IF YOU LIKE IT THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE PUT A WING ON IT

I remember seeing and hearing of chicken wing places in Korean Town in LA but a.) never been to one and 2.) couldn't grasp the concept of Korean style chicken wings. Saturday was the answer to all of this madness. They were the most delicious, spicy & crunchy wings I've ever had. Next time you're in Korea and having trouble communicating with the workers at a chicken place and you want wings, just make a flying motion with your arms and they'll get it.

Just add beer

20 wings + coca cola + pickled radish = 17,000 won

Roughly $15 for two people. Not bad.

HONGDAE

Saturday we decided to go for the plunge and hop on the subway for a day trip to Hongdae. Hongdae is short for Hongik University -- a well known fine arts school in Seoul. Imagine Westwood but with better food, shopping, 10x more the amount of people, music, art & great fashion. Clothes are cheap, it's nearly impossible to find a pair of shoes bigger than size 7 and all girls wear a universal size of XXS. Luckily for me, the oversized look is in and I can manage. It took about an hour to get there on the subway and a transfer to another line. Once we got there it was about 3pm. The streets were packed, food carts lined the alley ways and there were clothing stores galore. The vibe was cool, hip people and good music on the streets. There are eyewear stores on every street in Korea and I finally found a pair I fell in love with. The guy gave me a great price and I left Hongdae happy :). It was definitely a great day trip but just be warned if you decide to go, you'll probably get sucked in to shopping.

These little bakeries are everywhere

Streets of Hongdae

New specs

HOME PLUS

OK I'm a little behind on this already so ignore the dates I'm posting them on for now.

Our second day here we didn't have an agenda from the school yet and it was a Sunday (foreign teachers generally don't work on weekends) so we decided to explore a bit and get to know our surroundings. Our goal for the day was to find a power adapter/converter for our computers and other misc electronics we brought. For the record, if someone tells you not to worry about it while you're in the states, I'd ignore what they just said and bring one with you regardless of the price difference. This way you won't have to spend a whole day searching for one. It's such a small item too that it doesn't really take up any space. As we continued to walk around, we noticed not too many places are open on a Sunday. Most go to Church and stay in with their families. We were a little discouraged to see so many closed doors but finally, a light at the end of the tunnel... we passed by two foreigners. To be honest, I didn't even notice them because I was more focused on finding an electronics store but then I heard the most delicate and heart warming word of the day "Hello." Right as they passed by us I turned around and yelled "wait!" A little confused, they turned back around and I asked them if they would know where to find an adapter. One of the guys mentioned taking a 3 min bus ride and pointed to the opposite direction we were going in. He said to look for Home Plus.

After only being there for two days Vanessa and I were definitely hesitant to take a bus anywhere so we decided to just keep walking with Home Plus in mind. About an hour or so later we weaved our way through the streets and got back to a main street that led us to the mother of all stores. Imagine a four story oasis with neon lights reading "Mc Donalds, Basking Robins, KFC" on the sides. Finally something we recognized.

Home Plus - Tesco! 24HRS!!!!!!!!

Mushroom sculptures in front

We finally walked through the front doors and I swear it was like The Gates of Heaven swung open for us with music and rays of sunshine. A giant food court covered the first floor and looking up there were escalators to take you up the 2nd, 3rd & 4th floor. There were so many people and finally we realized, this is where everyone goes on a Sunday. The 2nd floor had the same aesthetic as a Fresh & Easy. [ Tesco is a company from the UK who brought Fresh & Easy to the US. ] The produce section alone was huge. The store was so organized divided by the meat section, sea food, frozen goods etc. Samples were given out of almost everything using green wax toothpicks. (Everything is recyclable here but I'll cover that in another post) The 3rd floor was like a Best Buy and 4th floor mostly clothes. 6 hours of walking around all day later, and we found the power adapter, ate some great food, discovered an amazing store only to discover it was really just 20 min. walk from home. All in all, it was a good day.

BIBIMBOP

After school we ate at a little shop a couple of doors down. Most restaurants specialize in a specific dish or a couple of dishes. If it's a BBQ place, they probably won't have soups and visa versa. The one we went to specializes in Bibimbop. The main part of the dish is rice and is toped with an assortment of sauteed & fresh cut vegetables, egg, meat (or mushrooms for vegetarian) and chili sauce. It cost us about 3,500 won which is roughly $3.00-$3.50. It's delicious, filling and healthy. I saw this recipe on a site earlier and had to share it with you. Notice the pop music in the background. They LOVE pop music here.

20ish HOURS OF TRAVEL TIME LATER...

OK we made it!! We've only been here for a couple of days and already have so much to talk about. Starting with the flight... what a mess. United Airlines at the SD airport was a wreck but me we made it through to San Francisco and hopped on an international flight straight to Incheon. As we were waiting we ended up asking if there was any way to get our seats together and luckily right before we boarded, they were able to accommodate us. We ended up getting a seat in the emergency isle which turned out to be the best thing that could happen on an 11 hour flight. We had so much leg room, didn't have to bother anyone if we wanted to get up and ended up making friends with the flight attendants, which let me tell you makes all the difference in the world on a long flight.

They showed 5ish movies and we kept falling asleep in an out between each one. There weren't any plugs for our computers so we were kind of stressing out as to what we would do for such a long period of time but sleeping and eating ended up being the answer. I think they served 4 meals? snacks and a constant flow of beverages.

Once we got to the airport, it took a while to pass through baggage claim, immigration & customs but it wasn't necessarily difficult. Luckily, currency exchange places were everywhere at the airport and had a GREAT exchange rate. [Exchange as much as you can at the airport so you don't have to worry about it later during the trip.] We were then greeted by Mr. Kim. Ohhh sweet Mr. Kim with his choppy English and ability to get things done in the smallest period of time. It took about 30 mins to get from the airport to the school where we were greeted by one of the foreign teachers. He took us out to dinner, Italian food oddly enough, and went over our schedules.

Vanessa and I are staying in separate apartments in somewhat different areas, about 10 mins walking distance from each other. There are about 13 other foreign teachers living in the same building as me taking up a couple of floors. I'll put a separate post about my apartment once I get it completely unpacked and set up. I have no complaints though.

By the time we got home after running around all day it was 9pmish and I knocked out so fast. I ended up waking up at 6am the next morning...

Flying about Russia

Driving from Incheon International Airport

Mr. Kim! His GPS is also a TV. When he picked us up, the radio was playing US top 40's.

Incheon Bridge

The next day, Sunday, we were able to do tons of exploring and walking around. I'll have tons of pictures to post on the next one!

PEACE OUT

I guess it's a given that you have to write a blog post the night before you leave on a major trip that reads somewhere a long the lines of "next time I write on here I'll be in _________." So any way, this is mine...

These past couple of days have been nuts, mostly with packing. Once you figure out what airline you're flying with check their website and call to reconfirm if you can about baggage allowances. Chances are you'll have 2 free checked bags (50lbs max) and for carry on, a backpack & a purse/murse. Charges for overweight bags are pretty outrageous at roughly $120 per bag. Keep it simple and try not to over pack. Also, make copies of any important documents (passport, credit cards, contract) before you leave incase anything happens to them while traveling.

On a personal note... I feel like I'm going to Disneyland only a couple thousand times better ( for the record, I'm a HUGE fan of Disneyland.) I've been waiting for this trip for quite some time now and it has finally come. I can't wait to make my way around Asia. Some trips already in the works and looking forward to either during or after the contract - Boracay Philippines, India, Thailand & Japan with several others in between!

That's it for now. Next time I post on here I'll be in Ansan City, South Korea ;) and hopefully wearing a matching track suit like this...

PACKOLOGIC

I think the hardest part of this trip is trying to figure out what to take, how much of it to take, and what I don't really need. I just took a trip to Costco (which by the way there are Costcos in Seoul!) and stocked up on some food and toiletries. Depending what time of year you end up going to S. Korea will determine what you really need to take when you depart. The rest you can have shipped later that year. Luckily, it's cherry blossom season there right now and the weather is only going to get hotter (unbearable). Leave the snow gear behind and pack sun dresses, shorts & flip flops galore. I've been talking to a couple of teachers who are already teaching at the school and they've given me some tips for packing

• Bring enough deodorant to last you the year - Deodorant is pretty difficult to find in Korea and when you do find it, you end up paying a fortune.

• When it comes to soap, shampoo, face wash etc. if you're absolutely married to any brands, bring them with you, chances are you won't find U.S. brands there

• Personal touches - bring pictures, books, art and/or anything that will make your place feel like home

I was able to fit a game of scrabble in my suitcase. I have a feeling that's gonna be an important piece during the trip. Other random things I'm packing aside from clothes? watercolors, gummi bears, pop tarts, individual oatmeal packs... I guess that's as random as it gets. My friend Alex hooked me up with Rosetta Stone for me to learn the language. Can I just say, that program is unbelievable. I'm finding it to be a lot easier to understand and speak it rather than read and write. I wish I had more time to spend on it but I only have till next friday. We'll see how far that gets me. This upcoming week is going to be a bit busy but I'll try to get some videos in when we arrive in Korea. In the meantime, check out this video of some kids singing "Zippity Doo Dah."

OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL

Blocked out some info for the sake of privacy

All of that running around and I finally got it! I was a bit nervous about stopping by the Korean Embassy. I read reviews about it being difficult to communicate if you didn't speak Korean, stories about how busy it can get and how long the lines could be all of which were completely false. I ended up getting there by 9am even though the interviews didn't start until 9:30am. ( BTW there's free parking next door with a validation.) There were a handful of people there and the Visa line was open. She took my paper work, handed me one more form to fill out and I just had to wait for the interview. I thought it was going to last at least 10-15 minutes of who knows what kind of questions. The guy just opened my file, asked me my name, nationality, circled some questions and asked if my answers were true and why I wanted to go to Korea. That's it! I picked up my stamped passport the next day and I am officially done with the paperwork. Sweet relief!