Christmas (part 2) in Jinan

Missed Part 1? You can read it here!!

When I left Seoul, I kidnapped Rachel and brought her with me. Well, not really...but it was not planned for her to come back with me. She had the week off, and had already mentioned coming down for Christmas Eve, so I suggested she just come back with me on Sunday. After absolutely NO arm twisting, she decided to do just that.

So we got to the station (there's a DIRECT bus to Jinan!!) and made the bus with 2 minutes to spare! We got to Jinan about 3 hours later, around 6/7pm. We grabbed dinner on the walk home, then once home we settled onto the couch with some eggnog and cookies.

Christmas Eve I had to teach, but once I was back, we met up with Ricardo, Sam, and Lok for some Korean BBQ Christmas Eve dinner :) We all stuffed our faces, then headed to CHURCH! Yup, you read that right! The priest who teaches Korean to me and Sam had called earlier in the day to tell us that there would be a Christmas Eve festival at his church. So we headed over after dinner, and watched all the locals sing Christmas carols in Korean, and perform their Christmas dances they had choreographed. I saw a few of my students perform as well, so that was a great treat :)

For Christmas morning we had french toast for breakfast. We had Hot Chocolate and marshmellows (with 99bananas added) to get us ready for the day. Then I skyped with the parents so I could open my gifts: sheets (Koreans don't use them), Scarf/Beanie/Glove set, PIEROGIE ORNAMENT(!!!!), Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate, aloe-infused socks, REAL coffee to make, powdered donuts (to go with the coffee), candy gummies, and a reindeer stuffed animal. The chocolate has already been broken into :)

Then we headed into Jeonju for lunch and a movie. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!?! Christmas Day at the movies is just like Christmas Day at the movies in America. Almost everything was sold out, and it was PACKED beyond belief. So, we were unable to catch a movie, so we headed to lunch. It was an hour and half wait. So we put our names down, and ran some errands. Once we were able to sit and eat, IT WAS SOOO WORTH THE WAIT! It was a buffet with; various pastas, pizzas, meats, salads (like tomato mozzarella), bibimbap bar, soup bar, and DESSERT BAR! Think: waffle bar with ALL THE TOPPINGS - caramel, chocolate, nuts, whipped cream, etc. There was also brownies, and cheesecake (I had 2!), and ice cream. I made sure I got my money's worth :)

Once back at home, we both skyped our families. I stayed up to skype my family opening their gifts (eventhough mine hadnt arrived for them yet, BOO!!). But it was good to see them all enjoying Christmas morning. Here's a pic of "us kids" my dad took.

Christmas 2012!!

So to all my family/friends near AND far...MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope you are able to celebrate it however you like, and with whomever you like :)

메리 크리스마스!!
Apes :)

Christmas (part 1) in Seoul

So the weekend before Christmas, my friend was having an album release party in Seoul, so I decided that would be the perfect time to visit my friend Rachel who lives in Seoul. So, I headed up to see her Friday night, and stayed the weekend. And here it is...


Friday night: HUNDAE!!!

We were supposed to go to my friend's band that was playing Christmas Carols at a bar all night - but I didn't get in till around 10pm, and he was so far out we wouldn't have been able to make the last train to see him perform. So we headed out to Hundae (I hope I'm spelling this right). We got dressed up in our "Christmas Best" and hit the town! The first bar we went to we found it stocked with Korean Santa's! So we had a few drinks, snapped some pix, and decided to head to round 2. Once at the next bar, we had a few drinks, ate the free food they fed us, and then headed back out. That's when we found the Irish Pub that Rachel had been looking for. Once there, we made friends with the bartender, and stayed until the wee hours of the morning. When we headed home, it was about 4am...


Saturday: CITY HALL

The ITALIAN Mall Santa!!

Head Guard, Head Apes

We got up around 11am, and headed to the mall for a fast food mexican place. I had a HUGE burrito, and was a happy broad. Then we did some shopping, stopped for a photo with Santa, and headed to the City Hall subway stop. Once we got off at city hall, we were surrounded by people in old Korean clothes. We had happened upon the Changing of the Guards!!!We were able to take pix, so I snagged one with the head Guard!

Read to master the ice!

Then we got down to business....ICE SKATING! City Hall had an ice-skating rink in front of it, for only 1,000\/hour ($1/hour)!! So we got our skates, and got to it! We spent our hour NOT falling! We went round and round and round, and didn't fall even once! We were both very proud of ourselves. It definitely helped put us in the Christmas Spirit - the cold air, and the big Christmas tree beside the rink itself. Afterwards, we hit up Dunkin Donuts for some minty hot chocolate, and then Korean BBQ for dinner :)

Saturday Night: Itaewon
My friend G-Mo was performing at his album release party in a bar called JR Pub. So we headed over, and got Jello shots as soon as we walked in. Then we were entered into a raffle, given some jager, and ordered a beer. We made it JUST in time to hear G-mo perform! He was GREAT! Here's a photo of us at the party...

I guess I'm not a hippie anymore...

I ended up winning some body wash at the raffle, so that was unexpected and fun! Then we headed to the afterparty, Club Flo with everyone from his release party. We spent the rest of the night drinking HUGE beers, doing shots of tequila, smoking hookah, and dancing the night away. We all ended up going to the military base (the girls from Jeonju had come with their military friends from Gunsan) so in the morning we pigged out on Subway, and bought goodies (I got some Eggnog!!!). Then we headed back to Rachel's so I could head to Jinan...

Stay tuned for part 2 (Christmas in Jinan!!)

Ghamsamnida,
Apes

My Maisan!

My town may be tiny, but we are known for 2 things...the Red Gingseng Spa and Maisan. Maisan translates to "Horse Ear Mountain" as it is 2 mountains that look like horse ears. Pretty easy, eh?

Anyways, on Election Day we all had the day off, so I headed to FINALLY see Maisan with Sam and his friend Lok. Here is my day in pictures (because they give you a better idea than my words will).

When we first got there, I stopped and got some hot chocolate - the man making it looked EXACTLY like his caricature picture!

Can you see the resemblance?

Here are more photos from the "village" at the entrance of the South Side of Maisan.

The other side has a Rhino.

Old fashioned houses.

That's a golden lion coming down the rock!

HUGE Drum!

Then it was time to hit the Mountain! We walked to the temple in between the two mountains: 

View at the Temple

View through the trees

Love Buddha?

Took a hint from the statue, and sat for a spell.

 

The Temple in the Mountains

banging the drum at the Temple - my favorite part!

Another view of the Temple

Then it was time to hike the actual mountain...not many pix, but I did snap one of my companions heading up:

Lok and Sam starting the Trek up!

Luckily we started on the higher side, so our walk UP was about half of the walk down. I am QUITE happy we didn't go UP the other side and DOWN on our side. Whew! My legs were tired even from the way we DID go, I could only imagine if we reversed it!

Ghamsamnidah,
Apes

A WOMAN PRESIDENT....

...in South Korea, anyways.

Yup, that's right. Last week was the presidential election and lo and behold the winner was a WOMAN!! Here's more on the election and the new president.

http://www.loscerritosnews.net/2012/12/20/park-geun-hye-elected-first-female-president-of-south-korea/

If you want to know even more - just google "South Korea woman president"

There's your news for today.

Ghamsamnidah,
Apes :)

I've been Published...

Yup, that's right. This little blog you're reading right now has been featured AND printed in a magazine!

Check out the mag: http://kkonnect.net/ (and leave a comment) or see the pages below :)





Thanks for reading guys!!

Ghamsamnidah,
Apes :)

Chopstick Evolution

Back in my freshman year of High School, I learned how to use chopsticks. My history teacher, Mr. Sledge, brought in chopsticks and taught us how to use them. I am not excatly sure how it tied in to whatever the lesson was, but that is probably the MOST useful thing I learned in High School.


After my days at Great Bridge HS, I continued to use chopsticks...sushi and chinese food mostly. Well, I would start my Chinese food with chopsticks, then of course fall back to my trusty fork as chopsticks took WAY too long to use while trying to vacuum up dinner with my mouth. But, I still felt I had a pretty good grasp on how to eat with them.

Yes, this is how I ate Chinese with Chopsticks.

Then came the plan to move to Thailand. I was all "SCORE! I already know how to use chopsticks, I AM READY!" Then it turned out that I only ever got to use chopsticks when ordering noodle soup.

Then came Korea. Now, I came here thinking my chopsticks skills were super par since I could now eat noodle soup with them. Well, let me tell you. Chinese food, Sushi, even noodle soup has got NOTHING on me now.

Here are some foods that I now can eat properly, using chopsticks:

Rice (that's easy because it all sticks together)
Corn (yes, I'm talking about loose corn kernels on a plate)
Apples
Pancakes (yes, REAL pancakes)
Korean BBQ (it involves making a lettuce wrap)
Fried Chicken
Tofu (yeah, try that out without it getting sliced in half!)
Crab Legs (yes, they meat is still in the shell!!) - most impressive food yet!

So, thank you GBHS for the warm-up of using chopsticks, but thank you Korean for perfecting it. 

You live and you learn....Ghamsamnida,
Apes :)

A day at the Spa

My town is known for 2 things: Maisan Mountain, and Red Ginseng Spa. Since I see Maisan everyday, it was time to check out the spa.

So I invited the girls down, and due to the snow Rachel (from Seoul) was the only one able to make it. So she, Marilize (from Jinan), and I headed to the spa for a ladies day.

Here's how it went...

Step 1 - Pay to play
The spa is 40,000\ (about $40) for the day. BUT, if you live in Jinan, you get a low price of 13,000\ ($13). Marilize and I both knew we got the discount, but they gave it to Rachel as well!! Lucky gal!

Then we rented our swim caps and headed in.

Step 2 - Lock it up
Using our magnetic bracelets, we unlocked the shoe lockers, stored those, then moved onto the clothing lockers. We changed into our bathing suits, and locked all our winter gear away for the day. No need for that in a spa!!

Step 3 - Shower off that winter weather
We headed to the showers (yes, like a group shower) and I am sure we were looked at strangely while we rinsed off in our swimming suits, instead of stripping to our birthday suits like the Koreans.

Step 4 - SPA TIME!!!!!
We head to the spa area on the 2nd floor (the 3rd floor was a rooftop pool, which I will happily use in the summer, but in the dead of winter - I'll pass). The spa had 6 areas, and here's how we did it...

Phase 1 - BUBBLES!!! Ever been to a foam party? Well, I've been to a Korean one! We all gathered into a HUGE bathtub-esque style room, and then the bubble foam started coming up from the floor. Yes, a HUGE KOREAN BUBBLE BATH! We somehow were sitting by a GEYSER that spurted the bubbles all the way to the ceiling, so I looked like a giant snowman with bubbles from my head to my toes. The Koreans loved it, and they even started a massage line. Oh - since it's Ginseng themed, the bubbles were made from Ginseng, so it smelled GREAT and made our skin feel silky smooth. After about 15 minutes, we headed to the showers to rinse off, and this time our shower consisted of a huge bucket filled with water that was dumped on our heads. If you can't imagine either of these....here's an idea of what it was like:

Bubble Therapy

Korean Bucket Shower

After the bubbles, we went to the pool for some recovery. No, no the rooftop pool, but the heated pool in the center of the spa. It had buttons all around the edges, so we tried them all out. Some were attached to pool beds that made you feel like you were in a jacuzzi. Others were attached to "pool chairs" that had jets in a chair setting (which was my favorite), there was even a button that was attached to a metal square that vibrated and shot water out of jets as you stood on it. All this was IN the pool, so we just floated around and tried all the jets. Then we tried "Sound Floating" which was a room in the middle of the pool. You got floaties for your head and feet, and floated around while the room changed colors. I didn't hear any cool sounds, so not sure what that was about....

Phase 2 - Ginseng Bath: We entered a VERY warm room with about 20 mini pools (they were like in-ground bathtubs).  We were given a cup of Ginseng to pour in our pool, then sat in and relaxed. It was great being in the heat and then looking out the frosted window to see Maisan covered in snow.

Phase 3 - Stone Therapy: After the Ginseng Bath, we headed to the stone room. There were wooden beds covered with TONS of hot stones. We laid down on the stones, covered our stomachs with the stones, and napped.

Try napping on these!

Phase 4 - Wind Therapy: After the stones, we played in the big pool for a little, then headed to the WIND therapy room. We say in a tube like room and let warm air blow on us. There wasn't anything special about this, except it dried us off with warmth, which was nice.

Phase 5 - Herb Therapy: No, not the "herb therapy" you are probably thinking of. There was no smoking of anything. Instead, we went into a room filled with beds of hay. Each bed was covered with a sheet, and once we were laying in the bed, they used the extra ends of the sheet to cover us. Then they turned on really quiet, peaceful music, and I passed out HARD for the 2 minutes we were there. I felt like a I was in a hay coffin, but it was DEF so comfortable. I can understand how baby Jesus felt when he was born off in that manger of hay. Good pick Mary and Joseph, good pick.

These kids have the right idea

Phase 6 - MUD THERAPY!!!: That's right, what's a spa without a little mud??? We headed to the mud rooms, and sat on tiled thrones (yes, thrones) and then were given a small dish of mud to put on our bodies. They told us the mud was from Mudfest (which I can NOT wait to go to BTW) and then once we were covered we sat in the heated room for about 15 minutes. Then a soft trickle of water started to rinse us off, then it got heavier and heavier till I felt like I was in a warm waterfall! But it got off ALL the mud.

Mudfest....I can't wait!!!

Then we took one more tour of the jets in the big pool, and we were done.

Step 5 - Transition back to Winter
We headed back to the women's showers to rinse off and use the Ginseng toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, body wash, etc). Then we layered back into our winter clothes (which felt weird after spending a day in the heat in our bathing suits) and we were off for home.

Overall the spa gets 5 stars!!! I will def be going back much more. And in the summer...GET READY ROOFTOP POOL, I will be spending DAYS bonding with you!!

Ghamsamnida,
Apes :)

A try at a Haircut

So many of my "longtime followers" may remember my escapade in getting my haircut in Thailand....if you need a refresher, or a first time read, here ya go:

http://apes-adventures.blogspot.kr/2011/08/never-get-haircut-in-foreign-country.html 

Since then (August 2011), no one has put scissors to my hair. Which means it is absurdly long for me, and not the healthiest. So I decided to try again, this time in Korea. I asked around first, and was given a few places that people were pleased with. So it was time...

I headed to Jeonju on Sunday with my Seoul friend, Rachel, and we headed to the salon (she needed a trim as well). We entered the salon, and asked how much for a cut. They pulled out 12,000\ and we thought we misheard. But we went along with it. That's $12 for you kids.

My stylist started with a lovely shampoo and head massage. Ok, so far so good. Then, she gave me a styling book and I picked what I wanted (time to get my winter bangs back) and she started away. At the same time, Rachel was trying her hand at a haircut with her stylist.

So after about 40 minutes, and 12,000\ later here's what I ended up with....

Not too bad I think (of course, some makeup would help a little). I also bought a cute headband to go with the new 'do.

Well, since I don't normally do the "brush my hair" thing....my routine is wash my hair, go to bed, wake up, toss in a braid, go to school...this whole having bangs and healthy hair is gonna be a new thing. So now I need to find a blow-dryer and straightener to make sure I can keep up with my new hair. Let's hope I remember how to style my own hair!!

But Korea gets the win over Thailand for haircuts....and yes, it ended up being 12,000\ for the whole thing!! :)

Ghamsamnida,
"new hair" Apes :)

A trip to Mini-America

A few weeks ago I went to Gunsan with my girl Julie. What was in Gunsan, you ask? MINI AMERICA!!! That's right, her boyfriend lives on the airforce base, and she wanted to take me on a wild ride to the world of America. So I jumped at the chance, and we were off!


Once at the base, Julie started with "Hey April, open the pantry" Weird, but I did. And what did I find??

AMERICA FOOOOOODDDDD

Yup, no Kimchi here! Everything was westerm. Kool-Aid, Tang, Canned Chili, Peanut butter, etc....I just stood and stared.

After I put on my happy face....

FUNFETTIII (and American Beer, Popcorn, and even Theraflu!!)

It was off to what was to be a party for my tastebuds..TACO BELL!!!! Of course, I placed my usual order: 7 layer burrito, extra sour cream, extra guac and then a side of fiesta potatoes. MMMM cheesy!!

>insert the sound of singing angels<

Well, if you thought that was my ONLY trip to Taco Bell that weekend then you OBV don't know me very well. I went back again the next day - same order, but instead of the fiesta potatoes I got the Nacho Bell Grande :)

After my Taco Bell massacre (while watching College Football), we headed to a tiny-wannabe walmart. As I enter, I looked at my $3 usd that I had (change from Taco Bell, even though I paid in Won) and pondered what I could POSSIBLY buy. The first thing I saw was a sign "4 for $1" Whelp, there's 1usd down...and 4 rice krispy treats in my hands! Then, I settled on some Hot Pockets, and on the way out, I was even treated to my favorite cigar - an Arturo Fuentes. Hmm, you may think that is over $3, and you'd be right. One of Brandon's friends (Brandon - Julies BF) treated me to the cigar. Making friends already!

The next day before I left (after round 2 of Taco Bell), we went GROCERY SHOPPING!!! Things I purchased: Cheese, Cheese (yes, I typed that twice), Coffee, Jello, Fruitsnacks, Instant Grits, Marshmellows, Ranch, Peanut Butter chips (like chocolate chips, but Reese Pieces), cookie dough, Kool-Aid, and other things I can't think of right now. But it was MAGICAL!! I can't wait to go back with a bigger bag!

Ghamsamnida,
Apes :)

Snow...EVERYDAY

Yup, that's right. After over a year of not seeing snow...I'm covered in it! I am living inside of a beautiful (and COLD) snow painting. Don't believe me? Here, see for yourself....

Snowy Mountains

The roads are clear!

Mountain Village

Maisan!

Maisan again!

View from my rooftop

White walkways

The Jinan River

Maisan peeking out between the trees

Center of town

At least the buses were still working!

Don't slip!

This is actually the 4th snow fall we have had. But this one was the heaviest (so far). In fact, when all the teacher were at training in the city on Wednesday, the training was ended early because of the heavy snow. On the ride home, our main road back to town was closed (think barriers, and cops turning cars around). We had to take a different way back in...and from what I hear this is here to stay for about 3 months...

Looks like I'm getting a white Christmas, New Years, and Vday....

Ghamsamnida,
Apes