As most of you are aware, I am no longer in Korea. I have moved on and I now live in China. However, the archives here are great way to learn about living and teaching in Korea. Even if you already live or have lived here, you might find some enjoyment. There are a lot of photos and stories. I suggest starting from the first entry and working your way forward.

If you'd like, you can follow my new adventures in China by clicking here.

You can also order one of the two books I published about Korea. I recommend Korea Life Blog - Special Edition as it's 306 pages and includes all of the first book plus a load of theme-based material no longer on this site. Click here for more information and reviews.

This is a shot of the first box I received of the IOF books. I was so happy and excited that day.

This is a shot of KLB - Special Edition. At 300 + pages, there's lots of good stuff inside this book. I worked very hard on it and I hope you get a lot of enjoyment reading all the material.

Thank you so much for reading my website everyone.

LingLing and I were staring at KFC and McDonald's, both of us not wanting to eat fast food but also not wanting Chinese food either, when we noticed this new Korean restaurant right in between the two. I, for one, was really excited. I've been dying for some barbecue!

They have all the usual stuff on the first few pages of the menu: kalbi, (beef) sam gyeop sal, (thick bacon) and on the next few pages, not so usual things. I don't think I'll be ordering the Roast Chicken Stomach, Roast Chicken Heart or Sliced Ox Tongue today. I ordered bulgogi and something for LingLing as she doesn't really like meat that much.

One of the differences between here and Korea, and I didn't find this out until the bill came, but they actually charge you extra for things like the coals, 6 Kuai (about 75 cents). It's not really a big deal, but why not just add the price in with the meat. I mean, who's going to order raw Chicken heart and not cook it? Then again, this is China.

Also, and I can't see this going over well with the Korean population - you have to buy kimchi for 8-10 kuai (over a dollar) and even the leaves are not free, another 10 kuai. My favorite extra charge was 2 kuai, for the dipping sauce which we dodn't order but came with the meal. We were shocked they didn't charge us when we asked for more garlic!

LingLing doesn't really like Korean food, to be honest. I can't blame her as she's only had it a few times and for most people it's an acquired taste. However, most of the places we've tried have been Chinese Korean style, which is much different. This is the first authentic place I took her and she really enjoyed it. Notice the change in her expression when she sees the food come...

She mostly likes vegetables and so this was a nice surprise for her: bimim bap, which is basically mixed vegetables with rice in a stone bowl. It's pretty much all I ate when I first went to Korea and hence why even now I can't eat it anymore.

Here it all is. You can see that 2 kuai sauce there in front. I think the soup was free, but I could be wrong.

Despite the pettiness of being charged extra for every little thing, the food and service was very good. They came to change the grill every 5 minutes. And even with all the hidden charges the total came to much less than it would in Korea. I think we paid 75 kuai, just under $10. In Korea all this would have been around $20. I guess the way they do it just seems sneaky, but as LingLing said to me, "In China, nothing is free." I'm just happy I found such a place to get my Korean fix of barbecue. I also found a Korean fried Chicken and Hoff place, too, which I'll have to get pictures of next time I go.

I'm just stopping by here to say that I miss Korean food.

It seems some people in Korea can in fact see Korea Life Blog. Some still can't. Some can see China Life Blog and not Korea Life Blog. Some can see both and some can't see either. Some people have passed out from the confusion. At least you have the proxy sites to try, listed in the previous post, but you have to deal with the advertisements and/or popup ads.

I guess I should make a post from time to time on this site since it seems people are checking here quite often. I check the referral log and KLB still gets over 1500 hits a day, though I'm not sure why. The only thing I can think is that people have the site bookamarked and they just come here then click on the China Life Blog link. Other than that, there's always a lot of people interested in teaching in Korea, so the archives eith all the photos and commentary may be interesting to those people. I'll keep everything online, of course, since Blogger is free anyway, and if I want to talk specifically about Korea, I'll do so here.

How is Korea these days, anyway? I find myself missing a few things, specifically the food. The other biggie is the public transportation system, especially the subway and T-Money cards.

Introducing China Life Blog. The life of an average American in Beijing China:
China Life