Living in South Korea with Our Two Children: Jetlag, Culture Shock and Finding a Babysitter

It was 2008, the global financial meltdown, a financial crisis that was far-reaching, pervasive and devastating to many people. Jobs evaporated overnight, mortgages became precarious - everything seemed to be tanking at once.

Even before my ex-spouse and I left Canada with our two children, 3 and 11, we made several visits to the Korean Consulate in Toronto and arranged to have our various shots at a travel clinic. I had no idea how expensive this would all be! Due to the global financial situation, we had not sold our little duplex yet and were coasting on fumes until we began our two teaching positions. We were surprised that the staff at the Consulate had not processed visas for children moving to South Korea from Canada before. As a result, we were issued two temporary three month visas for the kids in October, 2008 - a decision that came back to haunt us in January of 2009.

We were frantically emptying our house into our rented storage unit and visiting the bank for last minute arrangements until very late the night before we flew out of Pearson. As a family we were feeling so much grief for our dog that had to be euthanized due to a long illness and we were, it seemed, losing everything at once - our dog, our home, our car, all of our family and friends. It almost seemed too much to bear. I was very concerned for our children and how this upheaval was affecting them.

We had sold our Volvo wagon by now (at a loss) and had rented a van to be returned after spending the night at my elderly parents' house in Milton. We had a very early morning flight and the goodbyes before leaving my parents were surreal, underscoring the feeling of profound aloneness that we were experiencing.

Emily and Owen are active, curious, sensitive, perceptive and anxious kids and we wanted to give them an experiential education - our eldest, and probably the youngest, are gifted and the hope was that we could give them something that would be with them for a lifetime, and both parents could be working. We spent a long flight with a three year old who wanted to run madly around Pearson, Vancouver and Incheon airports and ended up smashing his head on the floor when we finally arrived in South Korea. Before landing at Incheon, the flight attendants served ramen and I fed Owen spicy noodles from my chopsticks while we pretended that I was a mummy bird feeding her baby.

Our contact in Incheon was late and we spent a long time trying to call from a pay phone and connect with the driver sent to pick us up and take us to Bucheon, a suburb of Seoul. We finally met with the kindly man who was sent to transport us to our destination. The kids fell asleep in the van on the way to Bucheon and we were greeted by our co-teachers at an apartment building surrounded by many other apartment buildings in the shopping and entertainment district of Bucheon. We had a spacious apartment on the 10th floor with an amazing view of the mountains and Seoul in the distance. The scenery was so Bladerunner-esque that we were pretty excited by our new home, despite feeling too tired to think.

The contracts that we signed were for teaching English as a second language for two elementary schools about 15 minutes walking distance apart and about 30 minutes walking distance from our apartment building. The schools advertised for a couple and had leased the apartment for this purpose. Owen was too young to attend kindergarten at my school and Emily would begin grade six at my school in February/March at the beginning of the Korean academic year. She had begun grade 6 in September and attended until we left Guelph in October. In Guelph, we had hired a babysitter to care for Owen as we had very long hours on the road as archaeologists and upon our arrival in Bucheon, needed to find a babysitter for the final week of October and the months until Owen and Emily could begin school. A private kindergarten was our only option for Owen when he turned four in February. "Encore: Better Than Any Native Kid" school was in a nearby building and students were taught English, Korean and Chinese. I don't think that the name of the school would be considered politically correct in Canada or any country with indigenous populations! The teachers were wonderful with Owen and he has many memories of his time there.

The first night in Bucheon was shocking and although we had thought to bring a sleeping bag, our schools had not outfitted the apartment ahead of time so we did not have bedding or dishes yet. Long established ESL teacher's apartments would pass from one teacher to the next and be well stocked, but we were the first Guest English Teachers in our schools and would be given an allowance to purchase these necessities. We slept in our clothes to stay warm and the kids shared the sleeping bag. Oddly, I did not know that we should not drink the tap water and for the first 36 hours we did just that. Our first morning required finding some food and using a pay phone to call a number of prospective babysitters that I had contacted from Canada via email. The following photos are in chronological order from the moments before boarding in Canada, our first views out of our windows and the jetlagged first week after purchasing some dishes, etc.

Free ESL Lesson Plans

With the start of the 2012 academic year in South Korea coming up in March, I thought that I would include some lessons and links for Guest English Teachers / Native English Teachers to use. My first year of teaching English (2008-9)  involved an elementary school called Songnae in Bucheon and I will post some materials that I created for my after school programs in the future. My second year of teaching English (2009-10) was at the Beopseong Vocational High School and I designed lessons for curricular and after school programs. There were three grades, 1^st-3^rd and for each grade there were five classes. I taught first and second year students as by the third year, English was not on the curriculum. Consequently, there were ten classes that I saw twice per week and interviewed each student three times (once per term). I also wrote the exam questions pertaining to my classes and my co-teachers wrote the exam questions that related to their text book lessons. My lessons were loosely based on the text book chapters, but I was expected to create my own teaching materials, etc., as my co-teachers relied very heavily on the text content. In Bucheon and in Beopseong (also spelled Bupsung), I used Teacher’s Corner as a resource to create word searches, fill in the blanks and crossword puzzles to support my lessons and reinforce the vocabulary.

A special second year student, Hyung Sun, was a gifted artist and every class I handed my worksheets (or plain paper) and a pen or pencil for him to use. At the end of class I would shut down the data projector and say goodbye to the students and I would find a worksheet turned over on Hyung Sun's desk or on mine and lo' and behold, on the flipside would be an incredible illustration of a bus station or subway. The signs were in English and Hangul. His sister is an artist too and when I inquired about his plans after third year, his homeroom teacher assured me that he would be going to work with his sister. I was relieved to learn that. Many of my students would work for Samsung, LG, Kia and Hyundai in factory compounds on the other side of South Korea after finishing high school. Some of his artwork may be viewed below.

Make Your Own Worksheets

Teens Inspiring Teens

High School (1st and 2nd Year) Interview and Exam Questions

Hyung Sun's Artwork

Open Class Lesson Plans

Top 10 Ways to Save Money

1. Label and freeze leftover food for later use: super ripe bananas, stale bread, soups, stews, pastas, sauces, meat ...

I recently made a bread and butter pudding for my parents and it was a great way to use up some bread that was a little dry and I have modified the Edna Staebler (Food that Really Schmecks) recipe by reducing the milk to include a half cup of honey (my parents' Honey Shack honey of course!) and adding extra eggs to boost its caloric value for my wee Mum. I find that I sometimes get into a food rut and make the same recipes, but sometimes by recombining ingredients, only slightly tweaking recipes can make a big difference. My modified Edna recipe improves the nutritional value:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a round casserole dish.

11/2 cups milk
2-6 eggs (depends on you and if this is intended as a nutritious snack!)
1/2 cup honey
1/2-3/4 loaf whole wheat bread
butter for the bread
marmalade for the bread
cinnamon for sprinkling
1/2 cup Thompson raisins if you have them
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Slice about 6 pieces of bread, butter them, spread marmalade and then cube. Arrange cubes with the butter and marmalade sides up in layers with the raisins and cinnamon in the casserole dish. Mix eggs, milk, honey and vanilla. Pour over the bread and allow to soak in for a few minutes before popping in the oven with a lid or tinfoil to prevent the top from getting too dark. Bake for a minimum of 25 minutes and longer if you have used up to 6 eggs - just keep checking to see that the egg has set. Mine puffs up like a souffle when it's nearly done, so you may need to remove the cover toward the end!

2. Make a grocery list and avoid impulse purchases - look at the flyers ahead of time to help plan.

3. Grocery shop on a full stomach to avoid impulse purchases - my grocery store preys on the "hunger-induced-shopping-fugue" with huuuuge bins of reduced cookies, chips, etc. at the entrance near the carts!

4. Buy generic products or sale items, whichever is less expensive.

5. Buy bulk ingredients - check the unit cost per grams to ensure your savings.

6. Take hot lunches, snacks and drinks to work/school in flasks and containers that can be re-used rather than buying lunch out.

7. Refill a good stainless water bottle with water rather than buying disposable, bottled water.

8. Make coffee by the pot at home and take to work/school in a travel mug.

9. Buy second hand clothes, boots, shoes that are well made - they will last as long as your kids fit them and outlast brand new, poorly manufactured items. Of course, socks and underwear, etc., should be brand new! Ha!

10. Use your local library to borrow books, DVD's, Cd's, journals - the list is endless - and while you are there, why not plug in your laptop and use their Internet for free...!

Happy money saving!

Squeezing the nickel: ways to save money; and my views on thriving local economies and employer loyalty

With so many jobs becoming part-time, casual, temporary, no benefits, etc., it is important to save money on daily expenses. When my family returned to Canada after working in Korea for two years, we moved into a small apartment and emptied our storage unit. In Korea we lived in small apartments and found that we didn't miss the extra space that our house had in Guelph - not too much at least! We actually enjoyed not having so much "stuff". Now that a house worth of furniture and bric-a-brac are back with us, it seems so unnecesary - yet, I do enjoy a homey, cluttered feel too. Somewhere in the middle would be fine.

Some of the ways that we save money are also tied into our views about sustainability, our carbon footprint and just not being rampant consumers. We buy our clothes and many other things at Value Village where everything is second hand and the money from your purchases is donated to a good cause. When we outgrow clothing or are clearing out closets, we donate our items to Value Village. We even asked our daughter's birthday party guests to buy second hand gifts one year. Only one friend embraced this idea and gave a sweater and a stuffed animal if I recall correctly. We were thrilled and perhaps our family members are not as enthused as we are, but we give second hand books for gifts. What I find so incredible is how inexpensive some high quality, sturdy brands are when purchased second hand - Oshkosh, American Eagle, Point Zero, North Face, Mountain Equipment Co-op, etc., and they last as long as my kids fit them - and dropped back in the great used clothing machine cycle when donated to Value Village.

Anywho, I am going to write about ways to save money and include economical recipes as much as I can. I am currently enjoying a library book, "The Third Coast: Sailors, Strippers, Fishermen, Folksingers, Long-Haired Ojibway Painters, and God-Save-the-Queen Monarchists of the GREAT LAKES" by Ted McClelland. By the way, libraries sell off their old stock on a regular basis for very little money- including music, movies, comics, journals, magazines, hardbound and paperback books. The book that I have borrowed, The Third Coast, is very interesting to me as a Great Lakes dweller and lover, but also as an observer of the demise of local economies. McClelland refers to the skeletal remains of steel mills and other 19th century manufacturing dependent on the water of the Great Lakes on his journey clockwise from Chicago, keeping the water on his right through Ontario and back to the U.S. again. It's a great slice of life and poignant commentary on the morphing of Great Lakes, and in many ways North American, culture as a necessary adaptation to changing times.

Today's Toronto Star headlines were rife with the looming debt-default in Greece, the growing unrest in London Ontario in response to Caterpillar's ill treatment of its workers, the TTC Chair and Toronto City Councillors petitioning the Mayor to invoke light rail transit rather than his subway scheme right on the heels of a council led coup to defeat the Mayor's program cuts - the people are organizing themselves to rally against "the man". At least, one hopes this is the case.

Back to saving money. Between social analysis gigs I work in heritage - a vulnerable sector that is prey to institutions with the bottom line as their prime objective. My recent stint covering a maternity leave at a museum was amputated due some glitch with the Employment Insurance benefits of the person on mat leave, hence her early return to work, hence my job evaporating into thin air! I am still on-call in case of a staffing shortage as an employee of the Region of Waterloo and will continue to work in archaeology as soon as we are back in the field, yet... This problem is bigger than my field's employment instability, it's a reflection of employers across the board using the excuse of a troubled economy to slash and burn full time, permanent-with-benefits positions to create a holey patchwork of part-time, casual, temporary positions without one whit of commitment on the part of the employer. Employment can be a healthy, mutually beneficial contract with loyalty on the part of the worker and employer. Thriving local economies meant that businesses like Biltmore Hats (since 1950 at their Morris Street location, but a business since prior to 1919) employed local Guelph workers at a living wage for more than 30 years to make hats like Stetsons, which enabled the workers to buy homes, become involved in the the community and the schools, support local businesses and so on. Biltmore was bought by an American company in 2010 and moved to Texas in January, 2012.

Where are those loyal workers going to pick up a living when they are (hopefully) so near retirement? I have a pocket watch that was given to my grandfather in 1947 when he was recognized for 25 years of service. Given today's economy, that seems so alien and incredible that he wasn't downsized or transferred or laid off or declared redundant. I am sure everyone has stories like this and I hope that we can turn the tide of outsourcing for cheap labour, commuter culture (forced by expensive housing to live in the burbs) and get back to thriving communities and local economies.

Teaching English in South Korea with my two children

Living in Bucheon, South Korea with my two children: December, 2008

                     

Early morning in our neighbourhood - the entertainment district, chockablock full of restaurants, street vendors, shopping malls and bars that catered to Koreans and/or westerners. We lived on the 10th floor of Triple Tower B and walked to our schools daily. When we exited our apartment building's lobby, we could access a Blade Runneresque cacophony of sights, lights and sounds.

A huge park near downtown - the hub of much activity throughout the year - picnicking, cooling in the water fountains, running, exercising on the machines at the outdoor gym, playing soccer volleyball and celebrating events.

One day after work my Vice Principal took us out to this restaurant and we met his oldest friend there. This became our favourite bulgolgi restaurant - barbequed pork eaten with sesame and lettuce leaves stuffed with garlic, pepper sauce, onions and kimchee. Best to only wrap as much as you can eat in one bite! Always keep your elders' glasses full by pouring soju or makju or whatever they are drinking, holding your sleeve and arm of your pouring hand as you pour. Women are expected to hold their glass with both hands and turn away from older men as they drink. This convention is not common among younger university age South Koreans, rather their parents' generation. The teachers at my schools did observe this tradition and I was expected to demonstrate respect for men in the same manner.

WWI 1917 Diary Scanning, Tortilla Bake and a Groom's Cake

I have been scanning the WWI 1917 diary that my grandfather kept as a gunner when he joined-up underage at 16 like so many other kids did. I have all of the letters that he wrote to his parents from the period of training at Petewawa in 1916 up to the end of the war in France and a diary from 1918 to scan. I sense his barely contained excitement for the adventure yet to come while at Petewawa and feel his battle weariness creep in as he trains at Shorncliffe, England after a long sea voyage and finally begins running ammunition to the front lines in France. His experience at Vimy Ridge is a horror that is delivered in understatements in his diary and barely referred to in his censored letters home, with place names scratched out with pencil or completely removed by ripping off the address at the top of the page. He refers to a friend who was a the front and was sent to London with shell shock.

My grandfather's youth is evident at times in his plaintive requests for more money to be sent from home, cigarettes, chocolate, good boots and silk underwear to discourage the "visitors", a polite euphemism for body lice. He also would like to be advanced money to purchase a revolver for close combat, as recommended by soldiers returning from the front. Grandpa Mulkins had a privileged upbringing in Ottawa and his attitudes, like many of his era, were WASPish. His diary entries reflect this background. His commentary on war culture is interesting and often funny and his illustrations of shells and cars are a snapshot of the era and evidence of his youthful exuberance. Also, a heralding of his future occupation, post-war as an architect. I am looking forward to reading through all of the material again, as it has been a long time since I have done so.

Tortilla Bake

The other day I made a tortilla bake to use up some leftover chicken, salsa and romano beans.  I had soaked and boiled up the beans and used them with pasta, but these were the last of the last and needed to be eaten or frozen. I opted for eating! Sometimes we buy a cooked chicken from Metro on Tuesday night because the price is very close to what it would cost for a fresh chicken and it gives us at least one or two more meals after that using the meat in other dishes. Anywho, I layered olive oil and small whole wheat tortillas in a round casserole dish with dollops of beans, salsa, cut up chicken, cumin, diced garlic, sliced red onion and grated chedddar cheese (although sometimes I spread cream cheese on the tortillas and skip the cheddar until the top).  I usually need to open a bottle of tomato sauce to supplement the salsa a little, to ensure juiciness. On the final layer, I crush organic blue tortilla chips and grate either parmesan or cheddar and throw on sliced onions. I wrap it in tinfoil for the first 45 to 60 minutes @350 and remove the tinfoil for another 15 minutes or so, and sometimes brown the top further with the broiler. It's great with a salad and if you have sour cream or yogourt and some guacamole. Yum.

Groom's Cake

For my daughter's 14th birthday party last April, I had asked her if she would be interested in having the truffle/cookie cake that Prince William was having for his wedding. Being a chocoholic like moi, she thought it sounded delicious. And, it was. We made it again last weekend for dinner guests and gave some to my parents - it's simply too rich to have hanging around, yodelling suductively (!) for you to have a smackerel at all hours. It's just better for your health to share it. Really.

7-ounces of butter tea cookies - McVitie's brand Rich Tea Biscuits are used by the royal family - I use chocolate covered butter cookies
1 cup whipping cream (35%)
2 tablespoons honey
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick or 1/4 cup) butter
16 ounces (about 2 1/2 cups) bittersweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the glaze:
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup whipping cream
6 ounces (about 1 cup) bittersweet chocolate chips

Coat a 7- or 8-inch round springform pan with butter.

To make the cake, with your hands break up the cookies into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces; you want chunks, not crumbs.

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, combine the cream, honey and butter. Microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes, or until bubbling - my ancient microwave takes longer. Add the chocolate and stir until melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the vanilla, then the broken up cookies. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan, using the back of the spoon to smooth the top. Gently tap the pan on the counter to eliminate any air pockets.

Refrigerate for 3 hours or until thoroughly chilled.

Once the cake is chilled, prepare the glaze. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter and cream. When the mixture reaches a boil, remove it from the heat and add the chocolate, stirring until completely melted and smooth.

Carefully remove the sides from the springform pan. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, then remove the bottom of the pan from the cake. Ha! Easier said than done - I had to wrestle with my cake and springform base for ages, coaxing the bottom away from the cake by gently inserting a knife between the cake and pan all around the cake until it finally gave way. Set the rack over waxed paper or parchment paper to catch drips (for eager tasters).

Pour the glaze evenly over the cake and spread with a knife to completely cover the top and sides. Allow to firm up, then transfer to a serving plate. Refrigerate leftovers. If your family is lucky, they will have a bowl, spatula/spoon, a springform pan and the paper under the rack to sample the cake and glaze while the cake is chilling. This recipe is not for the faint of heart - it seems to appeal to diehard dark chocoholics rather than kids who tend to be milk chocolate lovers. Buon Appetito!

A Frog, a Dog, a Cat and a Dragonfly

or

Paul, Larry, Priscilla and Sy

or

A June Afternoon

By: Beth Mulkins

My friend teaches English to kids in Rome, Italy and he asked me to make up some rhymes to use in his lessons. This is what I wrote.

There once was a frog named Paul,

Who, one fine day in June, sat upon a wall –

Until a dragonfly flew by,

And Paul (the frog),

Jumped off that wall (Getting that dragonfly NOT AT ALL!),

And landed on a big dog!

Whose name was Larry (short for Lawrence),

And wouldn’t you know – a cat called Priscilla then ran along a fence,

And Larry,

Who loooooooooooved to chase cats,

Growled, puffed-up, and looked kind of scary –

Ran and chased, chased and ran,

Until Priscilla (the cat) jumped behind a delivery van,

And disappeared between two houses and down an alley with a garbage can,

Overflowing with balloons and flowers,

Leftover from a baby shower.

On and on that cat raced –

Even though Larry had long ago given up the chase,

Until at last Priscilla arrived at the pillow she called home,

In the center of a large pink and white frilly bed, inside a house within the heart of Rome.

Paul, meanwhile, grew weary,

(And not to mention a bit leery),

Of his dog friend called Larry,

With the big teeth, and who like to chase cats and all things hairy –

So PLOP! He went onto the ground,

And whom do you think he found?

A dragonfly named Sy –

Who said he flew by,

And would Paul like to have a game of chess –

Because, he did confess,

That it would be a most splendid way to spend a lovely afternoon,

In June.

So Paul said yes,

And they played a lazy game of chess,

On that hazy June,

Afternoon.

The End

What's for dinner tonight?

Lately, perhaps due to recovering from a virulent, persistent and persnickety flu, I have been inexorably drawn to all things hot - any type of tea, coffee, soup, piping hot food. So, on Monday, I made a tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic and onions and added some large leftover meatballs that I had made on the weekend. Popped it into the oven to bubble away for an hour and boiled up some whole grain Barilla spaghettini. Oh man, was that hot and really hit the spot with some freshly grated parmesan cheese on top, black pepper and olive oil. Last Sunday I roasted a chicken - a Frankenchicken, the last squab left on sale at the grocery store - with lovely yellow flesh potatoes cut up with carrots, onions and garlic. The bird was stuffed with a bunch of my straggly kitchen thyme, onions, garlic galore, salt and pepper. I had read that roasting with the breast down makes the white meat juicier and for the final 20-30 min. turning it over to brown the breast skin. It worked rather well; the meat was flavourful and very moist.

On Sunday morning I made a huge batch of oatmeal, coconut, chocolate chip and raisin/cranberry cookies from a culinary mystery that I was reading (Gingerbread Cookie Murder, Fluke, J., Levine, L., Meier, L.). We have been eating these cookies all week and loving the texture and flavour of the coconut.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, rack in middle

1 1/2 cups melted butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar (I use dark), packed down
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs, beaten
3 cups oatmeal
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sweetened dried cranberries or Thompson raisins or a combination of both
3 cups coconut
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 cups nuts or less if desired - walnuts or almonds or pecans would be yummy - I omitted due to the nut rules at my son's elementary school

Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave and let cool a little. In a large bowl, combine the sugars and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and vanilla extract - stir well.

Add the beaten eggs and stir. Beat the warm, not hot, butter. Gradually add oatmeal, flour and dried fruit coconut and chocolate chips (and nuts if including) and stir until thoroughly mixed after each addition.
I had to use my hands to finish incorporating all of the ingredients. I have a diminutive apartment size oven and it would take a month of Sundays to bake little cookies for a batch this huge, so I used a tablespoon to measure dollops onto moistened parchment paper to bake for 8 or 9 minutes. My method yielded 36 cookies and a 9x13 ceramic pan of 36 small squares. So many cookies, so little time...
I always love to hear what people are making for dinner or what they have been enjoying lately. It's wonderful to exchange food information and ideas. I think that food is one way we connect with each other from birth to death - every rite of passage, every day of our lives we have food for every situation or non-situation.

The Rainbow Garden

 

By: Beth Mulkins

 (This is another English as a second language rhyme for my friend in Rome.)

Red, purple, green

Red, purple, green

These are the beautiful colours that I have seen.

Tomatoes, aubergines, beans

Tomatoes, aubergines, beans

Red, purple, green.

Yellow, orange and blue

Yellow, orange and blue

I think they could be flowers, do you?

Dandelions, lilies and bluebells

Dandelions, lilies and bluebells

Fresh and pretty flowers for us to smell.

All of the colours of the rainbow are here then,

In this bright and cheerful garden!

The End

Rainbow Garden Garden

Rainbow Garden Aubergine or Eggplant

Rainbow Garden Beans

The Rainbow Garden Tomato

Teaching English in South Korea: Poised for Flight - Departure from Canada, Pearson Airport October, 2008

During the summer of 2008 my ex-spouse and I were working as archaeologists for a small company that was becoming unstable. We needed a solid plan B, and when an acquaintance lauded the financial benefits of teaching English overseas, we decided that this would be a good opportunity for us as a family in an uncertain economic time.

Within this blog, in addition to discussing the wonderful world of food, I would like to recount our two year adventure in South Korea. It has been a year since our return and I have distanced myself a little from some of the drama that we endured and hopefully in that time period have gained some perspective. I hope to communicate the initial culture shock, transition and adaptation over the course of two years living in three different apartments in three different cities (one was more of a village) on two ends of South Korea.

In 2008 my ex-partner and I were at a crossroads in our relationship and careers, and we were co-parenting our children. Our decision to list the house, pack our belongings into a storage unit, sell the car and fly to South Korea to teach English with our daughter and son in tow was fueled by several factors: partly by the tanking economy with a very uncertain future in Cultural Resource Management archaeology, a field that relied upon continuous land development projects; our venerable dog’s illness and subsequent euthanasia; and a desire to give our kids an opportunity for experiential learning to challenge and engage them.

It was a life-altering, incredible, and mind-bending experience and we have returned to Canada with many mixed emotions. My son, 3 years old when we arrived in Korea, is now at the time of writing, 6 years old. He spent two birthdays (his 4^th and 5^th), Christmases and summers in S. Korea and his first school experiences were within the Korean curriculum - he learned Korean and began to study Chinese and taekwando in addition to his other curricular subjects. He regards S. Korea as his home and misses his friends and teachers.

Our daughter was 11 when we arrived at Incheon International Airport and her first year in Bucheon was pretty wonderful, even idyllic as she was a grade 6 student in the classroom next to my English classroom at an elementary school in Bucheon. Her classmates (my students) had fairly high proficiency in English. She studied math, music, art, Korean, science and P.E., just like her classmates – the only subject she was spared was Korean Ethics due to the language barrier. 

We all learned to read and write Hangul soon after arriving – the wrinkle was in acquiring the language as we did not have scheduled lessons and the urban environment tended to encourage English language competence – meaning people really wanted us to help them with their English rather than the other way around! We naively thought that we would be in a predominately Korean language environment, ripe for an instructive immersion experience.

On the beach in Yeonggwang, South Korea

Food in Context

I have been interested in food my whole life.

I was a nightime sugar thief. I had a mouthful of fillings before I had even lost my baby teeth. I thoroughly enjoyed the candy that Streetsville's Red's smoke shop offered - that sorbet and licorice stuff, sweethearts, sweet tarts, double bubble, wax lips with liquid inside (!), Mackintosh's Toffee, chocolate everything and so on. In those days, kids could run wild and my posse of little friends from our street would play all day and walk to Red's occasionally. I was caught shoplifting with my fellow lawbreakers and there was hell to pay. My siblings (much older) wanted to keep the loot, but I was punished to teach me a lesson about being a law-abiding 5 year old.

When I was 7 years old, my family moved to 3/4 of an acre that had been severed from our neighbour's 100 acre farm in rural Milton. We were promised a dog and a cat if we moved from our 50's bungalow in Streetsville to the country. I attended a tiny rural school called Percy W. Merry and was bused daily, except when the winter wind howelled across the fields and drifted snow onto Derry Road. When the power went out and the roads were treacherous  - a snowday. On those days, we would fire up the woodburning stoves and cook French Toast and make hot chocolate. I loved the adventure of "surviving".

Anywho, eventually, my parents established an apiary, then other ventures crept in - firewood, wood burning stoves, water distillers, maple syrup, maple sugar, bags of loam, sandy loam and ultimately the honey business prevailed while the rest fell away. I was a willing taste-tester for all of the interesting and delicious honey and maple products. It really is a wonder that I did not develop diabetes when I think about the fine food shows that I visited and sampled joyfully in addition to my daily honey consumption.

We had raspberry canes, grapes, a greenhouse with strawberries and asparagus, and all available land planted with peppers, tomatoes, carrots, peas, beans, herbs and I cannot remember what else, but all organic and available to this food thief. My best friend's family had a greenhouse business on 8th Line and a Pippy Longstcking-esque treehouse that overlooked their neighbour's garden... We loaded up a 6 quart basket raiding the garden and dragged it up to our tree lair and ate the bounty unwashed. My garden criminality was rewarded with a fascinating case of worms.  I was later informed that the neighbours were well aware of our marauding and that they were not worried at all - thankfully this pretty much ended my life of food crime (except for some later kitchen creation disasters).

I worked at various jobs in the summer and on the weekends - in the kitchen of a local country club/golf course and for my parents' business of course. It was when I worked with the many Scottish golfers that I discovered my embarrassing habit of picking up accents. I have no idea what people thought when they asked me how long I had lived in Canada and after this had happened quite a few times, I realized that I had unconsciously assumed the accent of the person with whom I was speaking. This was very apparent when I lived in England for a year and upon returning to Canada, was uncharitably accused of putting on an English accent. It's a mimicry affliction, nothing more!

When I was in high school I began a summer job at the Ontario Agricultural Museum as a costumed historical interpreter that I returned to every summer until I finished university. I demonstrated 19th century domestic skills, including cooking and baking over an open hearth and baking in a brick oven. I acquired my favourite cookbooks around that time - Food That Really Schmecks: Mennonite Country Cooking by Edna Staebler, and The Harrowsmith Cookbook: Volume Number 1. Oddly, just lately I covered an historical interpreter's very short maternity leave at Joseph Schneider Haus in Kitchener-Waterloo and found myself on hallowed Edna Staebler ground - a Mennonite home built in 1816 and affiliated with the community Edna Staebler cherished in K-W. The annual Edna Staebler Fellowship is awarded to a researcher through the Museum. I am so sorry that I did not make an effort to meet Edna before she died a the age of 100 in 2006. The Mennonite thread in my life connects me to my grandmother, raised by her Mennonite mother and my mother feels that I am just like my grandmother who constantly cooked and baked (not suprising as she had 8 children) and had a reputation during the Depression for never letting anybody go away hungry if they came to her door looking for a meal. I wish I had known her too.

Well, when research positions were thin on the ground, I began a baking business that did not take off at that time. I wrote and illustrated children's stories and submitted them to a number of Canadian publishers without success. Over the years, I have worked as a field archaeologist in cultural resource management and from 2008-10, taught English in South Korea with my partner and two children for two years. South Korea is beautiful, the people were warm and kind to us, and the food was amazing. We lived in the bread basket of South Korea, Jeollanam-do, for the second year and were surrounded by stepped rice paddies, red dotted pepper fields, sweet potatoes, cabbages, persimmons and seafood from the nearby Yellow Sea coast at Beopsong-po. Mountains and sea - absolutely gorgeous and difficult to leave. It is a feast for the senses.