Getting Our Exercise

We are lucky that on Geoje Island there are a lot of mountains and trails to hike. Exercise is a big part of Korean daily life and most people's exercise comes in the form of walking. Every day along the river pathway many people go for walks as exercise. Jogging must be reserved specifically for athletes because whenever I go jogging I get impressed thumbs up from awestruck old men.

Hiking at least presents more of a challenge than a leisurely stroll by the river. See, in Korea the best way to the top of the mountain is straight up. The trails don't provide much in the way of winding paths back and forth across the mountain face to the top. It's all burning hamstrings and sore knees.

Last weekend we decided to hunt down a hiking path. Surprisingly, it is hard to find the base of the mountains. You walk toward them, but there is always so much in the way. We ended up walking the length of our city, finding a advertisement for the Alberta Rockies pinned up in a booth along the way.



We finally happened along a trail - although we thought we were just going into a public garden. This trail was not as difficult as most. It had a lot of stairs, and nice sections where the path leveled out for a bit. Along the trail was a little exercise station - kind of like the old school exercise circuits that were built into Canadian playgrounds in the 70's, but with a lot more equipment provided! There were chin up bars, a bench with a bar weight for bench pressing, hula hoops and those discs that you stand on and rotate from side to side - I think they're supposed to work your obliques. Here are a couple pictures of our "workout".

Neil shows off his pipes by doing a chin up.



Miko works her abs.



Further along on this trail there was a big clearing. At the side of the clearing was a hole with a fake soldier sitting in it with a gun. This made me jump when I saw it - I was tired and confused why there was a guy with a gun. But after I figured out he was fake Neil decided to play soldier.



This weekend we are going to try to tackle a tougher trail - stayed posted for more pictures!

Konglish

The comforting thing about speaking English is that there tends to be at least some English in nearly every country in the world - a sentiment I lectured to my lazy english class today.

While English road signs or restaurant signs that say "Good Restaurant" can be either helpful (the former) or lies (the latter), it is nice to have a vague clue of what is going on around you.

Of course, as anyone who has ever visited an Asian country knows, sometimes, they just get it wrong. In China its called Chinglish and in Korea it is referred to as Konglish.

Korea has quite a good grasp on English for the most part, but the occasional business still decides to grab their English sign or slogan from an on-line translator and the results can be - well - hilarious.

I will continue to take pictures of our favourite Konglish moments while we are here - but here are two of the best ones so far to start us out.

Our first example may not be a mistranslation, but it is definitely a misguided selling point of beer.



Stylish beer with fiber - because nothing says style like a laxative hangover.

And our second picture is hands down my favourite Konglish yet. This little gem is from a photo studio that is just a couple blocks away from our house. I had walked past this place at least half a dozen times before I actually took a moment to read what the sign said. I'm glad I did - it has become a new mantra for my life.



It's a little small - so I'll write it out for you. I'm sure there's at least a few of you who may be considering having this phrase tattooed on your body.

Throughout my life I will inhale this aroma and also chew hard on it.

Words to live by.....

Bustling Busan

This weekend Neil and I went to Busan - the second largest city in Korea. It is only a 1 hour ferry ride from our happy little island. Since we had a long weekend we thought this would be the perfect time to go.

After a very bumpy ferry ride we arrived. The streets were quiet but the markets and restaurants were open, so we were able to wander around our hotel area, do some shopping and have a nice Valentine's Day dinner at a yummy thai restaurant.

We topped our dinner off with delicious cupcakes from the Red Velvet Bakery - how happy was I to find cupcakes in Korea!




Afterwards we strolled down the main shopping street in Busan. It actually reminded us a lot of the strip in Vegas - with all the bright lights and the feeling that nothing is real (PS - last week at the hospital I passed by all the plastic surgery rooms - they put them in the same wing as neurosurgery, which just seems wrong).

All along the street there are statues, some of them you can take your picture with and some of them are just awkward - like young boys playing without pants or underwear.







Then we headed back to the hotel early for a quiet night. Our hotel room was surprisingly large, although the complimentary can of bug spray (the large pink can I'm holding) did concern us and the view from the window did leave a little to be desired.





The next morning we woke up and went out to find breakfast. This is when we realized that EVERY SINGLE KOREAN PERSON HAD DISAPPEARED. Seriously - I don't know where the 3,596,063 people who live in Busan were hiding - they must have been having one hell of a New Year's Party somewhere. I have never seen a city so deserted. Neil had to do a "lost in Korea/I am Legend" photo. This picture was taken at about 10am and this street is a ghost town.



After a few trips on the subway to walk past streets of closed stores and restaurants we decided to cut our losses and come back home early. But it was a fun little trip and we look forward to going back!

Se He Bok Ma Nee Ba Deu Se Yo!

Literal Translation: Receive a lot of New Year's blessings!

This weekend is the Lunar New Year - celebrated in Korean and China. It will be the beginning of the year of the tiger. Neil and I are very excited to start a new year, as the last one has brought us mixed blessings.

This week had a lot of firsts - my first day of teaching at my new school, Neil's first time hit by a car and our first visit to the Geoje Island Hospital.

I know you're all wondering about my new school - but I'll update you on that later. First I just want to let everyone know that Neil is fine. He was hit at a corner while he was crossing the street. He hit the hood and windshield of the car and is very sore, but after 16 xr-ays the confirmed that nothing is broken - he is just sore and has some bruises. I think the windshield of the car ended up in worse shape than he did. The upside of the whole story is that somehow he got $350 of insurance money out of it - without any serious injuries to claim. I guess if we end up not doing well teaching here, we can go into the "getting hit by crazy Korean drivers" business.

I began work at a new school this week. I will be working for them for 5 months, and then in July will join Neil's school, when the other teachers leave. My new school is very nice. It is about an hour trip from our house, so I have a longer commute each day, but other than that it's great! My school is owned by a very nice Korean couple, Stephanie and Charles. They both teach, as does one other Korean teacher, Alley. I am the only English speaking teacher. The students are very nice - they are all excited to see me and say hi each day, and they all like to give me food for some reason. I have learned to not eat too much before I go to school because I will always be given food over the course of the afternoon by my different students.

This weekend is a long weekend for us - we both don't go back to school until Wednesday. We are heading to Busan today to spend 2 days there. Busan is the 2nd largest city in Korea. It is an hour and a half ferry ride from our island. We're looking forward to exploring a new place and should have lots of pictures when we get back. Then we will be celebrating the new year with some friend on the island on Monday! Look for lots of pictures once we're back!

Our Apartment

As you all probably know, we have spent the last 5 months living out of suitcases and staying at our parent's homes. We love our parents but "live with your parents" ain't number 1 on the list of things you should do as soon as you get married. It's not even in the top 20.

Needless to say, we were pretty excited to see what our place in Korea was going to look like, not to mention unpack our bags and own our own toaster, stuff like that.

Some interesting things about Korean apartments;

1) Almost all Korean homes have an ondol, or underfloor heating - which is especially nice in the morning!
2) Almost all Korean apartments have no oven - only a stove top. This has cut down Neil's meal options significantly, since pizza and chicken nuggets are now off the menu.
3) Korean bathrooms don't have a shower stall - the entire bathroom is the shower and the water runs everywhere. This also means that it takes the bathroom approximately 6 hours to dry in the wintertime, hence why all Korean homes have "bathroom slippers" to wear in the bathroom.
4) Our apartment is equipped with a "descending lifeline" (aka ROPE) which we can use as a means of escape from our 3rd floor apartment, should need be.
5) No Keys!! Almost all door locks are electronic! Very futuristic.

Just a few observations to share!

Prologue

Dear Readers,

Though many of you probably know us through school, work or because we share genetic material with you, I thought I would begin our blog with a quick "who we are" - for all those random internet searchers who may have no idea who we are, how we ended up here or why they are reading this.

Neil and Miko
Chapters 1 - 5

This is Neil.



And this is Miko.



Fast forward about 27 years to August 22, 2009.



Yup - that's right - we got married. Since we were now bonded in holy matrimony, there was only one thing to do.



Move to South Korea to teach English, which I imagine will look something like this:



Now I know those of you who know us are thinking "But Miko, you didn't move to Korea after the wedding - you moved in with your mom". And how right you are. Because we were delayed in our travels to Korea until November, we had lots of time for...

Some hiking:



A trip to New York:



And for Neil to have one last night on the town with Einstein:



Okay - so that last one didn't really happen. What did happen was that on November 23, 2009 Neil and I had finished all our farewells and began our adventure to the other side of the world.



After 3 months of waiting, 15 hours of flight and 2 days of training with our prospective school, we packed our bags and headed back home.



BUT WAIT! - That's not the end of the story - that's just the false start!

On January 20, 2010 after 1 more month of waiting, about 4 more Christmas celebrations and 2 severe bouts of jet lag we were on our way again. And by January 23, 2010 we were unpacked, settled in and enjoying our happy little life on Geoje Island, South Korea.



And that brings us to now. Living life and blogging about it for the foreseeable future. Thanks for reading - and stay posted!