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A Great Weekend Courtesy of 10 Magazine & Thanks to You!

Griffin Stewart — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 05:13:53 +0000

Thanks to all our readers and friends, we got to spend a very fun and enjoyable weekend in Seoul this past week. Because of your votes for our video, we made it into the top ten entrants for 10Magazine‘s Korea Awaits Video Contest! Thanks again for your support. We gathered along with the rest of the top ten entrants at Villa Sortino in Seoul for the announcement of the winners as well as some delicious Italian appetizers and wine. After some mingle time, and a brief video interview, we settled in to watch all the finalists videos before the winners were announced. We placed seventh overall, which was a little disappointing, but when we saw what kind of video they were looking for in the grand prize winner, we didn’t feel so bad. Please don’t take this the wrong way, the winning video was packed with creativity, an original soundtrack, some green screen magic and is very entertaining to watch. We are not saying that we thought the winning video was bad, just that it was not what we thought they would be looking for and not really the style we personally enjoy making. Click here for the the top ten results. Here is the winning video. Enjoy!

And here is our video in case you missed it

The Consolation Prizes

When it comes to consolation prizes, 10 Magazine did not disappoint. They sent us home happy with a package including:

₩50,000 gift card to On The Border
₩20,000 gift card to Caffe Bene
2 Tickets to Miso: A Traditional Korean Musical worth ₩40,000 each

We went to On The Border that night and enjoyed some good Mexican food. It was not quite as good as our favorite Mexican restaurant, but free Mexican food in Korea is always a welcome treat and we even had enough left over for lunch the next day.

After On The Border we headed over to catch the 8PM showing of Miso. We had no idea what to expect, but were excited about the fun date night at no cost to us! We were quickly blown away by the professionalism and beauty or this amazing performance. The lighting was fantastic and the live music and coloful costumes all combined to leave us memorized for most of the show. All we could do was sit there and enjoy the beauty as the plot unfolded before our eyes. We were also glad that it was more of an instrumental musical than a vocal one and because of this the story relied more on acting and scene changes than speaking which we would have not understood. This was a huge plus and the reason we would not hesitate to recomend the show to anyone who is looking for a great date night idea in Seoul.

During one of the performances, Valerie was picked out of the audience and brought up on stage to perform a balancing act with the cast. She did an excellent job and even outperformed the Korean college student they had brought up to compete with her;-) When the show finished there was a short time to meet and take pictures with the cast, but by the time we got our camera, the time had ended. We think this may have been due to the world cup game being on, but are not sure if more time is normally allotted or not, so if you go, make sure to rush for the pictures afterward.

Valerie getting ready to balance the spinning wheel on stage at the performance of Miso.

Upon exiting the theater, we heard some chearing coming from down to the street and decided to walk over and investigate. It turned out to be thousands of fans watching and cheering for the Korean Red Devils to beat Greece in the world cup. The city had set up huge TVs in the square in front of City Hall for the event and the atmosphere was electrifying! We joined in the fun for a while and then headed out a little early to beat the crowds. This was definitely the most fun day we have had in Seoul and just want to again thank our family and friends and 10 Magazine for providing us with the opportunity.

More Information About Miso

For those interested, here are some pictures and more information about Miso.

A Poster with some of the cast we saw.

A Picture from their website of one of the drum scenes that was very enjoyable.

Another picture from their website. This one of a knife and sword dancing scene that was very fun to watch.

You can check out a plot summary from their website and more here.

NOTE: 10 Magazine, On The Border and Miso logo’s are all copyright their original owners and their depiction on this on this site in no way infers ownership to me. All pictures of Miso provided by the Miso website. No photography is allowed while viewing the production of Miso(I secretly took the one of Valerie with my iPhone before being caught, so maybe not as secretly as I had hopped;-)

The Spice of Life

Valerie Stewart — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:26:49 +0000

As many foreigners living in Korea know, variety of food is difficult to come by here. In the U.S., we are used to being able to find any type of food by driving a maximum of about 20 minutes. In most cities in Korea, you can drive far and wide and only come up with a variety of Korean Foods.

And so, we’ve been the victims of several types of cravings over the past several months. Namely, we’ve really been missing Mexican food. Imagine our surprise when we discovered the best Mexican food either of us has ever tasted, right here in Korea.

Seoul is the capital city of Korea and by far the largest city. We were beside ourselves to find Mexican restaurants and resolved to figure out which was the best. So, we ate Mexican food not once, not twice, not even three times… but had that unmistakable flavoring a total of four times. And, it was amazing each time.

We were hoping to satisfy our cravings through this exercise, but I’m afraid they are only stronger since finding Taco Rico. Taco Rico sits on the South Eastern side of the city, and it’s not the easiest task to get there, but definitely worth the journey. Just ask Oscar Martinez, Taco Rico’s resident Chef, who comes all the way from… that’s right… MEXICO.

We were amazed at the authentic flavors we found at Taco Rico. Not to mention, the menu items that boast a 100% hand-made standard of excellence. On our way back to our hotel, we both tried to think of another Mexican restaurant that we had ever tried that could top it, and, we may be really deprived of Mexican food here, but we couldn’t think of a better Taco.

If you’re in the area and have the craving, head to Gangnam by taking the subway to Gangnam station via the Green Line (2). Take exit number 8, then head about a block and a half until you see the GS25. Take a left and follow the street around a left hand curve. Just on the other side you will see an Oasis of sorts… the depiction of a sombrero wielding Mexican, the answer to your prayers!

Click here for the Google map location.

Taco Rico 타코리코
서울특별시 강남구 역삼동 818-8
02-558-4525
Price Range: W4-15,000
HOURS
Tues-Sat 11-10 | Sun 11-3

A Change of Pace

Valerie Stewart — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:21:59 +0000

During our schools’ winter vacation time, we had the opportunity to work at the Metropolitan Office of Education’s Winter English Camp, which took place in nearby Busan. We had heard beforehand that most native teachers do not like these camps, but we rather enjoyed it. And, when we found out that we were getting paid extra for teaching there, we really enjoyed it!

We were picked up early at Griffin’s school and taken to our new home for the next three weeks, Young San University. We checked into our dorm room and were a little disheartened to learn that it was on the top floor of a 6 story walk-up. We then went down to the classrooms and interviewed students in order to aid in their level placement. From there we were ushered to orientation, given our teaching materials and then headed off to begin teaching. That’s right, we received our teaching materials about one hour before our first class. Fortunately, we were also assigned a teacher’s assistant and given small class sizes. Having only 16 students was a wonderful change from our usual 36.

The days were pretty grueling, and we found that it’s not easy to work 12 hour shifts everyday. The schedule was confusing and often changed on a moment’s notice. We fell into bed every night completely exhausted.

On the other hand, we were able to really get to know our students. It was so fun to play games with them and get to interact with them on a daily basis. We really miss our camp students!

Here are some highlights from camp:

Up early, bus is late, check in… 6th floor?, freezing rain, no heat in the hallways, octopus for lunch, fried fish for breakfast, 7-eleven, off campus for MEXICAN food!, hit up Costco, play practice,12 hour days, field trip to Busan Aquarium, staying in Busan for the weekend, Monday’s coming, up early, students are back, more 12 hour days, playing outside? too cold, making grilled Ham and Cheese sandwiches with the campers, more play practice, field trip to BEXCO, watching Mr. Bubbles the Bubbleist, Home for the weekend, back to Busan, students arrive, more crazy classes, making Dduck Boki with the campers, more play practice, the end is near, closing ceremony, time for the plays!, Valerie’s class wins 2ND PLACE!, pack up and head home exhausted, booked a trip and heading to Hong Kong and Japan in 2 days. Crazy? Yes.