The Busan Fireworks Festival

It left me speechless. Enough said =)

3 Years and Counting

Yesterday was my 3 year anniversary with Walter. We spent the morning eating chocolate pancakes and eggs and then head off to Gwangan Mountain for a good old fashioned hike. We hiked for around 2 and a half hours. Once we neared the top we took a food break and bought some ramen from a lady who was selling things out of a truck. There were many other people there, as this is a mountain you can drive up. Among the other travelers included another couple. The man in the couple opened the doors of his Audi near where we were sitting and starting blasting contemporary jazz music. Then he busted out a saxophone and starting playing! It was beautiful, we were over looking the city of Busan, the ocean and mountains while listening to this man serenade us. Truly a magical moment. Eventually we decided to hike a little further and that's when we reach the top! The view was gorgeous as we looked out at all of nature's beauty from the terrace of a cute little restaurant called Cloud Hill. Our walk back down the mountain was chilly and took half as long, but was a little hard on the knees. We later had dinner near Kyungsung University at a nice and yummy little Italian restaurant. When we finished up we head to an arcade and had lots of fun playing all sorts of fun Asian games. =)

It's been a great 3 years with it's ups and downs and I look forward to the years ahead of us.

Hai!!!

This past weekend was Chuseok in KOrea. It is pretty much a Korean version of Thanksgiving. In any event, this holiday meant I had a 4-day weekend! So Walter and I flew off to Japan. Japn is absolutely AMAZING! I looooooooooooooooove Japanese food. I honestly think they have some of the best che'f in the wolr thre. They put so muhc effort and care into each small little detail of their food. They don't just create meals they create art. I thank god that as we were walking the goregous streets of Gion in Kyoto (the tradtional japanese area where you an spot geisha's roaming the streets) we stumbled upon a very exclusive restaurant hidden away. As we walked in we were greeted by a young man who spoke very little english and asked us to kindly give him a moment. Then our soon to be chef entered and he said "There is no English menu here. I am very sorry, but I would love to help explain to you each item." How can you say no to that. As he guided us to the traditional japanese bar where you watch your chef prepare your food right before your eyes. Our chef suggested we try the course meal. BEST DECISION EVER. For around $200 Walter and I enjoyed the best meal of our lives. We sipped on sake, plum wine and beer as we ate various cuts of beef (including beef shashimi) garnished in the most beautiful way. Not to mention desert was off the chain! It was a pudding with Matcha topping. I am actually drooling as I recap this meal. Our chef kindly explained exactly what each thing we were eating was and how we were supposed to eat it. Not only was the food of the highest quality but so was the service. It's because of that combination that not only was that the best meal of my life but one of the best experiences of my life as well.

Kyoto was the highlight of the trip for me. As I mentioned it was there that I had the best meal but we also stayed the night at a tradional Japanese hotel. We had tatami floors and paper doors as well as an Onsen in the basement. When we arrived they gave us a present via "lucky draw" and then served us traditional japanese tea in our room. On top of that we were given kimono like robes to wear during our stay which was pretty much the cherry on top of an already amazing sundae.


But it also goes without saying that Osaka was also a beautiful and wonderful city. The nightlife, arcades and shops were great here. Our first dinner in Japan was in Osaka and it was also an amazing experience. Once again we were personally served by the chef and he too spoke english. We had 3 differnt main dishes consisting of unagi (bbq eel, one of my favourites) as well as a few unagi side dishes. This experience felt like an episode out of Iron Chef where the main ingredient was unagi. Everything was amazing and cooked to perfection and served in beautiful presentation. My favourite was the egg white with unagi. It felt as though I was eating velvet beacuse the egg was soooo smooth.

yum Yum yum Yum = my review of Japan

If you love food, and you haven't been to Japan...GO! Not to say that was the only thing I loved about the place. The people are generous and kind there and that is also a big reason why I loved it. But the food just realy stood out to me as some of the best damn food in the world!


A song from a sad Japanese drama I used to like:

Jimjibang

So today I had my first bath house experience in Korea. These bath houses are called jimjibangs. Naturally I went to the largest and nicest one in all of Asia =).

I was nervous at first because in these places you have to strip down to nothing and bare it all for the world (or at least all the other women in there) to see. It was surprisingly only uncomfortable for about a minute. I guess being North American nakedness is something we're brought up to feel shameful about. What's more, I find that we North Americans are all so self conscious of our bodies. This was why I really enjoyed this experience. It not only was cool going into cave baths, herbal baths and champagne baths etc. but it honestly made me feel more comfortable in my own skin. Looking around at the tons of other women there I noticed that no one had the "perfect body". So why should I feel like I had to have one?

Yah I have a little more padding here and there than I'd like, but we all have something we don't particularily love about our bodies. How nice it was to be in a room full of people completely naked and not think once to myself about those inadequacies I feel everyday even when I'm fully clothed.

I think it's something every women should try once. How nice it would be if us women had the self confidence we should.


P.S. I like these songs =)

The One Thing I Know About Myself For Certain

I AM

Main Entry: indecisive

Part of Speech: adjective

Definition: uncertain, indefinite

Synonyms: astraddle, changeable, doubtful, faltering, halting, hemming and hawing, hesitant, hesitating, hot and cold, inconclusive, indeterminate, irresolute, of two minds, on the fence, tentative, unclear, undecided, undetermined, uneventful, unsettled, unstable, vacillating, waffling, wavering, weak-kneed, wishy-washy

...I've already decided to delete this post...*sigh*

There and Back Again

So I just finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy and it was pretty good...although there were a few dry scenes. I could also see how it would have been a much better movie the big screen but o wells.

On another note, I just came back to Busan from my two week "vacation" to Canada. It was fun but really tiring and must say I'm glad to be back in Korea. Kind of feels like home a little more than Markham now. I guess that's because I didnt really get a chance settle in. But i came to the realization that I'm definitely not ready to move back to Canada anytime soon. It feels like I've changed a whole lot but everything there has remained exactly the same.

Life is easier here I guess, I am free to do as I please because I live on my own and my job gives me the time to. My friends and I are all on the same page because we have the same job and now that I've figured out the culture and the language (to certain extent) I don't find myself running into too many conflicts.

I doubt that I will be renewing my contract in March because Wally will have to go home in January and I know a big part of my happiness here is having the extra time and space to be with him. I guess I realize that when I do move back, something's gotta give. So I'll most likely move out and who knows...maybe wally and I will be back in Asia again.

The Dream

I call two of my best chingus. We hang out, hang up clothes and hang on to the cups of ice cream in our hands. This moment is ordinary and yet so dream like. The slight chill from the ocean breeze feels cool against my skin. It makes me feel...alive. As we sit side by side, connected by our love of ice cream and life itself, we contemplate the adventures of yesterday, today and tomorrow "Where else in the world do you see this?" says Kiara. "Only in Asia" we say simultaneously. What a beautiful juxtaposition the city lights and the ocean make. I look around and I see the multicoloured lights of the magnificent Gwangan bridge dancing off the waves of the ocean. I take a bite of my decadent chocolate ice cream and take a deep breath. I am here...very few people can say what I'm about to say. I am living the dream.

Dream - Priscilla Ahn (Korean-American artist - how appropriate)

I was a little girl alone in my little world who dreamed of a little home for me.
I played pretend between the trees, and fed my houseguests bark and leaves, and laughed in my pretty bed of green.

I had a dream
That I could fly from the highest swing.
I had a dream.

Long walks in the dark through woods grown behind the park, I asked God who I'm supposed to be.
The stars smiled down on me, God answered in silent reverie. I said a prayer and fell asleep.

I had a dream
That I could fly from the highest tree.
I had a dream.

Now I'm old and feeling grey. I don't know what's left to say about this life I'm willing to leave.
I lived it full and I lived it well, there's many tales I've lived to tell. I'm ready now, I'm ready now, I'm ready now to fly from the highest wing.
I had a dream

"No fishing"

Ever since the first moment I stepped foot into South Korea I have been doing things that I never would have done back home. For example, living alone, eating moving octopus tentacles that stuck to my tongue and sort of the opposite...letting fish eat me alive =)

My feet in a pool of hungry fish.
Notice how there aren't that many fish eating my feet?...


Well that's because Walter's crusty toe jam filled
feet were too delicious to for the fish to waste too much
time eating anyone else's feet.

Thank God for Wally. With the few fish that actually were eating my feet I was laughing hysterically for 10 minutes straight. It's one of the most ticklish things I have ever experienced. Oh and I forgot to mention that this place is not a spa, it's a coffee shop called Dr. Fish. So basically you order your Mocchacino (or your drink of choice), stop by the free snack bar (with waffles, popcorn etc.) and take it all to a table or the tanks and fill your belly while the fish simultaneously fill theirs. Well that's actually a lie the fish don't really ever fill their belly's completely because they're constantly pooping out long strings of...dead skin?

Now, back to "no fishing". This is a term used by my children at school when I fake them out. It pretty much means "no faking". This all comes from a language in Korea called Konglish. It sounds like English (ok well at least it's supposed to), it looks like English but the terms and words take on different "Korean" meanings. Thus, it isn't English. The entire Konglish movement is sort of an attestment to how hard it is for Koreans to learn English. Not only is their native language the complete opposite of English in everyway (reversed sentence structure, completely different alphabet etc.) but the few English words they do know mean something entirely different to them than they do to the rest of the world. Here are a few more Konglish words and their meanings: "service" = it's free, "set" = combo, "ok ok ok ok ok" = ok (as in ok and I'm not trying to be rude and cut you off by talking over you and saying ok 10 milllion times....it's just Konglish).

Imagine the confusion when Koreans travel to North America and see signs that say "No fishing"!!! "Oh my God!" <------ (another Korean favourite!)

Its Been Almost Two Months....Oops

Wow I honestly don't even know where to begin. I have done soooo much since i last blogged that it seems a little silly even trying to fit it all into one post. Either way, I'm gonna try.

Let's start with my trip to Shanghai, China. I went to Shanghai the weekend of May 4th. As it was long weekend here is S.Korea. (May 5th = Children's Day) To start things off i had a somewhat of a unique airport experience. The Busan Gimhae Airport is split into two buildings. One for domestic flights and one for international flights. Although my final destination was international I had a stop over at Seoul. Not knowing that this meant I had to be in the domestic building (because i didn't know there were 2 buildings) I had the taxi diver drop me off at the international building. It was 4am and extremely dark. The building was not yet open and so I waited outside with about 5 other people in the extremely cold dark. About 15 mins later a security guard let us in. I was drowned in relief. But then time kept passing and the lights weren't be turned on. Until about an hour before my flight, actual workers started to show up and I was able to ask someone where the hell i was supposed to be. They pointed me to the other building so I dragged my suitcase down the road to the domestic departures building. Things were looking up. From there i landed in Seoul where I had the pleasure of enjoying the Asiana Business class lounge. It was really nice...free foo, drinks and massage chairs. Enough said. I had 4 windows to myself on the plane and I ordered my meal from a menu =) ...When I got to Shanghai I had to wait at the airport for 5 hours =( because Wally couldn't find a flight with a closer landing time to mine and we were told that it was dangerous for women (especially foreigners) to take Taxi's by themselves in China. Better bored than sorry I guess. Once we got to Shanghai I must say I wasn't impressed. It was dirty and rainy and all I could think was "yuck". Then we found a beautiful and extremely lit up road called Nanjing. The trip only got better from there. We met up with Walter's friends and had a good time. The food was AMAZING....I'm drooling just thinking about the PeKing duck...YUMMERS!

The next weekend I was off to Seoul for the second time. I didn't have as much fun as I did the first time when I went with the girls but it was ok. I think the rain sort of killed the trip. The highlight of the weekend was probably the Japanese prison/museum we visited. It was educational and interesting to see how the Koreans were treated by the Japanese. Needless to say there was a lot of torture and disease.

Somewhere in between that trip and now I began feeling very isolated at work. I was no longer playing volleyball and due to the fact that my school is ridiculously small there are a VERY limited number of people who speak English. In fact the only person actually brave enough to speak to me is my co teacher. This started to eat away at me, and one day at work I just sorta broke down. The silence and isolation can definitely get a person here. Not outside of work of course as I have many wonderful and fun friends...I'm talking strictly at work. Somehow...I got over that feeling of isolation....it just doesn';t really bother me anymore.

I joined the gym...i feel more fit already =)

I cut my hair ...twice (lol)

I got my ears pierced (woo hoo)

Wally has decided to take a leave of absence from work so that he can study for his CFA and find something part time here in Korea =)

The weekend of June 15th, I went to Jeju-do. The most popular island in S.Korea. Wally and I stayed at the Hyatt and had the times of our lives in paradise. It was gorgeous, we lied on the beach, we swam in the ocean and we ate like pigs.....what more can a person ask for.

I just realized how much I travel lol.

S.Korea is coming into Monsoon season so it's raining cats and dogs over here. It was really nice and sunny up until today tho. So I can;t really complain. I heard it only rains hard for about 2 weeks....so I guess Monsoon season wont be so bad.

Overall, life has been good. I love this extended vacation/work thing. I can't help but think I'm a genius for getting myself into this lol. However, although I'm having a blast here I'm excited to see everyone back home. I'll be in Canada for summer break for July 24th-August 8th.

The World is Flat

As I look around here in Korea I cant help but notice the drastic juxtaposition of two clashing cultures. For arguments sake I will call these two cultures the traditional culture and the K-pop culture. The tradition culture consists of women in Hanbok, folk songs, tea, temples and respect. The K-pop culture consists of women in mini-skirts, K-pop, bars and clubbing. Due to these two conflicting cultures I sometimes feel as thought I am living in a land of contradiction. Many Koreans fear the loss of their culture and I can honestly understand why as the younger generation does not seem very interested in their heritage. This of course leads me to beg the question, is my presense in Korea and my purpose of being here contributing to this loss of culture?

I have to answer that question with an indecisive yes and no. The yes side of the answer is inescapable. I am here as an embassador of the ever conquoring Western culture, spreading my language and consequently my culture. The result is a McDonald's and Starbucks on every corner and of course music like "Insomnia or Sorry Sorry Sorry" (music that I love by the way). I don't want to give the K-pop culture a negative wrap but I just want point out that it is drastically different from traditional Korean culture. Then again it is only natural for humans to evolve and modernize their behviour. Maybe holding on to a traditional past is futile anyways...who knows...

However, I also feel that my being here is contributing to a greater peace and understanding in the world. I now know a lot more about Koreans and because of that I also feel a bond with this country and it's people. I hope that the reverse is true as well and that the Koreans I have met have a newfound bond with Canadians and our culture as well.

Now for the "no" part of the answer. Ever since I've got here I've been really participating in and emersing myself in traditional korean culture. The number of temples, palaces and festivals are countless already just 2 months into my trip. So I think it's a two way street. My culture maybe rubbing off on them, bu theirs is rubbing off on me as well.

A Tale of Two Festivals

So I had a crazy and jam packed weekend. On Friday I went to Gyeongju, a city about an hour outside of Busan, with my school on a field trip. We took the grade 3s and 4s. The significance of Gyeongju lies in the fact that it was the captital of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC – 935 AD) which was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea and the longest sustaining dynasty in Asian history. A great number of Silla tombs can still be found in the centre of Gyeongju. Silla tombs took the form of a stone chamber which was surrounded by a soil mound. We visited such tombs as well as memorials for the two great kings and the one warrior who unified the Three Kingdoms of Korea. This was a good cultural experience but more than that it was a great day of bonding with my students. They are so adorable, they were all trying to hold hands with me and a few of them made me notes and drawings telling me they loved me. After that long day outside with the kids I went home a lil early and fell asleep. I woke up ate some McDonalds and called it a night. lol


Saturday was an absolutely amazing day! The others were late, so Taylor and I headed to the beach for the Eobang Festival (Fish Festival) taking place on my beach. There was free everything! Free face painting, flip flops, wish trees, balloon hats, characatures, traditional candy and games. The others eventually met up with us and we had a blast. As we walked along the beach a few local political figures asked us to sit down and eat with them. An extremely old lady kissed Taylor lol and another man told us not to worry about money. He bought us seafood pancakes, soup and my new fav drink Makoli (Korean rice wine of some sort). The Makoli was disgusting at first but I have to say that stuff really grows on you. In any event we continued on after lunch and checked out some more games and cool little jewellery vendors etc. After this the real fun began! We had signed up to participate in the traditional pulling of the fish net at 6pm. So we were suited up and ready to go. Little did we know we would be the celebrities of the night. We were interviewed by local news crews and given cool fish hats that lit up. We were constantly pushed into centre stage(beach) to dance and pulled in the net and participated in 3 exciting games of tug of war! After which we were awarded with more Makoli! We danced the night away and then watched in awe as a beautiful display of fireworks ensued over the Gwang-an bridge. After that we got some free beers at G Terrace (a beach side bar), grabbed some burgers at Breeze's Burns and finished the night off with some darts and more drinks at Thursday Party (another beach side bar). All in all one of the most amazing nights I've had in Korea.


Sunday was another festival. The lantern festival. We were once again signed up to participate in the festival. This time it was by walking in the parade. The lanterns looked beautiful at night, but in my opinion we got there far too early and did way too much sitting and waiting. I actually wished we had simply watched the parade rather than participated in it, but it was another experience in Korea nonetheless. Needless to say even though I wasn't dressed up in traditional Korean clothing like Taylor and Kiara, the locals were still waving at me frantically as if I was something special to see, despite the fact that almost everything else in the parade was way cooler to look at. Paulenna and I skipped out early because we were tired and cold. I must say I don't regret that decision lol.


Walter has left to Hong Kong for the week and I will meet up with him in Shanghai on Saturday. Looks like I'm in for another CrAzY weekend!!!!

SERVICE!

One of my favourite things about Korea is service. This is when vendors or whoever throw things in for free. Since I've been here my friends and I have had a lot of random things for service. Some strange, others quite normal. In any event, this blog will be a running account of the things I've recieved or seen my friends recieve for service.

- Ice cream (at Norebang)
- Taxi (on the way home one night, a kind taxi driver who knew a bit of english took pity on Puja and I who looked lost and refused payment for the ride)
- Gems (for my phone when we signed up for Wally's phone courtesy of LG Telecom)
- A scarf
- A purse
- A belt
- Soju
- Coke / Cider
- Fruit Platters (at clubs)
- flip flops
- face painting
- lunch! w/ makoli
-Charicatures
- lanterns
- a drawing notebook

Ah, the kindness of strangers =)

Better Together

Wally's here =)



There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
our dreams, and they are made out of real things
like a shoebox of photographs
with sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer
at least for most of the questions in my heart, like
Why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together

Mmmm, It's always better when we're together
Yeah we'll look at the stars and we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah it's always better when we're together

And all of these moments
just might find their way into my dreams tonight,
But I know that they’ll be gone
when the morning light sings
and brings new things
for tomorrow night you see
that they’ll be gone too,
too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
into my day to day scene
I'd be under the impression
i was somewhere in between
With only two,
Just me and you,
Not so many things we got to do
or places we got to be
We'll sit beneath the mango tree, now,

Yeah It's always better when we're together
Mmmm, we're somewhere in between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

mmmmmmm

I believe in memories
they look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up,
you look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
There is no, no song I could sing
and there is no combination of words I could say
but I will still tell you one thing
We're Better together

1,2,3,4...tell me that you love me more

I feel as though so far this blog is giving off the wrong impression. I like to rant when I'm upset so I've written some negative blogs, and I'm glad I did because the ranting really helped me get the steam off my chest. Koreans are different from North Americans and this is both frustrating and wonderful all at the same time.

That being said, I realized that the blog wasn't reflecting how in love I really am with Korea and my life here. So because of that this blog will list my 10 favourite things about Korea in no particular order.

1. Being on the Yang Dong Elementary School volleyball team. "Yong Dang, Yong Dang OOOEEE!!" My teammates are all men with exception of another female teacher, and they are all super encouraging and fun to play with. We practice every Wednesday during work hours =) and play a game against another school every other week. Not to mention my V-ball skills are improving.

2. My coteacher has become much more than just a coworker. She is such an amazing person. She is giving, light hearted and best of all a slaker like me!!! hahah we're a match made in heaven. We watch "Nopo De Anja" (Korean mini series) during work hours (shhh don't tell my principal lol) and oogle over the F4 boys hahah. If I ask her about something once, she makes it her life mission to make sure I get the answer or I get my problem solved, no matter how big or small that problem may be. She has told me I'm her little sister and having her here is really like having family.

3. Meeting all my international friends. Not only have I made awesome Korean friends, but I have a great group of friends from the states and different parts of Canada that have insantly become like family as well.

4. On a similar note, I love having a sense of community and belonging to a specific group where I really feel I belong. I never really had that in Canada. In high school I was the one brown girl who wasn't a part of the Youth of South Asia club and nor did I ever reject my Indian culture. So I've always felt somewhat inbetween. But here there is a huge group of people who are just like me. They are black, white, yellow or brown and are interested in taking in and experiencing many different cultures. I think that's why we have made lasting friendships so easily and quickly.

5. Fried MANDU!!!! Need I say more?

6. Random moments. This is something Flav and I achieved the summer of '06. However, it was short lived. Here in Korea, I'm crazy. I try everything once and sometimes twice. I make random friends, and I literally go where the wind takes me. It's the me I always wanted to be.

7. I am always on the go, whether its out to dinner or off to another city to explore, my schedule is packed of fun goodness.

8. Let's face it, this is a year long vacation. I don't really do any work. =)

9. GOD I LOOOOVE THE CLOTHES!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THE SHOES!!!!!

10. The BEAUTIFUL scenery I see EVERYDAY. From cherry blossoms to the beach to the lights of Gwangan Bridge, my eyes are spoiled rotten, there is beauty all around me!!!

BONUS: Everyone here thinks I'm beautiful, mainly because I have a small face and big eyes. It is beyond flattering to be stopped in the streets and told you are beautiful on a daily basis. hahah Foreigners are celebrities here.....it's going to suck to go back to North America and get used to being a nobody again lol.

Well I love my life....and boy do I feel blessed =)

Seeoooul Train! =)

Wow, wow, wow! What a weekend! I must say I'm so glad I've found this awesome group of girls to travel with. Random and crazy things happen to us when we're on our own, but my God when we get together the possibilities are limitless lol.

Ok so let's start at the beginning. On Friday we had decided to meet at Busan Station at 6pm because our train was leaving at 6:45pm and we were told that we would have to board at 6:30pm. I got to the station earlier than expected, as did Kiara, so we decided to grab some food at the Lotteria (it's a Korean burger joint, like McDonald's). Puja eventually met up with us but Paulenna was still no where to be found and it was 6:17pm. That's when she called to let us know she had just gotten on the subway. The three of us thought there was no way she was going to make it on time. So we went to information to see if we could catch a later train instead. Unfortunately, the line was huge and there a was a fee and no guarantee of getting a seat on the 7pm train. With only 3 minutes left to 6:45pm we decided to leave Paulenna's ticket with the lady at the Info Booth. Puja was a genious and showed her a picture of Paulenna, and then we literally RAN to get on the train! This is when Kiara decided to stand in the doorway (we had to stall, we needed to get Paulenna on this train), literally holding up the ENTIRE train and she continued to do this despite the fact that a lady was blowing a whistle and yelling at her to get on the train! LOL. When the lady finally got to us, fuming mad by the way, I stuck my ticket in her face and asked if she could help me find my seat. HAHHA, she was sooo pissed. So she ignored me and that's when Puja starting pleading with her to hold the train for one more minute, pleading so hard in fact that she didn't hear Paulenna tell her that she had made it on the train! How did Paulenna make it on the train on time you're wondering? Well, the info lady recognized Paulenna when she got to the station, yelled out her name and together they RAN down secret passages, bypassing pylons, just to make it on the train right before it was about to take off!

Once we got to Seoul we went to straight to the bar for Kiara's friend's Will's birthday. All the while still holding all of our baggage. Luckily there are lockers in bars here and so we stashed away our things. The Monkey Bar was tons of fun, dancing and drinks in buckets till around 2am. Then off to the next bar, we were hungry though and decided to eat some mandu at a mandu vendor. Yummy! We finally made it back home around 4-5 am.

The next day we woke up bright and early and made our way to a palace. It was gorgeous, but best of all we had the opportunity to get into traditional clothing and take some pictures. While we were taking these pictures some professional photographers came by and starting snapping pictures of us! This ended up turning into a full on photo shoot that took about 30mins. I'm talking kung-fu, jumping and posed shots! The local Koreans must have thought we were important due to the garb and the photo shoot so they starting running up to us and taking pictures with us! We were like the palace mascots! lol. Then we were off to a traditional market, where I bought some cool stuff for super cheap! We went to a tea house which was really cozy and nice...not to mention relaxing! Then it was off to meet up with Kiara's friends for dinner and another trip to a bar for her other friend's birthday. At this point however, Paulenna, Puja and I were tired as hell and craving fried chicken, so we went back to Allan's place ( Kiara's friend whose apartment we were crashing at) ate some fried chicken and fell asleep. Kiara didn't make it home until 7am (she's nuts!)

On Sunday, our last day in Seoul, we took it easy. Got some breakfast and went shopping. Had dinner with the boys and then boarded our train home. This was honestly an awesome and jam packed weekend. Seoul is an amazing and large city, however it's a little too big for me and it lacks the beaches of Busan. The trip was a ton of fun but it also made me better appreciate how gorgeous and warm Busan is! I love Busan and I'm glad to be home =)

I Love My Kids!

I wanted to take my time out to talk about the students here in Korea. I have elementary school aged children so I can't really vouch for students older than grade 6, but the students I have are amazing. In particular the grades 1-4. 5 and 6 are alright, but a little harder to engage and excite as far as the subject of English is concerned. By the time grade 5 and 6 rolls around the students have made up their mind as to whether or not they think learning English matters, so because of that it's a little more difficult to put a smile on the faces of the children who quite frankly don't care. So far this is something I have actually been able to do, but I fear as the year goes on I will lose some of them.

Now as for the grade ones, I haven't started teaching them yet but I had the opportunity to watch the Bee Movie with them and I instantly fell in love. They are the cutest little things in the world and I can't wait until April when I get to work with them more regularly. I worked with the grade twos for the second time today and I was reminded of how lucky I am to have this job. Not only are they all little angels, but the excitement on their faces when I yelled out "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" was even greater than when they sang their ABC's with India Arie and Elmo! lol All it takes is a high five and Elmo to make these kids happy. They are adorable. My grade threes are awesome, I remember while working at Oxford I always enjoyed the grade threes best. They are all very enthusiastic and well mannered although they are children and sometimes get a little too excited. I can't help but have a favourite amongst the grade threes though. He is the class clown and just lights up my day. So the other day the grade threes had to go up in front of the class and sing group by group. Then the class clown goes up there with his group and just starts to wine...like totally full out shaking his hips with his hands on his head...omg...i died..i could not contain myself. I was in tears I was laughing so hard along with the other kids. And of course every time we play a song this kid is wining in his chair hahaha. I absolutely love him. The grade fours are well behaved and maybe a little less excited about English than the 1-3s but they are still relatively easy to make happy.

I am sort of excited to start my English Club in April. This is something I will have full control of and I have no cirriculum to follow. So I'm going to do fun things like make peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches. I really want my club to be fun and I also want the children to conversate more. I hope I can achieve that, but I'll keep you posted.

Lastly, although some may find it slight;y tiresome I absolute love the fact that when i'm in the halls no matter how far I am, if the kids can see me the yell out, "Hello Namika Teacher, or Namika Saen Sing Nim!" But the best so far was when I was crossing a relatively large street and I heard one student from across the street yell out at the top of her lungs "NAMIKA SAENG SING NIM! SAENG SING NIM!" hahaha she was waving frantically!!! I mean she was screaming this! When anyone cares about you enough to yell out hello in that way it just feels nice. The kids love me and I love them. I have a wonderful, relaxed, sometimes tiring (since I feel like a preformer putting on a show at times) and rewarding job.

P.S. Korea and I have made amends =)

The honeymoon is over!

This blog is all about my experience as an immigrant in Korea. Culture shock...hmm I guess that's what i'm experiencing...but it's much more subtle and slow approaching than it's name suggests. Much like the various immigrant communities we see back home in Canada, us English speakers tend to stick close to one another and have definitely developed a sense of community amongst ourselves. In today's blog I just want to talk about how important it is to have that sense of community when you arrive in a strange new world.

I feel really lucky to have the friends that I have here. Last night I had an aggravating experience at the end of my night, which resulted in me wanting nothing more than to just go home. So I hopped into a cab and showed the driver where to go by pointing to a map and pronouncing it almost perfectly (my coteacher says I have a very good korean accent). Not only does he not understand but he says he has bad eyes. I live near a very famous beach and hospital...why the hell is he a cab driver if he doesn't even know his own city??? I find that to be a general trend with the cab drivers here. Also people in general, will stare at you with a dumb look on their faces if you don't pronounce everything 100% perfectly. Like really...take a guess DUMBASS! And i'm sure you'll figure out what I mean. I've been dealing with that since I got here and I think yesterday I was simply push to my limit. But today is a brand new day and one of the main reasons I feel a lot better is because after having heard or seen that I didn't have such a great end to my night, I had several friends call me in the morning to make sure I was feeling better. Last night I felt so alone, living in a ridiculous country where people, simply put, seemed retarded. But I woke up this morning to a slew of messages and calls reminding me that I'm absolutely not alone and that although I have only met many of these people a month ago, they have my back.

Still, having friends here is not the same thing as having family that knows you better than you know yourself, and this is why nothing comforted me more than having Flav to talk to last night and of course Wally as well. I love you guys and I'm so glad that even though we're miles away from eachother I can still count on you to be there for me during my weakest moments. I think things will be a lot easier on me once Walter gets here and it feels like I have some family with me again. I'm going to talk to my coteacher about the size of my apartment and try to see if there is anything bigger in the same building. If that's the case I will ask to move. I doubt this will happen but I guess it doesn't hurt to try!

Yesterday I was ready to hop on a plane and come back to Canada, today I'm still a little angry at Korea, but I'm sure we'll make up soon enough =)

GRRRRRRR!!

Ok so I know you guys were waiting for an update on all the cool/fun stuff I've been doing here in Korea, but quite frankly I feel like ranting. So that's exactly what I'm going to do. What am I going to rant about you may wonder? I'll tell you it's bus 155! This is the most jam packed mother @#$%^& bus in all of South, Korea. In the morning on my way to school I push my way through a sea of people just to barely make it onto the steps of the bus where I end up standing for at least 5 stops. After these 5 stops I have the "pleasure" of pushing through another sea of people just so I can finally pay and hear "Gamsamnida" (thank-you) the wretched voice that steals my 950 won! lol (actually the voice is quite pretty and nice, but i'm hey this is a rant). In any event this is the time where the bus driver nearly gets into 5 accidents because all korean drivers don;t seem to care whether they live or die. And of course i'm standing during all of this clinging to a hook for my dear life because of course there are no seats available. Then about 15 minutes into the bus ride a miracle occurs, we hit Tongmyong University, and all of those wretched university students occupying all of the seats, finally get off! and I get to sit down for 4 minutes before I arrive at school.

Then, there's the bus ride home. Lovely at first, the "gamsamnida" and the loss of 950 won don't seem so bad, as mine is the first stop and I always get a seat on the relatively empty and spacious bus. Then about 5 minutes into the ride we pass the wretched university and *Sigh* the bus is once again crowded in an appauling way. Today a first happened, and as they say there is always a first for everything. I was holding a box [thanks mom! =)] and was sitting just a little to far from the exit than planned. In any event I saw my stop comming close, so I pressed the stop button and got up. Despite shoving people with my box (ppl shove here..i'm not being rude... it's ok) I still did not manage to exit the bus. I even missed the stop after that! I was sooooo pissed, now I was going to have to walk ALL the way home, despite spending 950 won (95 cents btw) all while holding a box, with my backpack on and holding my purse??? I DON'T think so...luckily this stop was by the subway so pushed ppl hard out of anger, made it to the doors, touched my pass to transfer "gamsamnida" and hopped on the subway spending another 240 won (24 cents...it's cheaper when you transfer...it's usually 990 won). Only reason why I was super annoyed is that the subway has an unreasonable number of stairs to climb, the way down is fine but the way up is not fun when you are tired after a long day of work, have just beat down a few Koreans on a bus with a box, and are still holding that very same box!

But hey as they say "Korea is Dynamic". In reality I'd be lost without bus 155, and I slightly enjoy the thrill of not knowing whether or not i'll make to school alive each morning!

From Flashing Lights to Tradition korean Men on Horses

Puja and I finally decided to go into town on Saturday night with a few friends and wow what a surprise that was! I was not expecting this scenic city of Cheonan to have such a lively and NICE downtown area. We went to a bar called bar Groove which all us Epik teachers invaded to say the least and we had a blast! We also walked by waaaay too many shoes I wanted to buy! And Guess what Wally? They have princess cafe here too!!





So on Sunday we went to the Korean Folk Village, which I had a blast at. According to Wikipedia the Korean Folk Village is a living museum type of tourist attraction in the city of Yongin, a satellite city in the Seoul Metropolitan Area in the province of Gyeonggi in South Korea. The purpose of Korean Folk Village is to display elements of traditional Korean life and culture. There are multiple sections to the park. There are numerous replicas of traditional houses of the different social classes (peasant, landowner, yangban) and the various regions. The park also has a traditional street market, restaurants, and showcases of traditional wordworking and metalworking techniques. There are performances of traditional dances, equestrian skills, marriage ceremonies, and recreational activities. An amusement park section (which i didnt get to go to) has rides and games, an art museum, a sculpture garden, a Korean Folk Museum, and a World Folk Museum which highlights traditional lifestyles from around the world.

It was a great opportunity to really get a feel of authentic Korean culture. A few favourite moments include Puja being approached by two random Korean men who were dying to attempt some English, watching a badass traditional Korean dance and of course the young korean guys doing stunts on horses!!! Overall the trip was awesome and tiring! A special thanks does however have to go out to Taylor who lent me his SD card since I was brilliant and left mine in my computer..Doh! But anyways he trusted me to take pics for the both of us, which was good so I got to use my SLR finally. I'm so forgetful lately! I'm constantly forgetting my name tag that I'm required to wear everyday...but luckily Puja reminds me lol.

We had a few people tell us how lucky we are to be going to Busan cus it's apparently the place to be! So I can't wait!...Also, it's got significantly warmer a few days after we arrived, all the snow is gone it's like 11 degrees at night! and Busan will be even warmer =)

27hrs, the Flu and Korea

Before I begin to explain the title...I'll go into a little detail as to how I even got here in the first place. I've always loved to travel and this love has flourished immensely in the past 3 years. I graduated university with a degree in health in june 2008. Not really knowing what I wanted to do career wise I decided I would teach abroad for a year. I knew a few people who had gone to South Korea to teach and tehy loved it so I decided this would be the best option for me.

Ok so a few months, a ton of applications and some slight anxiety later I was boaring flight on it's way to south korea. We had a stop over in Tokyo, which surprisingly had a very unimpressive airport, and this was when I began to feel sick! Once we boarded the plane in Tokyo I fell asleep and I soon as I woke up I started to Puke. Luckily my family friend Puja is travelling with me and she took care of me. But it was a 4 hour plane ride which was pretty much hell all the way to Seoul. To make matters worse once we got off the plane I had to take a 3 hr bus ride to Dankook University in Cheonan, and of course I was puking the entire way. By the time we arrived I had lost so many electrolytes I thought I was going to faint.

On a positive note, the university is very nice. The dorm rooms are very clean and we have internet in our rooms. So yesterday I was still nausous but the puking had stopped and I am happy to say today I am feeling back to 100%. I would have to say my favourite thing so far is how friendly everyone from around the world is. It's a wonderful experience to be in South Korea and yet get to meet people from all corners of the world. Also, EPIK has been very helpful in getting us all set up and started. They have helped us set up bank accounts as well as cell phones, which we will recieve on Thursday next week. As much as I am enjoying Dankook University, I am excited to head to Busan. Even better is that we have met so many other people who are heading to Busan as well! Ok I guess that's good for now. I'll blog once more when I'm in Busan! Hopefull I can keep up the blogging!

O and here is a video of some Korean drummers that performed at the opening ceremony: