Merry Christmas From Eat Your Kimchi!

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We're feeling in the Christmas spirit, so here's a quick video we slapped together of Christmas at Simon's Korean Middle School. Simon makes students write letters to Santa, then picks the best one from each of his classes (he's got 22), and then, on Christmas Eve, he goes from class to class, throws open the door, yells HO HO HO, and gives a small present to the winning student. Oh, and he's dressed up like Santa the whole time. The suit's really itchy, by the way. Spudgy's got a Santa suit of his own, and he's not too fond of it either. Anyhow, here's a small video to match the Christmas spirit, with a Korean version of Jingle Bells playing in the background! Click on Santa Spudgy to see Christmas in a Middle School. And Merry Christmas to you! See you next year with some more videos.

How to Get Sushi Delivered to Your Home

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We love sushi. We were really excited when we saw that Korea has Sushi Conveyor Belts, but since then the novelty has worn off, and we haven't really eaten much sushi since. Fortunately, someone sent us an email recently to tell us about Sushi Mom, which does Sushi Delivery. Yes. That's right. SUSHI DELIVERY! We don't have to go to the conveyor belts anymore! Sushi can come right to our house! What's great about this place is not only the awesome sushi, but also the fact that you don't have to stumble around on the phone trying to explain your order, because the owner speaks perfect English! Order your Dynamite Rolls, Rainbow Rolls, whatever-you-want rolls, and get them delivered to your place! Check out our Review of Sushi Mom, and then go to their website and order some sushi! You won't regret it.

How to Become a Teacher in Korea

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We have received a lot of emails from people asking us how to become a teacher in Korea. It's a complicated process at times, with a lot of documents that need to be signed, stamped, and delivered. However, before you get to that process, you need to make two important decisions:

1) Do you want to teach at a public school or private tutoring school
2) What recruiter do you want to use to get you to Korea

In this video, we'll give you our honest opinions and experiences with public and private schools. Sure, not everyone will agree with this, since everyone has different experiences, but we think this is the safest bet for having a successful stint (or career!) as an English teacher in Korea. As for us, we both work in pubic schools with Gepik (The Gyeonggi Board of Education), and we love it!

Have you already taught in Korea? Share your experiences with us in the comment section!

Click on the picture above for our guide on How to Become a Teacher in Korea, or check out the sidebar for the QuickTime version.

Adventure to Korea's Everland!

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A few Saturdays ago we woke up early and decided to go to Everland. Everland! One of Korea's awesome amusement parks! Hooray! Problem was, Everland's a two hour busride away from us. But no matter! We still went, and had a fantastic time! The rides were great, especially the T-Express Roller Coaster of Thrilling DOOM! That's not the real name of it, but it was still intense. We didn't have enough time in our day to see everything in Everland, but what little we saw we were absolutely amazed with. So check out our Everland Adventure by clicking on the picture above, or check the sidebar for higher quality versions instead.

A Scooter Tour of Bucheon, Korea

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Quite a while ago, we gave you a tour of Jung Ang Park on our bikes. Times have changed since then, and we've moved on to bigger and better things. Now we have a scooter and can ride a lot further (with a lot less energy), and our camera doesn't suck as terribly as before! So, this time, we drove around the streets of Bucheon, Korea on our scooters and filmed the whole deal, including any important landmarks along the way. Sure, we couldn't film ALL of Bucheon, but you'll see the parts we know and are familiar with. So check out what our city looks like! Click on the picture above for our Scooter Tour of Bucheon, or check the sidebar for QuickTime format.

Bucheon's Sang Dong Market

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We're happy that we found this place, because this is what we kind of expected Korea to be like before we got here: marketplaces with bad lighting and fresh produce, fresh fish, and meat cut right in front of you, vendors yelling for your attention, and random sock stores that don't seem to fit in with the rest of the place. Instead, we're surrounded by shopping malls and megamarts - in our part of Bucheon, at least - so we like to make it down to Bucheon's Sang Dong Market every once in a while. They quite possibly make our favorite Man Du (dumplings) and Don Kat Su (shnitzel) in our entire stay in Korea - and, believe us when we say we have eaten LOTS of Man Du and Don Kat Su. We highly recommend you stop by here as well, if not as a regular customer, then at least to see a different side of Korea apart from Emart and HomePlus. It's located between Bucheon and Songnae station, on the road that connects them both, so get there if you can. Click on the picture above for the tour of Bucheon's Sang Dong Market or check the sidebar for the QuickTime version.

Taking Care of Your Cats and Dogs in Korea

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Recently, our Spudgy dislocated his knee. It was a terrible experience: he lifted his leg to pee, and - being the gimpy dog that he is - fell over in agony. He was screaming and howling, and it broke our hearts. We hopped in a taxi and went to Seoul immediately. Now, we could have gone to a vet in Bucheon in a fraction of the time it took us to get to Seoul, but we knew that Spudgy would get the best care at Mari Animal Hospital. They're located in the Hongdae area, and we've been going to them from the beginning with Spudgy. Their English is great, which makes taking care of Spudgy so much better; they can tell us exactly what we need to know in order to take care of our dog properly. As well, they have a soft spot for dogs adopted at shelters, and we strongly advocate getting your dogs through shelters rather than through the puppy mills. Anyhow, for the many of you concerned with getting or bringing your pets in Korea, or taking care of one, this video's for you. Click on the picture above for our video on Taking Care of Your Cats and Dogs in Korea, or click the sidebar for different formats. As well, click here for their Business Card. Finally, Spudgy's doing ok now. He had knee surgery and now has a metal pin in his leg. He has to be in his cage for a few weeks and is not allowed to walk! Poor guy!

Teaching in Korean Middle School: Guess Who

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Next week we're going to be giving another presentation for the Gepik Orientation, so here's a video in the spirit of helping teachers. Here's another video of a lesson we do in a Korean Middle School Class. Like the last Battleship lesson, this is a class where the teacher does minimal talking and the students practice their English instead. It was a really fun class, so we'd highly recommend you try it out in your schools. As well, it's highly customizable, so you can make the questions fit whatever level your students are at. All of the materials in this lesson, including Powerpoints and Handouts, are available to download in Mac or PC format. While you're at it, you can check the rest of our ESL Resources here for other ideas. So, click on the picture above to see the video of Teaching in a Korean Middle School Class, or click on the sidebar for different formats. Oh, and - yes - I know I look a little bedraggled in the video: this was the last class in a grueling 6 class day. I'm surprised I still had enough energy to stand on two feet.

What You Should Pack to Korea

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Planning on coming to Korea? What are you going to bring with you in your suitcase? Surely by now you've heard stories, about what Korea has or does not have, but as we discovered, a lot of those were just rumors. Since we've been in Korea for well over a year now, we can squash those rumors. After visiting Canada for summer vacation, we prepared "a what to pack" and "what not to bother packing" video. Unfortunately, the video could not cover everything, because it would be far too long, so this post will serve as the exclusive extras list of things you must pack to Korea. So click on the picture above for our video on What You Should Pack to Korea, or check the sidebar for higher quality QuickTime

Not mentioned in the video are the following:

ELECTRONICS: Simon packed his Wii and PS3, and has had no issue with them whatsoever. Nothing has fried after many hours of usage. The secret? Read your cables! If they say anywhere on them "Input: 100-240v" you're safe! You can plug in your electronics from anywhere in the world so long as you have a little plug adapter to pop on the top of it. If you don't have that cable, it's ok! You can still buy a power converter. Go to any supermarket and in the lighting section (usually), you'll find a thick, ugly, clunky metal box that will plug into your Korean outlet and let you plug in two of your North American plugs. It ain't pretty, but it works.

BOARD GAMES: If you're geeky and like board games like us, we had a hard time finding reasonably priced English games (ie: Scrabble was double the price) and the newer games (ie: Cranium, Apples to Apples) were impossible to find. Playing cards are also expensive. Pack any games you find necessary.

COMFORT FOODS: Fruit teas, chai tea, and your favorite black tea brands are impossible to find or are otherwise really, really expensive. Starbucks does offer a small selection of TAZO brand teas, though.

COOKING FOOD: Dried spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, oregeno, and basil are available in speciality import sections but crazy expensive, and Martina was unable to find liquid vanilla extract anywhere.

COSMETICS: If your skin tone isn't similar to a Korean person's skin tone, it can be hard to find pressed power or liquid foundation to match your skin, so come prepared. If you wear contacts and can only use a specific brand of solution, pack a few bottles to be safe.

GIFTS: It's nice to bring your new employer a gift to thank them for hiring you. If you're at a public school, get a small gift for your Principal, Vice Principal, and the co-teacher who will be taking care of you when you first arrive. We suggest a product that is only availble in your country. For example, a specific food (we brought organic maple syrup), hand cream/soap (Bath and Body Works is not available in Korea yet, and it's sought after) or even alchohol (rum, ice wine, or rum filled candy).

Feel free to contact us or leave a comment about anything you're worried about Korea not having. We might not know all of the answers, mind you, but we might be able to tell you if you should pack it or not.

Martina's Jeju Trip: Day 3

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And here is day 3 of Martina's Trip to Jeju Island. In it, you'll finally start to see what makes Jeju Island so famous: it's utterly overwhelming beauty. Sure, the first two days showed you a lot of the fun stuff of the island, but now you'll see the waterfalls and coastlines that put the first two days to shame. As well, you'll see a traditional folk Museum and, for some reason, an orange display. Yes. A display of Jeju's Oranges. They're great, sure, but good enough to have their own display? Who knows. What we do know is that you'll surely want to visit Jeju after seeing this video. So click on the picture above to see Martina's Trip to Jeju Island, Day 3, or check the sidebar for the high quality QuickTime version.

Martina's Jeju Trip: Day 2

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Here's Day 2 of Martina's Trip to Jeju Island. The day started off with a hike up a mountain (is it just us, or do all Public School trips involve climbing a mountain of some sort?) on a very cold day, then led into a trip to the Teddy Bear Museum. Yes. There is a Museum just for teddy bears. You'd be surprised how many different kinds of teddy bears you could find there! Afterwards, they went to a Buddhist temple and, finally, went to Seogwipo Stadium, which held the Fifa 2002 World Cup and - more importantly - is where the scene is from in Boys Before Flowers when the four boys play soccer. After all was said and done, they went on this mysterious road that - if you turned off the engine of your car - would pull it uphill! Anyhow, click on the picture above to see all the fun of Martina's Trip to Jeju Island, Day 2.

On a side note, we just got back from an almost-three-week vacation in Canada. We documented a few things, and plan on making some movies that will especially be useful to those of you coming to live in Korea anytime soon. So stay tuned! And - FINALLY - the Eatyourkimchi feed on iTunes is finally 100% functional! You can now watch every last one of our videos on your iPod! Huzzah!

Martina's Trip to Jeju Island

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If you haven't been to Jeju Island, you're missing out on your Korean experience. Jeju is a tiny island located at the most southern point of Korea. It is known as the Hawaii of Korea, and it lives up to the name with palm trees, volcanic rocks, and gorgeous beaches. It is a totally different world, and you don't even think you're in Korea anymore...except for all the Korean people. Anyhow, Martina was lucky enough to go on a trip to Jeju Island with the entire second year grade of her school. They had only three jam-packed days of non-stop action in an attempt to see and do as much as they could. Of course, she documented the whole trip. Too bad she had to leave Simon and Spudgy at home! They got to enjoy some male bonding while she frolicked with her girls! Click on the picture above to see Martina's Trip to Jeju Island, or check out the sidebar for different formats.

Korean Monsoon Season

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Last year we posted some pictures about Korean Monsoon Season. We think that we gave off the impression, though, that rainy season is all cute and sweet, with nice umbrellas and cute outfits and all. So we decided to post a video about the horrors of monsoon season. We waited for an especially nasty storm to hit Bucheon, then went outside to brave the storm and record some crazy footage. You'll never believe how bold some people are! Sure, you'd go out in the rain with an umbrella, but would you go grocery shopping on a bike with an umbrella in one hand through a monsoon?! Didn't think so! So here it is, Korea's Monsoon Season in all it's horror. Click on the picture above for the video, or check the sidebar for other formats.

Korean Street Food Wonderfulness!

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Yes, we're in the habit of redoing old movies. Call it nostalgia, call it laziness: frankly, we just look at our old movies and cringe. So we updated our old Street Food video to be a bit more comprehensive. Also, look at how we've changed in a year! Now you can watch us order Korean street food without merely grunting and pointing our fingers! We'll show you how to order, what to order, and how much it costs. If you're in Bucheon as well, make sure you go to the lady between Hyundai Department Store and The Mall. Her food is, hands down, the best we've had in Bucheon. So click on the picture above for our Korean Street Food video, or view it in different formats in the sidebar.

A bit of an apology as well: we haven't posted in nearly a month because we were actually making videos every week. Remember the Battle for Bucheon at Rhythm and Booze (if not, look down three posts). Every week we've been judging the contests, but - what's more relevant - we've also been making videos of every battle. We'll post the whole collection as soon as we're done with the finals video. As well, we spent a week at a Gepik workshop, either giving speeches about classroom management or helping with other things. Thanks to those of you who have contacted us from the workshop. Finally, we did a podcast over at SeoulPodcast.com, so you can hear us talk about Korea, teaching, Western Food, what's in our fridge, and other stuff from us that you wouldn't hear otherwise.

Korean Karaoke Revisited

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Sure, we made a post about Korean Karaoke a while ago, but - let's face it - the video kinda sucked. We didn't really give instructions, the video editing was kinda lame, and the singing wasn't up to snuff. Also, the first time we went to No-Rae-Bang we were newbies, and still a bit shy. Now we're seasoned vets, and feel little to no shame in singing. So this time we made a new video, complete with all new songs, new singers, a new title, and a fresh dose of eatyourkimchi quirkiness. This time we'll explain the huge remote (wow!) and show you more about what to expect. As well, Simon quite possibly gives the performance of a lifetime. You won't want to miss it! So click on the picture above for our Korean Karaoke Explodomania! Or click on the sidebar for other formats.

Korea is Still Awesome

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As of next week, we will have been in Korea for one year! Hooray! We signed on for another year, so eatyourkimchi is still going to be around as well! Anyhow, we decided to make a video of different cool things in Korea. Why? Because when we first came here, everything seemed awesome and amazing. We've been here for a year, and it is still awesome and amazing, and we've got the video clips to prove it.

Korea, you never fail to amaze us. Keep up the good work and we'll keep putting up the videos. Speaking of which, click on the picture above to see Why Korea is Still Awesome, or click on the sidebar for different formats.

Rhythm and Booze's Battle for Bucheon

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Over the next six Saturday nights, Bucheon's best foreigner bar, Rhythm and Booze, will host the Battle for Bucheon. It's a Battle of the Bands contest featuring eight bands, all battling for 1,500,000 won. The first four nights will have bands competing against each other to get into the final bracket; the last Saturday will be the final showdown. We here at eatyourkimchi don't really do a lot of advertising for public events, but we have a special interest in this event, because we love Rhythm and Booze and WE ARE ALSO GOING TO BE THE JUDGES! That's right: every Saturday night you'll see us there at Rhythm and Booze. First five hundred people who ask will get free high-fives. The next five hundred will get high-twos. So get there ASAP and line up early, because you don't want to miss it! We made a promo video for the event, which includes the dates, lineups, and proper directions on how to get there via either bus or subway. These directions are far more useful than our last directions, if you can remember that far back. Anyhow, click on the picture above to see our promo video for Battle for Bucheon, or check out the sidebar for other video formats.

If you're interested in coming, then here are the times:
May 23rd: 9:30 PM
May 30th, June 6th, June 13th, June 20th, June 27th: 10:30 PM

Korean Toothbrushing

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How good is your dental hygiene? Carry floss with you in case of emergencies? Have a small bottle of mouthwash in your dashboard? If your friends think you are obsessive with the way you clean your teeth, then maybe you should move to Korea, where brushing your teeth isn't just a matter of hygiene, it's a lifestyle. Martina recorded the great extent to which her school cares about the state of its teeth. You'll be surprised. Click on the picture above to see our video on Korean Toothbrushing, or check the sidebar for different formats.

Spudgy's New Mohawk

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We were surprised our first summer here when we saw Korean dogs with really cool haircuts and bright hair dye. We've seen lots of dogs in Canada, but never have we seen any dogs as fashionable as a Korean dog. We knew that we'd have to make Spudgy feel at home here, and, luckily, with Spudgy we had the perfect canvas. His hair is white, and by the end of the winter it was excessively long. We can cut and style it as we wish! What's Spudgy's new dew look like? Click on the picture above to see Spudgy's New Mohawk, or check in the sidebar for different formats. As well, for those of you who view us on your iPod, we're exporting our videos in a new format that should be iPod compatible. Let us know if it works!

Itaewon's Foreign Restaurant

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If you remember our post on Bucheon's Sala Thai Restaurant, or even Hongdae's Dos Tacos, then you might come to think that foreign food in Korea isn't what you're looking for. Sure, it may taste good, the way it has been modified and all, but - if you're looking for authenticity - then you might start to worry. We were starting to feel this way, and were a bit worried before we stepped into Itaewon's Foreign Restaurant. Boy, were we ever wrong. Hands down, Foreign Restaurant has given us the best experience of foreign food in Korea we have had thus far. It serves Indian food, with genuinely delicious naan bread, which we happen to love. 16,000 won will get you into the all you can eat buffet, which is what you really should be going for, after all. The food there is so good that we'd pay double to eat there. Seriously. If you want Indian food in Korea, go to Itaewon's Foreign Restaurant. For directions on how to get there, and a look at what the restaurant is like, click on the picture above, or click here for our Visit to Foreign Restaurant.

Bucheon Cherry Blossom Festival

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Last week we went to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Bucheon. The trees were in full bloom for that weekend only, so we dropped everything, took our cameras, made some movies and took some pictures. We went specifically to the Azalea Garden in Bucheon, which is on Dodang mountain, right beside Bucheon Stadium. There was another cherry blossom festival in Seoul, which supposedly was bigger and far more popular, but - since there was one in Bucheon - we felt we had to go to this one instead. Anyhow, we made both a video and a Flickr gallery for the whole deal! Click on the picture above for our video tour of Bucheon's Cherry Blossoms (or check the sidebar for other versions). Or, if you want to see the pictures, click here for our Bucheon Cherry Blossom Gallery.

How to Get Your Korean Driver's License

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Want to drive in Korea? Let's rephrase that: drive legally in Korea? If so, you're going to need to get a Korean Driver's license. Don't know how to get one? Don't worry! That's why you came here! Follow this guide, and you'll be driving on the maddening streets of Korea in no time, where illegal maneuvers are the norm, and red lights are suggestions rather than the law. To get your license, you're going to need a few things. The first two are obvious:

1) Your Alien Registration Card.

2) Your passport.

3) Your driver's license from your home country. If you don't have one, then you need to take a different approach. For this how-to guide, we're only dealing with people who have a driver's license from their home country.

4) 3 headshots that are 3x4 centimeters. You can get these done at Emart, for example, for a few thousand won.

5) 11,000 won in cash. The first five will be spent on your physical exam, and the last six will be spent on buying stamps. We're not sure what these stamps are for, but we had to buy them anyway.

Once you've got all of this, then you're ready to roll! Take everything your closest Department of Motor Vehicles, sign some papers, pass your physical exam, buy some stamps, and - voila! You can legally drive in Korea. Be warned, though; going this route means that you have to trade in your home country's driver's license for a Korean one. You can get your license back at any time if you trade back your Korean one. You're essentially doing a swap. We don't really understand the reasoning behind the swap, so if any of you know why this is done please tell us!

If you don't know where your closest DMV is, then watch our video! At the end of it, we have a list of all the different locations, along with their phone numbers. Hopefully, if your co-teacher is nice (or your Korean skills are rocking) then you can call the DMV in your area up and ask how to get there. We went to the one in Incheon, and explain how to get there in the video as well. So click on the picture above for our video on How to Get Your Korean Driver's License, or check out the sidebar for different formats.

Teaching a Lesson in Korean Middle Schools

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We have received a lot of questions about teaching in public schools. If we don't speak Korean, how do we communicate with our students? What do we teach them? What do the classes look like?

We decided to start taping some of our classes to show everyone what they're like. This video here is of Simon's Middle School classes. Here you'll see the students come into class, sit down, Simon instruct for a bit, and then the students play the game. Finally, a lot of your questions will have been answered!

Simon's situation is a bit unique, though, so don't assume that all classes are this way. For starters, Simon teaches half of his class one week, and the other half the other week, meaning, out of a class of 40, he teaches 20 while his co-teacher deals with the other 20 in another class. As well, some schools expect their teachers to be teaching for the entire class. Simon's school - thankfully - believes that students should be given as much opportunity to speak in class. Less lecturing, more participation. And so, Simon usually explains the rules for some English speaking activity for the first few minutes of class and gives the remaining time for the students to partake in that activity. There's more facilitation than dictation.

So, without further ado, here is one day in Simon's classes. Click on the picture above to see the video, or click here to see a Korean Middle School Class. If you like the lesson, and want to teach it yourself, head over to the ESL Resources page to download the handouts and the presentations.

Eat Your Kimchi Version 3.0

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So we've got a lot to mention. Here goes:

1) The big announcement is that we are now Gepik Representatives for Bucheon City. What does this mean? A few things: one, if you have any questions about dealing with your school, please contact us! We'll do our best to answer your questions or direct you to the higher powers that can solve the problem for you. We're here to help! If you don't live in Bucheon, we can direct you to your local rep who lives close to you. As well, this means that next week, (April 6th-9th) we will be working at the Gepik Orientation for Middle and High School Students. We'll be helping out at the workshops and we're also giving a presentation on Classroom Management. Yes, we will be up on stage for two hours talking about classroom management. If you're going to be there, then please be nice to us! We're nervous!

As for the website, there are a few updates as well:

1) We drew on our website. See the pictures all around? Yeah. Martina likes to doodle. The wider your window, the more doodles you'll see.

2) Sorry for the delay in videos. We've been either working on our Gepik Orientation Presentation or trying to remodel the site into something more usable. We've had issues with the Movies and ESL Resources page, so we remade them from scratch.
Now EVERY ONE OF OUR VIDEOS EVER is available on YouTube, and the YouTube links are available on our Movies Page. A lot of people prefer YouTube over QuickTime, so we made every video available. The few we haven't made available are of ones specifically of our students. Even though our schools have given us permission to upload the movies, we still want to refrain from putting some of those videos up.

3) The ESL Resources page now has more to offer. You can browse our lesson plans by tags, rather than just School Levels. If you're looking for games, click on the games tag; handouts? Click on the handouts tag. As well, every lesson that has a Powerpoint presentation is updated, so that you can preview a movie of the Powerpoint to see if you want to download it or not. All lessons come in both Mac and PC formats.

4) As well, since we're not web-coding wizards, this took a lot longer than it should have taken any competent human being. We're worried that there might be some bugs. Feel free to tell us if you find any. We won't take offense, honest! We'll be mighty thankful!

Finally, now that the boring stuff is out of the way, we've got more fun videos in the works, so check the post above to see what a class is like in a Korean Middle School for starters!

What the Book!

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We're both English majors, so we love books. Love em! Unfortunately, it's not all too easy to find a good selection of English books here in Korea; the bookstores will have a few, but a big part of those few are the original books of popular Hollywood movies. If you want to read something with a little more depth, those bookstores may not be your first option. What you should be checking out instead is our new favorite bookshop, What the Book in Itaewon. It's a bookstore full of books written in English, used and new, as well as magazines. What's better is that they have a really useful website if Itaewon is too far for you, or you're just too lazy to go there. So, we've made a new video tour of What the Book, so that you won't have to be without good reading ever again! Click on the picture above or check it out in the sidebar.

Korean White Day + Secret Surprise for Martina

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If you remember Valentine's Day from last month, we made a post about how it differs here in Korea than what we're used to from back home. Long story short: if a girl gives a guy chocolate on Valentine's Day then he's supposed to give her more in return one month later for White Day, on March 14th. Alas, now it's White Day, so it's my turn (Simon) to do something for Martina. This post is a part of that present.

See, I made a video for Martina and for everybody else. Now what's important about this video is that Martina does not know about it yet. She's going to wake up tomorrow on White Day and, after she opens her gifts, I'll have her watch the video. How sweet is that?! Anyhow, the video isn't just for Martina. It's educational for everybody else as well. In it, I explain what White Day's all about, including the stuff that you could/should buy for your girl. Some of the stuff on the list includes white chocolate, white mints, stuffed toys, underwear, and a more expensive gift. As well, it would be nice to plan something romantic for just the two of you. So, I've got all bases covered. Finally, I try to say something romantic in Korean, but my Korean is awful and I'm not sure about the legitimacy of Yahoo's Babelfish. Please don't laugh too hard over my bad pronunciation and grammar. Korean is hard!

So, that's all for the video. As always, click on either the picture or the sidebar for our Intro to Korea's White Day. And, finally, Happy White Day to you all! P.S. Make sure to leave lots of comments telling Martina how sweet I am and how she owes me big time for this!

How to Pay Your Bills in Korea

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If you're new to Korea, then this video's for you. We didn't know that we could pay our bills (internet, cell-phone, and gas) at the machines for a very long time. For the first few months or so, we've been waiting in long lines at the bank, which always seem to be much longer than they naturally should be. And so, to save you the time you would waste in line to pay these bills, we bring you a new video, explaining how you should pay your bills.

A couple of words first: we cannot pay our apartment fees (re: electricity) through these machines; the only bills this machine will accept are the uniformly sized bills that say "OCR" on them. We think the OCR stands for "Optical Character Recognition," since the machine scans your bills and pops up its info on the screen. Oh, and one more thing: supposedly you can pay your bills online, or do your banking online through KB Bank, but I heard that you have to have a Windows computer to do so. We're Mac users, and - as such - have been ostracized from the Korean internets (they don't like Macintosh around here)

Anyhow, without further ado, here is our How-To Pay Your Bills in Korea video, also available in the sidebar, as always.

Korean Convenience Store Raid: Part 4

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Moving on to the last part of this miniseries, we review Korean Convenience Store drinks. Now, a while ago we made a similar movie when we tried Unique Korean Drinks. Unfortunately, we weren't sensitive enough in our reactions to the drinks, and that offended some people (which is why this series began with a big disclaimer that maintained our right to express our opinions). This time, when we review more Korean Convenience Store Drinks, we try to be more eloquent in our responses.

In this video, we review Banana Milk, Milkis, Dream of Tea, May-Wuan, and Soju.

The Banana Milk deserves a word here: surely, lots of people like this stuff. Unfortunately for us, it distinctly tastes like the medicine we had as children, so instead of enjoying the banana milk we were too busy remembering hospital visits. Uggh! And a word of caution, though: do not drink the Soju the way Simon drank the Soju. With that being said, we bring you our Korean Convenience Store Raid Part 4 - More Unique Drinks. Again, different formats are available in the sidebar.

Korean Convenience Store Raid: Part 3

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On with the show! Today we finally move on to the sweet stuff, now that we're finished all of our savory foods. We had some - well - interesting things to eat today.

Orion Cookies, Crunky Bars, Market Brownies, and something we transcribe as Yawn Yang Neng.

A lot of these have their Western Counterparts. If you remember our Korean Kic Ker Bar post from a long time ago, you'll know exactly what we mean: Kic Ker bars are really Kit Kat bars. In today's video, we've got Orion Cookies as Oreo Cookies and Crunky Bars as Crunch bars. The Yawn Yang Neng bar is something completely new to us, and it's - errrr - interesting. Anyhow, click on the picture above to see Part III of our Korean Convenience Store Raid: Sweet Desserts, or check it out in the sidebar. Also, if any of you know what these Yawn Yang Neng bars are supposed to be, then please tell us! They're so confusing!

Korean Convenience Store Raid: Part 2

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Now on to Part 2 of our Korean Convenience Store Raid: Lunch-y Foods. We were a little more bold this time, and we tried some of the heartier fare. In this video we sampled:

Kim Bap Triangles, Cold Cheeseburgers, Hard Boiled Mini Eggs, and Sausage Rolls of Lord Knows What.

Supposedly the sausage rolls are made of a pressed fish - or so we have been told - but it doesn't really seem like fish. We thought they were cheese sticks at first, but we were terribly mistaken. All we know for sure is that Korean people around us have called it "Sausage," so we'll take that for what it's worth. They're a big hit around here, and you can sample them at any major grocery store among the plethora of food samples. Anyhow, we'll stop rambling about these sausages while we still can: click the picture above to see Part II of our Korean Convenience Store Raid: Lunch Foods. Or just check the sidebar instead.

Korean Convenience Store Raid: Part 1

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We remember our first few days in Korea: we were confused, cold, alone. The wolves were howling at us, we were scared and hungry. We didn't know what to eat or where to go. So - for the first few days - we ate convenience store food.

If you too find yourself in this situation, fear no more, for we at Eatyourkimchi.com put together a mini-taste test of the good, the bad, and the weird foods you can find at your local corner store. We went to a GS 25, the omnipresent convenience store in Korea, and raided it for all its worth. We grabbed anything and everything new to us, came home, ate it or drank it, and recorded our reactions.

The result is this four-course video special. We'd post it all as one video, but it's just too huge. OMG!

Part 1:
We review some of the bagged goods, including chips and other snacks. Some things come in odd boxes rather than bags, but are located in the same section of the store.

Part 2:
We'll review the more lunch-foody stuff. What? Lunch-foody is totally a word. This will include food that's heartier than bagged stuff.

Part 3:
The deserts. You'll need to balance out all that salt.

Part 4:
We'll wrap up with a (sometimes) refreshing drink review.

For today's special, we reviewed six bagged snacks:
Jollypong, Egg Cookies, Goguma Gang, Homerun Ball, Corn Cho, and some generic Dried Squid.

If there's one thing we learned it's that you can't judge a food by its packaging. What we expected to be delicious was disappointing, and what we expected to be awful was amazing.

Please be warned: we have opinions! If we happen to have a negative reaction to something this does not mean - as some people seem to believe - that we are insulting Korea altogether and should be deported for our hatred. We tried to be as politically correct as possible, but - for the love of freedom - we have the right to not like some foods! Check out our reactions in our Convenience Store Raid: Bagged Snacks video, or find it in the sidebar instead.

Korean Valentine's Day

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It's Valentine's Day in Korea! Just when we thought we knew a holiday inside and out, we discovered we were wrong.

February 14th in Korea is also known as Valentine's Day but it is specifically for a girl to give her guy chocolate or candy. It is supposed to be handmade chocolate but most people just buy something from the many, many places offering beautifully wrapped boxes. Even the local bakeries add boxed chocolates to their normal cake and pastry repertoire! So guys, you can just sit back and relax...for now...

March 14th is White Day in Korea, and that means if your girl gave you chocolate or candy, you too have to get some for her, but you also must get her a gift. Sorry guys, guess you have more work than the ladies. Anyhow, we made a video for those of you who don't like reading this, so - as you probably know by now - click the picture above for our Korean Valentine's Day movie, or check out the sidebar for it instead. And Happy Valentine's Day!

A Foreigner's Mini-Guide to Korean Ramen

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Our experiences with ramen in Canada began in elementary school with good ol' Mr. Noodle, who pretty much runs the show for Canadian ramen. From there, we developed a deep love for those salty, spicy, delicious, and easy to make noodles, and craved something more. Surely there had to be more to the world of Ramen than plain ole' Mr. Noodle...

We found later on in life that if we wanted to try something imported (in this case, Ramen) we'd hit K-town (Korea Town: Christie Pitts/North York) or J-town (Japan Town: Markham). We thought that this would be an accurate representation of the Ramen scene in Korea. When we arrived in Korea, though, we were floored. We're serious when we say that there is an entire gigantic aisle dedicated to all types of ramen in the grocery store, enough ramen to fill our apartment. Oh the joy! Image us spinning in a meadow holding a ramen bowl happily. Yeah.

Anyhow, since we've always wanted to make a cheesy infomercial like video, we decided to do it with ramen as the star. We picked out 8 random noodle bowls that we had never tried, and called up our friends to do a taste test. The candidates:

-Jajang Bokki
-Ramen Bokki
-95 Cal
-Salee Gomtang
-"Well-Being" Ramen (aka Sudden Attack)
-Spaghetti Ramen
-Cheese Ramen
-Udung (which is different than ramen, but still hot water added to dry noodles)

What we had in the end is what we hope to be the Foreigners' Mini-Guide to Korean Ramen. Seven foreigners tasted, rated, and ranked the ramen, so that, hopefully, other foreigners here in Korea will have an idea of what's good and what's bad in their ramen aisle. Sure, our tastes are different than a Korean's tastes, which is why we made this video, SO PLEASE DON'T CONSIDER US INSULTING AND INFIDELS FOR NOT LIKING THE SAME RAMEN AS YOU. With that in mind, click on the picture above for our Foreigners' Guide to Korean Ramen, or click on the sidebar for different formats.

Our Adventure at Seoul Tower

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We're currently enjoying vacation time, so we thought maybe it was time to visit all the touristy things. Yes, "touristy" is a word (it's not).

We decided to visit N Seoul Tower. Seoul Tower is located on the peak of Mt. Namsan in Seoul, a city of 10 million people. There you'll find a revolving restaurant, cafés, and an observatory deck, but if you're afraid of heights and don't want to go up the tower, you can still get a nice view of the city from the top of the mountain for free.

You have two ways to get to the tower:

A) For 7,000₩ you can take a 7 minute cable car to the top of the mountain (which is the base of the tower).

B) For free you can walk up a huge, huge, huge, windy stone staircase. It has benches along the way and its lush forest-like surroundings are nice for pictures.

We chose the cable cars, but be warned, unless you take a taxi or tour bus to the cable cars, they are a mini-adventure to find via subway. If you want to take the subway there (which we did) it will be a 10-15 minute walk.

Here are the directions:

1. Get to Myeongdong Station (line 4).
2. Take exit 3 and look left. You'll see a really wide road with a convenience store on the corner in front of you. Walk down this street.
3. You'll see Pacific Hotel. The road splits in two around the hotel so stick to the right side.
4. Eventually the road runs into a flight of stairs. Take those stairs up and you'll see the cable car building on your right. Can't miss it.

While you're at Myeongdong Station, make sure you check out the huge shopping area across the street. You have to use the underground subway path to cross and the signs will lead you. It's very funky. Anyhow, the whole day was such an epic adventure day for us. The cable car ride was well worth the wait, and the view from the top of the tower was fantastic. Make sure you bring your cameras when you're there. We sure did. Click on the picture above to see our Adventures at Seoul Tower, or check the sidebar for different formats.

Our Favorite Korean Café

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We posted a couple of videos a while ago on Insadong and its Cookie Makers. Quite possibly, Insadong is our favorite place to go outside of Bucheon, and we're not talking about the tourist area which is a long cobblestone street filled with cheap wares.

How do you get to this secret area? It's a bit complicated.

1. Walk along the busy cobblestone street, all the way to the end, keep going and you'll see a small set of lights.
2. Cross at the lights, turn left once you cross.
3. Turn right onto the second street. It looks kind of like a tunnel because it has high walls. At first, it looks like nothing, just a narrow street with some high schools hidden behind high walls, but if you keep walking, you will be rewarded. The area is SO unique. Tiny shops and restaurants all different from one another, with quirky workers and decorations.
4. To get to our favourite café, you keep walking past the restaurants until you have to cross a busy little street (there are no lights).
5. Once you cross, keep walking and turn left on the first tiny street.
6. You'll pass a couple other big looking coffee shops, but you'll soon see the 커피 선반 café on your left. It's across from a hat shop.

Why do we love this place? Here are a few reasons.

Décor:
The café is covered in Polaroids of people and things, and the owner has a small guestbook filled with people's polaroids and their comments. The tables in the back rooms are scribbled on by guests leaving happy comments and drawings. The walls are coated with little love notes to the café. They are delicately written on paper napkins with the many encouraging pens hanging around on the tables. If you're there, try and find our napkin!

Comfort:
The napkins are printed with cartoon doodles of the café's owner and workers. Sometimes the employees wear Mickey Mouse ears or hot pink construction hats. Why? No reason needed. You can stay a long time and no one is going to kick you out. In the back room, there is a secret upstair attic (only 4 steps high) which can only hold two snugly people. If you're hungry they serve dessert (homemade fresh waffles, ice cream) and freshly made pressed panini.

Coffee:
This place takes its coffee seriously. They roast their coffee on location (it's a bright red roaster) and have a wide selection to choose from. If you order a cup of hand dripped coffee, it will NOT be served with milk and sugar. Trust me, this coffee doesn't need milk and sugar. If you get an expresso based drink, it will be perfect! Nothing burnt, bitter, or weak about it. Just perfect! If you want some beans to go, it comes with a hand-drawn picture.

We love this place, really love this place, and we'd be there everyday if it weren't so far from Bucheon. If you're ever in the Insadong area, make sure you check it out. Click on the picture above to see our video tour of Our Favorite Korean Café, or click on the sidebar to see it on YouTube.

Korean Sticker Booths

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Our experiences with photo booths in Canada are limited to a tiny booth with a single strip of 4 pictures that are overpriced for how simple they turn out. Sure, it's fun to jam yourself into the booth with your best friend and make silly faces, but wouldn't it be better if you could more? Well, Martina's dream has come true! The sticker photo booth trend originally started in Japan and made its way to Korea; it is an entire store dedicated to (at least) five different types of booths, plus they have free props, wigs, and outfits you can use too! The one we went to was in the Hongdae area (near Hongik University) but if you live in Bucheon, we have one in the Sopoooooong Mall, upstairs, near the movie theatre.

Here's what you should know:

1. These places are self serve so don't feel intimidated. Pick a booth you like and check the currency it requires. Some of them are in Japanese yen, so you'll have to exchange your Korean won at the front cash.

2. Expect to pay between 3,000 won - 6,000 won depending on the newness of the machine. The older machines have only a few backgrounds that literally roll down before each picture is taken, but the newer ones have you posing in front of a green screen, and you can choose different computerized backgrounds. The more expensive machines often have ladders and monkey bars that you can hang off of, and they allow you to manipulate your computerized image in a more complicated way, such as erasing your body and adding a cartoon body.

3. All the instructions are in Korean, but it's not too hard to figure out. As soon as you put your money in BE READY because a timer counts down for you to choose your backgrounds. Use your finger or the touch pen to choose your favourite backgrounds. Most machine take 8 pictures and let your choose the 4 best.

4. Once you choose your four best you can lighten or darken the images. WARNING: It appears MUCH lighter once it prints, so be careful.

5. Once you finish taking the pictures, leave the booth and walk around to the computer where you get to decorate on them using a touch pen and touch screen. WATCH THE TIME LIMIT!!!

6. When you're finished, pick your layout style. In our experiences, the littlest pictures are so so small (smaller than your "enter" key) that the decoration details barely show up, so don't waste your time decorating a lot if you want 32 mini pictures!

7. Once the stickers print out, head to the front cash and choose which coating you want on it. Each place differs, but most have sparkle coating, bumpy coating, glossy coating, matte coating. Once you're finished, you can buy many things to keep your pictures in, such as keychains or picture frames, or you can peel off the backing and use it as a sticker!

Have fun and be prepared to be addicted! Of course, we made a video about them, so click on the picture above to see our video tour of Korean Sticker Booths, or check the sidebar instead for different formats.

Restaurant Reviews: Hongdae's Dos Tacos

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Korean food is great, but - as you can tell from our last Thai food restaurant review - we're also looking for foreign food. Our hunt for Thai food failed. We can't find any Mexican places in Bucheon, so last Friday we travelled to Hongdae to try our luck there. We heard about a place called Dos Tacos, which supposedly served really good Mexican food: burritos, nachos, margaritas, tacos, so on and so forth.

Would it be authentic, though, or at least as good as the Mexican food we're used to from back home? After all, back in Toronto we constantly ate at Bar Burrito or Burrito Bros, and they serve some pretty good stuff. Have our standards been met here at Dos Tacos? Click on the picture above to find out, or click here to see our review of Hongdae's Dos Tacos Restaurant. If all else fails, you can view the video on YouTube through our sidebar.

If videos just aren't your thing, then we'll spoil it for you right now: Dos Tacos was a big let down. Any burrito with pickles in it just ain't a burrito to us. The refried beans were kidney beans! Although it tasted good, it just wasn't Mexican enough for us. What a letdown.

Korean Poke Machines

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If you saw our post on Korean Claw Machines (or the Lobster Machine), you'd know that Korea is full of little money-gobbling-difficult-to-win-but-addictive toy machines. You can win anything from gum, golden turtle statues, lighters, or women's underwear. Well, there is a new machine in town. The stick-poke-out-a-toy-machine. You can win a solar powered bobble head guy or an mp3 player that looks suspiciously like an iPod shuffle. When Simon sees these machines, he is determined to beat them. Luckily we have a huge box full of change that just grows bigger everyday, so we use our coins to fuel the toy machine industry in Korea. Unfortunately, these machines are rigged, as the stick used to poke the toy through the hole is too fat to fit into the hole itself. Honest! We have video proof of the stick going in, but getting jammed because of it's cheating-outer-ring. If you don't believe us, check it out: click on the picture above to see our Korean Poke Machines video, or check out the sidebar for other video formats.