Vacation and Exciting News... OH YEAH!

In a matter of hours, Danny and I will be leaving for vacation.  Our last class has been taught, our bags are packed, and we are SOOOOO excited to head off to Thailand and Cambodia.  I will update you with some pictures from our trip in the next couple weeks, but for now I want you to know about something awesome happening in Korea.


Dan, Pablo (sorry won't be there) and Georgiana

 Our great friends, Dan and Georgiana Eakins, are in Korea as we speak and will soon be going with us to Thailand and Cambodia!  They are part of a band called the Ineloquent, and they are freakin' awesome.  While we are in Thailand we will hopefully be able to see a Compassion International site in Thailand and meet some awesome kids that they sponsor, but the exciting news that is happening in Korea, is this...

The Ineloquent will be playing a FREE concert at Dongshin Church (for directions click here) in Daegu on February 25th, at 7pm.  It's going to be awesome music, awesome people, and it's FREE... you can't beat that.  Come, bring friends, and enjoy a good time!  Here's a video of them so you can check them out. 

Hope you can make it, and hopefully when you see us there, we will be more tan and more relaxed then you have ever seen us ; )  VACATION, HERE WE COOOOMMMMMEEEEEEEE!!!

And the winners are...

After many wonderful people left interesting and disgusting comments of food they had eaten, Danny and I did a very fair (I promise ; ) drawing of names out of a hat and found our two winners!  Ladies and gentlemen, the two winners of Kimchi for Breakfast's 100th blog post contest are...drum roll....

Seth and Anna Schuett and Chelsea Van Ryn!

Congratulations!  Thank you all for your support and comments to our blog, and even though some of you didn't win, I hope you will continue to read and enjoy our stories from Korea.  It's always encouraging when we hear of you guys reading (and hopefully) liking our blog...really, thank you!

We wanted to try and do something special for post #101 so we've been putting together a little compilation of  stories from Korea.  So many of us who live here have crazy tales and funny memories that we don't want to forget, so Danny and I tried to document some into a little movie for you all.  In a little over a week, Danny and I will have been living in Korea for exactly 2 years, and man do we have a lot of memories!  We did our best to add the funniest and most wacky stories we could so for those of you who live in Korea ~  I bet you can relate ; ) and for those of you who don't ~  this is just a small sampling of Crazy Korea.  ENJOY!

Good times in Korea : ) 

Kai, Bai, BO! Koreans love of Rock, Scissors, Paper

Sometime in all our lives we learned the rules of Rock, Scissors, Paper (RSP). It's almost as though it is engrained in our DNA, and even though I feel like I'm surrounded by aliens on a far off planet sometimes, Rock, Scissors, Paper has even reached the world of Korea.

In fact, not only has it reached Korea, but it is serious business here. RSP is the ultimate decider in Korea and every man, woman, and child knows it. I'm actually surprised that more political offices aren't won by doing Rock, Scissors, Paper here... that is just how hard-core these Koreans really are ; ) Anytime I have a dispute in class, I just pull out RSP and students can't argue the results anymore. No "Teacher, unfair!"  No "Teacher, why!?" ... it's a magical thing.

In Korea, RSP is called "Kawi, Bawi, Bo!" or short "Kai, Bai, Bo!". Students do it in large groups here and go so fast that it is still hard for me to figure out who really won. All I know is one kid usually ends up cheering and excited while another kids hangs their head in resignation.

I doubt I've gone a day at school without hearing a Kai, Bai, Bo tournament going on somewhere and if you are in Korea or visit you should make a tally of how many times you see it. All I know is that it has saved me from many an argument and I think it might be my preferred way to decide who has to do the dishes with Danny now : ) Good luck to you in your many Kai, Bai, Bo games and if you know the "official" Korean rules, let me know because I'm still clueless.

Danny's Hotel Class...it's no Hilton.

I would say our job at the English Village is unique because we don't have to teach "normal" classes like many other English teachers.  I "normally" teach Yoga class, Bank, and Post Office and Danny gets to teach his own share of subjects: Grocery Store, Math, and Hotel class.   All of Danny's classes are fun (of course they are if you know Danny ;) and can produce interesting products... especially Hotel class.  Danny talks about parts of a hotel and then has students create their own hotel.  We have seen robot hotels, ghost hotels, chicken hotels and much more, but this week students seemed to be especially interested in involving Danny and I in their hotels. 

Here are some of our favorites...

Our lovely family and introducing our sweet children
Damy and Kamy!

Looks like there some lovin' going on by the pool...
and possibly someone might be drowning, we're not sure.

They wanted to make sure that we knew
who was stupid and who was cute... that's right!



I don't quite know what's going on, but I look like I'm rockin'
out on something and Danny has crazy hair.

 Some other hotels that needed "honorable" mentions or just to be shown because they are so ridiculous...

What a great name, right? 

Who wouldn't want to stay at the blood hotel?  It is even complete with a blood pool and a bleeding appliances! Yuck.

Wanna go for a swim? Ewwww.

This receptionist sure looks inviting at the "Kill Hotel"...


What a nice looking guy! Yeah right.


Danny was very impressed that even the lights where people who were hung from the ceiling.  It's really amazing what boys can come up with...

That hotel room is going to take a lot of cleaning up
after those guys get finished bleeding everywhere!

And at last the "Chicken Hotel".  The kids were cracking up with how similar "check-in" counter sounded like "chicken" counter.  Gotta love kids...

I bet you can guess which were made by boys and which were made by sweet innocent girls : ) Kids always keep this place interesting!  I don't know if we've ever had a boring week when it involves crazy Korean children.  We hope these pictures brightened your day and encourages you to look for more interesting places to stay next time you go to a hotel... just stay away from anything with "die" in the name ; ) 

Christmas done the "creative" way...

I must say that I am in the Christmas spirit this year!  Even though it hasn't snowed here in Andong yet (tear) and they don't really decorate quite like America, I'm excited for Christmas to come.  I'm especially excited for the decorations that we put up last week, mainly our tree.  You can't buy Christmas trees here in Korea so you have to be creative.  Last year we used what some might call a branch for our Christmas tree, but this year we thought we'd try something different...

Last year's tree (I still love that Charlie
Brown branch!)

AND NOW...

This year's tree. (In case you can't guess, that is
our mirror under all that goodness.)

Our tree is constructed out of felt and staples.  Not bad if I do say so myself : )  Before we decided on the crafty version, I walked around our neighborhood and briefly considered cutting down a tree from the yard across the street, but then I thought "tis' the season not to commit a crime"... thus our felt tree was born.

Who needs to spend a ton of money on decorations this season?  Not us!  I hope if you are away from home this holiday season, you too find a way to get some Christmas cheer.  Have a very Merry Christmas!

Korean's Obsession with Bread and Coffee

When you think of Korea, you probably think kimchi and rice, right?  Wrong.  Korean's have this obsession with bread and coffee that I never expected.  I thought there would be no way that I could find a bakery or a good coffee shop when I first came to Korea, but in fact there is both just about everywhere you go.

Not only do Korean's love bread, but they love the French and have named all of their bakeries after them.  Tour le Jour and Paris Baguette are two bakeries that you will see all over Korea, even if you are in a somewhat small town.  They usually have a variety of pastries or "bbaang" (Korean for bread) which probably will include something containing red bean or something surprisingly sweet.  I have stopped trying to buy "garlic" bread anywhere because it usually is covered in sugar as well.  Sweet and garlic bread just don't go together if you ask me.

My absolute favorite bakery, here in Andong, is a place called Mammoth Bakery.  It's safe to say that we are regulars there since we generally go once a week to enjoy a pastry and an Americano.  Most Andong-ians would agree that Mammoth has the best bread in town, and I also love it because of the atmosphere as well. 

All the goodies...

Our favorite place to relax.

Danny and I love to go in the mornings when they are bringing out all the fresh baked goods.  I think the workers there might wonder about us "waygookins" (foreigners) because we stare down every new baker who is bringing out a new tray of goodies.

My favorite is a chunk of toast that is dipped in a sugar/butter concoction and then it is baked till it's nice a crispy...oh it is so good.

Danny likes to try a variety of things, as usual, and some of his favorites include a brown-ish raisin coffee cake, vegetable croquets, and cinnamon rolls (that they have only had on rare occasion).

Even more then bakeries, coffee shops are litterally EVERYWHERE in Korea.  We have more coffee shops then I can count here in Andong and we are in a relatively small city. 

There's Angel in Us, Holly's Coffee, Caffe Bene, The Alchemist, Starbucks, Cafe Myungga and much more.  Just so you can feel like a local, here are some tips on how to speak Korean when it comes to coffee shops...

Angel-in-Us .... pronounced "angelinusuh"

Caffe Bene....  "capaybenay"

Starbucks... "sta-bucksuh"

Mammoth Bakery.... "mammot"

and coffee is easy... "copi"

They have basically any coffee that you might find in America, however one thing they don't have is decaf.  I prefer to drink decaf, but even in big cities like Seoul Starbucks doesn't carry decaf!  Also is is more rare to find drip coffee, instead you usually have to get an Americano if you don't like the sweet stuff. 

And let me tell you, Koreans LOVE the sweet stuff.  There is some sort of national rule that Koreans can't admit that they like sweet things or that many of their breads and beverages are ridiculously sweet, because most Koreans will say American food is too sweet!  I think not (ahem...sweet garlic bread?).  I want to introduce you to how you make a Korean style coffee with a coffee packet...

Put the coffee packet (which is about 75% sugar, 15% fake creamer, 10% instant coffee) and  in the tiny Dixie cup...

Pour in a splash of water (seriously they fill the already tiny cup up about half way!)...

And stir with the packet (which is something I recently realized probably isn't that sanitary)...

And there you have it...Korean-style Coffee!

In some ways, coffee shops are Danny and my escape from Korea.  When we just need a break, we go to a cozy coffee shop, get a hot drink and pretend we are back home.  Even though it was a surprise to find the two obsessions of coffee and bread in Korea, I must say that I have enjoyed it a lot.  I hope you too can find your "home away from home" at your local "copi" shop!

Celebrating Freedom Day in Korea! Happy 4th of July!

If you know anything about Danny and I, we LOVE freedom.  Don't even get Danny started on how much he loves Mrka (America)... he will go for days.  Being that the 4th of July is my favorite holiday, I am sad to have missed the parades and barbeques, but we did our best to celebrate here in Korea. 

Since Korean's don't really care too much about American Independence day, we had to spend most of the day at work...boooo.  Then we enjoyed some American s'mores over a camping stove at our apartment thanks to our friend Sara's mom sending it all in a care package. (My first s'more in a year and a half.) It's crazy to me that people in other countries haven't really had s'mores before so I enjoyed watching our coworker, Cathal, trying his very first one. 

After the intense sugar intake, we went down by the river to light of the symbol of freedom...no not bald eagles...FIREWORKS!  We didn't have any really crazy stuff, but it was fun to let out the pyro in us for the evening and light stuff on fire ; )

My favorite was playing with the sparklers, and as you can see, Danny had fun with it too!

 We made a attempt to write "D love's K" but someone who will remain nameless, who also starts their name with a "D", did it backwards : )  But you know what?!  We have the FREEDOM to do that...WHY?... Because WE ARE MRKANS!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy 4th of July!

Postcards from Korean Kids : )

I have mentioned before that our teaching atmosphere is what you might call "alternative" here at Andong English Village.  Instead of grammar class and other ridiculously boring ways of teaching English, we teach things like Grocery Store class and Yoga class... not bad, right?  

I just wanted to share with you some postcards that I have recieved from my Post Office class.  I have students write a postcard home at the end of the class, and sometimes I get some interesting ones.  Here are a few of my favorites...



I feel honored that she called me "buttiful"... 
I'm not ashamed to say I have some "junk in the trunk" ; )

Another great one...

Who knew that a Korean kid could so perfectly put into words what
I think everytime I eat amazing food!

 Korean kids are so wonderfully honest...


I feel bad for this kid, going back to a school where their Korean teacher is
"bery, bery scared" but at least they liked their week at AEV!

 Kids are awesome and so are these postcards.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!