Loora
Laura Oxenreiter Joined: January 19th 2007
Logged in: February 7th 2012
Logged in: February 7th 2012
Travel Blog Posts
Train to Odawara
<span><span>When I decided to go to Tokyo, sure, I wanted to see Tokyo, but I expected that I wouldn’t love it.<span> As much as I hate to admit it, I am kind of a country girl, and cities make me a little annoyed.<span> So, when I realized how close Mt. Fuji was to Tokyo, I immediately knew I wanted to try to go there for a day.<span> A Korean friend recommended for me to go to Hakone, a mountainous natural area where Tokyoites often go for a short trip.<span>The key part was that I could see Mt. Fuji from there and there were also hot springs spas, which I have grown to love from Hungary, Korea, and my last trip to Japan. <span>Info for anyone going (skip to the * if not going): I bought a ... read more
Near Asakusa Station
<span><span>It seems like such a long time since I wrote the last entry, but my computer tells me it was less than a month ago.<span> I’ve been busier than usual.<span> The first week of January I taught classes at a high school and my middle school for Winter English Camp.<span> It was my last week teaching of the school year (the Korean school year runs March to December), and it ended up being the most classes I taught in one week all year!<span> But the classes were good because there were fewer students at a higher level than usual, and I had freedom to teach anything I wanted without a Korean coteacher.<span> I had the next week off, and I went to Japan (be patient—I’ll tell you about that next).<span>As soon as I got back from ... read more
Beers in Seoul
First, a belated Happy New Year! The last month was the one I had been semi-dreading—because of being away from family around the holidays. My friends here worked together to make the holidays as positive as possible, and I got to vicariously experience Thanksgiving and Christmas via Skype, so I did thoroughly enjoy all the holidays.They were as good as they could have been away from my wonderful family. This blog should be mainly about my visit to Seoul at the end of November, so let me tell you about that. Well, I had some grand sightseeing plans, most of which didn’t turn out. Friday, we basically just had beers outside the convenience store while it rained (actually, it was enjoyable anyways because of the company), then ate at TACO BELL. Yes, it was exciting to ... read more
Bridge Rail
I’ve now been here almost 9 months. My life has turned into a routine. It used to be each day learning or seeing something new. It’s turned into a kind of culture shock phase in which too many small things annoy me that really shouldn’t. Now I’ve lived here long enough to see patterns emerge and have the opportunity to be bothered by bad ones or just accept them. An example: I am on the subway standing at the door and waiting to get off—the only person. There is a person waiting in the station to get on—only one. The subway doors open for around 14 seconds every time they stop. The girl waiting rushes onto the subway without waiting for me to get off. What is the rush??? There’s no one else getting on! You ... read more
Gwangju Kunsthalle
I used a three-day holiday weekend at the beginning of October to take a trip to the city of Gwangju with 3 friends. Gwangju is about 3 hours southwest of Daegu. Originally we had wanted to go to Jin Island (Jindo), but we decided if the weather were bad we’d have little to do. We decided to go to Gwangju instead because it seemed close to the beach and near a lot of islands. We’d never been to that area of Korea, so this was our chance. We left Saturday morning and arrived in the early afternoon. We dropped our bags off at the hostel and then set off to sightsee around the city. Gwangju is advertised as being artsy. It did seem artsier than Daegu. There is a huge art gallery (which we didn’t go ... read more
Gyeongju Train Station
It took writing this blog entry for me to realize how busy I’ve been. Actually, I wrote it and there was too much so then I split it into two different entries—this and the next one about Gwangju. The great thing about Daegu is that we are in a good location to travel around the country. The hard thing is deciding when to go and hoping the weather cooperates. Actually it’s finally generally good hiking weather, but the leaves are just beginning to turn. In this entry, let me tell you about my trips to Gyeongju and the Andong Mask Festival, and hiking Mt. Palgong again. Before I went to Japan, my friend and I traveled to the city of Gyeongju for a day trip. It’s a little over an hour from Daegu by bus or ... read more
Dejima Island
So I was talking to a girl at salsa class about Taiwan two weekends ago. I said that’s where I would’ve liked to have gone for summer break, but it didn’t happen (since I took the TESOL). She said I should just go for Chuseok. Chuseok is a major Korean holiday that means a 4-day weekend for me. Wow, I thought. She’s right. I could just buy a ticket and go. That was Saturday night the weekend before the holiday weekend. So Sunday I started looking at tickets. Taiwan turned out to be a no-go. The tickets were more money than I wanted to pay and the flights that were still open didn’t make good use of the time I had. But by then I had travel fever. I started looking at where I could go. ... read more
Rice Cake
When you think about Korean food, one of three things probably happens: you imagine a table full of kimchi; you almost retch at the thought of dog meat; or you have an absolutely blank mind because you have no idea what they eat (but you’re pretty sure they use chopsticks, right?). So I thought I would describe the most common or typical foods we here in Korea eat. Even though I’ve been here about 7 months now, I often discover things I have never seen or heard of before. Let me tell you about Korean food in general. First, there is some saying in Korean about how Koreans can never go one day without eating kimchi. Kimchi, by the way, is a style of vegetables that almost always have hot pepper paste on them. Usually they ... read more
Boryeong Group Photo
My school didn’t have class for 5 weeks, and I expected that I would have a long, boring summer, but this summer has flown by. I went away a couple of weekends, did summer camps at 2 schools, and took the first half of my TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) class. First, in early July, I went to the Boryeong Mud Festival with a big group of other foreign friends. Boryeong is a beach on the west coast. The Mud Fest has grown to be The Place foreigners go every year to see others from all over the country. This is because the real point of the festival is getting covered in mud, drinking, and going swimming (in no particular order, but if you really wanted an order, I guess it would be drink, ... read more
Rice Paddies
I just realized today that I haven’t written a blog in a while. Since it’s rainy outside (but at least finally below 80 degrees), I figured I’d stay in and do one. I’ve recently passed my milestone of 4 ½ months abroad, which is the longest I’ve ever been away from the US. I think because I stay busy and I have plans to look forward to, it doesn’t seem like I’ve been here long. Sometimes it does suck to be away from home—missing graduations, not being able to talk to friends on the same time zone, and not seeing people in person (plus familiar food that would be difficult to make here). I also miss summertime in Western PA—bonfires with good beer; Pirates games; camping; Twin Lakes arts fest; and open areas of grass. But ... read more
