. Derek mentioned that another popular foot was live squid cut into pieces right in front of you. To get the full effect, you are supposed to dip the pieces into sauces and seasonings while they are still wiggling. Derek warned us that one has to chew and eat quickly so that they squid doesn't have time to suction to your throat which can cause some complications. Yeah, I opted out of that dish.


After pig feet, we did some Christmas shopping around the night market and it started snowing! It made me think of my family who is probably at or around a foot of snow in Michigan.

After arriving at the Seoul airport, Sean and I took an airport bus to an area slightly outside of Seoul called Anyang - where Sean's friend Derek lived and worked. Derek wasn't able to give us exact directions as to where we would find his school since he was in the middle of class when we arrived so all we had was a street name to go on. With the aid of some really helpful and friendly Koreans, we made it to that street and walked around until we found the school.


The life of the average English teacher in Korea is much different from the lives of the English teachers in China that I know. Some foreigners teach English in public schools and universities, but most work for private academies or companies. Just like Chinese parents, Korean parents look to give their children any edge they can which includes enrolling them in countless extra classes and activities. It seemed more extreme and out of control to me in Korea, however. For example, it is quite common for young children to attend extra English classes until 10 or 11 pm. Thus, Derek's daily work hours are from 2-10pm. This means that foreign teachers usually hang out very late in the evening after work and sleep until noon every day. Although they get paid much better than English teachers in China do, the work seems harder and they get much less time off (only about two weeks a year).


After we met up with Derek, he took us back to his place so we could drop off our bags. His apartment is provided by the company that he works for and is basically just a little studio apartment. What I most liked about it was that it had traditional heated floors (called ondol heating) which felt amazing on my stocking feet after wandering around freezing cold Anyang.


Derek informed us that the night was just getting started and that even though we were exhausted that we had to push through. I was skeptical. He said that because it was Friday night, many Koreans would go out. Korea (and Seoul in particular) seems to have a pretty incredible night life scene. Although Shanghai, Hong Kong and Beijing are known for partying, going out seems to be a more important part of the culture in Korea. What's even more interesting is that people don't even leave the house until about 11 pm. Derek said that most people leave at about eleven and then return home at about 5-6am. One reason for this is that the subway is closed from midnight to 5:30am. Instead of paying an expensive cab fare, most people just choose to stay out until the wee hours and take the subway home.


We learned that when Koreans go out they head to a bar or restaurant, drink a few bottles of soju and share some appetizers or bbq, and then go to two or three more places and do the same thing and finally they end up at a dance club.


We began our night with a traditional Korean barbecue which was, hands down, the best food I had while in Korea. Korean meals are elaborate and include countless side dishes full of spicy kimchi, sprouts, dipping sauces, dipping spices, radishes etc. It's a little overwhelming and Derek basically had to teach us how to eat all over again. The bbq included pork, beef, onions, potatoes and kimchi. It was amazing. You take a rice wrapper or leaf and wrap a piece of meat in it, add some kimchi, sprouts and radish and then dip it in a sauce and then dip it in some seasonings. I've never tasted anything like it and I found myself wishing my family were there with me to try it because they would love it!


The barbecue was accompanied by the Korean drink of choice: Soju which is consumed cold and in shot form. After the bbq we went to another restaurant for spam sushi (interesting but pretty good), kimchi and "Korean car bombs" (Korean Hite beer, Coke and Soju). We finished off the night by dancing until about 5am at a little club called "Slang bar". Needless to say, I was exhausted and ready to crash on any floor, heated or not. It was a crazy first day and a crash course in Korean culture and cuisine.