No Shoe Left Behind: Apr 10, 2010

Favorite Blogs

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE FOLLOWING BLOGS:

Two Mommys are Better Than One!
My best friend Darcie is having a baby girl! Check out her blog, and take a peek into the most random mind imaginable!

Eat Your Kimchi!
These two Canadian English teachers in Korea constantly crack me up. I seriously want to be friends with them! That's not creepy, right? (Caaaaable guy!)

IRIS is a South Korean espionagetelevision drama series, which began in 2009. With a budget in excess of $20 million, it is the most expensive Korean drama ever produced. It stars Lee Byung Hun (Storm Shadow of GI Joe) and T.O.P. (Big Bang member). If you want to check it out with English subtitles, you can watch it here.

We Got Married (우리 결혼했어요) is a super cheesy Korean reality show. The show pairs up Korean celebrities to show what life would be like if they really married. It is mindless reality television at it's worst, but it sucks me in EVERTIME!!!

Yoo Jae Suk and Kang Ho Dong are the "Ryan Seacrests" of Korea. Randomly turn on the television, and you will find one or both of them hosting a game, talk, or variety show. I'm becoming more and more Korean because I actually find them to be funny (oh the shame!)

Choco Boy is a skit on the Korean sketch comedy show, Gag Concert. I guess it is best described as Korea's Saturday Night Live, and Choco Boy is Korea's equivalent of the Spartan Cheerleaders. Here is a clip.

Gochujang is a spicy fermented Korean condiment. It is fermented in large pots outdoors. I eat it on rice at EVERY meal, and I carry a container in my purse at all times.

IOPE skincare and makeup rock my face! I will be so sad if I ever leave Korea, where it is not readily available:(

K-Pop! This is not a new obsession, but I'm just letting the world know that just because I'm a more mature 30 year old woman, I still love my k-pop with a passion! Believe me, at first you hate it, but as soon as you embrace it, you're done for. I dare you to watch this video and not fall in love with K-Pop!

Alex Chu fell from heaven September 2, 1979. It's nice to have a crush on a Korean celebrity that is not a baby! (Not that I love Rain, G-Dragon, and T.O.P. any less.) He is a Korean-Canadian singer and actor. He is the male vocalist of the band Clazziquai. And he is BEAUTIFUL, not to mention his killer vocals.

Bakjwi is another great movie by my favorite Korean director, Park Chan Wook. The fact that it is about vampires is just an added bonus.

Where in the World is Laura Sandiego?

SHE IS IN GEOCHANG, KOREA!
What's that? You want to know more about this magical land? Well, here you go....

EMBLEM OF GEOCHANG

Geochang is located in Gyeongsangnam Province (See above).

Location of Geochang in its province.

Geochang is 3 1/2 hours south of Seoul (the largest city) and one hour from Daegu (the third largest city).

RANDOM FACT FOR THE DAY:
Geochang is a county, not a city. Why? Because to be classified as a city, it must have at least 150,000 residents. Geochang only has 70,000 residents.

NOW FOR YOUR KOREAN LESSON FOR THE DAY:
Si (city)
Gun (county)
Gu (district)
Eup (town)
Myeon (township)
Dong (neighborhood)
Ri (village)

Geochang is VERY small. It makes my hometown of Amite, Louisiana look like New York City. But it is very beautiful. It is in a valley, surrounded by ten mountain ranges, which includes Deogyusan national park. The apples and watermelons of Geochang, I'm told, are famous throughout the entire country.

One of my students recently informed me that his parents are apple farmers in the area, and I am looking forward to delicious homegrown apples this fall!

There is not much to do in Geochang. There's bowling, billards, beer and soju consumption, norebang (karaoke), hiking, and a tiny cinema. Thankfully, there is a great group of foreigners in the area, which has made for interesting times. Yeah, interesting times. We'll just leave it at that.

In fact there is a lot to be said for small town life. My second day in town (county?), I walked into Dunkin Donuts with my new coworker Sarah, and we were IMMEDIATELY greeted by two complete strangers (Shout out to Tim and Graham!).

This would not have happened in one of the big cities. When I was living in Suji, foreigners who did not know one another usually acknowledged each other, but it was by using the awkward-slight-eye-contact-nod. But that was in an area with hundreds of foreigners. Here, we have less than fifty. So when two newbies walk into Dunkin Donuts, it's a big deal.

We sat and chatted with our new friends...Then they told two friends....Then they told two friends....And it turned into an entire afternoon, evening, and early morning of chatting, eating, drinking, bowling, and partying with the Geochang Waygooks (foreigners).

A few days later, a Korean professor (who we had never met) stopped by our office to chat and said, "I heard you meet other foreigners at Dunkin' Donuts." How on earth he heard that I will never know. Ah small town gossip...

Here are a few pics of the County known as Geochang.