First Days in Boeun

It's hard to believe I've been here for two weeks now!  So far my life in Boeun is really good.  I'm definitely still in the Honeymoon phase, where everything seems a little surreal and I'm just trying to process being on the other side of the world!  I'm realizing that not very many people know much English in the town so I'm getting better and better at gesturing, virtually playing charades, to communicate when I want food to go or I want to know the price of an item.  Although I have a comprehensive phrasebook, I haven't remembered many phrases in Korean yet myself.  Something I definitely want to work on!

Fortunately I met up with Matt and Courtney, friends of mine who have both taught in Korea.  They gave me a crash course in reading the Korean symbols and pronunciation and the like.  Now I can walk into a typical Korean restaurant and communicate that I want gimbap (steamed rice rolled up with seaweed and other kinds of vegetables, maybe fish.  It reminds me of sushi).  I'm definitely getting more used to the food.  On a day to day basis I eat food in the school's cafeteria with the other teachers and students.  Every day we have rice and variations of kimchi, meat, fruit, other sides.  The food has been really good so far!  Every once in awhile something on my plate freaks me out if I think about it too much, and I refuse to be the Canadian girl they laugh about because she doesn't want to eat quail eggs or something, so I've eat everything!

When I originally set out to live in South Korea I requested to live in a city, not in the countryside.  And now I'm somewhere in between!  Boeun is a pretty small town, especially compared to the large cities of South Korea, with a population of about 45,000 people.  It has everything I need for day to day life like grocery stores, restaurants, cafes, pharmacies, hospital, so on and so on. 

 Downtown Boeun.  If you see that orange sign, that's a typical Korean restaurant.  You see those orange signs everywhere.

 More of Boeun

On Saturday vendors hit the street and open up food or other kinds of stands.  It's totally crowded.  You can see that van trying to drive down the street, technically trying to keep to a side, but it just all blends together.

 A covered shopping area

On the bridge

On the first weekend I was here, Boeun had its annual Boeun Ocher Apple Festival to celebrate the fruit Boeun is famous for, the jujube.  I went to the festival with some of the English teachers and heard a Korean singer as well as had some great food!

 Town clock and festival signs.  You can see that under the clock are permanent jujubes.

 Some of the displays at the festival

 I have zero idea who this singer was but he was dressed like a leprechaun...

 Me and Angela at the festival.  Angela is a fellow teacher at my school, SamSan Elementary School.  She's great!

 Food tents and crowds

 Fireworks even!  Boeun is very excited about the jujube.

 A woman making pajeon, a Korean pancake with different vegetables in it. 

Our feast at the festival, kimchi pajeon, chicken wings, and a drink I do not remember the name of but it was made with the juice of the jujube.  Very delicious!

As fine as Boeun is in the day to day, it's also nice that there are larger cities close by where I can get Western food, go shopping, have some entertainment.  I even went to my first movie in Korea!  Popcorn and everything!  Felt like home!

 Popcorn!  Yes!  Angela and Jenny are enjoying some before we go into the theatre

 Looks like theatres at home!  Just everything in Korean...

 What is showing right now... we went to theatre 3 so so Money Never Sleeps, which is really good!  Even with Korean subtitles below, haha...

 Sitting in our assigned seats before everything starts.  Everyone keeps laughing at me taking pictures of the mundane things...

 After the movie Jenny took Angela and I out for "Western" food at a lovely restaurant called Lake Restaurant because it's right beside a lake.  Everything is still served with rice and kimchi... probably like how we "Americanize" Korean food, or any Asian food for that matter, Koreans do the same with Western food it seems.

 My Italian pork cultet.  You know it's Italian food because there is a couple pieces of pepperoni on it and maraschino cherries.  I'm not exactly sure what that was supposed be like... but it was pretty good!  I just took the maraschino cherries off.  Just seemed odd on pork.

My co-teacher Jenny.  She's wonderful!  I like her a lot.

So there's more of my life in Korea thus far.  I still have to show you all pictures of the crazy spider that is on my balcony and the drama of my ID card.  But I'm here for a year... more to come!

Thanks for all the emails, comments, messages, etc etc.  Love it all!  I definitely miss home but less so with the constant contact through technology.  Makes me so grateful to be traveling in this time in the world.  Till next time...