a new look

i finally did it.

i got my hair cut. in korea.

i had been putting it off since before i came to korea. then when i got here i was worried that i'd end up with a mullet... since it is alive and thriving here. i was also worried about the cost. it's not something i like to spend money on - the salon. in montreal you can upwards of a couple of hundred dollars for a wash and style - not that i ever spent that much! but i have spent 60-70$ on my hair and just wasn't prepared to spend that kind of money to be disappointed.

well, neolive proved me wrong! when they told me pal chun won (8,000W) i thought they were mistaken... and the guy thought i was a moron for asking five times... i thought he was telling me 80,000W and that i wasn't understanding him... but nope, it was less than ten dollars!

"before" - in the bathroom at the salon.

"after" you can't see it that well... that's why i have the next one...

"after" - in the bathroom at home.

the back - taken by the hairdresser.

there you have it! oh, and did i mention they didn't wet my hair when they cut it. they just sat me in the chair and started chopping away. that was a little scary, but it all turned out! i love it. i doubt it'll look so good when i do it, since she used a ceramic straightener to make the waves, but i'm sure with the way she cut it i'll be able to figure something out.

let me know what you think!

miscellanea

i didn't think that i had anything to write about today, but there are a couple of things that i found out about my upcoming school year. at school #1 i will only be teaching first grade (the equivalent of grade 7 in canada)!!!! this is great. it will give me the chance to really get to know the kids and create some kind of rapport with them. it means a lot of extra lesson planning - something i thought i had finished yesterday - but that's ok.

at school #2 i will be teaching only second grade. this is all right - at least i can use the same lesson plans as i am in school #1.

school #2 is moving my desk so that i will no longer be sitting directly in front of the vice principal. though, on second thought, he won't be there for the next few months, so it doesn't really make much difference. i will be closer to the door though...faster, easier escape route!

i leave you now with some random photos from the last little while...

what is "job's tears tea"? is this some kind of weird biblical reference?
and what's with the "frim coffee"? there are some things i'll never understand...
our waiter at junco last weekend. these hats are best when seen on grown men in business suits... but this shot will have to do!
mark and ben 'chicken fighting' in the subway - they learned this in their martial arts class...
sorry it's blurry - i had to be fast (crappy camera doesn't help)

international banking crisis

if you've been following this blog over the last six months, you will have read all about the banking issues i had when i first arrived. things got much better after i found a great banker at the bank down the street. JJ spoke excellent (for a korean) english and kept all my information for me, making things so easy for me that i guess i got kind of 'soft'. i forgot to write about this last month - what with the million and one posts about seoul - but JJ was transferred. far away. today it hit me like a ton of bricks.

i transfer money home once a month. i go to my bank, withdraw cash, and bring it to JJ, who, exchanges it and transfers it for me. last month i walked into the bank popped my head around to where his desk is - all ready to tell him about my trip to seoul - but he wasn't there. i thought that since i was there earlier than usual that maybe he was on lunch. so i left, intended on returning in an hour or so, but i had nothing else to do, so i walked back in to pay my bills with the regular teller.

when it was finally my turn i paid my bills and tried to ask her about JJ. was he on lunch? or was it possible that the man sitting at his desk was just replacing him for the day? well, the 'new guy' (who was the guy who used to sit next to JJ) recognized me and brought me over to his (JJ's) desk and said, "mr. jin go".

"what?" i asked.
"mr. jin go," he repeated.
just as the tears were welling up in my eyes the 'new guy' passed me the phone, it was JJ.
"hello?" i heard him say.
"hi."
"oh, long time no see," he said.
"i know, but i only come once a month, you know that."
"i'm sorry," he said, "i had to leave that place."
"what do you mean? where are you?" i asked.
"i am in seomyeon now."
"oh, well, that's good for you. it is much closer to your home." i tried to sound happy.
"yes, it is good for me, but not for you."

today i really realized just how 'not good' it is. i had to go in to make my transfers again and the 'new guy' just doesn't know what he's doing. he had to call JJ again - at his new branch - to find out what i wanted/needed. then he spent the next hour doing what JJ always did in about twenty minutes. not to mention that he barely speaks english and isn't very nice. he was talking about me with the guy who sits next to him. i don't (obviously) know what they were saying, but there were a lot of funny looks, laughter, and "canada" being thrown around. it sucked.

it was just one little thing that made life here a bit easier - JJ, my awesome banking guy. plus he made going to the bank kind of fun, since we'd chat and he'd get me coffee and snacks, and give me presents like calendars and clocks. it seems like i'll be talking to him on the phone once a month regardless, since the new guy doesn't know what he's doing and has to call JJ every time i'm there... like today. but it just isn't the same.

more importantly, i hope that he did everything correctly and that the money will be in my account in the next few days like it usually is... who knows what he did, since he didn't do the same thing that JJ always did... with my luck, my money will probably get stuck somewhere in cyberspace... (knock on wood).

:(

lazy days (?)

not much to report on this lazy sunday afternoon. the weekend has been spent celebrating my friends' impending departure to the UK. they've been here a long time now, and they're on their way home. so, friday, for the first time since gimhae has been 'home' we went out in my 'hood.

the bar is junco, they have great food, and a decent atmosphere, and a fun time was had by all. i made it an early night and left at around two... walking home for once was way cool, as i usually have a 15 minute cab ride at the end of the night...

then saturday night we headed into busan to the now famous fuzzy navel. a bar that is quickly becoming one of my favourites in busan. the only word kim could have said to get me into busan yesterday wsa kebapistan... so we went for dinner first with bill, ben, and mark in tow. it was yummy as usual... i promise a full review the next time i go, complete with pictures... i know i keep talking about the place, but i never get "into" it, so i will.

we got to fuzzy navel where i was going to stay for a drink or two and then head home, but it's just such a great place. free fooseball and pool... what more could we want?!?! we played a bunch of fooseball - all that practice with ranya paid off... i still haven't lost what little of the 'touch' i had for it. pool was terrible... i need to get playing again. anyway, after nearly seven hours of hanging out at the bar, i was finally in a cab on my way home to gimhae. thank the heavens' above!!! it was five am by the time i got in my door... and it was supposed to be a "light night" out... oh well, the best laid plans, eh?

i had a great time though, and staying late was definitely worth it, and i didn't even end up wasting my sunday as i got up at a decent hour. now i'm just kind of bored. watching some telly. eating some japchae. thinking how nice it would be if i lived closer to anyone that i know... happy lazy sunday everyone.

it's a beautiful/smelly day

today felt like april in montreal. like that first really nice day of spring, where you go find a terrace to sit and have a beer on. only, it's not april, it's february; and i'm not in montreal, i'm in gimhae; and there are no terraces here, or people to have beer with in the middle of the afternoon. oh well. i think that was more of a 'university days' thing too... ? maybe, or maybe it's a montreal thing... but i digress.

it was a beautiful day today. the sun was shining and you could smell spring in the air. in montreal that would mean the smell of a winters' worth of accumulated dog feces, but in korea, it just means the air was fresh... mostly. i decided it would be a terrible waste to spend the afternoon holed up in my little room, so i headed up to the roof for some sun. (yes, i have an easily accessible roof, which is at my disposal - yay!) so i got a book (two actually since i was about to finish one), a bottle of water, and a blanket to sit on, and walked up one flight of stairs.

since the last time i was up there someone has strung up a clothes line (probably the evil couple upstairs from me, who, by the way, seem to think the entire hallway above their apartment belongs to them for keeping their trash! hmph.) anyway, there were no clothes, so i had a nice big roof all to myself. i sat on the blanket with my back up against the wall, and started to read, when out of nowhere a whiff of the most rotten and foul odour hit my nose like i was in a waste treatment facility. then i remembered that the last time i was up there it was stinky too. so much for hanging out on the roof - but my big question is, why would anyone want to hang their clothes to dry anywhere near the stench?

i was up there long enough to take these pictures, enjoy!

the mountains in the distance - really not that far, they're the ones i hike...

keep going and you'll get to the south sea and then the pacific...

hopefully i can discover the source of the stench and quash it. (ooh, lots of big words today...)

korean cooking adventure

yesterday i was a good girl. i went to school, i went to the gym, and i went grocery shopping. but what made me a super star was looking up recipes to cook before shopping and buying the right ingredients. i wanted to try to make some of my favourite korean dishes (the ones i couldn't stop thinking about after my good/bad post) so i got a recipe for pajeon, japchae, and dokbokki.

i had the dokbokki yesterday - they had a pre-packaged do-it-yourself kit at the store, so i got that... just to make sure i wouldn't be disappointed.

dok bokki

it's rice noodles in a spicy sauce with veggies. mine didn't look as good as the picture above, but i'm sure it tasted just as good. i was surprised that the packaged one turned out so well, and will certainly be buying it again.

pajeon is korean pancakes. 'pa' is green onion, and 'jeon' is pancake, so they're actually green onion pancakes. when i get this at restaurants i usually like it better with kimchi, but i'm actually fresh out and forgot to add it to my list... oops.

pajeon

after making it today, i realized even more why i like it with kimchi, otherwise it doesn't really have much flavour. you're supposed to eat it with a sauce made with soy sauce and vinegar, but that didn't turn out, so the whole thing was a bust. they weren't very good... they'll be better next time 'cause i'll add some kimchi to it.

finally (after the pajeon fiasco i was still hungry) i made the japchae. i love this stuff! in restaurants and now at home too! it totally worked out!

japchae

it's made of sweet potato noodles called dang myun, marinated beef, carrots, egg, and onion. the sauce is made with soy sauce, garlic, green onion, and sugar. mmmm... noodle stir-fry!

i was so proud when i bought the beef yesterday too, since i had to do it at the counter and everything... the woman seemed confused that i didn't want pork, but i managed to get some really nice beef, which they even sliced into perfect strips for me!

like i said, it's always trial and error with the cooking korean, and today was no exception, but it just feels great when you succeed. you're all invited to dinner at mine...eventually!

happy anniversary to me!

Today is my six-month anniversary. I arrived in Korea on August 21st 2006, so even though my contract anniversary isn’t for another week, it has been sixth months since I left the security and comfort of all I know/knew. I know I’ve already talked a lot on this blog about what it has been like for me to adjust to life here, but I feel like today is a special day (plus I’m bored at school with nothing to do). So I thought I’d list some of my favourite and some of my least favourite things about Korea.

Good thing #1 – there is no winter. That’s right. For the first time in my life it hasn’t gotten colder than about –2 degrees Celsius. There is no snow. No bitter wind cutting through your coat and then your skin. Plus winter is shorter here. They’re already saying if spring and February isn’t even over yet! It was so warm on my hike on Monday I had to remove layers and didn’t even need the earmuffs I brought along… I love it!

Bad thing #1 – cud-chewing cows are everywhere. No, not actual cows, but Koreans who chew like them. My biggest pet peeve in life, and it’s the national past time!

Good thing #2 – the food. I love Korean food. I was really worried about this when I arrived since my first taste was on the airplane (and we all know how bad airplane food is). Since then I have discovered a palette for kimchi, jigae, bosum, samgyupsal, bulgogi, dok boki, and numerous other dishes, which I still cannot name, but love. I especially love the Korean notion of side dishes. When you order a plate in a restaurant it automatically comes with three to ten other dishes – at no additional charge! And free refills if you want them! A meal that would cost 25$ in Canada ends up costing like 4$ here.

Bad thing #2 – it’s hard to cook at home. I do it, and I do it quite well, but it’s hard when the instructions are all in Korean and you have to guess what to do by simply looking at the pictures. It’s winds up being a lot of trial and error and more often than not, it’s error.

Good thing #3 – the cost of living is super low. It’s way cheaper to live well here. It helps that I don’t have to pay any rent and bills are relatively cheap as well. On the food front, it would probably be cheaper for me to just eat out all the time than to bother trying to cook.

Bad thing #3 – rudeness. I know you experience rudeness to some degree in every place in the world, but Koreans are particularly good at being rude. From spitting on the street (after hocking the loogie) to bumping into you when there is still five feet available, Koreans just don’t think they’re being rude when they are. Maybe it’s just my western way of thinking, but I just find it gross to listen to someone pull up a chunk from their lungs/throat and then see it hit the ground like a small bomb. Ick. And the bumping into others is a big problem…it’s called personal space, but in Korea it just doesn’t exist.

Good thing #4 – I have made some really great friends that make up for all the rudeness that I deal with on a daily basis.

Bad thing #4 – not understanding/speaking enough of the language. I can get by in daily transactions, and most Koreans are very understanding when I tell them “hangukmal chogum” (Korean little), but I do get the occasional ‘tsking’ and dirty looks because I don’t understand or can’t answer. A couple of the teachers at my school (not English teachers) have actually said to me that if I want to talk to them that maybe I should learn Korean. My reply? Maybe you should learn English! They have, after all, been learning it since childhood! I’ve only been here six months. Still, if I were to stay longer than one year (which I’m not) I would make more of an effort, like I did upon arrival.

I can’t really think of any more at the moment. But if you’ve been reading the blog regularly then you’re probably aware of the other good/bad things that I encounter. I think I’ll go out tonight and hang with the gang and celebrate my anniversary! I can’t believe it’s already half over! So little time and so much left to do. I’ll get on that list ASAP!

the (new) seven wonders of the world

the original seven wonders of the world were chosen by the greeks over two thousand years ago. in 1999, Swiss adventurer (i like the sound of that... now how do you become an "adventurer"???) Bernard Weber decided that it was time to update the list, so he started a campaign to name the new 7 wonders of the world. last year a vote was held over the internet which got the list down to 77 world sites, from the 200 original nominations (over the internet); quite a few less than that of unesco which is up to 830 world heritage sites, and counting.

after narrowing the list to 77, Weber recruited a panel of architectural experts, chaired by former UNESCO chief Federico Mayor, who whittled down the list to the current 21. they have been visiting the sites and interest in the project has gained momentum - over 20 million people have already voted for the new list, including me. here's the list:

Alhambra, Granada, Spain
Angkor Cambodia got my vote.
Pyramid at Chichén Itzá, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Christ Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Roman Colosseum, Rome, Italy
Statues of Easter Island, Easter Island, Chile got my vote.
The Eiffel Tower, Paris, France
The Great Wall of China got my vote.
The Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey got my vote.
Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto, Japan
The Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow, Russia
Machu Picchu, Peru got my vote.
Neuschwanstein Castle, Schwangau, Germany
Petra, Jordan
The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt got my vote.
The Statue of Liberty, New York, USA
Stonehenge, Amesbury, United Kingdom got my vote.
Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
The Taj Mahal , Agra, India
Timbuktu, Mali

the winners will be announced on 07.07.07 (which also happens to be my mom's birthday). that being said, visit the7wonders site to cast your vote and be a part of history!

moutaineering 101

well, the first meeting of the gimhae foreigner mountain hiking club was today! the name is just a joke, but i finally managed to get some buddies to come up for the view and some 'fresh' air. it was nice going up with other people... and they considered me the leader since i'd already done it. joe took the picture, so he's missing in it, but here we are "at the top"!

kim, emma, me

andy

kim's new hiking boots didn't, however, make it to the top! thank goodness she made it back down! we stopped and had a little picnic while enjoying the view and laughing about the boots. it was nice. we walked past my inukshuk, and it's a good thing i took a photo of it last week, because it's been knocked over now... :( guess i'll just have to make sure to build a bigger and better one sometime... maybe i'll bury some treasure under it!

everyone came round to mine after for a chat, and that was really nice too! makes me feel good to have people over. (it's a good thing i cleaned this weekend!) anyway, if you're reading, thanks again for a great day! let's do it again asap!

ugh.

making this fast. just wanted to post something, since i promised that i would every day... i went out to busan last night with kim. we had a good time eating at kebapistan and then checking out various foreigner bars. i stayed out WAY too late... and mostly because of a stupid scot (yes, a guy from scotland) that i met... something about the scottish accent just makes me crazy. i ended up dreaming about his voice all night, but he was singing the lyrics to that looper song. so weird. didn't get out of bed 'til almost four this afternoon and spent the rest of the evening watching telly as i have no energy and my stomach is still being loopy. i really have to stop ordering gin and tonic when i go out... think i made a complete ass of myself last night as well, but everything is a little hazy... i know that i saw chris at like four in the morning on the street in haeundae - totally random. he kept trying to get me to go to the beach with him, but i couldn't abandon kim and didn't really feel like sitting in the sand anyway. so i played pool with the cute scot instead - he kicked my ass. hard. i need to start practicing and playing more - i miss being good at it. anyway, just some random thoughts to get you through the day.

happy new year, the second.

All over Asia the lunar New Year is being celebrated this weekend, and in Korea, it's called Sol-nal.

Korea used a lunar calendar until the late 19th century when Christian missionaries started influencing their way of life. Soon after, the Japanese gained control of the peninsula and switched them to the Gregorian calendar (which they had already been using for several decades). Though Koreans celebrate the solar new year along with the rest of the world, the lunar new year is much more important to them.

Being a culture of tradition, the lunar New Year is about honouring your ancestors and spending time with family. It’s not about firecrackers, dancing, and parties, like many other Asian countries. As in most other things, Koreans are much more subdued when it comes to celebrations.

the year of the pig.

This year lunar New Year marks the beginning of the year of the pig. All over Korea there have been pigs statues, pig key chains, piggy banks, and millions of other pig things on sale for months. But what’s the deal? We’ve all heard of Chinese astrology, but where does it come from? One story is that Buddha asked all animals to come visit him on New Year but only twelve showed up. So, he named a year after each one and declared that anyone born in that year would have the traits of those animals - Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. If you want to find out your Chinese astrology sign or get your annual horoscope click here. (I’m a snake.)

new year greeting in korean.

New Year rites are complicated and the procedure exact, and though there are differences from region to region, the activities that comprise New Years day are quite specific. In Korea, New Years’ Eve day is spent cleaning the entire house and preparing a feast for the first day of the year. The New Year is about renewing oneself and reestablishing family ties.

On the eve, rakes, sieves, and/or shovels are placed on doors or walls to ward off any evil spirits arriving with the New Year.

children in traditional han-bok.

In the morning, new clothes are donned, usually the traditional hanbok (see post on chuseok). The first part of the ritual is to pay homage to the last four generation of the family. This is the rite of Charye. Food and drink (prepared the previous day) is set out on a ritual table – often it is arranged by colour and certain dishes must face east, west, north, and/or south. After the table is laid out, incense is lit and the living must bow to the ancestral spirits that have to come to celebrate. The eldest male makes two deep bows and one shallow bow and then offers the food and drink. The rest of the family follows suit according to age and rank. Everyone turns away from the table to allow the ancestral spirit to eat in peace. After a time, the table is cleared and water is served.

table setting for the ancestral spirit.

After paying respects to the ancestral spirit the younger family members must do the same to the living elders. This is called saebae and involves bowing deeply, first to the grandparents, then the parents, aunts, uncles, etc… this is accompanied by the traditional new year greeting. “Sae-hae boke mahn-he pah-du-sae-oh”, which more or less translates to “many blessing to you this year”. Usually the youngsters will receive gifts of money or food from the elders.

paying respects to the elders.

Finally, the living can eat their traditional breakfast, consisting of ttak-guk (a sort of rice cake soup – tastier than it sounds). It is very important to eat this at New Year, or you will not turn one year older. Korean age is calculated at the New Year and everyone turns a year older on the first day of the year (oh no, how OLD does that make me???).

The rest of the day is spent playing (children), cleaning (women), or lazing about (men). Koreans are very steadfast about their traditions, and New Year is no exception. It is the one of two days of the year where everything (almost) closed, and where families must travel back to their hometowns.

And just to make this post EVEN longer, here’s a little about the snake:

Diplomatic and popular, the Snake has the sensual art of seduction down. This Sign is an interesting mix of gregariousness paired with introversion, intuitive reasoning paired with savvy business skills. Snakes are considered to be lucky with money and will generally have more than enough to live life to the fullest, regardless of how important it considers money to be; this may be due to the fact that Snakes tend to be rather tight with cash. They're not stingy, they're simply more mentally than physically active. Snakes tend to hang back a bit in order to analyze a situation before jumping into it. Their charming, seductive quality actually belies a rather retiring nature; this Sign is perfectly happy to spend the whole day curled up with a good book and, thus, can be mislabeled as being lazy.

The Snake is somewhat insecure deep down and tend to be a rather jealous, possessive lover, behavior that can end up alienating loved ones. Despite these less-than-stellar tendencies, however, the Snake often proves irresistible and is a generous, loving partner. Slightly dangerous and disarmingly smart, the Snake's philosophical and intuitive mind generally supersedes logic in favor of feelings and instinct. Snakes will rely on their own gut reactions and intuitions before turning to others for suggestions. This makes this Sign a great hand in any business venture, possessing the caution and smarts needed to get ahead.

Snakes are hard workers (when they see good reason to be!) and are possessed of a keen intelligence. Snakes have incredible follow-through, once they get going, and they expect the same from others. Thus, their coworkers and employees had best stay on their toes, lest they anger the Snake and suffer its poisonous bite!

In general, of course, Snakes are generous and genteel, charming and appealing. Snakes must try to learn humility and to develop a stronger sense of self. Once Snakes realize that confidence comes from within, they will finally be comfortable in their own skin.

The most compatible match for a Snake is the Rooster or the Ox.

Now, doesn’t that just sound exactly like me? happy new year everyone!

school's out

yesterday was the last day of the school year. see posts below for what i think of the korean school year... i just thought since today was pretty chill (went to school for a couple of hours, then to the gym, then watched the latest episode of lost) that i'd post a few pictures of my school... since i spend so much time there... here it is:

my school from the entrance. it looks nicer than it is! they're big into the landscaping though... so it can be very pretty when all the plants are actually green and growing.
my shoe locker. we all have to take off our shoes when we enter the school, so we have lockers for our 'outdoor' shoes. i also have a pair of school shoes inside.
the front entrance from the side. the principals' office is in the windows on the first floor on the right... the teachers office is right on top.
a typical hallway. the boxes on the left are the students shoes lockers... they have to walk through the school with no shoes on to get to their school shoes. some of them just wear slippers or socks, though this is probably against school rules.
my "english only zone" - just about everything i put up has now been torn down by uunruly students who hate english. it's great to be me! the vice principal will probably make me do it all over again when the new year starts. he tries to get me to go sit there and talk to students. the problem with that is that they only ever go hang out there when i'm not there!

so there's a bit of my school. one of the things i had to get used to was that students don't change classes. kind of like elementary school in north america. they have their room and they stay there - the teachers have to go from class to class. i think it would be a lot easier if i had a class room that i could make my "english only zone"... oh well... hope you enjoyed the quick tour.

this weekend in lunar new year - i'll post something about it soon... what is it? who celebrates it? what does it mean for koreans? etc...

is it a sign? or should i convert?

(disclaimer: if you are easily offended by matters of others' faith, do not read on.)

i think that god is trying to find me in south korea. everywhere i go i run into another korean woman trying to sign me up for her church.

when i was a kid my dad used to drag me to church every sunday. i'd be relegated to the sunday school with all the other kids and i found it interminably boring. then when i moved to quebec i became fast friends with a girl whose mother was a devout christian. they went to church every sunday and said grace before every meal... they approved every song and book their children were exposed to - to make sure there wasn't anything evil in it - they were the definition of piety in all respects... and they desperately wanted to make me one of god's children.

i wasn't allowed to sleep over at their house unless it was saturday. that meant i had to go to church with them in the morning. i remember them bringing me to a billy graham function once and making me accept jesus into my heart. i still haven't figured out what this means.

i suppose that if it means trying to be a good person, then i have, but what does jesus have to do with it? i was brought up with good morals and beliefs, and i try to be a good person... do unto others... etc... but i just don't get where the church has to fit in... when i was in cegep i took a class called 'christianity and buddhism' (uh, ya, i know) just to see if i could figure out what all the fuss was about. my final grade was 5%. i just stopped going...

organised religion just isn't for me. i've never felt a connection to any god that any religion has touted. i see religion as an archaic means of controlling the masses. that being said, i do believe in some higher power; in something that is more powerful than us - call it god, fate, karma, science, really, you can call it whatever you want...

but i digress. today i was walking to the gym and this korean woman came barrelling at me - running at top speed - i thought she must have seen someone behind me, but no, she was coming to see me. she wanted to know if i remembered her.

"uh, no. sorry." look of confusion on my face...
"oh, meet. there" pointing down the street behind me...
"oh, ok. sorry. i don't know" the best phrase that all koreans know and understand.
then she just started rambling on in korean to me. i had to keep saying no, sorry, don't know, etc... i just wanted to get to the (damn) gym! finally it dawned on me that she'd stopped me in the street a few months ago trying to get me to go to her church, or give her my phone number and address so she could contact me. well, she was at it again.

apparently her church is in the same building as my gym - woo hoo... she was trying to get me to say that i'd go. i very politely said "i'm sorry, i don't go to church" but she wasn't having any of that. maybe i should have been more rude... (they always are) she managed to get my address out of me and i guess that means i can expect a visit at any time. what BS.

argh! what am i to do... how many times do i have to tell a korean that i don't go to church, don't want to go to church and will not go to their church??? will i have to get mean about it? there is just no end in sight, they're everywhere - the people and the churches. and they're so pushy and aggressive about it all too. maybe i should just start telling them i'm jewish.

oh happy day!

well, this has been a week of surprises... good, bad, and in-between... but today held the best news i've received since arriving in korea... my co-teacher has been transferred to a different school!!!! that means i have a new co-teacher - jo - the awesomest teacher at my school.

i sit next to her and she's already been so helpful through all the jay crap. this is a nice turn of events. i also found out that i'll be at my regular middle school on monday, tuesday and wednesdays and going to sino middle school on thursdays and fridays. this is also a good thing since it is in walking distance to my house. i was worried they were going to start sending me to a school with no bus service that i would have to walk over an hour to get to... but no! they sent me to the closer one. i've heard it's one of the worst schools in gimhae, but if i can survive the one i'm at now, i think i can survive anything!

things really are looking up. i'm on my way to go swimming with emma... and i got two valentines from students today!

i like feeling good.

happy v daze!

i'm the proud new owner...

of a korean gym membership!

i've been thinking of joining a gym since i got here... and today i finally went and did it. going to the gym is good for me. it's important for me. especially since last summer when my back did that whole i'm-going-to-screw-you-like-never-before herniated disc thing. after recuperating from it i was doing my physio-therapy exercises every day and then swimming most days for a good two months, and i hadn't felt better - physically and emotionally - for years.

when i arrived in korea i kept doing my physio - most of the time - but slowly it tapered down until i felt like a complete lazy ass. recently i've gotten on this hiking kick, and it has reminded me how much i used to love to exercise. so why can't i again?

so, today, when the entire teaching staff of my school was taken out for lunch next door to the gym around the corner from my house i got a korean to come in and help me get some info. (can anyone say run-on-sentence???haha) it's WAY more expensive than any gym i've ever gone to - even more strange because koreans are hard core about their health/exercise - but i think it's worth the money, not to mention the health benefits - both physical and mental.

i thought i'd been gaining weight in the last couple of months - the holidays were awash with rich food and lots of drinking - never good for the waist line - but as it turns out i've actually lost a total of five pounds since last summer - not a lot, i know, but nothing to scoff at either. especially since i haven't been doing anything for it. who knew that eating tons of pork and drinking more beer would make you lose weight?!!?!?!!?! maybe it's all the kimchi? okay, i digress...

my gym guys' name is 'coach'... at least that's what we decided i'd call him since korean names just don't stick in my head. he gave me the tour, which consisted of showing me where i could find my shoe locker, my gym uniform and towel (that's right! it's included!) and the changing rooms. then he showed me all the weight machines i should use and gave me a bunch of other exercises to do. i'm sure i'm going to forget half (if not more) of them by tomorrow, but he'll be there to help me. thank god they have an eliptical trainer... otherwise i may not have joined at all.

it feels great to do something positive for myself that i know will help me feel better about being here. by the time i get home i should be healthier than i have been in years! did i mention that i don't even have to bring clothes with me?!?!?!?! it's great, really, really, great.

(and i'll get some pics soon, since it's on my daily route to school...)

i don't like mondays

who does?

but it seems that mondays always offer up some kind of bad news of late. last week was the first day back after winter "vacation"... that is for the korean teachers, i'd only had one week off. and today i found out that i will have to go and sit as school twiddling my thumbs for another two weeks during spring "vacation".

the korean education system is fucked up. i mean, school really finished in december - the teachers were done with the text books and the students had finished their exams - now we've had another week of school - six weeks later - where none of the kids can/want to pay attention. we have a graduation ceremony for the grade three class tomorrow, then another two days of teaching the grade ones and twos before the "end" of the school year. then we have another two week 'holiday' (well, the koreans do anyway)... so, the korean school year looks like this:

march ~ 5th - new year starts.
july/august - summer vacation (i think two weeks in july and three in august)
october ~ 10th - chuseok holiday
november - final exams
december ~ 28th to february 5/6th - winter vacation
february (last two weeks) - spring vacation

i haven't been able to wrap my head around this last week. it's akin to making students in canada return to classes for the second week of august when school ended in june. it just doesn't make any sense. and as if a korean teacher who went to canada would have to go sit at the school for two months in the summer with nothing to do! AND when no other teachers are there...let alone students!

it's not like i didn't see this coming, but other teachers in my city get all this time off, so why is it different for me? i know other foreign public school teachers that have been sitting on a beach in thailand for the last five weeks, another who's been there for two, and is going to the phillipines for another two, another who is in thailand now...etc... the list goes on and on... oh ya! it's cause i got assigned to the crappiest school in korea... i keep forgetting that... i should tatoo it on my hand or something.

i'm getting used to being stared at in the street, being ignored in shops, being treated like a lesser citizen, but the one place that i should be treated like a human being is at school... just why did i take a job working in the public school system for less money than a hagwon if i don't even get the perks of the job?

my VP and co-teacher keep telling me how important i am, and how special i am, and how much they need me to teach their children, but they don't act like it. they don't treat me any better, and in fact, most of the time, i'm treated worse. i have some real thinking to do... i've been saying for months that if things didn't get better i'd leave in march... (when i'm no longer indentured for my flight here.) i just don't know what to do.... and all this right when things started to feel normal again. :(

one mountain, two mountain, three mountain, four?

i finally got a decent nights' sleep last night. i woke up at a reasonable hour, cleaned the house, and headed to the hills.

i was planning on following a different route this time - one that would take me to the top of mount sino... but i ended up going the other way again... i just can't figure out where the path is. i think i'm going to have to walk up the road and that just sucks. after figuring out where i was going i was thinking i'd just get to the top of the first mountain and head back down. it takes about an hour to get up and i thought i'd been there before. well, i hadn't, but i did today.

the 'top' of mountain one.

when i got to the top i wasn't ready to turn back, i still had the rest of the day ahead, and figured that while i was up there i might as well see where the path goes... so i kept going, and saw this ahead:

it looks more daunting than it is...

so i just kept going. and going. and going.
it got pretty steep for a bit. i kept imagining what this would look like in the rainy season... it's probably a river!

that is the 'top' of mountain one as seen from the top of mountain two.

when i got to the top again, i was faced with a choice:
i went right - mostly becuase it was going down instead of up! i didn't know how long it would take me to get down or if i'd have to go back the way i came... but going to the right looked like it would somehow get me down.

the view on the other side of mountain two...

after going down and down and down i decided to stop for a little rest. i found a little outcropping of rocks and hunkered down. as i looked on the ground around me i was inspired. so i built a little inukshuk. i've never done this before... and i don't know exactly why i did it, but i like that i did. i wondered what the koreans would make of it if they happened upon it... it's like a little peice of canada in the mountains of gimhae!

my inukshuk.

it's kind of small, and not very pretty... i wonder if it'll still be there the next time i go up... after building it i kept heading down the mountain... i wasn't sure where i'd end up but knew it would be somewhere on the other side of my neighbourhood... it was still a long way down. then i came upon more strange korean mountain things:
looks like a collapseable garage that people put in their driveways in canada... there were a bunch of koreans hunkered down eating lunch inside. it's just so odd that it would be up in the mountain in the middle of nowhere... i wonder who built it.

and just as i was out of water i found this:
i asked a korean who was standing there if this was potable and she nodded, so i filled up my water bottle. hopefully i haven't contracted some kind of parasite! but if i do, a bunch of koreans will too, as they were all drinking from it as i was leaving. ahh, fresh mountain spring water!

then i came upon this:
it seems that koreans have their own version of the inukshuk... i didn't feel so smart about my little guy after seeing this monster... just means i'll have to build another bigger one next time.

i still had a long way down, and it was rough on my knees, but my new shoes held up great. my toes got a bit sore, maybe the shoes are a half size too small... either way, i wasn't slipping and slidingdown the mountain like i usually do. at least the new ones have some grip to them! when i was near the bottom, but not quite there i came across this:

an ad for columbia! advertising up the mountain!!!

i did finally get down off the mountain and was indeed on the other side of my neighbourhood, which meant a nice walk through the outdoor market and a trip to the 1000 won shop (where things actually cost 5-10,000 - maybe that's just the waegook price...).

all in all it was a great afternoon... it took just over three hours from my front door to my front door... which is about twice as long as i've been before. good on me! i still can't believe that i've turned into this weird hiking-type of person... change is a good thing right?

run-of-the-mill...and/or wishing for a real holiday

another dark morning of rain today. my neighbourhood was literally in the clouds this morning with visibility down to a few blocks. it still amazes me to look up at the mountains that surround me here and it's even more amazing when they're covered in mist. i've tried to take pictures of it, but they just never come out right... maybe one day i'll get that perfect shot and share it with you.

other than that, it was a pretty run-of-the-mill day. school, nap, school, lunch, school, and home. i didn't sleep well/much last night so was pretty knackered for much of the day. am going out in gimhae this evening - hopefully it'll tire me out and i'll get a good nights' tonight.

the sun did finally make an appearance around 4:30, which was nice... i hope that bodes well for the weekend... though i really don't have anything to complain about weather-wise, it's been up in the teens all week... which is better, much better, than what i'd be experiencing back home. hope you aren't all freezing to death over there... i keep thinking that although the weather is all right, i could really use a week (or three) in the dominican or cuba or mexico... you know, the all-inclusive, park-your-butt-on-a-beach-for-a-week-drinking-rum-punch kind of holiday. i am closer to malaysia, the philippines, and thailand... but really, i'd settle for any of them right now... maybe in another six months... who's coming?

a post a day...or insomnia relief

i'm trying to write a post a day, since i got the ball nicely rolling after my trip to seoul. i realize that for some of you this could be rather annoying as you'll have catching up to do all the time. oh well... sorry. the good new is that the majority of my posts will likely be short.

today was grey and dark with rain throughout the day. the weather was simply mirroring how i felt. i stayed out too late last night and had a rough time getting up this morning. i spent much of the morning in the ladies 'rest' room at school - sleeping... it doesn't help that my insomnia has returned with a vengeance of late. that's why i'm here now... i've been trying to sleep for an hour and it's just not happening. so, the best thing to do is get out of bed, do something else for a while and try again later. at least that's what the pros say.

it's been a rough week with the return to class and the not sleeping, but tomorrow is friday - always a good thing. i'd like to go hiking this weekend and really break in the new shoes but i know that the urge to sleep late and laze about all day will compete... i hope that looking at my new shoes sitting by the door will motivate me to get out. we'll see. for now i'd settle for a good nights' sleep so that i have enough energy to get through friday...

**
the long wait is over!!!...
THANK heavens for bitTorrent, without which i would not have been able to see the latest episode of LOST - which aired yesterday in north america... OMG what will happen next?!?!?! for those of you in gimhae - i've already made you a copy!

i've been tagged...again...

this tagging business can be annoying, but oddly i couldn't stop thinking about this one...

the top five songs i would play at my own funeral and though it is rather morbid... it's also kind of fun...

as kassandra (who tagged me) insinuated, the cure makes the top of the list. i actually thought of listing the entire album 'disintegration' but i'll settle for this (which isn't even from that album):


the cure - the funeral party. partly because of the title, but there are other reasons that i would rather not get in to here... just take it at face value... oh, and the above video is not approved by the cure, but made by some guy who posted it on youtube...thanks, or i never would've found this song to play here!

number 2:


the smashing pumpkins - 1979. from a great time in my life...oh to be young again... plus it has great bass, a great beat, and you can all dance and sing along!

number 3:

the doves - there goes the fear. why? well, really it's just one of my favourite songs... it helps remind me to live every second of my life like it's my last...

number 4:

U2 - One. need i say more?

number 5:

Longpigs - On and On. again, one of my favourite songs. i can't really say why...it's love and hate, and life and death, and everything that you don't want to face.

there's the top five. also on my list... i'd have to dj the whole party, you see... i couldn't leave that up to anyone else... except maybe kassandra ;) in no particular order:
Dido - life for rent, sand in my shoes;
Ash - walking barefoot;
Counting Crows - 'round here;
Gary Jules - mad world;
A-Ha - the sun always shines on TV;
Rolling Stones - paint it black, she's a rainbow, ruby tuesday;
Belle and Sebastian - get me away from here i'm dying, the boy with the arab strap, lazy line painter jane, this is just a modern rock song...;
Jean Leloup - i lost my baby;
Abba - chiquitita;
Oasis - wonderwall, champagne supernova;
Rialto - perfect day (no, not the lou reed version);
the Arcade Fire - rebellion (lies);
Billy Idol - dancing with myself, mony mony;
Six by Seven - stop the world;
Coldplay - parachutes, yellow, the scientist, in my place, everything's not lost;
Smashing Pumpkins - disarm, landslide, tonight tonight, bullet with butterfly wings;
U2 - kite, walk on, wild honey, stuck in a moment, all i want is you, sunday bloody sunday, new year's day...;
Johnny Cash - i walk the line, a boy named sue, folsom prison blues, daddy sang bass;
the Cure - disintegration (the whole album, and specifically the song), three imaginary boys (yes, the album...), plastic passion, just like heaven, inbetween days, close to me, the upstairs room, play for today, M, the exploding boy... i think you get the point... my funeral would not be without the cure... and lots of it!

okay, i have to stop now... the list would just go on and on until i'd listed my entire play list here... you get the point. at least you all know what i have on my ipod shuffle now!!!

now, who will i tag??? ... how 'bout kimbirdy, stranger, and awesomebringer.

miscellaneous

in keeping with the posting madness that has been going on here of late, i feel that i need to write something today. i hope you all enjoyed my trip to seoul... it already feels like a million years ago. since then i have been to ulsan and back, climbed a mountain, done a major clean up of my apartment, and started back at school. i'll make this quick.

thursday i went to visit kat in ulsan. we had some good foreign food, some good korean food, and some good times at the noraebang... nothing too crazy happened, except that i saw rachel from orientation - hadn't seen her since way back in august - and we met a guy from athens named panos... which freaked me out a bit since my best friends' boyfriend goes by the same description.

like i said, i'm making this quick... so here are a couple of pics to tide you over...

me in my new hat - hand made by kat
more korean errors... wapple? or waFFle??
gotta go! gotta go! gotta go! (on the ladies room door at the WA Bar in Ulsan)
on the wall next to the ladies room at the WA Bar in Ulsan.
the awesome necklace i bought in seoul for 4$...

after finally giving up the hunt for merrells' i settled on these babies made by the north face. they're cute and comfy and made of gore-tex... what more could you want in a hiking shoe??? i'm disappointed about the merrells...but there will be lots of time in my life to get another pair of them... so for now, here's to the north face!!!

i'll post soon... i've been tagged by kassandra... so will get on it asap.

Whirlwind pt.8

(or more celectronics than you can imagine and the continuation of the search for merrell shoes - OR finally the end of these posts on seoul!!!)

monday morning we had to get up early (10ish) since check out was at eleven... check out at kim's guest house means dropping your keys and sheets into a box in the living room...everything is paid for when you check in, so there's no hassles when you leave... we had our coffee and toast and headed to seoul station to find a locker to drop off our many bags. cyndi's flight was leaving at 8pm so we had the whole day to do more exploring and we knew we had to go to the electronics market.

yongsan station

after dropping our stuff in the locker, which turned out to be more difficult than it should have been, we headed to yongsan station and the yongsan electronics arcade. there are over 7,000 stores in 24 buildings covering an area of nearly 900,000 square meters! i was like a kid in a candy store!

the first building we saw when we came out of the subway was the park mall... we walked in and it was like heaven had fallen from the sky and into this building... there were cameras lined up as far as the eye could see:

there were six aisles this big, selling only cameras,
and that's just the first floor... of the first building.

i was so close to buying a digital SLR that i'm regretting not doing it... i knew i would regret it, but i think that paying off my bills in canada instead was the responsible thing to do... right? i know that i'll go back and get one before i leave korea... if not sooner. it's not the kind of thing i should buy on the spur of the moment... i still wouldn't have been able to afford the canon that i really want, and i haven't really researched the lower end bodies... so it's probably a really good thing i didn't buy one....

anyway, this was the first of eight floors of electronics, in one of the malls...

the mp3 player area... everything you could want... iPods were dirt cheap too...

one floor was all mobile phones... every make and model you could imagine... we didn't even stop on that floor...

after wandering around park mall we left to try to find the bootleg dvd's as we had requests from peeps in gimhae... so we wandered across the train tracks to the rest of the malls:

yes, all electronics... all the time... miles of them!

we started searching for the dvds and got directions from a salesman in one of the stores in one of the malls, but his directions were pretty bad and we couldn't find them... we wandered around then decided it was time for lunch. we found an "orange cafe" (a chain where they serve traditional korean food like kimbap, jigae, and bibimbap). then we called a friend in gimhae to get directions to the dvds... which we found at long last across the street from where we started!

after finally getting the dvds that we wanted, we headed back to seoul station to see cyndi off to the airport. and then there were two. kim and i were left to our own devices... the other kim had sent me the info on where to go find my shoes. as it turned out the address i had from the merrell website was for a distributor, not a retail store, even though that's what i understood from the website... oh well, i finally knew where to go, and it was so simple all along! lotte department store! it just seemed so easy, and as it turns out, it was.

shoes???

we hopped on the subway to lotte, when we got there, the sales person told me "upsayo" which basically means "we don't have them". they told us we had to go to another department store down the street, on the 8th floor... yay! i was elated... finally i would get my shoes! as we wandered out of lotte, we happened upon this area that was full of pucca... trisha, this is for you!

me and pucca!

we walked to shinsegae department store. keep in mind we'd been walking for the past three days... my feet were angry with me, but they were also so excited to soon be walking in a nice new pair of shoes! we got to the eighth floor and i wandered around showing my merrells to sales people who kept saying "upsayo" finally i got kim on the phone to talk to one of the sales people who told her that the shop that sells them was no longer in business there and she didn't know where i could find them... i nearly cried. but there was hope... one other store in seoul, but it was back near the guest house... we had nothing else to do until our train at 9:50 so we headed to the subway.

no, really, shoes???

after 45 minutes on the subway we arrived at dangsan station. the directions said it was out exit 6 and walk 50 meters... of course, we walked in the wrong direction... a nice man helped us though and we found the building, and then the store 'okoutdoors'... as soon as i walked in i saw the boxes of merrells lined up on the walls and i was so happy i nearly dropped to the ground and kissed it.

i showed the salesman my shoes and said "merrell"... we walked to the shoe section and he started looking around...kime pointed to some merrells, i saw others, but there was something wrong... none of them were womens' shoes. i said to the man, "woman merrell" and "shoes for women" and he just looked baffled. then he tried to show me mens shoes. normally it doesn't make a difference, but merrells are special... and one of the reasons i want them so bad is that they use a different 'last' (mold) for womens and mens shoes... this makes them more comfortable since they are designed for the way that women walk... so i wasn't going to buy mens shoes... i felt like sitting down and crrying when he said "no" to my repeated queries of where are the womens shoes?

i was so disappointed... after all the searching and wandering and everything, we were on a wild goose chase. i felt bad for making kim come along with me on this pointless trek to the other side of the world for a pair of shoes... i'm angry that the merrell website isn't clearer about their dealers in korea. so, after all, i am STILL on the eternal hunt for merrell shoes. i've heard that there is a store in ulsan and will be going there so hopefully i will have some by the time i actually post this in a few days...

after the shoe fiasco, we were both really tired and kind of cranky, so we headed to seoul station to see if we could get an earlier train home... which we did by about an hour and a half. we pulled out of seoul at 8:30 pm on monday, after an incredible weekend. i was home by 11:45 and started writing these posts. i didn't know what else to do with myself... life in gimhae just won't be the same aafter experiencing seoul... i feel like i live in a little backwards hick town... :(

not bad for three days...

so seoul was incredible... i hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride...as much as i enjoyed reliving it for you... i ended up spending a lot of money, but not as much as i thought i would... i bought, 2 purses, 2 t-shirts, jeans, 2 pairs of socks, two books, a magazine, a mini tripod, a pair of genuine JLo track pants, a korean sweater dress, and some lipgloss... not a bad haul... but it could have been better...oh merrell... where art thou???

**
i've been writing these posts for two days now... i'm only posting one a day, so i don't overwhelm you... so it should be monday feb. 5th by now... my vacation is over and i'm back at work... but i will have been to ulsan to visit kat and hopefully bu now i have my shoes... so stay tuned for the adventures of kat and liz... and the continuation of the eternal search for merrells...

...and thanks for staying with me this long! i never said i wasn't detailed!