NEW BLOG

Hey everyone, I decided to make a new blog since I am no longer preparing to move to Korea.

Here is my new site

http://seouljoanna.blogspot.com/

Please come and see what fun things I am doing in Korea!!

Catch up!

Hi everyone it has been a long time since we have written on here. A lot has happened since November. Stacey and I had set a goal of moving to S. Korea this summer and Stacey got an amazing job that she can't leave...yet, but she is hoping to transfer to S. Korea in the future. I started applying to be an English teacher at the end of February. The good news is I got the job!!!

It is amazing how much paperwork has to be processed and how many hoops have to be jumped through to get the job. After a lot of stressing over getting my documents (where is my passport, I need my FBI background check, what this needs an apostille, what is an apostille and how do I get one?). I also had to pass 2 interviews and get letters of recommendation...just thinking about all the work makes me tired again. Finally I sent all of my paperwork a week ago and it was a great feeling.

That is until my wonderful recruiter from Korvia emailed me that I forgot to sign a page. AGHH!! So I printed the page again and signed it this time and put it in the mail this week. I got an email from her saying that they accepted the rest of the paperwork and are just waiting for the page I forgot to sign to get there.

She said that I was able to get into Seoul, which was my first choice, and I am going to get on a higher pay scale because of my TESOL minor and because I taught ESL at Franklin Elementary. This made me very happy!

Now the paperwork isn't done yet so I'll keep you posted. I still have to get my contract, sign it and send it back. Then I have to go to LA to apply for a work visa, and then book my flight to S. Korea, oh yeah I have to pack too (I'm not sure how to fit a years worth of clothes, shoes and deodorant in 2 suit cases). So much to do and only a few months left.

Orientation start the 18th of August.

Wish me luck!!

Korean Restaurant in Salt Lake

Stacey and I decided to make a video of our experience eating at a Korean Restaurant in Salt Lake. The restaurant we ate ate was called Myung Ga. If you want to go and try it out here is the address 1839 W 3500 S, #2a, Salt Lake City, UT 84119

We really liked all the food and we had a lot of fun making the movie. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think.

Check the movie out HERE

Korean BBQ

To start out our food journey we thought we would start with our most recent experience. A few weeks ago we took a trip down to Las Vegas. While we where down there we went to a restaurant called the Tofu Hut (3920 Spring Mountain Rd Las Vegas, NV 89102 is the address if you want to try it). Don't let the name fool you they serve more than just tofu as you can see in the picture. We ordered the King's meal (something like that it feed 3 of us) Here is what we thought....


Stacey-the-Not-so-Picky-One
Before I talk about the food, I just wanted to point out my favorite things about the restaurant. As you walk in, off to the right, there is a wall of pictures and signatures of famous people who had visited the restaurant. Almost instantly, my eyes fell on U-Know's from the former music group DBSK. (Fan-girl moment of pure joy.) One other thing that caught my eye was the large screen TV displaying a Korean cooking show. Of course, I couldn't understand it, but I sure enjoyed trying to figure out what it was. I'm voting for squid, but for all I know, it could have been a giant piece of ginger. The last thing that entertained me at the restaurant was watching the staff greet the customers. If the person looked even slightly Asian, they were greeted in Korean and the staff rattled off a dialogue. If not, they were welcomed with a hearty "hello." I was so fascinated by this, but I couldn't help wondering what would happen if a person of Hispanic descent came in and rattled off in Korean. Would the staff have had an identity crisis? Just sayin'. I'm sure there some method they use, but still would like see it happen.

Now to the food. As noted, I'm not so picky, but that doesn't mean that I don't know what is good food and what isn't. That being said, the Korean barbecue was definitely good. I highly recommend it for all types of eaters. It was not adventurous, except if you cannot stand seeing meat cook in front of you. The flavoring also was not anything that would turn off a typical American palate. The side dishes were more interesting. My favorite, by far, was the kimchi cucumbers. There were quite a few I did not recognize, but tasted just fine. I did not try one that looked like a pile of squished marshmellows with random colored things in it because I was worried it would have onions in it.

Joanna the Picky Eater
For me, I loved this place. I don't like seafood, but I do love meat! I thought is was so much fun because they cooked the meat at our table, it was fun to watch. One thing that I loved was all the side dishes (just be careful and don't put a whole piece of garlic in your mouth, I was just trying to be adventurous). I really liked the side dishes, some of my favorites are the broccoli and cucumbers with seasoning on them. I am not sure what was on them but they where so good. The flavor on them was different at first, but not a bad different but I can see how some people would not like them. I say try a little bit to see if you like the spice. There was an egg dish, I am not sure how they cooked the egg, but it was big and puffy and so yummy!! One nice thing about the side dishes is most of them are refillable so you could eat them as much as you wanted :) Not on to the meat, I LOVED the meat, I honestly don't know what we ate except they where all types of beef. They where so good!

Now our opinion: Good to Go!!
We both agree what we ate typical Americans would like. There are a few things that might taste different at first but if you give it a chance you will like it. So if you are in Las Vegas or live by a Korean BBQ place we think you should try it, you will probably like it!

7 Monts is a long time.....

Sorry all of you wonderful people who where reading mine and Stacey's blog before. I can not believe it has been 7 months since the last time we posted it has been crazy!

Some good news is Stacey is done with school and has a new job so hopefully she will find some time to get back on here with me now. I have just been working, but that is no excuse because I did have the whole summer off and I didn't find any time to post. I could give you excuses but I really don't have any, sorry!

Something Stacey and I have talked about doing is writing more about the food of Korea. I realize a lot of people don't know much about the food there, I was one of those (just read one of my last posts from forever ago). I was scared of Korean food because I thought everything had fish in it and I don't like fish, but in the last 7 months I have learned a lot about how wrong I was!

Since Stacey and I both love food a lot, we decided to for the next month to talk about our experiences with Korean food. Stacey will talk as a person who is not a pick eater and will try everything at least once. Me on the other hand, as I mentioned before I don't like fish, I still am working on liking sea weed, I have some problems with texture (like ice cream, why does it have to be so creamy?) etc. I will rate everything for those who are more picky so then you can read the reactions from two different view points.

So I promise we will be updating more and more about our Korean food experiences. So keep checking back to see what we add!

제 이름은 조안나입니다 - My name is Joanna

Wow I can't believe how long it has been since we updated this blog. Stacey has had a good reason to not write, but me I have had no excuse all I can say is sorry!

As I have been trying to figure out what to write about I realized I haven't told about the Korean lessons we have been taking. We met a friend through the penpal website named Seong Woo and he teaches us Korean. He lives in Seoul and we talk with him using Skype and Yahoo Messenger. We are very lucky because his English is really good and he is a great teacher.

The first thing he taught us is how to read Korean (Hangul). When I was learning the characters I would get so frustrated because I couldn't remember what sounds they each make and how to sound words out. As I was learning how to read I realized that this is what my students must feel like when I am teaching them to read. I would sometimes get frustrated because they could not remember the sounds that match the letters and then I realized I have the same problem with Korean so I became more patient with them.

Now we are able to read most Korean eventhough we don't know what it means. We are starting to learn simple vocabulary and simple sentences. It is so hard for me to make a lot of the sounds and I have a hard time remembering the sounds. When I learned Spanish it was easier because a lot of the words were simular to English and the way you made a sentence was very simular. In Korean it is very different and I am still trying to understand the patterns the sounds make.

I enjoy learning Korean and Seong Woo is a very patient teacher. I hope that when I get to Korea I don't offend those I meet because of my Korean!

조안나 (Joanna)

Will I Starve to Death in Korea?

If you know me and what I eat, you know that I can be a picky eater. Don't get me wrong when I go to a restaurant I can always find something to eat off of the menu. There are many things I just don't like and I choose to avoid eating them. These are things like cake, ice cream, salad dressing (I know you are all scratching you heads because you didn't know there were people like me), seaweed and fish. I know what you are thinking, how can somebody survive in an Asian country and not like fish? This is something I worry about as well.

So I have decided I am going to teach myself to like seaweed and fish. There are many reasons behind this, first off so I don't offend people in Korea by telling them they are crazy that they like fish in the first place (it's like telling someone from Utah that you don't have to eat ice cream to survive). The second reason is, according to my roommate Catherine fish is very healthy and is good for your skin. Who would not want to be healthier and have better skin?

To understand why I don't like fish I have had to think back over my life and see where this all started. I think it was the first time I went to the ocean and a wave caught me off guard and I ended up swallowing a lot of gross, salty sea water. It was the worst taste I have ever remember tasting in my life. At this point I had never had any sea food in my life, but I had heard how good it was, so for my birthday I asked my parents if we could get sea food for my birthday. My dad was so excited so he found a good place for us to go and he helped me order some fish and shrimp. I remember being so excited about eating it I couldn't wait for the food to come out. When I took the bite of the fish (I don't remember what type it was) I wanted to throw up because all I could think of was the taste the ocean water left from when I was younger. I tried the shrimp as well and had the same reaction. That was when I decided I couldn't eat sea food.

Now don't get me wrong I have tried sea food since then, and Stacey has had me try many pieces of seaweed with different things to try and get me use to it, and yet I still can not eat it. I think if I keep trying there will come a day when my taste buds will get over the bad taste from the ocean and I will be able to eat fish and seaweed.

I know that fish is not the only thing they eat in Korea, I have tried some of their other dishes and I love them. I will have to write more about those in another post.

I guess if all else fails I can just say that I am part of the sharks club in Finding Nemo, I will tell them that "Fish are friends, not food." That should work, right?