I've always like Yoga as a means of exercise. When I came to Seoul I thought it would be a good time to deepen my practice and go through teacher training. I am not sure if I necessarily want to teach, but that can always be decided later.
I did as much research as I could (since I am limited to English searches only) and found a school that teaches in English. I went to one class and was a little taken aback because the class was very different from classes I've taken in the past. I'm used to Vinyasa or Bikram with a lot of movement and this class the poses were held for 30-60 seconds with a short break in between.
However, I decided to attend their free workshop class which was an intro to their teacher training course and James came along with me. In this workshop, we learned that Yoga is not so much an exercise, but a way to balance your energy. I will update more as I learn more, but long story short...we are both doing the teacher training course and will be staying in Korea for a little longer than planned so that we can finish the course.
I am so excited for it!
Friday, August 19, 2016
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Sabbatical Day 89 (8.6.16) - Korean Costco
I think I've mentioned before that I haven't been able to find frozen vegetables in any Korean markets. I heard they sold frozen vegetables at Costco so we made the trek over. We took the subway and each brought a bag anticipating all the goodies we would buy. We planned to cab home.
By the time we got to Costco, it was dinnertime. Of course we headed to the food court to see what cool Korean style goodies they had. They had a lot of the same things as in the US (caesar salad, hot dog, pizza, chicken bake) but they also had a bulgogi bake and this potato wedge, bacon pizza. I knew that a meal at Costco would be impossible without eating meat, so I decided I would just eat a little and we ordered the bulgogi bake and the potato wedge bacon pizza.
While we were waiting for our food, we noticed all of the tables eating what looked like curry rice. When we looked closer, it wasn't rice. It was actually diced onions mixed with mustard and ketchup. EVERYONE was making a plate so we decided to make one too! I'm not usually a fan of raw onions, but this was really refreshing. The bulgogi bake was good except it had too much meat. And the pizza was weird. The potato wedges were huge and the pizza was soggy...fail.
By the way, Costco was crazy. This one was two floors and the food court was downstairs. It was quite an adventure getting down to the food court because it was so crowded. The rest of the warehouse wasn't any better. I already get so annoyed at Costco in the US because there are people walking every which way. This experience was even worse because the space was smaller.
We noticed that everything was ridiculously expensive. Because of the high prices, we didn't want to buy anything and reasoned that we actually didn't need it! The only thing we wanted to buy was a bag of frozen broccoli but didn't end up getting that either. That's because it was on the bottom floor and we wanted to check out the top floor first. By the time we wanted to go back to the bottom floor, the line for the escalator was 30 people deep. No thank you!
So...all in all...Costco was a fail and a huge disappointment. =(
By the time we got to Costco, it was dinnertime. Of course we headed to the food court to see what cool Korean style goodies they had. They had a lot of the same things as in the US (caesar salad, hot dog, pizza, chicken bake) but they also had a bulgogi bake and this potato wedge, bacon pizza. I knew that a meal at Costco would be impossible without eating meat, so I decided I would just eat a little and we ordered the bulgogi bake and the potato wedge bacon pizza.
While we were waiting for our food, we noticed all of the tables eating what looked like curry rice. When we looked closer, it wasn't rice. It was actually diced onions mixed with mustard and ketchup. EVERYONE was making a plate so we decided to make one too! I'm not usually a fan of raw onions, but this was really refreshing. The bulgogi bake was good except it had too much meat. And the pizza was weird. The potato wedges were huge and the pizza was soggy...fail.
By the way, Costco was crazy. This one was two floors and the food court was downstairs. It was quite an adventure getting down to the food court because it was so crowded. The rest of the warehouse wasn't any better. I already get so annoyed at Costco in the US because there are people walking every which way. This experience was even worse because the space was smaller.
We noticed that everything was ridiculously expensive. Because of the high prices, we didn't want to buy anything and reasoned that we actually didn't need it! The only thing we wanted to buy was a bag of frozen broccoli but didn't end up getting that either. That's because it was on the bottom floor and we wanted to check out the top floor first. By the time we wanted to go back to the bottom floor, the line for the escalator was 30 people deep. No thank you!
So...all in all...Costco was a fail and a huge disappointment. =(
Monday, August 1, 2016
Sabbatical Day 84 (8.1.16) - A contract can be broken in Korea
James and I don't have a definite return date to the US yet, but we know we will be in Korea for at least a few months. While we are being spontaneous, it makes it hard to settle ourselves in Seoul for the short term.....or so we thought. We found out that for our big ticket items, we can commit to the contract term, but if we want to leave earlier, we would just need to find someone to take over the contract. Our big ticket items were housing, cell phone and a gym. Housing is usually a 1 year lease, cell phone is 2 and a gym is usually month to month (same as in the US).
Housing - while it is possible to find short term housing and air bnb is available, we found out that it is much cheaper to commit to a 1 year lease. However, if we need to leave earlier, we need to contact our real estate agent and pay a finder's fee for them to find another tenant to take over the lease. So easy! The cost is a fraction of one month's rent! Side note: most apartment hunting in Seoul is done through a real estate agent. There are many of them and they are quite helpful.
Cell phone - you can get a prepaid phone but we found that it was more expensive to do so. A regular phone contract is for 2 years but you can find someone else to take over your contract for no additional cost. Side note: opening a cell phone account requires an active bank account at a Korean bank because a cell phone in Korea is like a piece of identification.
Gym - we got a great deal on our gym but we had to pay up front for a year. If we do not stay the whole year, we can just transfer our memberships to someone else.
This really takes the stress out of being here for a short time and not having to worry about breaking the bank!
Housing - while it is possible to find short term housing and air bnb is available, we found out that it is much cheaper to commit to a 1 year lease. However, if we need to leave earlier, we need to contact our real estate agent and pay a finder's fee for them to find another tenant to take over the lease. So easy! The cost is a fraction of one month's rent! Side note: most apartment hunting in Seoul is done through a real estate agent. There are many of them and they are quite helpful.
Cell phone - you can get a prepaid phone but we found that it was more expensive to do so. A regular phone contract is for 2 years but you can find someone else to take over your contract for no additional cost. Side note: opening a cell phone account requires an active bank account at a Korean bank because a cell phone in Korea is like a piece of identification.
Gym - we got a great deal on our gym but we had to pay up front for a year. If we do not stay the whole year, we can just transfer our memberships to someone else.
This really takes the stress out of being here for a short time and not having to worry about breaking the bank!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)