Gung Hei Fat Choy!

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!

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!

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!

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

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

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

Popcorn anyone?

They love to drink.

Hooked on FONICS.

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 ☺