it's that time of year

i always get nostalgic at new years. maybe everyone does. (?) you know, out with the old, in with the new... i like to think that the new year always gives me a renewed feeling of hope and happiness. it's a chance to redeem yourself, start fresh... it's a time of beginnings. this year is not exception. in fact, i think i feel it more this year. i have a chance to make this experience everything that it can be, after all, i do have another eight months.

let's take a look back at 2006... overall i would have to say that it was a pretty good year for me.
- i started this blog
- i got all A's in my last semester of university
- i graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Specialization Journalism with Dinstinction
- i finally moved far away from home
- i met tons of great people
- i started learning a new language
- i'm learning about a different culture
- i finally freed myself of a job i hated


point form seems a little silly for such a short list... i know that a lot of really good things happened this year, but graduating was the biggest event of my life... then moving here, well, i don't have to spell it out for you. it's been a life-altering year for me in more ways than one, so how can 2007 beat it? i'm not sure yet, that's the great thing about the future... and the hope of what it holds.

hopefully this will be the year that i can begin my life as a journalist. i hope i can discover more about myself, and the world around me. i want this year to be just as good as last, i know that it'll just be in different ways. i have hope for the future... and that's all i really need.

new year's eve in korea will be something that i know i won't forget, no matter what i do. at the moment, i have no idea what that will be beyond "busan". we'll end up somewhere, and like i always say, it doesn't really matter where you are, but, who you're with. so i hope i end up with the wonderful people that i've met here...

i always say i won't make a new years resolution, but i think this year i will:

this year i resolve to make the most and the best out of being in Korea.

that should do it... i'll just have to remember to come back to this post... happy new year to everyone, i hope that you all have the same hope for the future, and that you make this year everything it can be and more. do what you want to do, follow your dreams, and just be happy.

it's the weekend!

that's right! i may not have had boxing day off, but i get a four day weekend this week! and it is only through the kindness (you'll never guess!) of, yup, my, gulp, co-teacher, jay. how weird is that. i guess he heard through the grapevine that i thought it was super unfair that i had to go in tomorrow when no one else did... other foreign teachers i know all have the day off... in fact, one of them has been on the ski slopes since wednesday! so today he told me to take tomorrow off... this is, of course, on the sly... the VP has no idea... and hopefully never will, but even if he finds out, what are they going to do? set me on a plane and send me home? i think not! so yay for me!

at least that's one good thing. i think this illness that has been clinging to me is sinusitis now... i have a sick headache and last night felt like my head was literally ready to explode... if it's not better by tomorrow, i'll head off to the ENT guy i saw two weeks ago... wish me luck! i have lots of words written in korean to tell him what's wrong, it'll be his end that will be hard to understand... i can always use the phone to find a translator...

there we go, short and sweet - just like me!

prezzies and lessons from home

today i received my first care package - ever. well, it wasn't so much a care package as a christmas present arrived late, but what it contained makes me feel loved...

TIM HORTONS COFFEE!!!!

if you've been reading this blog, then you'll know how hard it is to find coffee here... the ground up kind anyway... lots of instant for the taking, but none to go in my percolator. it also came with a lovely tim's tea cup and saucer... coffee, tea... whatever.

my first cuppa in my new cup!

i finally got paid today and took care of money transfers, bills, et al. a nice load off my shoulders. now i can concentrate on thinking about new years eve on sunday. i believe that i will be spending it in the Hwamyeong area of Busan, as i've been invited to a party there. my friend Emma is house sitting for some koreans who have a huge comfy apartment with a great view - we might even be able to see the fireworks over in haeundae... as long as i'm with good people, it doesn't really matter.

a friend of mine was saying the other day that this is the most difficult time of year to be away from home, and it's true. even if you're not a "holiday" kind of person - which i'm not, usually - it's still hard to think about everything that everyone must be doing back home. he (my friend) figures that if you can get through the hoildays, and the ensuing winter "vacation" that time will fly after... and i'm sure he's right. i know that it's hard to believe that i've been here for four months already! sometimes it seems like a lot longer, and sometimes it feels like i was in montreal yesterday.

i've been having a rough couple of weeks, for various reasons, but i know that it will pass and that things can only get better... stay positive is my motto... sometimes i forget it though. i have to start thinking in terms of only having so much time here and that i have to make the best of it... (another friend sent me that one) things aren't as bad as they sometimes sound, or as bad as i sometimes feel... i just have to remember that at those times.

only 248 days... which really isn't all that much... and i still have so much to see and do...

a merry little christmas

yes it was. little would be operative here as well, since i was back at work this morning (december 26th - whatever happened to boxing day???). the party started around 1:30 at mr parks' bar near downtown gimhae. Lois and Chris had organized the whole thing - including cooking our dinner for us! since mr parks' is quite small, much of the party was outside. thank god for the 15 degree weather - it certainly didn't FEEL like christmas day! the sun was shining, the sky was a gorgeous blue, and i had to take my coat off cause i was hot. but it was lovely.

guess we all thought we'd be smart with our santa caps...
can anyone say "better than 'a charlie brown christmas'"???

with christmas crackers and all!!! my toy sucked... but they have since my very first. (and the americans were all confused about this aspect of our tradition - thanks to whoever got hold of them!)

our lovely dinner. chicken, pork, roast beef, stuffing, gravy, roasted potatos, corn, carrots, peas... forget to get a shot of the trifle for desert, but it was yummy along with cheesecake, fruit cake, and cookies.

my first gift... these hats are everywhere! even on adult men! i traded it for:
a bottle of Finlandia! (which i forgot at the party and will hopefully get back from ben someday!

the girls, before we became toast - think 7 bottles of wine...it was a good day/night... i even got a ride home on a motorcycle... love the motorcycles... gotta get me one of those... but don't tell my mom, she'd have my head on a plate!

thanks to everyone who helped make my first overseas christmas feel a little less lonely. it really was a merry little christmas...

epik girls hit the town

friday was the first time that kat and deb were in gimhae at the same time since my first weekend here, way back in september. that weekend was rather uneventful, since i didn't even know where i was, so i had to show them a good time... and i think i did.

they arrived around 9 and after some small exchange of gifts, and some chatter we headed out to the OB Camp to meet the other ex-pats of gimhae. - on a side note, kat had been to costco last week and picked up some cheese (two pounds of it!!!), a giant kilo bucket of salsa, and some yucatan guacamole!!!! thanks kat! Deb brought me some pepperoni, blackberry jam, and lemon juice from the american army base that she visited.

kat at the OB...
Cecily, me, and Emma (a couple of my gimhae girlies)
Doug (i named him that) and Rob... drunk before they arrived
Kim and Bill
the proof that Scott FINALLY came out with us... been trying to get him out since september.

After hanging at the OB, we headed to norae-bang! i love norae-bang. if you haven't read previous posts on it, it's basically karaoke... except you get your own private room for you and your friends - think 'Lost in Translation'. at first it was just Abbey, Scott, Kat, Deb, and I... then at around 3 am the rest of the gang showed up... it was quite the spectacle... around 15 waegooks (foreigners) singing up a storm of foreign songs... ie. loads of fun.

Abbey and me singing "Piano Man" by Billy Joel. (sorry it's a little out of focus...)
Bohemian Rhapsody... need i say more?

it was a great night, and for the first time in a long time, i was out until 4:30 AM. i probably could have stayed longer, but this cold has been lingering and i was starting to get tired... my throat was killing me, and the waegooks were getting out of control! but i had a great time, and managed to show deb and kat that gimhae is actually pretty cool... thanks to everyone for a great night!

woe... is me

what will it take? i am here working for the ministry of education of south korea... they plan on having a native english speaker in every public school by (i think) 2010... that's in three years... i wish them luck with their deadline. there are so many things wrong with the system and the way they treat foreigners within it... that i can't see that many people wanting to come - especially if they read about experiences like mine... (i do what i can to get the word out).

once again, i have not been paid on time. my contract stipulates that i am to be paid on the 25th of the month. if the 25th falls on a weekend or a holiday i am to be paid on the preceeding friday - this month, that would be today. but of course, the shortfalls of the gimhae office of education have screwed me over, again, - and on christmas weekend. they don't seem to understand that this is unacceptable.

i went to the bank at 3:30 to take out my money to bring it to a different bank to transfer to my canadian account. i do this every payday. my bank won't do the transfer, so i have to carry over a thousand dollars in my purse two blocks to a bank that will... but when i tried to take it out, it wasn't there.

i called my co-teacher immediately. it took me about half an hour to get hold of him. i told him he had to call the office of education to find out why i wasn't paid yet, he said he'd call me back. when he called back he said that the person in charge of accounting wasn't available, but the other people there said that i would be paid on tuesday!!! i tried to explain to him this was unacceptable - especially this being a long weekend and Christmas, that i had friends coming to visit and my contract says... blah blah blah... that's what i should have said for all the good it did. he gave me the number for the office and told me to call them. well, no one there speaks english, so a load of good that does me.

i just don't know what to do at this point. i mean, i'm okay, money wise, i can always use my canadian accounts - but that's the reason i'm here, to pay off my visa and line of credit - not to use them! i will have to make some kind of official complaint.

so a very merry christmas... hopefully the weekend won't be completely destroyed because of this, it just makes things more difficult... and that is the bigger problem. the people who run this program need to make adjusting to life here as simple and easy as possible, and they don't. point finale.

i also went back to the doctor today because of this cough that won't go away and was told (of all things!!!) that i'm allergic to, get this... the weather. "it's very cold outside" said the doctor. "i'm from CANADA" was my reply... "it's much colder there." but he insisted... and the korean teacher that came with me wasn't able to translate any better than that. so i got another shot and pills for three more days that will hopefully do something... maybe i should go to a traditional doctor for some acupuncture...i'm thinking about it anyway...

so, woe is me... everywhere i go, and everything i do, turns to crap... bad luck? bad karma? maybe that means i have something really great coming my way... trying to stay positive, signing off...

taking care of business

i'm feeling a lot better - both mentally and physically. i think that nasty cold i had was affecting my thought processes... as illness will do to you. i am now the proud owner (?) of a racking cough, but my head is clear and i have energy enough to get things done.

in light of this renewed energy i have cleaned my apartment from top to bottom in anticipation of kat and deb's arrival tomorrow. can't have guests over to a pig sty! which led me to thinking about how much easier it is to clean your bathroom when your shower is the whole room. don't know if i've talked about this before, but i love this aspect of my apartment (aside from not having a bath tub). you just scrub it all down and point the shower head where you want to rinse... no more pesky wiping down every surface! it's great!

i've signed up for technorati - a website that logs blogs - i guess. i'm number 415,575! i'm not sure what that is out of, but just thought i'd share it with you. for more info on technorati click the link at the bottom of the menu on the right.

my webstat.net stats are steadily rising. i've had 1091 visitors since november 16th! that's about a thousand a month... pretty insane... i wonder who you all are. there are people from: Canada (i hope!), USA, UK, Australia, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Phillipines, Netherlands, and Italy. i don't know how often it updates, cause there used to be other countries listed there too. i find it really weird that Korea isn't listed since i know people here who read this blog... hmmm... anyway, the top keyword search for my blog is "documentarist" but number two, and this is the funny part, is "saaq bourassa"! from those two posts i wrote about getting my drivers license in montreal... so weird! i'm not crazy about checking my stats, but it can be fun sometimes to see who's reading - and to know that people actually ARE! so thanks to all of you that do - you should post more comments!!!

on another weird note, i met a fellow blogger for the first time yesterday. i know, i know, lots of people have blogs, but we met in the blogosphere first... i found his blog on the net a while ago and have been reading it ever since... he recently linked to me too... (an american in geoje - see right) and yesterday we both ended up at the provincial foreign teacher winter training meeting in changwon. hi josh! anyway, just a funny coincidence - and one that i never expected to happen... what a small world.

well that's all the business that i have other than to say happy holidays to all... if you are in my heart i'll be thinking of you on christmas - you know who you are... if you haven't heard from me in a while, drop me a line! love to the fam, friends, and the world at large!

to the doctor...

today, for the second time since my arrival in korea i went to the doctor. this time was quite different than the first.

mrs. Che, one of the english teachers at my school, brought me this time (i guess jay didn't want to have to deal with it). we went to dr choi... the place i went last time, but were told that he would only be in around 10:30 - an hour and a half away. so we went down the street to dr jeong's ENT clinic (ear, nose, throat).

after waiting about ten minutes i was brought into his office where i was sat in a chair surrounded by medical equipment. it almost felt like going to the dentist, except the chair didn't recline. he put on a head lamp - made him look like he should be 200 feet down a mine shaft, not in a doctors office...

he looked at my throat, which he said didn't look so bad - "gamgi" he said, which means "cold" - as if i had to be told that! anyway, then he put this metal tong-like utensil up my left nostril and spread it, to get a better look up my nose. then his assistant sprayed some air, then some liquid, then some more air... all while he was looking up my nose. it was the strangest thing i've ever experienced at the doctors. then they did the same to my right nostril.

then the korean banter started and i have no idea what was said after that... i guess he was just telling her that i was sick and needed a shot - something you always get when you go to the doctor. a lot of people think it's just some kind of placebo to make the patient feel like something is being done, and i'm starting to believe it. when you ask what it is for, no one ever seems to be able to give me a straight answer... but i got it anyway, IF it does do something, then i want it... after the way i've been feeling for the past five days, i'll try anything, and hey, maybe the koreans know something about the common cold that they haven't shared with the rest of us!?!

so after my diagnosis, i was sat in front of a machine that sprayed hot, wet air and told to open my mouth and breathe for one minute... another oddity, but it did feel good on my lungs. then to the little room for the shot and i was released.

all of this cost me just over three dollars. we then went to the pharmacy where i was given pills and cough syrup. all of it individually wrapped for each dose.
no tricky bottles and figuring what is what, just take the pills in each pouch and take the amount of cough syrup that you need... seems so much easier than back home... of course, they do give you four times the number of pills here...

then after a half hour at school waiting to see if i was allowed to go home, i did. i've been napping off and on all day...

tomorrow i'm off to changwon in the morning for some big foreign teacher meeting that people only found out about today or yesterday... gotta love the last minute-ness of everything here... for someone who loves to know "the plan" and what is going on, this is one of the more difficult aspects of living here...

for those of you who are worried or concerned for my well-being here, i'm doing okay, i think that getting sick just made a lot of small things seem a lot worse... i know that everything will work out in the end - i am in control of my own life, and i can go home really, whenever i want... i just hope it doesn't come to that. maybe the meeting tomorrow will make things a lot clearer for all of us. at the very least, i'll get to see a bunch of peeps i haven't seen since august.

more s...h...i...t...

i hope this is just a cold that i have... it's starting to feel like it's mutating into something else... perhaps bronchitis... i'm doing everything in my power to stop it... boo-urns. i feel like crap. i spent most of the day sleeping in the resting room at school today, but don't think i'll get away with it tomorrow.

there's a rumour flying around the epik group (and was basically confirmed by joshua on his comment on my last post) that there is a big meeting in changwon on wednesday. i asked jay about it this morning but he told me he didn't know anything. hopefully he only found out this afternoon and just didn't have the chance to tell me before i left. i have to go to that meeting. it's to discuss how we are all faring here in our roles as english teachers... i have more than a mouthful to share.

if he denies it tomorrow i'm getting on the phone to the provincial office to make sure that he knows we have to attend... two days or in our case, one day notice really isn't cool... just another way the koreans leave everything to the last minute... especially when it comes to the foreigners...

i've been feeling pretty awful lately... i think a lot of it has to do with the cold that has now gripped me. ... of course, all the stuff with the co-teacher doesn't help, and it may be the stress that i've been experiencing at work that lowered my immune system... but whatever the reason, i thought i should try to post something more positive here... just having a little trouble figuring out what that should be.

on thursday at the end of the day jay dropped this off on my desk:

Dear EM

before i write this letter, i'd like to say this: if i have offended you, i really apologize to you. but please don't get me wrong. i didn't mean to offend you. never! ever. i think i shouldn't have charged the work as a co-teacher of the native speaker because i couldn't deliver my message and opinion properly to you. actually i deeply regret taking charge of all the works as a co-teacher. i'd like to learn english english as a co-teacher, but i couldn't do that. i think you are so angry at me. i am maybe selfish as you said. although i have tried to help you. i made many mistakes. all faults are mine. at any rate, i hope that i can deal with the work well until the end of this semesterand i can get along with you. i have had a hard time. it's too difficult for me to take care of you well. i am sorry about that again. you might think that you are unhappy because of me. please be generous and wait for a while. i want you to meet another kind and amiable co-teacher soon. and i wish you could clearly change your uncomfortable mind to Korean like me. i want to be a good person, but you think i am a bad person. then i am a bad person.


This is the letter to inform you about your schedule during the winter vacation. the authorities concerned told me to inform you this fact clearly yesterday. before i let you know you this fact, i'm very sorry to inform youthis fact: you have to come to our school and work as usual except you vacation during the winter vacation according to your contract.
you said to me that you'll have your vacation for 11-12 of january and from 29 of jan to 2 of feb. so you'll have to come to the school 29 of Dec. and from 2-5 of jan and from 8-10 of jan.
i hope you have your wonderful vacation. please forget every bad things and remember good things in this school and korea up to now, and refresh you body and mind during your good holidays. although we have had some troubles and misunderstanding to communicate each other (i'd like to apologize all my mistakes to you again), i really appreciate your earnest efforts and good works. merry christmas! may you have a great luck next year.
sincerely yours from jay

what am i supposed to do with that? i don't know if he's trying to relieve his conscience, trying to guilt me, or what... i just don't know what to think of it. is it just a way to mask the crappy news that i have to go to school when there is no-one else there during the month of january? he's just trying to make it seem like it's not his decision, but it is. his and the vice-principle. but they're making me go in anyway, even though there are no classes, no other teachers, and nothing for me to do. other people i know are "on call" for their school...and still others have to go in, but only for a couple of hours. not for the whole day.

i haven't had a chance to talk about this yet, but hopefully i can get Jo on my side and she can help me... when anyone hears that i have to go sit at school for the entire winter break they can't beleive it... it's just ridiculous... i think that Mr. Cho wants to take me sight seeing for a few days so maybe he can convince the VP to let me off the hook... we'll see.

hopefully things will start looking up. i'm trying to stay positive, but it's not easy when it feels like the world is dumping on you... but as they say, chin up... and i'm trying.

the blahs.

will the urge to just get on a plane and fly home ever go away?

i had a terrible day today. don't know if i'm hormonal, depressed, or still in culture shock... maybe all three, but i just want to be home. not that i have one of those anymore, i just want to be near anything familiar.

i miss:
my friends.
my mom and dad.
university life.
english (or even french) everywhere.
being comfortable.
nice co-workers.
salt and vinegar chips.
diet coke.
harvey's.
clothes dryers.
bread.
cheese.
home-made chili.
christmas.
and on and on and on and on... and on...

i hope the weekend can get me out of this funk. i hate being here - korea and the head space that it puts me in... why do i let it get to me?

part of the reason i came here was to prove to myself that i could something like this, but i'm seriously doubting myself today. maybe things will look better in the morning...?

what a waste...of space, time, energy... you name it.

so i know i keep complaining about my dork of a co-teacher, but i just have to... it gets worse every week. let me begin with monday morning.

i arrived at school at ten past eight (ten minutes early, like i do every day). i still didn't have my schedule for the week - i'm the only teacher i know whose schedule changes every week - but waited, as usual, for him to give it to me. i probably should have gone and asked him for it after first period started, but i wanted to see how long it would take him. at 10:04:45 AM he came to and dropped the schedule on my desk. surprise, surprise, i had a class at 10:05.

he didn't even say anything to me and walked away. i said "this is unacceptable" and he turned back. "oh, sorry. it was done on friday i just didn't have time to give it to you." didn't have time? between friday and monday at 10am he didn't have time? had i not been sitting there for almost two hours? had he not been in the room? what does it take to just hit print and leave it on my desk???

"you'd better get to class," he said to me. "excuse me?"
"you heard me, get to class."
"i don't even know what i'm supposed to be teaching these kids, i saw them two days ago. i'm only supposed to see them every two weeks."
"well, just go"

i stayed at my desk trying to figure out what to bring to class and two minutes later he brought me a different schedule and repeated "you'd better get to class." it was already ten minutes into the period, i looked at the schedule, cross-referenced with my excel worksheet of classes and what i've done with them already - thank god i'm so organized... though i have to be with the kind of schedule he gives me all the time... it never makes sense - there are some classes that i haven't seen for weeks and others that i am seeing two times in one week, two weeks in a row... i've offered to make my own schedule but he refuses saying it's his job.... but then when i say it's unacceptable for him to give it to me so late, he says that it's my responsibility to ASK him for it. WTF? i digress.

i asked him if the teacher in this class knows that i'm coming and he says yes. i look on my map of the school to figure out where i'm going (i usually leave with a teacher who takes me - with 38 classes i still haven't figured it out). as i'm walking to class, he comes running down the hall after me - he hasn't given the schedule to the korean english teacher that i'm working with.

as he catches up, i turn around and say "this is unacceptable, you are going to call the office of education right now and get me transferred to a co-teacher who can do his job!" what is his answer? "it doesn't matter, in a month you're going to a different school anyway."

EXCUSE ME????????? he wouldn't elaborate. of course not, i'm not privy to that kind of information until the last possibe moment. everything must be kept secret from the foreigner. i've asked Jo to ask him and he said he would get more information, i don't believe him.

anyway, monday goes by, i stopped talking to him and haven't even said as much as hello to him since then, nor he to me. but TODAY i had a "business trip". a meeting at the office of education (on the other side of the city - 45 minutes on the bus, there and then back)... well, as it turns out, i wasn't supposed to go to this meeting, it was for the Korean english teachers of the winter camp that i'm working at, and not the foreign teachers.

so i wasted all afternoon to go to a meeting that i didn't even need to be at, all thanks to the dumbass that we all know as my co-teacher. this guy is giving teaching in Korea a bad name. i feel like going home and making it clear that it is ALL because of him. i hope i DO get transferred, it may just be the blessing in disguise that i need. thank god it's mini weekend and i can get out with the ex-pats tonight.

coffee, soju, chocolate, and shopping

that's right - STARBUCKS!!!! it was the first thing i did upon arrival in Busan on saturday - get some REAL coffee... since i had been craving it for so long... i'm not a huge fan of starbucks, but they do make filter coffee... it was exquisite.

we (kat & chris) also got some chocolate cheese cake... mmm... delicious... and so rare in these parts. i didn't buy any coffee from them cause it costs an arm and a leg, but more on that later...

after starbucks we decided to go shopping at Lotte. i've been perilously close to running out of my perfume - Burberry Brit - and knew if it existed in Korea that i could get some there.

it is luscious... i love it and need it. i got some for myself for christmas last year, so thought i'd do the same this year. it's actually cheaper here than in canada!!! but still really expensive... it was a treat for me. a much deserved and needed treat... it even came with body lotion! here's what their site has to say about it:

"THE BURBERRY BRIT WOMAN EMBODIES THE SPIRIT OF BURBERRY AND MODERN BRITISH STYLE. HER CHARACTER IS REFRESHINGLY UNPRETENTIOUS AND STYLISH WITHOUT EFFORT. SHE’S OUTRAGEOUS, UNPREDICTABLE, ECCENTRIC, WITTY AND ALWAYS WITH A DELICIOUS SENSE OF IRONY."

sounds like me, doesn't it?!?! haha.

kat managed to find some of her favourite lipgloss at the MAC counter... we wandered around the food section for a bit and saw some really neat stuff - shish taouk-like pita wraps, shepherd's pie, all kinds of other wraps, the usual korean fare and much more. i'd never been to a lotte before, so it was neat to see... and we only hit two floors of it - i think there are like 10. it's sort of like the Bay in Canada, but with a more Harrods (London, UK) feel to it.

then we were off to wait around for Angela - birthday girl - so we went to Kyobo book store. i was hoping to find some english magazines but they only had Time and Newsweek... and for 7$ each i couldn't be bothered... no vanity fair...that would have been worth any price. oh well.

a giant tomato-head we found while wandering around.
the magots bean - (i know it's magGots but still!!!)

the giant bottles of Soju that were running around all over the place. later one we saw like 12 of them in a row but we were on the third floor looking out so we couldn't get to them on time... still loads of fun!

oh! i almost forgot the best part! while wandering the streets of Seomyeon (the area of busan we were in) we found all these little stores hidden away - literally felt like the twilight zone - it was a big maze of stores that were selling all kinds of real north american brands - no korea/japanese/chinese knockoffs but REAL stuff... i can only assume that it comes from the US Army bases and that this was where they sell "black market" items.

what did they have? i know you're curious - lady speed stick, colgate, aquafresh (should've bought it), skippy peanut butter, M&M's, kraft singles, the list goes on... but the best part i found the ONE and ONLY bucket of FOLGERS COFFEE!!! the exact bucket that was in my freezer at home in Canada.
notice the FRENCH and english?!?! this is right from north america... thank god! of course it was three times the price it is in Canada, but oh-so worth it! it was so weird to see it just sitting there in this weird little alley in the middle of busan. so today, for the first time since arriving 101 days ago, i brought my enviro-mug to work with me - filled to the brim with piping hot coffee...

it was a very expensive day - one that i couldn't really afford, but sometimes, when you're so far away from all things familiar, you need those little things that help make it feel like home. slowly but surely...

home-made kimchi

i got to school this morning and was presented with a big bag of kimchi from one of the english teachers. last week we talked about how i actually like the stuff and know how to make a few dishes with it. so when her mother-in-law made her winter kimchi yesterday, she snagged some for me.

she told me that she didn't think it would be very good... kimchi is different in household, and i guess she doesn't like her mother-in-law very much. she's told me as much. but i was thankful for the gift since it can be a bit pricey.

i missed out on the kimchi festival with kat a few weeks ago, but now i can say i've tried the real


tonight for dinner i made kimchi fried rice with it - it tasted just as good as usual... though when you make this dish, it tends to mask much of the flavour of the actual kimchi... so i took a bite and it was good. it'll probably get better with age - i'll let you know.
this is a close up - looks pretty nasty eh? it's chinese cabbage with all kinds of spices and other veggies stuffed inside... the kimchi i buy at the store never has carrots and onions in with it... but maybe i'm just not buying the right kind.

from someone who swore they wouldn't ever TRY the stuff, i've come a long way...

new page element

just a quick note to bring to your attention the newest feature on my blog. to the right between "round here" and "links" you will find "bushism". that's right. i will try to update daily, but can't guarantee that i might forget... it might turn out to be a weekly thing... anyway, enjoy! :)

the real beans

so, school has been letting out at 12:30 this week (monday, tuesday, and wednesday) because the grade 1 & 2's are in exams - more on that later. so yesterday i was home by one. i had lunch and then went out to buy a coffee maker - i just can't do it Korean style anymore! i need REAL coffee. i had been to the (bigger, better) homeplus across town on sunday, but they were out of the cheap (read $10) coffee makers. so, yesterday, having all this time in the afternoon, i headed to my local homeplus.

as you can (probably) tell by the pic on the left, i got one! it's a Livest MEC-503 - if that means anything... i can't tell you anymore, since everything is, you got it! in korean!

however, i have yet to try it out, since the homeplus had that coffee maker, but NO COFFEE!!! no filters, nothing to go with it, except the water. i'm still trying to find some and was gonig to go get some today, but was side-tracked by an awesome lunch with a co-worker.

i know they have the coffee at the other store accross the mountain, but it's such a pain to get there... hopefully i will be able to get there tomorrow - since i'm going out in the evening (as i do every wednesday for "mini-weekend"). i'll need the coffee to make it through thursday!

as i was saying, the grade 1 and 2's are taking their end of year exams right now. just another problem with the korean education system... they give the exams BEFORE the end of school. the grade three's had theirs over a month ago and since then it has been impossible to keep their attention in class.

i mean, why should they care about anything, their grades are in, they're off to high school in a few weeks, and anything we teach now is useless, right? i say "wrong" but try getting 500 sixteen-year olds to agree with that. needless to say, it has been a trying month, and isn't getting any better. which is just another reason to be so happy that we have a couple of half-days this week... the only problem is that the only classes i can teach in the mornings are the grade threes.

oh, if only they were all still sweet and innocent like the grade ones who still cheer when i walk in the room... instead they are constantly trying to take over the class. i suppose it is to be expected, especially when anything they do now doesn't ACTUALLY matter.

just another reason i need REAL coffee in the morning.

oh, and in case you're wondering about korean coffee (see right), it's all pre-packaged instant - with powdered milk and sugar already in the mix... you can buy different kinds, but i can't read the box, and now have about 100 'sticks' of the stuff left. anyway, you take a 'stick' and empty it in your cup and add about an inch of hot water - that's right one cup of coffee in korea is really like 3 sips of sugared milk. not nearly enough to get me going in the morning! i'd drink like 8 of them, but they're so sweet and creamy that they'll make me sick if i drink too much...

here's hoping for some caffeine in the next few days!

baby, it's cold outside...

so, it's getting pretty cold here in south korea... and no this is not a post merely about the weather (how pathetic would that be?!?)... i'm only saying it's getting cold, and so i have now discovered the wonders of the korean heating system. they are twofold.

one. in my apartment (all of them, really) the heat system is in the floor. when i turn on the heat, the water heater heats up the water and pumps it through pipes which are located under my hardwood floors. this is awesome. the floor gets all toasty - so your feet are always warm - then the heat rises and warms up the room. pretty neat if you ask me - much better than blowing hot air through the room.

two. this is the weird part. at school there are no heated floors - the classrooms have a central air fixture in the ceiling - in summer it's air conditioning and in winter it's heat. the problem? the teachers office (which is the size of three classrooms together) doesn't have this system... not fun in summer (when temps can reach 30-35 degrees C) or winter when it's cold outside.

it's been going down below zero at night for the last week or so, but the days have been relativelly warm and getting up to around ten degrees. not bad, but if there's no heat, you're screwed. so the school has installed two of these:
yes. this is our heater - good thing it's right behind my desk. it warms the room nicely, but take a closer look:
don't know if you can actually see it or not, (click on the picture and it should open in a bigger size) but there is an actual flame there. the "red hot" look is actually because there is a fire. it's like a portable fireplace...that runs on... wait, get this... GAS. so it's nice the room is toasty, but the fumes hit you when you come in... which isn't so nice.

another discovery that arrived around the same time as the heater/tea kettle, was a new kind of tea. at first i thought that it was there because they were boiling water on top of the heater -notice the kettle on top of the first picture? i saw the vice-principle pour the water out onto the top of the box today. i'm not sure why, it just evaporated in seconds, but it was really strange... will i ever understand anything in this country?

but the tea is just because it's that "time of year" - the cold and flu season. which, i have already been a party to for the last month, but now apparently is the season.

it's called citron tea. when i was first told what it was, i was like "oh, you mean lemon?" i was told "no, citron."

"oh, well, citron is french for lemon, so you must be mistaken." but she wasn't. check out the wikipedia article on citron.
it's like lemon tea with honey, but it's sweet rather than sour like lemon. so it's this big jar of sliced up citron and honey - you scoop it out with a spoon and add hot water... and it's delicious! i even bought some for home.
this is what it looks like in your cup. the "bits" are usually in the bottom of the cup, but i held them up for you to see... i'm still not sure if you're supposed to eat it or not, i've just been throwing out the chunks left at the end. anyway, it's really yummy and if you can find it where you live, try it. it's supposed to help ward off colds, though i think that's the same as the vitamin C myth - if you have enough of it, you won't get sick... what a load... colds and flus come from germs not from not getting enough vitamin C.

anyway, i'm off to have a cuppa...

and since... (updated)

i can't upload the latest batch of pics here, i've created a new album on snapfish... the link is to the right in my "links" section... but here it is anyway. some of them are pretty funny... my faves:

nutty balls - yes. they're little pastry things with nuts or nut paste in them...

slamma - THE most offensive bottle of alcohol i've ever seen... notice the gold tooth...

toweliben - the boys being silly as usual... get it, toweliben - taliban?

M - the sign on the mens room door at a posh bar we went to last night... notice his bit is a different colour...

(i have been informed that you can't see these pics without joining snapfish...argh. why do they have to make this so difficult? don't bother, i'll have them up here asap... seems that i had to clear my cache to get the site to work properly... so, sometime today or tonight...)

coming soon

blogger is messed up. i can't upload photos or make this post look pretty in any way... the toolbar is missing... not sure why, but as soon as it's back i'll post something better than this...

photosynthetic

just a quick plug for kassandra's artsy film... i'm actually in it, (around 7m30s mark) so all the more reason to post a link... check out photosynthetic.

you should also read her blog, she's brilliant.

korean commercials

i've been meaning to write about this since i stopped watching korean tv about a month and a half ago... yes, i have a tv in my apartment and it's not even plugged in. when i first got here it was my saviour. i could find many an american show to watch; friends, gilmore girls, alias (not that i did), everybody hates chris, sex and the city, and many many more.

for the first two weeks i could deal with the commercials by changing the channel or using the oh-so-convenient 'mute' button on my remote. as time passed, however, i got so sick and tired of the commercials that i just started downloading tv onto my computer - commercial free.

so, what makes korean commercials so bad? well, first, they aren't interspersed throughout the show like in NA - they are on for about 15-20 minutes straight. they often repeat the same ad several times, and sometimes the same one is on back to back. second, korean commercials (a lot of them anyway) are much akin to north american informercials - a man and a woman standing in front of a product and (to my ears anyway) yelling at you to buy it OR they have really bad K-pop (korean pop music) playing.

but the number one reason i stopped was cause i couldn't get the sunkist lemonade ad song out of my head. even after not hearing it for weeks it just pops into my head and i have to go buy some lemonade. the kids at school sing the song in the halls too. there is no escaping it. so, for your viewing/listening pleasure, here it is. it's slightly different than the one that i saw on tv, but you get the idea. argh!

now try to tell me that you'd keep watching after hearing that two or three times in a row ten times a night!

boats and birds - B is the letter of the day

a couple of weekends ago Kat and i were in Busan. it was Remembrance Day in Canada and we went to the UN Memorial Cemetery, but we also went on a boat tour to the Oryuk Islets. They are really big enough to be called islands - really they're only giant rocks sticking out of the water. But, they are one of the ten prides of Busan - two down and eight to go!

anyway, it was a pretty interesting ride. we paid like twelve bucks to get on this little boat with a whackload of koreans - we were the only waegooks (foreigners) on the ride. i like boats - a lot- and was actually more excited than i let on. i was, however, a little worried about the cold wind that would be attacking us while sitting on the open deck. actually, i think that the cold that has been clinging to me for weeks is a cause of that wind... but i digress.

the boat from the dock.

we got prime seats for the ride. there was a couple sitting in front of us, and the guy kept trying to talk to us, though he didn't really know any english. i thought he was drunk, but can't be sure.

the boat load of Koreans on the trip with us.

We were expecting the wind, the people, maybe even a little splash of the cold water, but we were not expecting to be cast as extras in a re-make of "the Birds". i've seen it a bunch of times (kat has apparently never gotten through it) but never wanted to be IN it. i once saw it at Place des Arts in Montreal at an outdoor film festival - the screen was the size of the building (maybe 8 stories high) and it scares the hell out of me every time. anyway, the first half of our boat ride was exactly like the parts of the movie where the birds are flying towards you in the audience and you feel like they're going to come flying out of the screen - only this time they were real.

this is nothing, there were hundreds of them...

to make matters worse the "drunk" guy in front of us, and all the korean actually, were throwing food off the side of the boat for them all. the woman in front of us kept holding shrimp chips in her hand, maybe in hopes of getting a shit-hawk to land on her arm... i don't know, but it didn't make for easy picture taking of the landscape... but i did manage to get this shot of Gwangalli Bridge with a pretty sailboat:not bad considering the birds were in the way most of the time.

The Oryuk Islets (according to the 'dynamic busan' website) are the symbol of Busan "Busan citizens think that the sea is like a living stage, expressing their happiness and sorrows." that is SO korean... ;)

the Oryuk islets consist of "Pangpae Islets, Suri Islets, Songot Islets, Kull Islets, and Patt Islets. The history of this name is that sea rises to the saddle of Pangpae Islets at high tide, dividing it into two, so that there appear to be six Islets." We weren't there at high tide, so we didn't see all of them, though i tried to figure out where they would be divided and couldn't see that either... in fact, i could only see four and we went all the way around them...
the first view we had of them... looks like there are only two.

this is the first view we got of them...looks like there are only two... (i love the contrast in this shot...)

me and the lighthouse

the lighthouse

the waves were really strong on the way back. some korean were lying on the benches below deck trying not to be sick... i'm not sure if anyone was or not.

i hope you can tell in the video that it isn't my shaky hands making the camera do that, but the waves knocking the boat around. we had to hold on for dear life a couple of times, but it was great... it almost felt like we were on an amusement park ride.

all in all it was a great time and worth the money... afterwards, we went to O'Briens for nachos and burgers... yum yum...

hang on...

dear blog,

sorry i've been ignoring you for the past few days... i just seem to have lost my mojo. i know there is a kick-ass post inside of me somewhere, i'm just trying to find it. so, until i do, please bear with me. i'll be back on the bandwagon soon... ... ... .. .

i got "tagged"

... didn't even know you could play tag on the internet, but apparently, i'm "it"...

this is a 'meme' which according to quixtarBlog is: "A blog meme is a type of Internet meme that requires active participation by the blogger and rarely traces back to an originating source. It's often a series of questions that a blogger answers to share some personal perspective or experience on random topics."

basically it means answer the damn questions and pass it on... like those annoying emails you get... i guess you don't have to answer, but it'd be fun if you did... i've tagged a couple of bloggers at the bottom of this post... if you can actually get through the whole thing!!!

Do you like the look and contents of your blog?
In general, I like the look of my blog, but there are some changes that I would make, if only I could figure out how to crack the code in the “new blogger beta”. I’m not finding it so easy to make custom changes to the code.
As for content – for the most part, yes. I think that I tend to ramble on at times, and sometimes I don’t have that much to say, but pictures are worth a thousand words, right? So I’ve always got an extra thousand or so for every post. Mostly this blog is for me to share my experiences in life, so I find it interesting – it is, after all, my life.

Does your family know about your blog?
Ya. My mom doesn’t have a computer, and my dad never reads it – least that’s what he tells me – not sure if my brother or anyone else in the fam’ is reading or not…

Can you tell your friends about your blog? Do you consider it a private thing?
This is the best way for me to let my friends know how I’m doing here in SK. Whether they’re reading or not is another matter. This is definitely not a private thing – otherwise it wouldn’t be in the public sphere… would it?

Do you read the blogs of those who comment on your blog? Or do you try and discover new blogs?
I read the blogs of people who post comments, but there aren’t very many random comments from people with blogs. I am always looking for new blogs to read and search out ones that interest me when I have time.

Did your blog positively affect your mind? Give an example...
ummm…maybe. I’ve always kept a journal, so the blog isn’t much different in an “affect your mind” kind of way… just that other people read it.

What does the number of visitors to your blog mean? Do you have a traffic counter?
I just got a traffic counter last week and have been borderline psychotic in checking who is reading my blog… well, as much as I can check where they’re from (Canada, US, Greece, Australia, France, Japan, Singapore, Romania(?!), what browser they use (other (?), IE, Firefox), their OS, where they were referred from, etc… the number isn’t really that important (462 hits and 216 visitors since nov. 16th !!!!) okay, maybe I like seeing that people are reading. It stems from the disappointment of the listeners of my college radio show – a big fat 0 most of the time. It made me crave the attentions of the masses… okay, whatever, this is crap – I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE READ AND COMMENT!!!!

Do you imagine what other bloggers look like?
Never really thought about it before in a physical sense. I think I more imagine their personalities.

Do you think blogging has any real benefits?
Depends what you mean by “benefits” – for the blogger I think it does – as an outlet, a means of communicating with people you would never otherwise communicate with (see traffic counter – Romania?? Who is reading from Romania, Singapore, etc??) it’s kind of crazy for me to think that there are people from all over the world that I am reaching in my own little way. For the readers – I think it does as well, people learning new things, seeing the world in a different way. So, I guess ya, I think blogging has “real” benefits.

Do you think that the blogosphere is a stand alone world community separated from the real world?
Sort of. I mean, everyone has their own identity in the blogosphere, and it doesn’t have to be the same as the one in their “real” lives. You can be anything you want without having to worry about people judging you. I don’t mean this in a creepy pedophilia kind of way, just in a more “open, honest about yourself” kind of way.

Do some political blogs scare you? Do you avoid them?
Bah. Don’t really care either way. We need to worry about the mass media conglomerates more than individuals and their blogs.

Do you think that criticizing your blog is useful?
Not really. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.

Have you ever thought about what would happen to your blog if you died?
Uh, no… hopefully it would live on in cyberspace… I’ll have to figure out how to post from the after life though…

Which blogger has had the greatest impression on you?
What kind of impression are we talking about here? some blogs are good for their wit, their writing, their voices; others are good for their photos or content, I don’t think I can pick just one. The ones I read regularly are listed to the right, and those are the ones I like.

Which blogger do you think is the most similar to you?
Ha! None. No one can ever be like me!!! lol… just kidding, not sure really… I’d say coulda woulda shoulda, but she’s way cooler than I am…

Name a song you want to listen to.
Uh, at the mo’ anything other than the Korean Sunkist lemonade song!!!

Tag some people.
coulda woulda shoulda, back in the motherland , Stranger in a strange land, liza in cymru… and whoever else feels like it.

the short stick...part deux

this morning jo (my amazing korean english teacher) told me that she arranged a sit-down with my co-teacher and me after last period today. she told me that she would attend as well. all day i was worried about it, trying to figure out what i would say and how i would say it. but she had already told him about the letter i wrote - i don't know what else she said about it, but it seemed like he was freaking out a bit that i'd told her about the sauna and his kids etc...

he apologized for everything. i apologized for calling him an asshole (though it felt great at the time, i did feel bad about it).

we agreed to start at zero; to try and communicate better (i've heard that one before); that he would tell me when he doesn't understand me - turns out half the time he has no idea what i'm saying; that if i need anything i will ask jo and if she doesn't know she'll ask him if need be; and finally that we would be amicable to each other no matter what.

hopefully the situation is resolved - i certainly feel a lot better for having had the chance to tell him that he made me doubt my decision in coming here and that i wanted to go home after the way he treated me last week. i'm feeling good about it all now, and hopefully things will stay this way. jo was worried about me and how i seemed so unhappy for the last few days, which i was, but i think that it'll all be okay...

even though i originally got the short stick, i think i just picked a new one and it's a lot bigger than the last. :)

ebb and flow

today was a pretty good day. i felt like i could just shake it all off... one of my team teachers told me that she would talk to my co-teacher with me and help me find a solution to my problem with him - but i think it's more than that. i just felt able to deal with all the shit - ebb and flow - dealing with culture shock is all about recognizing it, and then being as positive about it all as you can... maybe i've been repressing a lot of my feelings of culture shock and that's why it hit me all at once... i think i can do it now...

school was pretty good. i did some good lessons on pronunciation of tee aitch (TH)... since the most used word in the english language is 'the' i thought it would be good for them to be able to say it, instead of 'duh' it also helps them distinguish between "s" words. it was all right. in my other classes we played broken telephone - always a hit since it's a game. little do they know they're practising their english at the same time... it's perfect - listening and speaking... they understand how important it is when the message gets messed up in the middle and they don't get the answer right. i get to play it in almost every class for the rest of the week... good times!

things are looking up, and hopefully they'll stay that way. at least i'm prepared for the tide now...

gum chewers

anyone who knows me really well, knows that my biggest "pet peeve" is people who chew like cows. as it turns out, i have come to the land of the cud chewing koreans... everywhere i go lips are smacking, tongues are flapping, and gum is snapping... i can't get away from it.

i was on the bus today and the bus driver was driving me insane with his gum popping in his mouth like little tiny explosions every three seconds... i turned up my ipod as loud as i could handle it and i could still hear his gum in his mouth. i moved to the back of the bus, and there was a passenger doing the same thing... i don't know if it's their bad teeth, or if they like doing it, but koreans could use a lesson in chewing. see what i've been saying about the frustrations? *sigh...

culture shock

i'm having an "i hate korea" week. it's always up and down, but yesterday i actually pulled out my contract to see if there's a way for me to get out of this. i also checked how much it would cost me to fly home. it's not an option at this juncture...

it's not that i really hate korea, i'm just so frustrated with all kinds of things. i'm straight back into culture shock phase 2 - the worst phase to be in.

phase one is the "honeymoon" phase. it's when you first arrive and everything is so new and wonderful. like when i discovered the plastic wrap for your umbrella when you walk into a store, or figured out that i liked kimchi after all, or realized that korea is full of really nice people, and that i would be ok.

phase two is when the honeymoon is over - you begin to realize that is really isn't so easy to adapt to a new culture, country, language, customs, people...etc... you begin to feel frustration over not being able to communicate, and the entire place feels like it's out to get you.

phase three is when you start to have a better understanding of the culture. things seem like thye'll be all right, you're happy again, and life is moving along smoothly.

phase four is when you realize there are good and bad things in the new culture, but you are ok with it and you feel a solid sense of belonging.

ya, phase two is the worst, and from my experience, there is a very fine line between two and three. i felt like i was in three, but now i'm back to two, and i just hate being there. my dork of a co-teacher is making me feel like crap over what happened, even though i know i shouldn't, he still hasn't spoken to me. that part doesn't really bother me much, but he's gone and thrown out all the good that i saw in this place.

last night, for instance, i was trying to get a cab and i saw one coming so i flagged it. well, it just sped right past me (no, there was no one else in it). i know that this can happen everywhere, but i was really angry - i never know if it's because i'm a foreigner or because the person is a dickhead. more and more i feel like korean aren't so nice to foreigners. they resent us for some reason, maybe we represent something they know they'll never have... maybe they're jealous because they can't speak english and wish they did... maybe they're just racist, or sexist in my case... i don't know, but so much of the time i feel like i have a huge target tattooed on my forehead... and i hate the feeling.

it hadn't been bothering me of late, and then bang! just like that this week i can't deal with it. i just want to scream and shout and swear at them all. i get dirty looks when i walk down the street, when i'm in stores, on the bus, everywhere i go. if i'm smoking it's even worse, but that's a whole other story.

i'm sure that i'll get through this. i'm stuck in my contract until at least march - that's the 6 month point when i don't have to pay back my airfare here, but will still get stuck footing the bill for the way home. i'm trying to stay positive, but it just isn't as easy as that.

i figure that regular school is only until december 27th, so that's like five weeks... then i won't have to work with my co-teacher again until mid-february, and maybe i can get a transfer if things don't improve. there are tons of other schools around, and like i said, march 1 is the six month mark and i can just break my contract and a) go home or b) get a job at a hakwon (while forfeiting my year-end bonus and having to wait another year for it, if i stay).

i'll just have to see how long it takes me to get back into phase three, hopefully it won't be long. right now it feels like never...

the short stick

When it comes to co-teachers, I got the short stick. It’s taken me two and a half months to admit this, even to myself, but after much consideration, I have to say that I’d be better off without him a lot of the time.

I work in only one middle school, my co-teacher (the one “in charge” of me) is in his late thirties/early forties, and thinks that he’s gods gift to English education. I think he’s an asshole – excuse my language, hope it doesn’t offend anyone, but he is. He likes to put on these airs of being so great because he spent a month or two in the US on some exchange program, but really he’s the worst teacher at the school. His students have the worst grades of any of my six other team-teachers.

That however, is not my main issue with him. Since the day I have arrived he’s tried to pretend to be nice and to “take care” of me, until I really need something then he has no idea what is going on and tries to just tell me to accept things. “This is the way it is in Korea,” or “you must do this,” or “you must listen to me,” more recently I have been having trouble with him regarding my pay and clarifications on the deductions that are being taken.

In September I got paid one amount and in October I got paid less. When I tried to find out why, he told me “this is just how much you will get paid now.” Sorry, but that is an unacceptable answer in my books. When I pushed him to get me a pay slip he tried to convince me that I don’t need one. Then he told me all of the amounts deducted were normal, which they are not. I don’t know a single other ESL teacher in Korea who has to pay unemployment insurance, do you? He tried to tell me that when the year is over I can claim it, which is a load of crap, I am not allowed to claim Korean unemployment, I’m here on a contract, and when that contract is up, my visa expires and I have to leave the country.

It has been over a week since I asked for a pay slip and I still don’t have one. I finally had to get the supervisor of my province’s English teachers program on the phone. He has assured me that I would have a pay slip in a few days and if not to call him back.

This is not the only reason I call him an asshole.

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling terrible. I didn’t sleep all night because my throat was so sore that I kept waking up, I also had a fever and the sickest headache I’ve ever had. So, I went to school because I didn't know how to call in sick, and I knew I needed to go to the doctor - thus I was in need of a Korean. Too bad for me that the one I have to go to is my co-teacher.

When he finally got in (he's always late) he told me to go rest in the ladies room (we have a room for female teachers to sleep in when needed) and after something - pictures? I’m not sure what he was talking about, I was pretty out of it – he would take me to the doctor. Well, he forgot about me and left me there for two hours. At least I was able to get a little sleep, though it's hard with screaming kids running around outside.

So, I finally went and told him I needed to go to the doctor. He said he would take me, though he acted as though he were my savior and as if he were going out of his way. The doctor told me that I have tonsillitis, and that I should rest for a few days. He gave me a prescription to fill, and the mandatory “shot” that you get at the doctors. We were on our way; he would take me to the pharmacy and drive me home.

Of course, being Korean, he illegally parked while we were at the doctor's - it's not my place to tell him not to, last time I did that he told me that it was ok...and to never mind. Well, this time he got a ticket.

He couldn't wrap his head around it, a ticket? A ticket? “What do you think about this ticket?” he actually asked me that. I said, "Are you kidding? I can barely speak and you're asking me what I think of this ticket? It’s a ticket." Then he said, "Well I think you should pay for half of it." To which I replied, "this isn't the time, are you serious?" The doctor just told him that I needed to get home and get to bed and stay there, no stress, no work... and he's asking me about a parking ticket? WTF? Then he says, “Well, if you don't want to pay for it, then I’m just going to go back to school now and you can walk home.” At which point he pointed at the door as if to say ‘get out of my car.’ So I called him an asshole and walked home.

Am I over-reacting here? This is not the first time that he has done something like this to me, but I would have to write a short novella if I wanted to tell you everything… the first time he brought me to sauna and napped in the same cubby hole as me, the time he asked me how many men I’ve slept with, the two times he sent me to immigration by myself, the times that he’s tried to make me feel like I was indebted to him for him doing his job… I can keep going here.

I am friends’ with several other Korean co-teachers in my city and friends of mine have told their co-teachers about mine, and they all seem appalled by his complete indifference and lack of ability. I don’t want to make it seem like all co-teachers are like this, I don’t think that they are, like I said, I just got the short stick.

United Nations Memorial Cemetery

On Saturday, Kat and I were supposed to go to Beomeo Temple in northern Busan, but we didn’t. it was rainy in the morning, and we were worried about climbing a mountain in the rain, so we made changed our plans. Seeing as it was Remembrance Day (November 11th) in Canada, we visited the UN Memorial Cemetery. Though we didn’t get to do what we were planning, I got to scratch the cemetery off my “Korean To-Do List.”

I felt quite solemn when I walked through the front gates. There is a sign with the rules listed: Be quiet, keep your clothing proper, do not exercise, do not bring in food or pets, keep off the grass, don’t litter, and if you are found making noise you will be asked to leave. These rules are in order to preserve the dignity and respect of a place like this, something that I think is very important too.

Above you can see the main entrance. Listed on this wall are the number of casualties for each country that was a part of the United Nations Forces in the Korean War (1950-53). There are 378 Canadian soldiers interred in Busan, though there were 516 deaths.


I wasn't expecting to feel the way i did when i saw all the graves... i've always had a strange soft spot for people who died in the name of freedom. Call me cheesy or whatever you will, but many of these graves are those of mere boys, mostly between the ages 18 and 21.

Kat asked me at one point if i could imagine what it must have been like to be at war in this country. all i could say was no. it is unfathomable, unless you have experienced it, to have any idea what war is like, and i'm not gonig to try and pretend that i do. i am lucky enough to come from a country that has never been afflicted with civil war, strife, or even major terrorist action. and that is, in part, thanks to the brave souls - like the ones here - who gave their life so that i would know freedom.
every grave has a marker with names, dates, country of origin, and rank. they also have a rose bush and a hedge-like bush next to them.

The Wall of Remembrance commemorates the 996, 937 UN Forces casualties of the Korean war.
i've seen these kinds of monuments on TV, but this was the first time that i came face to face with so many thousands of names.
you can see the length of the wall in the reflection of the photo to the left. behind that there was another massive wall with just as many names on it.




"Canadian Veterans of the Korean War dedicated a memorial statue designed by Mr. Vincent R. Courtenay, the Canadian Veteran, on November 11, 2001, of which the soldiers depicted have no helmet or weapon, nor unit insignia. It symbolizes a national characteristic of Canadian, which is to embrace all humanity regardless of personality or formality. 21 maple leaves and roses of Sharon, national symbols of Canada and Korea, held by the boy and girl express the 21 missing Canadian soldiers." (source: UN Memorial Cemetery website)

i know this is really sappy, but i feel really proud that i was able, in my own little way, to pay homage on Remembrance Day.

The Buddhist temple in Beomeo will always be there, but November 11th is only once a year, and i'm really happy that it rained in the morning.