Malaysia

I had the great opportunity to go to Malaysia at the beginning of November for a conference. The seminar's title was Foreign Language Teaching: Towards a Globalized World. It was held in Alor Setar, Kedah. It was a quick trip as I had to be back for work and other school events but it was still very enjoyable.It was a great conference where I was able to meet other educators from around the world. I was also able to scratch off Malaysia from my travel list! Score! Also, besides Canada (and Korea, of course) this is the only other country where I have gone to by myself--go me!

                                           

Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia.  The Federation of Malaysia comprises of Peninsular Malaysia, and the states of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo. The national language is Bahasa Malaysia.  Malaysia is situated between 2º and 7º to the North of the Equator line which meant a little taste of heaven for a few days. :) The capital is Kuala Lumpur, commonly known as KL, where I had an overnight layover. 

I kept myself entertained on the 6 hour flight by watching Friends, listening to random music and, being the mature person that I am, quoting Zoolander. (Since planning this trip, I couldn't help but think of the 'Prime Minister of Malaysia' and Mugatu scenes from Zoolander). :) I finally landed at KLIA and was tired. I headed over to the taxi station and headed off to the center of the city, where I stayed at a hotel close to the Petrona Towers. I got settled in and was exhausted so I went to bed. I got up the next day for my early flight but couldn't leave without seeing the famous Petrona Towers. 

                    

The Petrona Towers are said to be the tallest twin buildings in the world.The twin towers house Petronas, Malaysia's government-owned oil company, as well as associated Malaysian firms and multinational companies. They are about 1400 feet tall. 

Here a few other pictures. Included are some of my "typical" travel, obnoxious pictures (such as posing with my hands up, currency, etc).

Seoul to KL! The whole "excellence in flight" motto for Korean Air is true. 

yeah!

 Petrona Towers

Landing in Alor Setar

Malay license plate

Mango shake--yum!

Great speakers!

Malay Ringgit

taaa daaaa

super-tourist time

yummy food

shopping for souvenirs:)

Malaysia:  CHECK!

October came and went...

October was a busy month. School is in full swing and the honeymoon period over. I do still love my 'little darlings' though. I was told a wild back that I 'look like a middle school teacher.' I definitely took that as a compliment. They said you either hate or love the age group--nothing in between, and I love them--still.  My kids are at a fun stage--which allows my inner 13 year old to come out, too. (Who am I kidding? I never grew up)

October was busy planning for a retreat. I will be helping out with this retreat called Vida Nueva. It is for high schoolers and it's the teenage version of the Tres Días retreat I went to over the spring. (The reason the retreats have Spanish names are because they are worldwide retreats but they were started by Spanish missionaries). We've been meeting every Saturday for  few hours to get ready for the retreat. It will be held during the second weekend of November. 

Ziplining

Hiking with the 8th graders

crazy SFSers dressed in 80s clothes---so rad!

a much needed pedicure

another Sunday night in Ichon

Traditional tea ceremony in Changdong

Watching our kids at a soccer tournament at Taechon International School

Joy's 80s birthday party

subway adventures

wedding time

Taking advantage of the foreigner discounts at a soccer match

Francis Chan came to Seoul!!!

South Korea, I love how...

your prices don't reflect the fact that you are a first-world nation

you chase me down after I've dropped W1,000 (~USD1.00) just because it's the right thing to do

your transportation is ridiculously efficient, clean and inexpensive, not to mention easy to navigate

your restaurants serve what seems to be 100s of mini side dishes but I never pay more than W15,000

your airports resemble malls

your department store food courts offer delicious food-- in style

your T-money card allows me to catch a bus, buy snacks at GS25 and make a phone call

your accessories are cute and can be found anywhere

your capital has various coffee shops to choose from in every single corner: Caffe Bene, Paris Baguette, Holly's Coffee, Coffee Bean, oh yeah and Starbucks:)

your street food is addicting

I can say yeogiyo to catch a server's attention

I will never go thirsty because there are little water dispensers everywhere

I can choose my own seat at the movie theatre

I can find socks, earrings, 80s costume attire, eggs, cupcakes and tights at your subway stations

you have various kinds of kimchi

your capital's subway system plays little songs so that I wake up on time for my transfer

you send out missionaries to various parts of the world to serve those in need

there are noreabangs in every corner that allow me to sing my heart out

I can actually find shoes that fit me

your big stores like Homeplus and Emart have catchy songs

your couples  are very matchy-matchy and proud of it

you have cutesy cartoons to display directions, safety precautions and menu options

great my adventure is here!

Sarangheyo Hanguk!

Hanging out with my coworkers--in all my glory.

 Bang (방) in Korean means room. I've been to a noreabang (song-room) and a DVD bang (movie room) multiple times, but for the past year I've been nervous about going to a Jjimjilbang (찜질방 ). Why you ask? Well, one word: NAKED.  

A jimjilbang is were Koreans let everything ( really....everything) loose and relax. How exactly do they do this? Well, they get naked and relax in steaming hot baths of course! Jimjilbangs
are gender-separated public bathhouses with hot-tubs, showers, saunas. Here you can enjoy the spas, showers, and saunas but also sleep overnight at an affordable price. They are a popular relaxation getaways for Koreans and many of them are open 24/7.  You can enter various heated rooms each designed with a particular theme. You can relax in cold and hot sea water. You can get a nice massage. You can enjoy a cup of tea.  Sounds nice, huh? Well this is all available for you to enjoy, while you are BUTT NAKED.

Yes, you read that right. This is why I had hesitated on going to a 찜질방 for the past 12 months. The idea of prancing around in my birthday suit made me nervous but I did add it to my Korea to-do list. It's all about cultural immersion! I had no intentions of going anytime soon....but I did. I also told myself that I would NEVER go with anyone that I know because well, I didn't want them to see me naked and I didn't want to see them naked. :) But that changed, too.

Our faculty retreat was held in September at  Daecheon Beach. Close to Daecheon beach is Boryeong. The Boryeong Mud Festival is  held every summer at the city of Boryeong in South Korea.  This event has pulled over 50 million visitors and people drench in mud during this festival as the name indicates. The mud here is said to be full of minerals and a great product for skin rejuvenation. It's also a big tourist event.

Being that the festival is held during the summer, I was unable to go because I was home in the States. During our retreat, a few of my colleagues had gone to get a massage at a local sauna. They spoke highly of this place and said it was a great massage and very affordable. They also said that the mud from Boryeong was used for their massages. So what did I want to do? Go get a mud massage, too! The catch: it was a jimjilbang which meant I needed to get over my fear of nakedness. EEEK!

A few of us headed over and I was freaking out on the way there. Here I was on the way to hang out at a sauna and get a massage with colleagues and they were going to see me naked. Awesome. We entered the establishment, paid for our entrance and then received our keys to our lockers. Next, it was time to strip down. My heart was pounding...my palms were sweaty.... then, clothes came off.  Out of the group I went with (about 5 of us) I was the last one to get undressed and head out to the bath area. OK, now what...well I had to walk into the pool area area with nothing but a towel. This was not a regular sized towel but an itty, bitty one to cover important parts:) I slowly stepped into the room with all the different pools (hot water, cold water, sea water, mud water, etc) and tried to embrace the nakedness. It took a while to get comfortable but I eventually I did....kind of.:)

After relaxing in the different pools for about a couple of hours, it was time for our massages. One word: wow. The Boryeang mud was fantastic. Yes, it was awkward having an older woman massage me while naked but it was a great massage. All in all--it was worth it! I do plan to go at least one more time during my time here....I think. :)

Let's do this!

Funny statue outside of the jimjilbang

Of course I couldn't take my camera in with me so this is a picture of an advertisement at the entrance of the sauna.  Here you can see people enjoying Mudfest as well as some of the different pools 

Hangeul Day: October 9th

Invented by King Sejong in the mid-15th century, hangeul (or hangul) is an alphabet unique to Korea. Hangeul allowed mass literacy in Korea to flourish without the burden of having to master the thousands of Chinese characters previously required in order to be literate.
 During a KORCOS professional development session last spring, I learned that King Sejong wanted the average person to be able to read and write. He started to write Hangeul late at night and early in the morning so that his helpers and the elite would not find out. He worked so hard that he even lost his sight as he finalized the Korean alphabet. Hangeul became available to the general population and gradually grew in popularity.
Over the summer back in the US, I tried to show off my Hangeul skills but in reality, it is very easy to learn. In fact, most people learn the alphabet in an hour. You just have to continue practicing. There are 14 consonants an 10 vowels.


From Hanguladay:

• ㅏ (a) as in apply
• ㅓ (oe) shorter o as in lot
• ㅗ (o) o that is rounded as in own
• ㅜ (oo or long u) as in look
• ㅡ (short u officially eu when romanized) as in put
• ㅣ (ee or i) as in keep or lip
• ㅐ (ae) as in way
• ㅔ (e) as in elephant
• ㅑ (ya) as in yak
• ㅕ (yeo) as in york
• ㅛ (yo) as in yawn
• ㅠ (yoo or yu) as in yuletide
• ㅒ (yae) as in yeah
• ㅖ (ye) as in yesterday
• ㅘ (wa) as in wax
• ㅙ (wae) as in waiter
• ㅚ (oe) as in when
• ㅝ (wo) as in wash 
• ㅞ  (we) as in way
•  ㅟ (wi) as in wheat
• ㅢ  (ui) officially pronounced as uh-ee but is commonly heard/used as in Yale

Consonants

• ㄱ (k/g) between ‘ka’ and ‘ga’ but when used as initial character the standard romanization is g; never to be pronounced as g of George 
• ㄴ (n) as in the sound n of noun
• ㄷ (d/t) between d and t but when used as initial character the standard romanization is d
• ㄹ (l/r) between l and r, one of the characters with most nuances in pronunciation 
• ㅁ(m) as in monster
• ㅂ(b/p) between the sound of ‘ba’ and ’pa’ but when as initial character standard romanization is b
• ㅅ (s) as in sample, its a straight forward sound as in hissing of snake ssss this is trivial because when used as final consonant the sound becomes similar to ‘t’ 
• ㅇ (ng/silent) when this character occurs as initial it is not pronounced or silent otherwise it is similar to tang
• ㅈ (j) almost like ‘ch’ as in just 
• ㅊ (ch) always romanized as ch as in chop
• ㅋ (k) always romanized and pronounced as k as in kite 
• ㅌ (t) always romanized and pronounced as t as in ten
• ㅍ (p) always romanized and pronounced as p as in pet 
• ㅎ (h) as in hat

Double Consonants (asprirated, more air released)

• ㄲ (kk)
• ㄸ (tt)
• ㅃ (pp)
• ㅆ (ss)
• ㅉ (jj)

King Sejong

Chuseok 2011: Jeju Island!

The Chuseok holiday fell on Monday, September 12th this year and we also had a couple of extra days off which meant a 5 day weekend which really meant time to explore more of The Land of the Morning Calm!
In case you are wondering the significance behind the Chuseok holiday, read here and here for more information and to read what I did last year.

제주도 or Jeju island is located off the southwest coast of Korea. It is a major holiday and honeymoon destination for Koreans. The island is beautiful and covered with volcanoes, mountains (including the tallest mountain in SoKo which we weren't able to climb because it was raining so hard, booo,--guess we just have to go back!) and of course, beaches. My first thought after landing was how green it was! Seoul is definitely a concrete jungle so it was nice to be surrounded by grass (and palm trees!). :)

       

Some fellow SFSers (Misty, Kristen, Laura) and I planned this trip during the summer and we decided to go through Adventure Korea. Adventure Korea is a tour group that plans the entire trip (flights, accommodation, transportation, interpretation, food) for a large group of people (there were 40 people total on our trip). It was my first trip with them and everything went smoothly. I definitely plan to use them again for another trip around SoKo.

On Saturday, September 10th, we got up early and headed off to Gimpo airport (the other airport in Seoul which is a lot closer than Incheon). We met the rest of the Adventure Korea Jeju trip travelers, got on our plane and headed off to Jeju. The flight was only 55 minutes long. Our first stop after we landed was a restaurant. Then we headed off to our first hike of the trip, Mt. Songak.

Check out the differences in packing and traveling style between us:)

Gimpo airport

Outside of the restaurant and our first stop in Jeju. Time for touristy pictures!

Views as we climbed Mt. Songak

Beautiful Jeju

After our first hike, we headed to an interactive show called Airarang. It included taekwondo performers,  nanta drums and B-boy dancers.

Taekwondo!

The Korean flag while everyone yelled the famous soccer chant "Dae Han min guk!" which means Rep of SoKo

We then headed to our hotel, had dinner and rested for the next day. The next day we attempted to hike Mt. Hallasan but the weather was really bad. Instead we went to Jusangjleori to get some great views of the coastline. Then we went to  Hallim Park, the biggest park on the island (which also included a lava tube cave) and we ended the day by goin to Jungbang waterfall, which drops straight into the sea.

I survived.

Amazing views of the coastline

Sporting our hats at Hallim Park

Group shot by the waterfall

On Monday we were able to sleep in a little bit and headed off to Loveland which is an outdoor sculpture park. Some of the sculptures showed the human form in all its glory...haha. The sculptures were designed and built by graduates of Hongdae University. Misty said that they should've named it Lustland because all the sculptures are sex-based. It was definitely very odd.  Haha! Here are a few  PG-13 pictures. 

awkward!

ummm??

Next, we headed to the beach for some much needed relaxation. We took a nap, went swimming and then rented a little boat for a few hours.

Our last day, we headed to a green tea plantation and climbed the Jeju Volcanic Island.

We also did noreabang one night, took many group pictures and ate a lot!

What a fun trip!