Korea Land

Once upon a time in Asia

2009-05-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting here sipping on tea and having some oatmeal. I’ve been back in Yellowknife for a week and Canada for two. It’s crazy to think that it has been nine months since I journeyed off to Asia and what a great experience it was for a year out of University.My last two-ish months took me across Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia. Leaving Korea was a little harder than I thought. It wasn’t the packing or saying good bye to my students but leaving some great friends behind while they finished up their contracts. In addition, my school wasn’t giving me a specific date to when my last day of teaching would be….I have had my ticket booked for months before knowing my last day of work; they had no idea.

So I bounced out of Busan, S. Korea and of course shit hit the fan once I got to immigration. My alien regi stration card had gone missing. SERIOUSLY! You needed to have your card to leave or you would pay a fine of 100, 000 won. Given that I was going traveling, 100,000 won was not an option especially since I was dinged on my oversized luggage already. I proceed to rip my carry-on and it was nowhere to be seen. SOOO I had to make my way back through security and I’ll tell you Koreans don’t like this happening at all. They were freaking, I was starting to get really annoyed because I had to board in 20 minutes. I got through and ran to Air China where the biotch of a ticket agent wanted nothing to do with me. I asked her where my card was and she said it was tucked in my passport which immigration insisted on keeping! UGH! I told her it wasn’t cause it wasn’t but she told me to go check again. I went back and sure enough it wasn’t in there. From here the immigration dude directed me to inspections where another biotch lady came and yelled at me. Was I going to jail? Was I going to miss my flight? HAHA, dramatic but for reals, it was scary! The lady kept telling me about the fine and all I wanted to do was to punt her and run away. Once again I made my way through security back to Air China. The ticket lady was walking away and I ran after her and she was like one moment and went through a door. I had like five minutes be fore boarding time so I went to her counter and looked around her desk. Sure enough my alien card was shoved under the keyboard to her computer! UGH! I was so irate with Air China and didn’t give them the courtesy Asian bow. YA! I went there. I ran through security and down to my gate and boarded the jet to Beijing where I had six hours to kill before I went on to Bangkok. That experience leaving Korea gave me relief that I was leaving and not having to deal with things like that anymore, but in all honesty I miss that country a ton!

I arrived in Bangkok at 1am with my all luggage thankfully. A family friend was nice enough to let me store a ll my stuff that accumulated in Korea at his apartment in Bangkok that is why I had a pit stop there. I had very detailed directi ons to his place but arriving at night in a foreign country with language barriers is a little unsettling. I wasn’t sure if I was getting ripped off or was going to the right place. Turns out I got to the right place but totally got ripped off on the cost of the trip. I met the landlady and caught a couple hours of shuteye before I had to make my way back to the airport to catch a 6am flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. I was meeting the other five girls I was traveling with there.

Over the two months backpacking we overcame and conquered some of my most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen thus far. The sliding down sand dunes and having a private beach in Moi Ne, Vietnam were some of the most memorable times I had in that country. I wish we gave Cambodia a bit more time because three days doesn’t give a great place like that justice. The people there were amazing and Angkor was unreal. To think that people built and put that much detail into the architecture really blows one away especially with the limited tools they had. In M alaysia, we only took on Kulalumpore because we there on a visa run. The city was nice but three days is more than enough especially if you’re staying in a shady part of town near a bus station.

Now Laos. OOOH LAOS! MY LOVE! I fell in love with this country and it was by far my most fave country out of the lot. The people, food, how cheap everything was, weather, and of course how beautiful the country was perfect. I can’t forget about the river tubing in Vang Viang. This is a must if you ever get to Laos. Just think 30c, cool river water, rope swings, zip lines, music, makeshift bars, sling shots, buckets of drinks, Beer La os, a huge water slide, beautiful green mountains, and of course great people to party with. It’s great. Trust me. OH LOVELY LAOS! Oh and we did a zip line, tree house stay, and Gibbon watching adventure (The Gibbon Experience) in Laos which was amazing and def another great memory.

When I first arrived in Thailand I had kind of a sour taste to what it would be like. “The Land of Smiles” seemed everything but. It was dirty, more expensive, a lot of hassle from locals to get you to buy things, evident poverty, the prominent sex trade, and TOURISTS, TOURISTS, TOURISTS. I know I’m making Thailand sound horrible but it’s far from it. You just need to know where to go and how to get away from those things. Khao Sok, and Koh Tao stand out in my mind as the best places I spent time in. Khao Sok is a national park with jungle trekking, “water falls”, Gibbon calls, and caves. Needless to say it’s not over visited so Lindsey and I found ourselves to be the only foreigners at times. However, you do get attacked my leeches which make you bleed for five hours in spots you don’t want to be bleeding from. OUCH! Koh Tao is an island on the west coast, which is just gorgeous. It’s a smaller island that offers white sand beaches, scooters, monkeys, bays, beach bars, beachfront bungalows, and crazy people like “FRANCE”. We spent a week here and adventured the whole island to the many bays and beaches by foot, scooter, and bikes. Needless to say we didn’t ever think we would be conquering mountains but that was the case on these tropical beauties.

In all, Southeast Asia was unreal. There were so many amazing times had. We saw a lot of tradition palaces, temples, and watts, which were neat to get the cultural feel. The food was also super tasty and the endless tropical fruit awesome. UGH! I want a Nanner Shark right now! We also got a kick out of the menus in restaurants that were about 30 pages long and the translation into English made my day. “French Fried”, “Frit Shark”, and “Chicken No Name” to name a few. Also, we all had the opportunity to endure sickly bowel systems but I think that’s inevitable unless your stomach is made of steal. But that didn’t hold us back from trying traditional native foods. My overall experience in Asia was great. The opportunity of teaching English in Korea opened so many doors of travel and memories for me. I’m stoked I did it now cause I would have not met the people I did in Korea. I’m def hitting up Orlando and going to Disney! I’m holding you ladies to that! I’M COMING! It is nice to be home and not traveling on crammed, sweaty buses for 12 hours and not living out of a backpack but don’t get me wrong I miss it dearly! Long live the elephant dance. ☺

World Biathlon Championships

2009-03-04T16:40:00.000-08:00

Bonjour folks
Sorry for the lack of updates from events in my past Korean life! A couple weekends ago I ventured up to Pyeongchang with two of my coworkers, Maiji and Megan. We were checking out Youngpyong Ski Resort and the World Biathlon Championships. Pyeongchang is bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics. A friend (Brendan Green) I skied with back on the NWT Ski Team made the Canadian Team so we were going to check out the races.

Late Friday night (2 am) we caught a bus and tried to sleep for the 6-hour ride. Korea really knows how to do this kind of business. You can get package deals for about $100, which includes your transportation to and from the resort, ski lift pass, equipment rentals, and winter clothes if you don’t have any. Honestly why hasn’t Canada come up with something reasonable like this!? So, we literally had no sleep that night but when we got to the mountain it really didn’t matter to me. I was sooo excited to finally see snow and get on the slopes. We had a cup of coffee then jumped on a lift.

I was pretty surprised about this hill because I’ve heard horrid stories of millions of Koreans who can’t ski or board flying down three runs that last maybe 10 seconds. Oh and you would have to wait in line for the chair for like half an hour! However, we had 28 runs and about 10 chairs and a gondola to play with. The day looked promising with the sun shining and somewhat quiet on the hill. The snow conditions were nothing to brag about, I was just happy to get a day in this season! I do have to mention a Korean fashion statement that drove me nuts. All the boarders, who looked like clowns, would unzip their coats at the bottom to about half way up their front and just let it fly open. Seriously this drove me bonkers! Zip down your coats! How is that cool!? Well I guess it would be cool cause your jacket is half off and its winter out. Like is this a fad back in Canada? If it is…I have no words. Also we saw tons of Korean couples that expressed their love for each other by wearing matching outfits. HILARIOUS.

The day was amazing with awesome sun, decent runs, and some typical Korean action. For instance, half way down a bunch of runs there were pit stops with benches and garbage cans for people to light up a cigarette. Also, we saw tons of Koreans hiking up the sides of the runs for the pure enjoyment of hiking up…they didn’t have any skis or boards with them. Oh and cause Koreans generally cannot control themselves on skis or boards, I counted six people being pulled in a toboggan by the ski patrol. I wasn’t too surprised by this cause I saw some people loss control at extreme speeds down some runs. It was so funny! But crappy for them…another thing that was odd, if you were snowboarding, you would take off your board and carry it on the chair with your hands. Near the end of the day it was pretty busy and the runs were getting skied out of snow. I really thought I was going to hit 50 people on one run and the iciness factor.

After our last run we got changed and hit up the Family Mart for some snacks and a tall can of Hite (Korean beer). To this day, that beer leaves the most deliciousness, relaxing, and deserving taste. It was also nice to get away with my co-workers and rant about the lameness of our school. From here we jumped on a shuttle bus out to the site for the World Biathlon Championships. The girls had never seen biathlon or an xc ski race before so they were pretty stoked, as was I.

The races for the men started at 5pm and 7:15pm for the women. The men’s 15km mass start had begun and the stadium was not full by any means, as it would be in Europe. However, there were big contingents from Norway and Russia, with smaller ones from Germany and Sweden. The race was pretty exciting to see because it was a mass start so who crossed the finish line first claimed gold. Austria took the top two spots and Russia finishing in the bronze position. Between races we hit up the spectators tent for some tea and tried to warm up. Korea has really made me soft and I was absolutely FREEZING! We hung out in there till the women’s 4x6km relay. Canada had a team in the race, which was great to cheer on. Russia took gold with Germany then France in the silver and bronze positions. Canada put in a good show and finished 9th. Unfortunately I was not able to see Brendan race this day but it was still so wicked to be a spectator at the World Champs.

After the races we went to the hotel and warmed up and hit the hay. The next day we hung out all afternoon in the ski chalet in Starbucks and played cards. At 4:30pm we boarded our bus and hit the road. It was nice to travel in the daylight to see some of the Korean countryside. In all, the trip was super great and a good change of pace before another workweek teaching “ENGRISHEE”. Stay tuned to an entry of my experience at a Jinjibang, a Korean public bathhouse.

February Already!

2009-02-20T06:50:00.000-08:00

I’m sitting around my pimp pad killing time before I board a 7-hour bus ride to Pyeongchang. I’m about to embark on my first and last ski adventure in Korea. The World Biathlon Championships are on and a old ski buddy (Brendan Green from Hay River) made the Canadian team so I’m heading North to watch some races and get some skiing in. I’m so stoked to see snow finally!

So what have I been up to lately? HMM. My usual weekly schedule consists of teaching, talking to people on Skype, games night, LOST night, and going to hot yoga every night. Not trying to brag or anything, but my yoga skills have improved immensely. On the other hand, my English skills have not…They have been brutalized by Koreans. English = Englishee. Finish = Finishee. NUFF SAID!

Last weekend was my 23rd birthday. Well actually it would be my 24th birthday if I were Korean. They do this odd thing once you pop out of your mommy you are a 1 year old and in addition to this EVERYONE turns a year older on December 31st. So technically if you were born on December 30th you would be 1 then on the 31st you would turn 2. RIDICULOUS! Anyways, it was my birthday and at school I received a ton of chocolate and some gifts from my kidlets. We also had cake and pizza. The next day, Valentines Day, the girls came over to my place and we had brunch! It was once again delish. We hung out having coffee and baileys till around 2pm then headed out to do our own thing. I headed up the mountain for my weekend hike. On my retreat, I was running down and a Korean man stopped me to ask the time then he proceeded to speak to me in Korean (I tend to get this a lot…they think I’m one of them). I think he was trying to brag that he had been hiking for 5 hours and was getting jacked. Also once I hit the road coming down to the main part of Hwamyeong a box of mandarin oranges were rolling down the hill! HILARIOUS. And yes, I did run after some and pocketed them. Don’t judge me! Then I met the girls and Josh for some dinner then we came back to my place and played some drinking games then headed down to Keyoung Sung. It was a pretty good time and I was really surprised that I wasn’t that hung over the following day (my actual birthday, the 15th). We hung out at a coffee shop all afternoon then had some Shabu-Shabu for dinner. I love that food!

At work lately we have been busy getting things ready for the festival and the seven year olds graduation. This graduation is a huge deal for Koreans. It’s when the Kindergartens move up to elementary. So a bunch of dancing, plays, and singing is involved for all kinders. A lot of my classes have been canceled for practice time, which has been awesome! However, I have been suckered into dancing to Big Bang (Korean pop group) with my seven year olds and singing Dancing Queen and Honey, Honey with my co-teachers. Apparently the outfits the kids get to wear are hilarious so stay tuned for those bad boys to be posted! The festival is on February 26th in the evening and once March hits a new school year starts. I leaving Korea to start my Southeast Asia travels on March 10th and will be back to Canada on May 12th! We’ll be starting off in Vietnam, moving down to Cambodia, back up into Laos, and down to Thailand. I’m really looking forward to it!

Well I have to get packing for my 2am bus ride to Pyeongchang! I’ll definitely be updating about the ski trip and my last couple weeks in Korea! Keep it real ☺

Gung Hei Fat Choy!

2009-02-01T01:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Years everyone! I just returned from a four-day tour to Beijing, China with some friends. It was truly an awesome experience and a great way to bring in Lunar New Years.

On Saturday morning Taylor, Kaley, Erin, and I ventured to Gimhae International to meet the tour group leaving from Busan for Beijing. The flight was about an hour and forty minutes. There were about 150 people on the tour so we were split up onto different teams and we were team pink/team C. We arrived in Beijing super excited to be in the newly built Terminal 3, which was created for the past Olympic Games. The terminal was massive and so modern! Once we gathered all our belongings we headed to bus C and met our tour guide for the weekend – Mark pronounced as Mar-kuh. From here we drove to our first tourist attraction of Beijing, the Temple of Heaven. We were all pretty stoked to be in China and learn some interesting historical facts from Mark-kuh. On the walk into the Temple of Heaven there was a corridor built where you would find Chinese locals playing hacky sack, cards, and singing at the tops of their lungs for pure enjoyment. In all honesty, I don’t understand why they wouldn’t do this indoors cause it was flippen cold but I guess there’s some history/beliefs/sacredness to why they do it in this corridor. There were also vendors trying to sell you post cards, panda hats, Olympic paraphernalia, etc. We were warned at the start of the trip to watch out for these people and make sure we mind our wallets due to pick pocketing. After the Temple of Heaven we headed to dinner to try out Beijing duck and other traditional Chinese dishes. This meal was not the greatest (still good) but some of the mystery meat in ball form, made us think it could be dog or cat. UGH! From here we headed to our 5 star hotel resort, which we called home for the next four days. This place was amazing! The beds were huge, the buffet breakfast was so great (American style!!!), duvets and down pillows, huge soft towels, and a BATH! Not having these amenities for 5 months makes you appreciate them a lot when you do.

Every morning we were woken up at 6:30am to get our full tour days in. Day two -our first visit was to a jade factory where we saw jade being carved and learned some facts about the second toughest stone next to diamonds. Then we had the opportunity to buy some jade goods (I’m not much of a jade fan) so we spent more time in that place than I would have liked to but whateves. From here we went to the Summer Palace where the Emperor would holiday at for the three hot months of the summer. We journeyed around the palace in the cold wind coming off the man-made lake. Mark-kuuuhhh kept going on about how far and long we were going to be walking over the whole trip but honestly it wasn’t very much. After this we jumped on the bus and went to the pearl factory, which had fresh and salt-water pearls. Belinda, the pearl guide, opened up a real fresh water pearl and there were about 30 pearls in that bad boy. We had time to check out all the pearls and I fell in love with a simple black pearl ring and bought it.

For the afternoon we went to our shopping portion of the tour. This was insane! We were brought to a market that was five stories tall and two stories deep. There was everything you could possibly think of there to buy. I managed to get Roxy snow pants, a Volcom hoodie, D&G purse, a dress, boots, jeans, pearls, and a bunch of other stuff and spent like no money! The bargaining game was intense and I’m sure my strategy worked to my advantage…I played the nice person card. Honestly you should try to pay less than half the price the vendors set. We had three hours in that place and I’m sure it was way more than enough. It was definitely a rush and overwhelming at times in that shoppers paradise. For dinner we enjoyed a Mongolian hot pot and it was by far my most fave meal of the trip. After dinner we headed to see an acrobatic show and it was def another high light of the trip. The stunts and moves that went on were amazing! It was a mini Cirque de Soliel. This day was also New Years Eve for China so we were graced with tons of fire works going off all over the city. They were super sweet.

Our third day, Monday, was the Great Wall experience! We were all super excited for this part of the trip. Learned how GREAT the Great Wall was; 8000 km GREAT is the Great Wall of China. WOAH. GREAT. We bused up to the part we were going to conquer and the morning was gorgeous. Each bus got a group shot at the bottom before we embarked on the trek of a lifetime and we were able to purchase the shot with a Great Wall info book. The winter months are very clear in China – well as clear as they can get for Asia, so we had prime photo weather for our trek up the 2000 stairs. The stairs we all uneven and we all broke a sweat conquering one of the seven manmade wonders of the world. I was happy that we started up the Great Wall when we did because when we were coming down there were tons of people starting their climbs up. It was seriously one of the coolest things I’ve done in my life and I def recommend it.

After the Great Wall we had some lunch then headed to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. We walked through the Forbidden City and took many pictures and saw many temples and a garden.

In addition to the sites we were graced with a norm, which was foreign to us; pee time! OH pee time. We were walking through the garden of the Forbidden City and we see this kid squatting…totally just thought they were playing around like kids should…little that we knew the river she was squatting over was from her! UGH. At least her mom was considerate of others to plop her over a drain/sewer unlike the other encounters of pee time. We walked around all the temples of the Forbidden City. It was super cool to see and hear about this historic place. Once again while checking out a temple we see a kid pop a squat. We not only witnessed pee but….POOP. Yeah, that’s right, POOP! UGH. Then the kid wiped his bare ass on a railing. I was definitely in shock to see this “normality” of China’s. We had to investigate how these kids went about pee time. Turns out they had special snow pants with zippers on their ass-crotch and they walked around with them unzipped so when they had to do their business in the comfort of strangers they could.

Other than seeing one too many pee time squats we headed for Tiananmen Square. As we got closer to the biggest city center square in the world the crowds started to feel like how I imagined China – over populated. We followed Mark-kuuuhhh and his pink flag as best was we could and tried to snap decent photos of Chairman Mao.

To get to the actual square we went through an underground tunnel and had to go through security where they scanned bags/purses and confiscated lighters. I guess they don’t want the square to be known for having the world’s largest amount of cigarette butts or have the square burnt – haha! While in the square we heard a spiel from Mark-kuuuhhh then had some time to roam around. We saw one more attempt to pee time but her mother quickly picked her up cause we were pointing and laughing. We also had encounters with curious Chinese who thought foreigners were the coolest thing in the world. A lady was right up in our faces videoing from her cell phone; she was so happy but it was really the weirdest ever. Also we had a photo sesh with a Chinese family – they really wanted their sons to have pictures with us. I guess we were kind of like celebrities. We boarded our bus and made our way to a tea ceremony and tried some delicious tea. In all honesty, I was exhausted and really wanted a catnap. After the tea ceremony we went to our final dinner at another Mongolian place. Along with our meal we had some entertainment, which was kind of hilarious. Our table was located beside the speaker so I was nearly deaf after American Idol tryouts. After dinner the girls headed to a Kung-Fu show but I wasn’t feeling it slash had no more money so I went back to the hotel and had a bath. I was happy with my choice because the show was a little KUNGfusing and the bath was amazing! I hadn’t been in one in months.

Our trip came to an end with an early departure from our pimp hotel – 4:30am. Kaley and I decided to hit the snooze and catch some more ZZZs however, China new we what we had done and our telephone wakeup call proceeded to ring. WHAT THE!? How does China do it? Scare me. In all, the trip was a blast and such a great experience to bring in the Chinese New Year in the capital, Beijing. Until next time folks! Keep it real.

Oh and this Porn Star (shot) is for you Nathan. Cheers!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-11T00:46:00.000-08:00

As most know I headed out to the Philippines for my winter vacation; specifically to the island Boracay. I took off after work on the evening of the 30th. I flew from Busan to Manila and from here I had to wait around till my flight to Caticlan left the next morning at 5:30am. I arrived safely into Manila after being suffocated by two huge Korean men and stinky feet then I jumped on a shuttle bus to one of the domestic terminals. It was around 1am by the time I got there. I was advised that the terminal didn’t open till 3am so I had 2 hrs to kill in the outdoor waiting area - SWEET. I grabbed a row of totally uncomfortable seats and tried to get some sleep. I woke up off and on and realized I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes and it was super humid. I got over it and slept some more. At 5:30am I took off to Caticlan where I was supposed to be picked up by a dude from the hotel but just my luck no one was there! This was ok cause the people in the Philippines are super friendly and a kind little lady brought me in a trike to the boat launch and she called my hotel for me. All was settled and I was on the boat to Boracay (the final destination). We got off the boat and onto another trike for about 10 minutes then we walked for what seemed like forever to the hotel. It was also raining which was kind of a bummer cause it was New Years Eve.

I got to the hotel and joined up with Stephanie and Monica (my roomies for the trip). About 12 hours of traveling to get there but totally worth it! I got some sleep then headed out to the beach and wandered around. The girls came out a little later and we enjoyed a REAL breakfast at a little restaurant that we hung out at a lot. Having a REAL breakfast was amazing! Korea doesn’t have bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausages, etc…So this was a huge treat! Needless to say we had REAL breakfast a lot for the week at we were in Boracay.

There were quite a few people from Korea in Boracay. In our group had eight and we all met up for New Years. A ton of people got some flu bug and stomach problems but I managed to stay clear of the travelers bum! Monica, Steph, me, and a couple from Korea hit up happy hour for 35 peso drinks then had some Thai food for dinner then we made our way down the beach to different parties/bars set up for New Years. It was a super good time even though it was raining off and on. At midnight we had a fireworks show, which seemed to be coming from all angles of the ocean/beach. Impressive. Monica and I made our trek back to the hotel around 3am and at that time the walked seemed to go on forever. I swear we were walking for hours! In the morning we were awoken by a little knock on our door…It was only 10 :30am! Someone had to head out to Grandma’s house for some banana spring rolls or something. Haha! So we decided to hit the beach and not move too much so we could recover. I got a $7 massage on the beach from a massage lady. Honestly, she’s one strong old woman! It was an amazing and relaxing hour fo sho!

Boracay is an island of a stretch of white sand beaches and is a touristy spot for tons. It was high season when we were there so there were lots of people. This was great for the little shops and vendors who try to sell pearls, sunglasses, tour trips, etc. Everything was super cheap and you can get pretty good at bargaining for your purchases. Some of the girls went a little crazy when it came to the pearls. I picked up a long strand and studs of black pearls for about $6. OH and also women are greeted as “Mom”. I joked around the whole time saying, “I’m not your MOM!” (Not directly to the vendors, of course).

On January 2nd six of us ventured out on a trike to Pucca Beach. We got all six of us on that trike and trust me that trike was hurting by the en d of the trip! We played around in the ocean and got annihilated by the waves. Steph and I decided to walk part of the way back to see some of the countryside Boracay had besides the beach. We made some friends with some kids on the way. We walked for about 2 hours then hailed a trike back to our beach. It was most of the girls last night so we had some happy hour drinks and some dinner. Things got a little out of hand at one place but its hilarious to think back to it now.

Most of the time at Boracay we hit the beach, walked around, swam, read, and indulged in food that we couldn’t get in Korea. On the January fourth all the girls were gone and I moved to a hostel down the beach for my last 3 days. It was a cute little place and they gave me a free upgrade to a private 2-story hut with a TV! It was awesome. When the girls left the weather turned out amazing! HAHA! There was sun for my last three days so I soaked it up as much as I could. It was really relaxing and twas paradise fo sho.

My travels back to Korea were super long. I left Boracay at 1pm on January 6th, took a trike to the boat where some dude jumped in and took my bag and ran off! DUDE! I was kind of freaking out but it turned out he was helping but of course that help wasn’t free…"TIP MOM, TIP!” I got on the boat to Caticlan and took a trike to the airport. On my flight from Caticlan to Manila I was sitting beside a dude who had never flown in his life. It was pretty cute because he really had no idea had to unclip the seat belt, got scared in the turbulence, and didn’t know where to get his bags when he got off the plane! From this terminal I had to go to the international one. I was hoping I could get on an earlier flight but no dice! The airline I booked with didn’t open up till 10pm and it was only 4pm! Plus that airline didn’t have any more flights to Busan other than the time I was booked for at 3am. GAWD! I had a million hours to kill and no more pesos left so I spent the entire time in that lame-ass, cold, nothing to do terminal. I couldn’t even go through security till 1:30am! I did a lot of sitting, trying to sleep sitting up, reading, trying to get warm (I have no idea why they had the A/C cranked so high!), and pacing back and forth with my bags. This was not a high light of my trip at all. Finally I got on my flight at 3am and slept as much as I could because I had to work at 10am that morning. I got home at 8am with some time to shower and get some muchly-needed coffee in my system.

However, I have a killer tan and had a great time in Boracay. It was really nice to get away from Korea and clear the mind from work. Next on the traveling agenda is Beijing for Lunar New Years (January 24-27). Pretty stoked for this trip and the blog will definitely be updated from then!

Keep it real! xoxo

Annyong Haseyo!

2008-12-28T04:02:00.000-08:00

I know it’s been awhile and I had a request by Mr. B-rad-ee himself to update my Korean adventures in blog form. Eat you’re your heart out B-J GAYBERT!

So all my friends took off for Boracay on Christmas day and left me basically alone. I think I’ve gone a little nutty at times! I’ve done a butt load of hiking to say the least. Today I went on a 3 hr adventure up some mountains. I was lazy and wasn’t sure how fair up I was going to go but this all changed in my head once a Korean mountain goat (some rando man) was like racing me. When I go hiking I go kinda hard and when the normal Korean goes it’s a leisure activity. So this dude pushed me. I was ahead of him for a long time until I came to a head on with a family of 50 people. I stepped aside to let the family go by then the Korean mountain goat went pass me and totally pushed his way through the family! AS IF! Anyways I was over the racing mode because my lunch almost came up. I decided that I made it that far up the mountain that I would go to the top to a peak that I’ve been to numerous times. As I approached the peak I felt my body lacking energy and water…a bonking experience, as an athlete would say. I got to the rock look out and looked out. HAHA! Then a Korean man and like 5 women joined me. They started talking to me in Korean then they realized I wasn’t one of them. They got super excited and the man wanted his women in a picture with me. After a couple photos the man continued to try speaking English to me and asked if I was Russian…SERIOUSLY why do these people think all foreign women are Russian?! I made it clear that I was Canadian – they love Canadians out here. The man also asked if I had a GIRLFRIEND over and over. Once again I made it clear that I had a boyfriend back in Canada. I’m pretty sure he was confused with his English but you never know! After all of this the women rewarded me with two mandarin oranges! This was like gold at this point because of the bonking experience and they tasted amazing. I thanked them in Korean and made my way down the mountain.

My next update will be in the New Year so have a safe, fun, and happy one! I know you all wish you were with me on the beaches in the Philippines ☺ Miss you, xo.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Korea!

2008-12-28T03:45:00.000-08:00

So my Korean Christmas really did not feel like the holidays back in Yellowknife. The lack of snow, cold, and the fam-jam not here was the issue. In addition, the fact that Christmas not being a big holiday here in Korea also contributed to this feeling.

However, we tried our best to get into the spirit. On Christmas Eve at school we had a Christmas party slash watched a terrible Brendan Fraser film all afternoon and ate so much crapola. OH before the elementary kids came Megan and I were both Santa Clause (or as the Korean teachers told the kids, we were Santa’s Grandmother…weird) for the preschool kiddies. Our school also did Secret Santa with all the teachers. I had the director’s wife, Scully. GAWD! I had no idea if I was being funny or serious with my gift. I ended up getting her these huge leopard print slippers and chocolates. Leopard print in so in here in Korea so I she loves them but they are HUGE. Also, she might be wearing them in sympathy cause she knows one of the foreign teachers gave them to her. I got a bath gift set…too bad I don’t have a tub in my bathroom!

We got off work early on Christmas Eve, which was a present in itself! YAHOO! I met up with the girls for some dinner and we picked up some necessities for the evening’s festivities and Christmas brunch. The night lead us to having some drinks that included champagne being shot out Kaley’s apartment’s window then heading to our building’s rooftop terrace for the firework show…aka the fire cracker I got Kaley for her Birthday. It was hilarious to say the least. From here we headed to Lindsay and Jim’s party in the building next to ours. In all the night was super fun and def different from the usual Christmas Eves with the fam at church then the drive around YK looking at Christmas lights.

The next morning I woke up super ass early; not intentionally I swear! I couldn’t tell if I was still drunk or if I was just that excited to open presents…HAHA I KID! I opened a package from Chad and Cleo. My parents and Tess had sent early Christmas presents that I couldn’t wait to open…oops. The presents definitely made it feel like the holidays. Thank you so much for them! Then I proceeded to log onto Skype for my morning routine of talking to the rents and Chad. “Merry Christmas from the future!” After all the well wishes I cleaned and rearranged my pad before the girls came over for brunch. OH and I also jacked Kaley’s xmas tree to make us feel like it was xmas in my apartment. We had coffee and baileys, mimosas, fruit salad, hash browns, deviled eggs, tofu rice wraps, and French toast! Def a treat for us! Molly also graced us with her presence, which was nice, and we can all definitely say that Seoul hasn’t changed her. The girls were all leaving for Boracay that evening and I was in charge of taking care of Taylor’s cat and Kaley’s orchid.

The rest of the Christmas consisted of lazing around then going to an Indian restaurant with Stephanie for dinner. Twas a nice day! I had to work on the Friday and only two more days of class till I’m off to Boracay to hit the white sand beaches and meet up with my posse. Should be a nice break of hot weather, exploring, drinks, and relaxing on the beaches. Be jealous!

Hair Asianized

2008-12-28T03:32:00.000-08:00

I’ve had some funny encounters with Koreans while I’ve been here because they think I’m Korea and it doesn’t help that I embraced a Korean haircut with bangs. (This was a spur-of-the-moment decision plus all haircuts are a set $10 rate. The lady told me God loves me then hacked my locks…I’m over it.) Anyways back to my story! By far the funniest/creepiest encounter was by a foreigner, who we like to call Creepy Dan. This went down a couple weeks ago at Korean lessons. This 65-year-old grease ball bee lined it towards me as we were waiting for the elevator and got right up in my face and proceeded to say “OH! You’re not Korean are you!?” I let him know that I get that a lot and no I’m not. While in the elevator he continued to stare and I made it super awkward by being my awkward self. My friends got a kick out of it. This was not the end of the Creepy Dan experience! During our 15 minute break at lessons he snagged me in one of those hard to leave talking sessions. I learned so much about Creepy Dan. He’s been in Korea for 12 years, knows 5 languages, he’s from the States, he’s a chemistry Major, and the list goes on. Once again my friends got a kick out of my “Koreaness” and Creepy Dan and tried their best not to save me from the situation! GAWD! However, Taylor pulled the “Sarah the cake is really good! You should go get some” card, which I’m grateful for and I bolted!

Hilarious Korea

2008-12-09T05:53:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of day-to-day Korea.

Popcorn anyone?

They love to drink.

Hooked on FONICS.

2008-12-09T05:36:00.000-08:00

Hey all!

Sorry for the lack of bloggage these past few weeks. My only excuse is laziness and lack of interesting things to write about. That makes no sense though because I’m in Korea and day-to-day I encounter hilarious things. However, some of these hilarious things seem to be normal now! AH.

Since the DMZ tour I’ve been kick’n it in Busan. I still can’t get over how its DECEMBER! Time is flying by quickly. I’ve started Korean lessons every Saturday mornings for two hours. It’s a super great deal - $3/mth with a one on one Korean teacher. I really need to make more of an effort to learn this language…The book is beside my bed and I glance at it but most of the time it remains unopened. YAR. Ok, starting now my New Years resolution will start. I’ll make myself do some every night. The language is difficult and I do really admire my students for being able to speak Korean, English and some of them are learning Chinese. If only my brain was still a sponge!

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of going on a field trip with my kinders and coworkers to a factory. This was not just your ordinary STOCKING/LEGGING, SOCK, YOGHURT, AND TOFU factory. It was some sort of religious based cult factory. YUP! It was super eerie and there were pictures of their religious leader everywhere who looked like a Korean version of Eugene Levy. The Koreans who lived in this compound never leave and they ride bikes around, eat at designated times with the same sex (they made an exception for us BUT Patrick Teacher was served his food and us ladies had to get our own lunch), and they played weird music in the streets. We got to test of the yoghurt and quiet frankly we thought we were going to be drugged and have to spend the rest of our lives in the Zion-land factory. While we walked through the factory we watched the people doing mind-numbing jobs and I was told numerous times not to take pictures…OOPS. From here we had some lunch. After this we had a photo shoot as we do on all field trips then jumped on the bus back to ILS to teach for the rest of the day. Def an experience but common it was free! And in the situation my school is in, they’ll take anything! Haha, I joke…

Last week I started up a new exercise regime. I’ve joined hot yoga! Its amazing and us foreigners in Hwamyeong have invaded the classes by the bunches. It’s an hour-long workout and the first half is seriously yoga on steroids. It’s more of an aerobic based with a yoga mix. The second half is slower and all yoga based. Needless to say you sweat buckets and bend, stretch, and move in ways you didn’t think your body could move. I absolutely love it and I can’t wait to get the sound track to the workout! Hopefully I’ll get more rhythm to my body’s movements…Haha

Other than these new things to my life experiences here in Korea I haven’t been up to much…Hiking is done all the time and teaching has become a breeze. I’ve officially been here for 3 months! CRAZY. On December 30th I’m heading off to Boracay, Philippines for my winter vacay for a week! BE JEALOUS!

Check this vid out. Wraps up some of the things in a teacher in Korea's life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjBfy_HVoSM

Keep it reals ☺

DMZ Tour

2008-11-24T04:56:00.000-08:00

This past weekend a group of us from Busan ventured up to Seoul for the weekend! We left right after work on the KTX (super fast train) for our 3 hr ride. While we were sitting in our family seats (very special) we had the surprise of seeing a Korean mother make her two-year-old son pee in a water bottle right behind us. KOREANS ARE SO ODD! Once we got to Seoul we were in search of a “love motel”. These are super cheap motels and are supposed to be used for couples/lovers/hook-ups to do their business…Anyways! We found one, which was super gross, but it was late. Molly, myself, and David toughed it out and got two rooms there for a couple hours of sleep. The others went on a mission to find a ball’n place near the USO/tour location.

I’m pretty sure I had maybe an hour of sleep that whole night because we didn’t get to bed till 2:30am, the room was flippen cold and disgusting, the pillows were as hard as rocks, and we had to be up at 5:30am to find where we had to meet the tour- USO army base. We jumped in a taxi and the language barrier kicked in. It was pretty stressful cause we had no idea where we were going and the taxi driver didn’t either…We got on the phone with a translator and got things figured out. Turns out we were going completely the opposite way. It was supposed to be a 5 minute taxi ride but it was about 25 minutes and we had to be at the USO for 6:45am. We got there finally, signed in, and jumped on the bus for a hour and a half bus ride up to the DMZ. Our tour guide was so awkward which made the tour info a little annoying to hear but we got used to it. I liked the bus ride up because I got to see more of the country North of Seoul. Once we arrived to the DMZ we got hooked up with a USA army tour guide. He took us around to all the sites and informed us on the importance of each place. We were his second tour and boy was he nervous. He managed to throw out “that’s gay”, “oh fuck”, and “my bad” due to his nervousness. OH and as Molly said, “He just gave us Korean history for dummies”. Hilarious. We were able to go into the boardrooms where North and South Korea meet and talk. This was the JSA. We were able to physically stand in North Korea there, which was super cool! We took a bunch of pictures and the South Korean soldiers in the room were quite intimidating. After the boardroom we stood at the House of Freedom and stared at North Korea’s “House of Freedom” which stands taller than South Korea’s intentionally. It was eerie looking at that solider just standing there staring back at us occasionally pulling up his binoculars to look closer at us.

In our single filed lines we walked back to us bus and went to a look out to see Propaganda Village. This village was built to mimic South Korea’s and no one actually lives in the North Korea one! Very weird. They was also a flag tour built initially in South Korea and then North Korea built one exactly the same but taller then South Korea made theirs taller then North Korea retaliated and one upped South Korea, and so on. Finally, South Korea quit the silly game and let North Korea have the taller flag tower. It is now the tallest flag tower in the world and the flag weighs over 600lbs!

From here we had lunch, went to a souvenir shop, and went to another look out where we could see North Korea better. There was a line painted on the ground showing where you could and where you couldn’t take pictures. If you took pictures where you could the soldiers would either take or make you delete you pictures. Kind of intense! At this look out we saw lots of hawks and eagles soaring around. It made the experience even more eerie. For a second I was convinced they were fake but they were definitely real. After looking out into North Korea we were bussed down to the third underground tunnel that was discovered which the North Koreans built into South Korea. There have been 7 tunnels discovered and the latest one in 1990. The tunnel walk was about 500m underground and we weren’t aloud to take pictures down in it. It was pretty cool being that fair underground and to think that it was used by soldiers back in the day to get into each other’s countries. To end our tour we were blessed with a weird-ass video about the history between South and North Korea. There was definitely propaganda at its best there. They were trying to convince us that all was well between the two countries. SERIOUSLY?! But anyways the tour was awesome! Definitely a great experience. Oh and rumor has it…Kim Jon-IL had a stroke and is dead…ಹ

Jagalchi Fish Market

2008-11-08T05:41:00.000-08:00

YOYO!

Today (November 8) Molly and I made our way down to Nampo-Dong to check out Jagalchi fish market and do a little browsing in the shopping district. We ventured on the bus rather than the subway so we could see more of the city instead of being underground for an hour. But we didn’t really know where we were going…I had done this once and Molly hadn’t at all. OOPS. But everything went smoothly after jumping off the bus cause everyone else was! We try not to buy anything when we go browsing but always seem to buy some ridiculous stuff because it’s so cheap. It’s so cheap that we’ve become cheap and try to bargain things down. GAH honestly in Canada I would buy a scarf for $20 easily but here we see so many scarf vendors that we say “As if they’re selling those scarves for $12”. However, I always come home with a new one. We had way too much fun getting a couple special things for my BF then headed down to the fish market.

The market is several blocks long full of live, dried, dead, and half dead seafood. We also stumbled upon dead dog…I can’t grasp the idea that people would eat dog…Sick. We walked up and down the market taking pictures…being total tourists and watching living things being skinned live then thrown into a bucket and still givin’r moving around. So crazy! We also saw a live octopus escape from its bucket and we screamed/pointed then she nonchalantly chucks it back in the bucket like it was nothing. Hilarious! As we were getting soaked with fish stank on our clothes and shoes we walked down to the dock where the fishing boats were to take some pictures. As we were leaving this area no really paying attention to anything we found a dead shark! AS IF! It was just lying there with its stomach hacked up. SICK, yet so cool, yet kinda sad….After that point we were over with the market and ventured back to the subway BUT being crazy we decided to try the bus it back to Hwamyeong….We asked a man and he knew a little English and got excited and started to run so stupidly we ran with him and jumped on his bus because we thought he was showing us where to go. We had no idea if we were going to Hwamyeong and the traffic sucked so we jumped off in Seomyeong (an area we know) to catch the subway home.
Molly smelled like ass/fish cause he jeans we soaked at the feet so she was killing everyone/me on the ride back. Twas, definitely an adventure but really you can’t get lost in Busan because of the comfort of the subway and it being so easy. Until next folks! xo

Korean Halloween

2008-11-08T05:25:00.000-08:00

Hey Folks!

So the past couple of weeks have had their adventures for sure. On Halloween my school had an all day Halloween party for the kids…no teaching which was a nice break. However, Halloween is definitely forced out here in Korea cause of us foreigners. Our day started by decorating the school and dressing up. The Korean teachers did pretty much all the prep and I guess during their prep time they decided that “Sarah Teacher” would be the Korean dead woman in the traditional dress that makes anyone look a trillion pounds. SWEET. I would like to say I can rock any kind of MOO-MOO clothing…EF. Haha! I was in charge of the treasure hunt room which lead to kids to be running all over the place and not really understanding what was going on due to the excitement and of course the language barrier. In the end everyone got their candy. During the afternoon we had our elementary kids coming and going with their classes participating in the scary room, my treasure hunt, arts and crafts, face painting, and relay games. In the evening the pre-school/kinders came back dress up in their awesome costumes with their parents. From here it brought us outside for the annual “Halloween Parade” around Hwamyeong. Somewhat humiliating due to my attire and chanting “Hal-lo-ween” repeatedly but watching the kids doing their “tricks” for their treats was so cute…. They’ve been practicing for the past month for this moment. Our director brought some candy to two stores and they gave our kids their treat after their “trick “skits. The workday ended with a potluck feast back at the school thanks to the parents.

By 9:30pm I ripped home to get the real Halloween started by dressing up as a Korean workout woman. These women workout in the most ridiculous outfits at the gym I go to. HILARIOUS. I was able to get something together with the clothes I owned and what I found in the apartment from the previous tenants. GOLD! I inspired Molly and Erin to get decked out the same and we had a workout crew. We headed down to Pusan National University (PNU) for a pub-crawl. That area is a foreigner fest mixed with some Koreans so it’s a good time for sure. There were tons of people in the streets, in the bars, and a costume contest was on where the first prize was a trip to Thailand fallowed by keg parties, $100 bar tabs,etc. We ripped around till 3:30am or so then cabbed it back to the boonies (Hwamyeong). Halloween in Korea was ok…not the best I’ve had but then again it’s a forced holiday here! Plus there was no discount candy…However, I’m hoping that this Depepro holiday (some romantic, chocolate eating event) on November 11th will hook me up with some treats!

Some silly things/interesting facts about Korea:

2008-10-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

-Older Koreans love, love, LOVE hiking. It’s honestly a fashion show for them to wear the most intense hiking gear in the world.
- At the gym I was going to the aerobics/dance class of some sort displayed women in the most hilarious outfits/costumes…80s dance party! However, they love it. Oh and you will hardly ever see a Korean run. All they do is walk to workout; weird.
- There's random workout equipment on the walking trails and on the mountains.
- Koreans love looking at themselves in the mirrors that are plastered everywhere or with their personal mirrors. Oh so vain.
- Everyone and their baby owns a cell phone. (I’m so not cool here…phoneless) Plus cell phone charms are key to being in.
- Kids go to school from 8pm to at least 8:30pm sometimes-even 10pm! From Monday to Saturday.
- You may think that Korean people are really polite but really they might be the rudest people ever. They push, spit, never cover their mouths when they cough, and definitely treat foreigners like crap.
- They love their Soju and brewskis where you can buy in the many of GS 25’s (a convenience store chain) located on every street sometimes more than one.
- Oh and Karaoke. They love Karaoke! It’s called Norri-bong here. SOOO FUN!
- If you are dating someone it is costumed for you to have matching outfits. Watch out Chad.
- Men hear are sooo metro sexual. The way they act and dress would not fly in a lot of places in Canada. They all have purses and hold hands. True story!
- Since us foreigners look different we get a lot of stares from all ages of Koreans. Honestly take a picture with your fancy cell phone…it’ll last longer! Sorry it’s just super annoying at times.
- I swear the women were born in heals. They all have heals, hike in heals, go to the beach in heals, just love their heals.
- Oh and women showing any shoulder skin or lower back skin is seen as scandalous.
- Foreigner women here are labeled as sluts due to the Russian prostitute stereotype. (I experienced my first encounter with a real one last weekend!)
- Koreans marry for money rather than looks/personality.
- They eat so much but are sticks! WTF
- Toast shops/vendors are seen all over the place. I never would have thought toasted sandwiches would be popular here!
- It is cheaper to eat out than it is to buy groceries. BOO!
- Koreans are very whiney at all ages. Ask me someday and I’ll make the sounds they make. GAWD I want to kill that sound.
- Korea has made me cheaper than I already was…I won’t even consider spending $15 on a shirt anymore! There are some dirt cheap stores here.
- Also Korea has made me rude and I really think I’ll be coming back and not remembering how to say “Sorry!”

The Next Perez Hilton?

2008-10-25T07:28:00.000-07:00

So today I went with Steph to see what Deokchon had to offer. We walked around a market for a while then decided to find some place to eat. On our way to get some pizza we ended up walking by a dog restaurant area. There were about four different restaurants with dogs in cages being ready to be slaughtered and cooked up for someone’s dinner. AS IF. I almost puked my guts out. Just typing about it makes me feel ill. Gross. I actually witnessed a dog that was JUST butchered and its bloody body was laying spread eagle on the chopping block. That image is permanently stamped in my brain. SICKNESS!!

Then we had some lunch, YUM YUM! Haha, pizza. Where I also witnessed a woman changing her baby’s poopy diaper right in the restaurant. Friggen Koreans. After lunch Steph and I parted our ways and I took off on a sweet hike. I had no idea where the trials were going to take me so it made it fun. I hiked up for about 3 hours and made it to a peak overlooking Busan. It was such a good view! On my way down I wiped out super hard…Stupid leaves being all slippery like. I got home showered and then headed on the subway to Seomyeong in search of a coffee shop that wasn’t Dunken Donuts. After walking around I found the Coffee Bean where I'm currently typing up my Korean life story! That’s all for now folks!

Firework Festival

2008-10-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the firework festival here in Busan. The most amazing fireworks I’ve ever seen in my life. Also the most densely populated place I’ve ever been in my life. There were 1.5 million people stuffed onto the beach and streets near the Gimhae Bridge. Angela and I got there early and staked out a spot on the beach for us to sit so we hung out until night fell for the hour-long show.

While we were waiting we made some drinks, which lead us to needing to find a washroom. Molly and I decided to brave the crowds and find a toilet…I mean an ally. So Molly finds this ally slash someone’s area where they store their bikes and she pops a squat. I was standing guard and then it was my turn. I’m undoing my belt and jeans when I hear Molly yelling “Sarah! Sarah! We gotta go!!” I frantically put myself back together and see a man yelling his face off at us. We sprinted into the crowds amongst the army troops and cops. We honestly thought we were going to be arrested! So I almost peed my pants by the time we got me Soju (super cheap Korean-like vodka ethanol mix) and beer…we found a courtyard and peed for at least 5 minutes then headed back to the insane beach. We pushed and shoved our way throw to area 5 then were crushed sardines for about 10 minutes. The army dudes weren’t letting anyone move and everyone was pushing and shoving trying to get onto the beach. I swear more than half of these people didn’t even have a spot staked out and honestly there was no way in hell that there were going to find one. So this walking dead man…around 80 years of age…comes from behind and starts pushing Molly and I around. One army dude yelled at him then started yelling at us in Korean. WTF mate. Then this old man grabs Molly’s curly locks and pulls as hard as he could! In retaliation I body checked him and yelled “Stop pushing”…Not the brightest moment of my life…He clearly would not have known English plus I could have broke his ribs. But common, pulling hair?! We finally get to our spot on the beach and I vowed I would never leave again. Those crowds were the sickest thing on Earth besides the mess of garbage that was left after the fireworks.

The fireworks finally started and they were the most amazing thing ever! I’ve never seen fireworks synchronized with music before and they lasted an hour. Amazing. Once in awhile I was thinking that we were being brainwashed by North Korea or something…You know on Zoolander? “Relax don’t do it, when you want to go to it, RELAX” “Kill the prime minister of Micronesia!” Then I would look around and see everyone’s face and jaw, possessed by the fireworks. Hilarious! But really, the fireworks coming off the gorgeous bridge and boats were great. It was super romantic and we were joking around that if anyone asked us to marry them right now we would all say YES. HAHA. But on the other had, honestly if a natural disaster or a terrorist attack happened that would be the time for it. So many people in one little area! After the show ended we hung out on the beach for the crowds to die down then went for some dinner then hung out for the rest of the night mingling around.

X- Games & Jinju Lantern Festival

2008-10-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

The next weekend were stuck around Busan and hit up the TreX Games and watched some skateboarding and BMX events. It was pretty neat. Saw some cultural stuff too…We also hit up a pub-crawl in a university area which was insane! It really didn’t seem like we were in Korea because these bars were invaded by all us foreign people. However, I still managed to be asked if I was Korean or not. I get this all the time! Then they go down all the Asian cultures and I have to break it to them that I’m Inuit. Then I have to break that down to Eskimo. A rare bred I guess! The night ended for most of us again around 5am and all of us taking separate cabs home…no intentionally.

The next day started late for me…3pm where I found myself at a Korean pop concert, Alex. Kayly’s coworker hooked her up with three tickets and took Angela and I. Alex is apparently from Canada or lives there and is HUGE here in Korea. The show was hilarious. He was quite entertaining but I managed to fall asleep a couple of times. OOPS. We witnessed an engagement, cell phone wars of some sort, crying girls along with crying Alex (while singing), and paper airplanes being thrown. I guess its something to cross off in the books!

Two weekends ago I went out to Jinju to see the Lantern Festival. It was amazing! The crowds were insane and Ashley and I got separated from Kayly and Stephanie. We walked around all afternoon after the bus ride up and had some beers before the sun went down. The lanterns lit up and the fireworks went off so now it was time to take some shitty pictures! (My camera is sick). We took in the show and then tried to find Steph and Kayly to book it back to the bus station to head back to Busan. The whole lit-up floating lantern idea is awesome. Maybe I’ll bring it back for the YK river? Hmm…Don’t think it would fly.

Chuseok

2008-10-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

The next week at work was stressful again…I felt like I wasn’t getting any guidance because I wasn’t…Ha. I teach 6 classes/day starting at 12:55pm and ending at 8:35pm. Its weird to think that I’m teaching kids still! AH. The fallowing weekend was Chuseok, the Korean equivalent to Thanks Giving. We hit up Seoul for our four-day weekend. Beth and Stephanie were on the train earlier than I was so I trained it alone. I was feeling confident that I could get to our hotel in Seoul with the super good directions Steph gave me but I started off on the wrong foot…I missed my train. WELL I was on the right train but the in the wrong cart and being the silly person that I am I jumped off the train and run as fast as I could to the right cart when I could have just stayed on and walked through all the carts without getting off. GAH. So I’m running with my huge back pack and purse (+33c plus humidity) then I see the doors to all the carts close. NO!! I turn to train and start banging on the door for them to open up meanwhile the security guard is freaking out on his whistle to me to stop hitting the train. I was in panic fo sho. What was I going to do in this foreign country with everyone I know gone to Seoul. WTF. So I gathered myself and booked it down to the ticket agent. He laughed at me and canceled my ticket and issues another one that was leaving in half an hour. THANK GOD. However since it was a major holiday here in Korea and the train was full I had a standing ticket and was supposed to stand for the 3 hr train ride to Seoul. EF that noise. I found a fold down seat near the washrooms and marked my territory. After that everything went smooth. I found my way to the hotel with no problems at all which I was proud of cause the subway situation in Seoul is NUTS. In Seoul we did some shopping around, took in some cultural events for Chuseok, did some site seeing, and some partying. I’m stoked that I chose Busan to live in because Seoul is just too huge for me plus I love my set up in Hwamyeong. In all, Seoul was a great first trip to see Korea.

YOYO

2008-10-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

So I’ve decided that I would update you all on my Korean adventures over the past month and a half. A majority of my friends are in Seoul this weekend but I decided to kick it in Busan to some money. Smart move on my half because just recently I’ve heard that my school is going through some legal issues so I’m on the edge of my seat to wither or not I’ll be paid on time in November.

ANYWAYS…I arrived in Busan September 4th around 10pm after flying for a trillion hours. My recruiter picked me up at the airport then quickly took me to my school in Hwamyeong (the sub-division of Busan where I live and work). I met the head teacher and she informed me to be at work the next day for noon. After that they took me to my apartment and gave me the low down. There are 15 floors in my building and it is like uni res because there are so many foreigners who live in it! It’s awesome. I slept like shit and really had no idea what I was doing in Korea. WHY KOREA?! Essentially it seemed like the best option for me at this time in my life. Free flight, no rent, good hours, cash-money, and being in a different country. My first day of work was overwhelming and super jet lagged. I sat in on a couple classes and then I had to teach two! It literally felt like I was a piece of raw meat thrown into a cage of dogs. The next day I was able to take in some hiking with some people I met. Busan is a great city for everything! Hiking, beaches, nightlife, events, shopping, and if you’re into crowds, there are plenty of those here. That night we headed down to a club called Foxys. I was hilarious! Minus the part when I had to buy new shoes because they didn’t allow people with flip-flops on. Only if I had heals on those bad boys I’d be set! Foxys had two floors, lots of rap (heard the song “California Love” at least 5 times), sweaty people, and choreographed dancing. We stayed there till around 5am…The bars don’t really close. These Koreans love their booze. I’ve seen many of people passed out on the streets, subways, being carried home, and puking their guts out.