The sandwich that almost killed me

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted any blog entries as of late, one of the reasons is because of an incident that occurred last wednesday night. Its something that is quite common when traveling abroad, and Jeju island is no exception. I'm referring to food poison that is. It was the first time I've ever had it, and from what I've been told, it probably won't be the last.

Its an excruciating process that can normally only be solved by a trip to the hospital for an intravenous treatment. As such was the case for me.

Wednesday evening, 6:04 pm: Mike and I decide to get some dinner, Mr. Pizza was our decision. Ordered "Golden Potatoe Deluxe" pizza; it was decent.



7:22 pm: We head to a nearby Jimgilbang for some relaxation and refreshment.

9:54 pm: After nearly passing out from the heat, we opt to get some drinks at Milano's, a bar and restaurant overlooking Seogwipo Harbour.

11:10 pm: We grab a cab back to Mike's apartment building. We both decide to head to the GS25 for some supplies before going our separate ways. I buy a ham & cheese sandwich; biggest mistake ever.



2:01 am: I start to feel violently ill, and I curl up in my bed shivering.

11:22 am: After throwing up multiple times and getting almost no sleep, I decide its time to call it quits and get to a doctor. I call my director at the school and inform him of my situation.

12:01 pm: I arrive at the hospital with one of my co-teachers only to find that all the staff has just gone on lunch until 2:00 pm. I feel terrible; I throw up again. My co-worker Jessica brings me into the ER room, where they quickly analyze my problem and decide to give me an IV. I am completely exhausted by this point, and am unable to hold even water down. A cute nurse gives me a shot in the butt and hooks the IV up to my arm. I'm told I'll have to stay until I finish the fluids, which will take several hours.

12:44 pm: I am drifting in and out of consciousness, I can hear Jessica whispering prayers from a booklet in her hands.

3:15 pm: I awake from a somewhat more relaxed state to see another of my co-workers, a teacher whom just left the school last month. We discuss our Korean New Year's plans. I'm feeling better, so Jessica and I decide to leave. I'm given several packets of pills and liquids as medication.

4:55 pm: I arrive home and immediately pass out on my bed.

The last couple of days have been a lot better, but the first days back from the ER were rough. One night I almost thought I was going to throw up again and would have to go back to the hospital. All this pain from one little sandwich. Its something that you know about, but you never think it will happen to you. Some have been lucky to go without it happening during their stay on the island. For the rest, its a initiation test for living abroad; I passed...this time.

Treats & Eats

That last two weeks have been quite busy not only for me, but many here on the island. Students and their families have started their winter breaks, but for most, there is winter camp. Winter camp has classes which focus on helping students with their English skills, such as classes designed specifically for improving their writing skills for tests. While most Hagwon (private school) teachers would have even more than their regular schedule load, I have fortunately been assigned an even leaner work schedule.

Another benefit of the winter break, for the students anyway, has been getting treats from their parents and family. Some of my students have been generous enough to share some with me, and so I thought I would share my opinion of them (the treats) with you.

The first I received was a small can of shikhye (pronounced sh-ky), which resembles some kind of rice milk, and tastes about the same. Certainly not my taste, but the children love it.



After class last week, one of the parents brought in some fresh bread for the teaching staff. Unlike back in North America where bread is mainly a meal ingredient, here in Korea its mostly a dessert. Its strange, I walk into the bakery section in E-mart and find a large variety of pastries, cakes, buns, and sweet breads, but not even one loaf of whole wheat or multigrain bread. For the most part I've been stuck eating white bread, something that I've tried to avoid back home, but have little alternative here when it comes to making sandwiches.



A lot of students also bring in these noodle snacks. Very similar to Mr. Noodles or any instant noodle package, but they don't add hot water and make them into a soup. Instead they eat them raw with ketchup, which comes with the noodles. I tried some, but again, its something that doesn't suit my tastes.

Over the last two weekends there have been some birthday celebrations, and during these outings I've had the opportunity to try some interesting new dishes and flavours. The weekend before last, after my penguin swim adventure and relaxing sauna trip, we all met up in Jeju-si for Dave's birthday. We met just outside the E-mart in town and walked to a nearby restaurant whose specialty was grilled lamb.

After getting lost, and walking around in a circle for a while, we were glad when we finally found the spot. I'm not the biggest fan of lamb, but the lamb served there was quite tasty. Similar fashion to any galbi (grilled marinated meat) restaurant. We were served the regular side dishes of kimchi, sesame salt, lettuce leaves, garlic, peppers, etc.

We celebrated with a birthday song and some cake, and of course, with a lot of drinks. The only downside to the place was that they were a bit understaffed for us, as we numbered almost twenty and there was just one waitress along with the hostess to serve us all. We ran out of lettuce leaves too, but other than that, it was a quaint meal.



The cake we had was cheesecake, which unlike other cheesecakes I've had here, actually tasted like a cheesecake. There are several specialty cake shops: Paris Baguette, Dunkin' Donuts, E-mart, and independent bakeries. What they call cheesecake here is more like a light and fluffy cake with somewhat creamy cheese icing between layers. Its still good...but no cheesecake, so when I was told we were having cheesecake I didn't get my hopes up; It was fantastic.

After leaving the restaurant we stopped by this small bar called G.P. Its a really small bar and can fit maybe 12 people in it, before feeling too crowded. The best part of this place however, is its white russians. I'm of course referring to the drink, not actual white russians. For 7,000 won they give you a pint sized drink with only enough milk to give it colour...delicious and deadly.



We ran into some other friends of ours and enjoyed our time. It started getting really crowded, so we all slowly made our way across the street to another popular foreigner spot, Led Zepplin. Its a cozy bar with a unique atmosphere and enough room to accommodate all the foreigners on the island, and almost all of them showed up. Besides Dave's birthday, there was also two other birthdays going on; at some point, all the parties converged at Led Zepplin.



What better way to finish a great night with friends and drinks than some McDonalds; the best treat of all. There was some slight differences, such as the addition of the bulgogi burger and big bulgogi burger, but a Big Mac is a Big Mac no matter where you go.

It was the first time I've had fast food in months, and I loved every bite of it. Another few interesting additions were the bacon tomato deluxe and the Shanghai spicy chicken. I recommend both. After some grub, Mike, Brian, and I took a taxi back to Seogwipo.



This past weekend was Mike's birthday, and we celebrated in a similar fashion by going out to dinner, followed by a few drink stops. The first place on the agenda was Bagdad cafe, where I shot a video short about Brian's gallery (which has encountered a few delays, but should be finished soon). The food there is unbelievable; they import their tandoor clay oven from India, making it a completely authentic restaurant with a qualified staff to compliment it.

I ordered, by recommendation from my friend Elizabeth, some garlic nan, chicken makhni (pronounced ma-kahn-nee), some samosas, and a glass of red wine. It was absolutely bliss.



Brian surprised Mike, and everyone, with a birthday cake. It wasn't cheesecake, but it tasted great nonetheless. It was some kind of mocha-chocolate cake. Like Dave's birthday, we went out to G.P. followed by Led Zepplin and McDonalds, though the experiences were completely different...except for McDonalds, that was just as awesome.

I think Mike and I talked about Schwarzenegger films for almost forty minutes on the ride home; it was priceless.

On Sunday, Brian, Mike, and myself, decided to meet up again for dinner. This time we went for something a bit more exotic: horse. I've never had horse before, but then again there is a lot of things I haven't had before coming to Korea. Its not that uncommon, as I'm pretty sure you can get horse meat in some places back home and in Europe.

Mike will eat anything, and I'm not sure if I'm impressed by that or disgusted by it, maybe both. Anyway, we were first served this plate of raw horse meat selections, which is considered a delicacy; I opted to wait for the grilled stuff.



It tastes somewhat like dog I've been told, which probably isn't that bad either. I was in E-mart the other day with a co-teacher and I saw them bring out a plate of hot glazed meat, and I said, "That smells good, what is it? Pig, chicken?" She simply replied, "Dog."

So maybe dog isn't that bad, but either way, I think I'm going to hold off on that for now. It was an alright meal, but something I probably won't do again, just because of the amount of raw meat. Also it was pretty expensive for a Korean meal, around 21,000 won each. It doesn't sound like much when you convert it into dollars, but I like to get my money's worth, especially when I now know how much things should be priced here.

Today a had yet another opportunity for some more grilled meat. All the teaching staff was invited out to one of the teacher's pension (like a bed and breakfast/Inn) for some BBQ. We brought all the supplies with us and managed to put together quite the feast. It was delicious, but a little too fatty for me. Usually I try and cut the fat off, but when everyone else is just eating the whole thing, it makes me seem too self-conscientious. I now just look for the pieces with the least fat on them, maybe its a trade off.



After finishing our meal, we were treated to some dessert. No cake this time, just a bowl of fresh strawberries with some fresh cherry tomatoes and oranges; I must have had a dozen strawberries. They were so ripe and juicy, it was the perfect treat. Unexpectedly our co-teacher put on her karaoke machine, and to my surprise everyone actually sang. Some more than others, and some definitely better than others.

Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed reading about some of the interesting meals I've had the opportunity to enjoy the past few weeks. Hopefully I didn't make you too hungry reading about it. Time to do some sit-ups...

Penguin Swim

Every year on the island, for the last 10 years, there has been a penguin swim in January. Before you get any misconceptions about actual penguins, let me explain. Back in North America, we refer to it as "the polar bear swim," but since there aren't any polar bears in Korea, I guess they name it after penguins...I don't think they have penguins either, but it definitely fits well with the Korean fixation of anything cute.

Last year it was around 10 degrees celsius outside, not so much this year...here's an idea of what it was like when I walked out of my apartment saturday morning...



For the last three or four days it has been snowing out consistently, and the wind just makes it even cooler. Mike, Brian, and myself set out at about 9:30 in the morning for the festival. We took the shuttle from E-mart to Lotte Hotel, where we then grabbed a cab to the beach. After walking down a few steps, we were greeted by the ocean scenery...and a rather drunk Korean gentleman, in nothing but swimming trunks.



We made our way to the crowd in the tents, and grabbed a refreshing cup of coffee. They were also boiling some of Jeju's famous black pig, and handed out small plates of it to everyone. We exchanged a few hellos with some locals and visiting tourists from Japan and all over. One group of Koreans even gave Mike and I some of their makgeolli. After a few minutes, some of our other foreigner friends showed up.



I met a lot of my Canadian comrades there, and it was interesting hearing their perspective on Jeju and life here in Korea. There was a stage setup near the tent area where a band was playing music. Nearly everyone at the festival was either huddling around the fires, drinking soju, or doing both. Just when I was beginning to wonder when the festivities were going to start, some wrestling broke out in front of the stage area.



In this video is the older Korean gentleman who greeted us when we first arrived on the beach. He was definitely more inebriated by this point, but that didn't stop him from competing in the wrestling games. If you look just behind them, you can see what looks like a blown up wrestling ring, but its actually a tangerine bath. It was filled with tangerine juice and squished oranges...I found out later on what it was for.

Over by this fire was a group of Haenyo, these female free divers whose whole life revolve around the waters of Jeju island. They don't use any oxygen equipment, just their own set of lungs. What was once a group of female divers numbering in the tens of thousands, has now been whittled down over the years by the growth of the modern day fishing industry. All of these divers are elderly women; Its quite amazing what they're capable of at their age. There was about eight or ten of them at the festival and they were happily cooking yams by the fire.



Mike and I were standing near this coffee tent when we saw this group of Korean men run into the nearby tent. Mike turns to me and says, "C'mon Justin, lets do this!" So we run into the tent and change into our swimming gear. We emerged from the tent to find that we were the only ones standing around on the beach in swimming trunks...and my feet were freezing!

Soon enough, more people came out and a group started to form in front of the tangerine bath. After joining the group, these trainers on stage initiated an aerobic workout. Mike and I laughed; the funniest thing was the camera crews that setup right next to us. Soon, some of our other foreigner friends joined in. I ignored the cameras as best I could, but I was approached by a reporter for a quick interview about the festival...she didn't seem impressed by my comments.



After our warm up routine we moved towards this starting line, while some of the swimmers jumped into the tangerine bath, covering themselves with the juice. I can only assume that its part of the experience and helps with the cold. There was this ex-Olympic Korean swimmer waving a Korean flag in front of the starting line, everyone began cheering loudly. Some random guy came up to us and gave me a high five. I found out later that he was a famous Korean male model, and all the girls were screaming.

A loud siren sounded and everyone rushed forward; we burst threw the crowd of photographers facing us and leapt into the water...



The water itself wasn't very cold, and it actually made my feet feel a lot better. We all swam out about thirty metres or so, when these patrolling kayaks started tossing these inflatable balls around to the swimmers. I didn't get one, but was glad just to be participating in the festival.

When I had my fill of sea water and swimming, I made my way back towards the shore. Once I got out of the water, it got cold fast; I ran to the tent where my clothes were.



I was glad to finally get back into my clothes and joined the rest of the gang near one of the fire pits. It was a bit of a chore trying to get the sand off our feet, but we managed. We all warmed our cold toes on the fire.



Although the festival was only a few hours, it felt like a long day. The water made me feel a lot more refreshed, but I was now cold and sandy. Mike and I decided to go straight to the sauna from the festival...best idea ever.


photo courtesy of Brian Miller

The darker side

Most of my writing thus far has been about the positive aspects of life here on the island, however, for those of you interested in hearing about the darker side of Korean society, I direct you to the links column on the right hand side of this blog.

Both Lost on Jeju and Life Under the Volcano share some interesting stories about the not-so-fun and very real events that take place here in Korea and on the island. Its not that I wouldn't write about events and stories like these, but I have yet to encounter any issues as serious as the ones addressed in both these blogs. When I do, I'll be certain that you hear about it.

So if you want to read some very interesting perspectives that many people aren't aware of, I recommend checking out both of them for your own benefit. It has definitely helped me become more attentive, and opened my eyes to some problems that I didn't even know existed.

Ringing in the New Year

Even though it has been a short work week for me, it hasn't felt like it. On monday evening I spent an extra three hours at work correcting tests and filling out report cards. I suppose it has to be done, but next time I'll certainly make the tests a lot shorter for my sake. Most of my students didn't do too well on the tests either, but then I didn't design them. Some students at least tried, while others couldn't care less. Something unfortunately, I don't have any control over.

When I finished classes on wednesday, I was glad to get home and get ready for the New Year's Eve festivities. My plans were pretty open for the evening, so I gave my friends a call and we decided to meet up for some dinner. Tonight's menu was duck, something I had yet to try, but was open to the idea.

We walked the few blocks up from E-mart, where we met, to arrive at this cozy and very warm duck restaurant. After finding a table and taking a seat, we decided some soup would be nice. As Mike and I don't really speak much Korean, Brian was kind enough to order for us all.



While enjoying our soup and side dishes, we discussed several hilarious animal videos and short docs we had seen. After covering the basics and sharing a glass or two of bek-seju (a more natural kind of soju, with less alcohol and more taste), Brian suggested that we head over to Yakchun temple, the largest buddhist temple on the island and in all of Korea.

The weather wasn't the greatest, as it began snowing outside; something which has not happened in almost three weeks. We grabbed a cab together and made our way to Jungmun (a resort area on the southern part of the island).



The temple itself is absolutely beautiful, and since Brian had recently become friends with many of the monks there, we were welcomed at their New Year's service. Upon entering the temple, we made our way as quietly as possible to some seats in the back and began listening in on the monk's sermon.



Ten minutes or so later there was a break, wherein Brian introduced us to the monks and began going over the itinerary for the service. Mike and I wanted to see more of the temple, so Brian led us around and upstairs where we got a really good view of the place.



There is four floors to the temple, but only three are accessible to the public. There are hundreds of thousands of miniature buddha statues on the third and second floors, and dozens of paintings and murals along the walls and ceilings. Each of which tells a separate story, that really brings the temple together and gives it life.



After taking some video and pictures, we rejoined the others on the main floor to join in on a prayer for the new year. We sat in a large circle, and there was this large wooden bead chain which went around the circle. As the monks chanted, we moved the beads through our fingers to the right, slowly moving the chain along a few beads at a time. The others joined in and there was a chorus of singing and chanting throughout the temple. It was really a sense of awe and inner peace, and my thoughts drifted away with the singing.

Thirty minutes of chanting and singing went by, and then we took another short coffee break. The monks started placing these flower blossom shaped candles around the circle. After everyone retook their place, we began lighting the candles. Someone turned off most of the lights and we began to pass the microphone around, each saying a pray and a wish for the new year. The interesting thing about these candles was that they changed colour once you lit them.



When everyone had got their chance to put in their two cents worth, we all got up and moved the candles around to form a giant 2008 in front of the giant buddha statues. Brian and I went back upstairs for some more pictures and video. The crowd started singing some festive songs as we looked on.



With only a few minutes to go before midnight, we decided to stick around for the New Year's bell ringing. Everyone made their way outside and we formed a group on the stairs in front of the temple. As the clock struck midnight, the bell began to ring and the crowd resumed singing. I wished Brian and Mike a happy new year; they replied the same.

When the singing had ceased, we all made our way over to the bell tower. We each had our chance at ringing the bell for New Year's, which I thought was just awesome. It was a bit cold outside, but since there wasn't very many of us, it didn't take very long to make it around to everyone.



By this time, Mike, Brian, and I had been thinking we ought to leave to meet up with our friends at Gecko's...but we were trapped by our own good will. The monks sat us down and handed everyone a blank sheet of paper and a pen. We were writing letters to ourselves. After gathering my thoughts and some ideas, I put them to paper and sealed them in an envelope. The letters will be sent to us come next December. It'll be interesting to see how things progress in the next year, and I hope that the letters will turn up then.

A few more short prayers later and another sermon by the monk, we posed for a group photo in front of the now reformed giant 2009 candle arrangement. We made cracks at our unlikely situation and shared a laugh. Finally, when we broke again, we were able to convince the monks that we really needed to leave. The were offering us a meal, but we knew better, it was another trap.

It had been snowing continually since we arrived, and the roads had become covered with a sheet of ice. No cabs were available, and just as we were about to start walking, someone offered us a ride. I felt bad that they drove us, but perhaps it was a little karma for staying for four hours.

Finally we arrived at Gecko's, and not a moment too soon. We each did a few shots at the bar to catch up with the crowd which was well into the holiday "spirit". Hugs and kisses were exchanged all around, and we enjoyed the moment.

It was a rather unusual New Years for me, but one I'm sure I'll never forget. With blessings from buddha and god, we go forth into a New Year; a year filled with new friends, new experiences, and new insights. Happy New Year.