Picture Update

I just thought that I would update you all through pictures.The first snow of the season! I was really excited! This is from our apartment.


We finally got to make some kimchi! The Stake president's wife invited us over :). They really prepare for the coming year really well. We ate some kimchi through the process, had a delicious lunch with boiled pork and kimchi and left with a ton of kimchi!! Yum!!!




We went to Freedom Park in Incheon. The picture of the left is of a statue of General McArthur. China Town!!!!And Mark with the largest bowl of noodles ever!!!
Our archer friend at the National Korean Archery Festival. We're pretty sure that we ended up on T.V. for it because we were interviewed but we didn't know the station.

Mark's awesome rainbow hair!

Halloween!

If you would like the history lesson of Halloween, go here. My Dad got my interest peaked when he said "Happy All-Saints Day" on November 1st. It's pretty interesting! The site explains the European roots of Halloween. Well, obviously, in Korea, Halloween isn't big...yet. There's a tiny section that spans 6 feet of shelving at the big super markets and it includes little things for kids to wear to their English classes. Ofcourse no one goes door to door but Mark and I thought that the concept of Halloween would work really well here. There's a high population density, people like to get scared, and Koreans like to celebrate things :). And who knows, maybe it will be big someday, especially with a high pressure to know English!

Anyhow, Mark's school celebrated Halloween so Mark got to dress up! We had the hardest time finding stuff for him to wear! It was actually really stressful! Well he ended up being a vampire and I thought it was really successful! Ask Mark sometime about his experience scaring kids at school ;).

Well the missionaries put on a Halloween party for the ward and it was really fun! Initially only the Americans had dressed but the face paint booth soon became a hit! This kid is great! Mark and I ran a room where you had to pin the wart on the witch. It was a great hit with the kids! However, the excitement of the night was a little too much for them...kids were everywhere and begging for candy! Mark calmed them down easily enough when he went into "scary vampire" mode! The missionaries did a great job in bringing Halloween to Korea!

Let's not forget the treats! On Halloween Day I made pumpkin pie, rolls, brownies, caramel popcorn and Korean food to keep it cultural! :). Happy Halloween!!!

Hiking Mani Mountain (마니산)

Finally! The weather has cooled down! It's such a relief not to walk outside and feel like you need to take a shower right away! Anyhow, it seems like it's been quite a while since we've had a Saturday to just throw around, and since the weather is beautiful we decided to hike Mani Mountain or Manisan. This mountain is on an island just off the west coast of the peninsula. )
We started our day relatively early, and set out by bus. The main bus comes every 60 minutes. Mark and I determined that if we were just three seconds late we would have missed our bus and then would have had to wait an hour just sitting around, so we knew our day was going to be lucky!
Anyhow, Manisan is a significant mountain because it is the birth place of Dangun (단군), the supposed father of the Korean race. It's really pretty! We started off our hike geared with Pocari Sweat, a Korean sports drink, and rice cake snacks. For the way up we took the stairs route. Yep, there are 1004 steps! It was a rough hike, but being able to hike the stairs of Gi (more commonly known as Chi) where you can receive "life force" was definitely worth it!
Well we got to the top and all we could think about was drinking something cold and sitting down! After a few seconds we began to notice that some people had ice cream. It's about an hour hike so all we could think about was "wow, these people are really prepared." Then slowly we began to notice that every single person was eating ice cream! We searched the place and found this lady sitting on the ground selling ice cream from her coolers. She must walk up the mountain a couple times of day with these coolers just selling ice cream and other cold things. It's not it vain though, the ice cream was way over priced but no one thought twice about buying it! Including us!
As we situated ourselves on a nice piece of rock (There were so many people there!) we were able to relax and take in the beautiful scenery and the main attraction! This is an alter that was supposedly built by Dangun to make sacrifices to the Gods. It's prehistoric, rumored to be from 30th century BC, so that part isn't quite proven but an emperor, in 1310, is recorded to have restored the alter. So we know that it is older than that. They still do ceremonies up here at least twice a year.

After a while of sightseeing at the top of mountain and looking at the ocean we decided to descend. To save our legs, we decided to take the "non-stair route down." However, this way was misleading because there were still 400 steep stairs! We got what we called "jelly legs." It was hard to walk! It was worth it because this route was definitely prettier! Anyhow, about a third of the way down my "jelly legs" failed me and I rolled my ankle pretty bad. I cried not because it hurt but of the prospect of having to climb the other 2/3 of the mountain. Then after crying a little, Mark and I laughed because it came at the most awkward time. Thankfully we made it down alright. :).

All in all, a good hike :)

Mark's Job: Go Poly School!

Basically, I teach English to Korean kids (or “teacha the Engarishy” as most of them would say).

(Note: for the "I'll just watch the movie version" types: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKW-YAX_vWw)


I get to work by 9:15, and from 9:50 to 2:10 I teach 4 year old kids. I have 45 minutes for lunch, but other than that it’s reading, writing, phonics, etc. one hour after the other. It’s a pretty rough schedule for a 4 year old, but it’s my job. The fact that a lot of them can not just read, but write coherent sentences with only minor spelling mistakes is pretty crazy. Sometimes we watch short videos (Jack Johnson’s “Upside Down” music video and Gene Kelley tap dancing in “Singing in the Rain” are surprisingly big hits). Sometimes we play music and dance. Mostly, however, we study. It can be really frustrating to work with the kids, and sometimes I feel like they don’t get anything at all. But other times, like the time one of my 4 year olds read a full sentence on her own for the first time, I want to cry I’m so happy. At 2:10 we walk them to the bus, and I take my well deserved break (during which I sometimes write blog posts like this).

At 3:15 it’s back in the trenches with 2 hours of vocab, grammar, and writing to 1st graders followed by the same to 2nd graders. From 6:30 to 8:00, I teach reading to 5th graders. All the students in one of my classes have lived in the U.S. or another English speaking country for at least a couple years. That class is about like your average American 5th grade class in every positive and negative way: they understand everything I say, they read and write fairly well, and they won’t stop talking for more than 10 seconds at a time. The other class has little or no international experience, so like most Korean students they’re well behaved, hardly ever volunteer answers, and understand maybe 2/3 of the words I say (meaning they miss at least one or two a sentence). I haven’t decided which class I like working with better, but after working with 4 year olds all morning the 5th graders might as well be 25 for how mature they seem to me. When the clock hits 8:00, class is dismissed, I drop everything in the teacher’s room and I don’t think about my job again until 9:15 the next morning.

Now given the time of day my 5th graders are coming, I’m sure you’ve realized that I don’t teach at a school. I teach at a “Hagwon”, which literally means a place for learning. Of course really it means “a place parents send their kids because keeping up with the Joneses in Korea means your kid outscoring theirs on the SAT and has nothing to do with house size or Christmas lights." Most kids go to at least 2 or 3 every day when school gets done. Whether I agree with the fact that Korean elementary school students spend 12+ hours studying, I figure since they’re here I might as well make sure they get something for all their work. I usually wear a shirt and tie, but I try to be a little more audacious than the usual Sunday attire. I try to look formal, but not so much that I’d be totally out of place in a Dr. Seuss book. As I’m writing this, I’m wearing a light green tie and a purple/white striped shirt with black slacks. Nobody’s complained yet, so I must not look too terrible.Well, that’s what I do in a nutshell. I love my job, and it pays just fine. The hours are long but the kids are great!
-Mark

I'm ashamed!

So, I can understand some Korean, but not everything. There are certain times where I find myself in a very awkward situation because I didn't know what a word meant. Well, let me tell you of a time.

Information that you might need: It was August 31st, my 21st birthday was September 1st, the day right after this.

I was at a church woman's activity, and we had just finished a big and spicy meal. It is very common to have fruit and juice to wash it all down. I am most used to a type of plum juice (maeshil) after meals. It's really good for digestion and Mark and I get it often because it's nice for heartburns as well. Well anyhow, one of the ladies came out and said we're going to have podo-ju. Podo means grape. I didn't know what ju meant. She said it was exactly like plum juice, but with grapes. It was at a church activity so I didn't think anything of it except whether it was a tea against the word of wisdom or not. She pulled out a glass jar and distributed the drinks. I drank some and HATED it! It was too sweet, odd tasting and burned my throat. It's very rude not to finish what people give you in Korea, so my solution is to finish it fast. I started chugging it! Well a friend next to me made my thoughts verbal, "Wow, this is really really strong." So I knew this wasn't normal, so it occurred to me...is this alcohol? Again, my friend, made this verbal but in Korean. The owner of it said "Of course not! It's just like plum juice." The owner of the mystery drink then told us that last year she bought a box grapes and they didn't taste very good. Grapes are expensive, so instead of wasting them, she juiced them, added sugar and kept them in that jar for a year! Luckily for me, I knew that that meant alcohol...thank goodness for a Chemist husband. I didn't know what to do or say, but I definitely couldn't finish it. I went to use the restroom and fortunately when I came back it was gone. Turns out "ju" is a suffix for alcohol. I.E. Maek-ju means beer, so-ju is a popular alcoholic beverage. I drank wine the day before I turned 21! Not only did I forsake my morals but I broke U.S. law! ;) It's a really funny experience for, and it definitely makes me think twice before I drink anything!

Chuseok 추석

Mark is in charge of writing the blog post of round two of our summer trip, but since school is long and he doesn't have much time I'll continue to blog about other happenings and events. :)
Korea has a Thanksgiving/Memorials day September. It's whenever the full moon is. You remember your ancestors and visit their graves where you clean them up and pay respects. Afterward, you celebrate with lots of food! My friend compared the excitement to Christmas, it's just that big! You usually celebrate this event with your husbands family. My mom has all sisters, so there is no one to visit my grandparents grave-site on Chuseok day so the family went early. We went to my grandparents grave-site, sang a few hymns and read an apostle's creed (I think that's what they called it). The place was beautiful. Most Korean cemeteries are found in mountains and hilly places. This was the first time I got to see all my aunts since I was nine! I have never been told that I looked like my mom this many times before! They were great! The whole day was a competition of who could spoil me best, "Jasmine, sit with me" "Jasmine, come in my car" Jasmine, eat this" "Jasmine, I'm going to buy you this." It was really funny to see my mom's personality spread among 4 other women! Needless to say, it was a great day! Can't wait to see what Seoul has in store for Chuseok day!
My aunts, plus my cousin's wife, Jane.


P.S: To my grandparents in America. My relatives that have been to America and met you two, they have said numerous times that you two were the kindest people they have ever met, it seems to be a highlight of their trip!

Me and my aunt, Malsook. (말숙 이모). No, I'm not wearing tall shoes.
The whole group.

Summer Vacation Part 1: Gyeongju 경주

Mark gets two full weeks off in his contract. One week is in December, over Christmas, and the other is the last week of July. For this break we decided that we wanted to get out of Seoul because this is one of our few opportunities. We started off by going to Gyeongju (경주) in the South Eastern part of South Korea. This city was the old capital city of the Silla (신라) dynasty, which lasted almost 1,000 years! (57 BC-935 AD, one of the longest in Asia). Needless to say, there is a lot of old history preserved there.

As far as lodging, we started off staying in a jimjilbang (짐질방). This is a public bath house, men and women are separate for bathing of course. Then there is room that is kept at room temperature and you wear the comfortable clothes that they provide for you. You sleep on the floor with a wooden block pillow. It wasn't the most comfortable but it was really fun to wake up to twenty other people sprawled on the floor, plus it was really cheap.

Anyhow, we started off our trip by going and seeing some burial mounds

They haven't excavated many graves but the ones they did had a ton of cool stuff. Normally the royalty were buried like this. This crown in the next picture is probably from the 600s. These burial mounds are scattered everywhere in Gyeongju. some are identified and some aren't, it was really cool to see them!

This is us with the King Seongdeok bell that rings every New Year. We're also with our tour guides. Mark got to talking with a guy at the jimjilbang and the next thing we know we had a tour guide. His wife, who wanted to practice speaking English, showed us around. She was really cool!

This is Mark with a really famous military general that helped unify the three kingdoms of Korea, Kim Yushin. And this is Mark's artistic photography skill. It's beautiful!

This is at Bulguksa (불국사). One of the oldest and largest preserved Buddhist temples.

. This is national treasure number 20! Dabotap! There are a lot of national treasures so this one counts. This pagoda is found on the Korean 10 won coin.

Unfortunately, we couldn't get pictures, but we got to see a really cool statue of Buddha, Seokguram. It's very famous because it's well preserved and beautiful! My mom saw this same statue in high school before they built a building around it.

Mark, at General Kim Yushin's grave.

Okay, so mom's name is Bak Hui-young. (박희영) Bak is her surname. This is the grave of Bak Hyeokgoese (박혁거새). Bak is his surname. He was the first King of the Silla dynasty and the founder of a Bak clan. This is my mom's dad's dad's dad's dad's ... dad's dad. So this is my great great great ... great grandfather. I'm royalty! His wife and a few of his close descendants are buried here.

For those of you who don't know, I started off as an astronomy major. I have a special spot in my heart for astronomy. This is an ancient astronomy tower built in the 700s. I loved seeing this. It's the original thing!

This is where King Munmu (문무) is buried, out in the rocks. He lived in the 700s. The beach is beautiful! This could have been a better picture, but our impromptu photographer had a little too much soju, alcohol ;)

Leaving Gyeongju for Andong!!! Stay tuned for part 2!!

Nice people, good food, and the sites

Let me start off with an experience that happened to me today. This experience shows the type of people that a lot of Koreans are. Mark and I found this little bakery close to our house. We've gone there a couple of times now and have met the owner and his wife. Don't get me wrong, the food is great but i think we keep going because the owners are so humble, sincere and nice! Mark had work today and I was really craving some Korean pastries, so I went by myself. I walked in and the owner came out a greeted me with his usual smile. He asked me where my "boyfriend was (we're a little young to be married by Korean standards). Although happy that I came in, I think he wanted to see Mark. Anyhow, I got a couple things and went to check out. He asked me what Mark's name was and as I was busy getting my wallet out, he left the counter and came back with a pastry and said, "give this to your boyfriend. I call this bread: Mark's bread." [He said this all in Korean by the way]. It was so funny and nice! This occurrence isn't even weird at all over here. People are a little more apt to be sentimental. Yesterday was our second Sunday at church and it's crazy how Mark and I were mobbed with people wanting to talk to us! This lady sat by me in class trying to translate the whole time even though she knew maybe 20 words in English. After church all the women kept shaking my hand and giving me boiled eggs (Not sure why ^^). They kept telling me how good looking Mark was and how happy they were that we were there. I don't think we're less capable or less motivated of being sentimental in the States, but our culture makes us shy in these type of situations which is unfortunate.

Anyhow, on to our other adventures. Mark and I have been looking for a good pork restaurant(돈까스 집). We've looked five places total, and eaten at one of them. Two of them were closed down, one was closed for the day and two were not the Korean style. It's been almost comical. Every night it seems we think "Let's find this place," but we've been disappointed. We drove by a new one on Saturday and so that might be our adventure tonight! So if you know of any good places...

Anyhow, we've done a little more sight seeing


In the secret gardens of Changdeok Palace ( 창덕궁). In the main palace of Changdeok Palace. This is at Jongmyo Shrine (종며). They keep spirit tablets here, if you were a good king then you had a tablet made in your honor and it was kept and remembered here. They still do annual ceremonies here in May. We got a new camera before coming to Korea and there's a facial recognition thing on it. When Mark was prepping to take the picture, the camera recognized all the faces in the background and when Mark took the picture, the camera asked if one of the faces in the background blinked. This is in front of Jongmyo shrine. Again, in front of Jongmyo Shrine. There was a huge park here, and honestly over 50 old men were lounging around, playing Korean chess and checkers. There was no female or young person in sight except for us ^^ Mark's Korean professor from BYU, Mark Peterson, came to Korea and gave a fireside. He talked a lot about Korean genealogy and record keeping. It was pretty cool :).

Anyhow, we're having fun and loving Korea!

So, we're finally in Korea! 한국에 왔어요! I got here the 26th of June and stayed with my uncle and cousins. They're really cool. My cousins had enough English skills and I had enough Korean skills to communicate.

Mark got here on the 27th and we moved into our place! It is small. Imagine a really really really small studio apartment, okay divide that in half and that's our house :). It works for us though, we don't have much stuff. :)

It's great to be back! Mark hasn't been back since his mission and I haven't been back for almost 12 years! The food and shopping are still great! Mark has already bought 6 ties for less than twenty dollars! Apart from eating and shopping, we've been doing a little sight seeing. This is a picture of King Sejong. He is the reason why Korea has the alphabet that they do, which is great because Korean is really easy to read :). P.S: I'm holding up my Korean name. This other picture, with Mark posing like the statue, is of Yi Sun Sin. This guy was a great military hero of Korea and was really really smart. This is in the middle of Downtown Seoul by the way.
This is at Gyeongbok Palace, 경복궁, in the middle of Seoul.

These next two pictures are our Korean Zodiacs. Mark was born in the year of the Ox. I was born in the year of the Snake. Ironically, I hate snakes the most.


(Top)I went to see my mom's old high school :) It was cool to see where she grew up :). (Bottom) That person in the top middle area looks familiar... Anyhow, I'm not much of a writer and the formatting of this page has been really frustrating but I'll do my best to keep you informed. Sorry for the disorganization^^