update

sorry it's been almost a week since my last post. think i'm going to lose all my readers if i keep this up for much longer. just haven't been in a posting mood... sorry.

last weekend was spent with friends - friday was the wine and cheese night with a bunch of lady friends... only got in after 3am... it was good times.

saturday a bunch of gimhaens headed out to changwon - the next city over - to celebrate a couple of birthdays - kimbirdy's 25th and lois' 60th. again, good times were had by all.

the last couple of days have been particularly hot and muggy - which makes me lethargic, thus the non-posting all week... guess i've just been lazy about it. i keep thinking of things that i want to post about, but by the time i get home from school/the gym/meetings at the office of education/after school classes/banking...etc... i just don't feel like it.

some good news this week - my flight home will be paid for by the office of education on a "government travel request" - meaning i don't have to shell out the bucks and wait to be paid back! woohoo! we reserved my flight yesterday - i'll be leaving korea on september 2nd at around 7 am local time... which means i'll be in montreal in time for dinner (or breakfast in korea).

i'm flying busan - seoul - chicago - montreal. the last flight will be with air canada :( boo. i hate air canada... i'm expecting my luggage to get lost since i will have to pick up my luggage and re-check it in chicago... and i know from experience that AC has trouble with this concept... apparently you have to do this in the states now... the long haul will be with korean air... which should be nice. i had a great experience with them on the way over...

what else? ...hmmm.... oh ya, i think the laryngitis is back. haven't been feeling great for the last couple of days and now it hurts to swallow, i have no energy and was cold all day despite it being over 25 degrees and humid... no fever, but it felt like it... and of course, this in time for canada day on the weekend! i'm supposed to be going to busan to celebrate... we'll see how i'm feeling... in the meantime, i skipped the gym today - actually came home early and slept for most of the afternoon... i just have no energy.

i'm looking forward to thailand with ranya in just over a month!!! i've been doing research on all the places i want to go, things to see and do... before i know it i'll be lying on a beach in the gulf of thailand drinking a mojito and watching the clouds float by... i can't wait. the next two months are going to fly and before i know it i'll be home and job hunting!

update over.

changma

the korean season of changma is upon us. what is that? you might ask... it's the monsoon season. my first. i mean, it rains in the spring in montreal, but there is always some reprieve... but according to the (limited) research i've done, it's pretty much going to rain until i go to thailand in 6 weeks.

it started yesterday. i was told on monday that it would be coming later this week, and sure enough they were right. maybe the meteorologists in korea have some kind of sophisticated equipment that those in canada don't... or maybe it just happens every year at the same time. i'll bet on the latter.

the average annual rainfall in busan in july is around TEN INCHES, or 257 mm. i know, it doesn't really sound like that much when you think about it over a period of a month... but montreal gets about 3 inches in the same period...

i've also read that the relative humidity will reach up to 90% in the next month. thank god for air conditioning at home! it's another story at school #1, where the best we have in any room are fans. the classrooms have four rotating ceiling fans each - none of them reach the front of the class where the teachers stand... good thing i've gotten the kids used to me moving around the room! the teachers office has a bunch of ceiling fans too, but none of them come anywhere near my desk. if you don't hear from me for a while, it'll be because i melted!

(i hate writing about weather... but this [i hope] is different...) ;)

and a...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to kimbirdy!!!!

startled

i was startled by one of my students today. well, i'm startled by them rather often, but not so much that i remember to write about it here.

i was on my lunch break walk when i saw two boys climbing down a large wall that encloses the elementary school next door. i asked them what they were doing and one of them replied "nothing" - surprise #1: that he would know to say that. i said, "oh, that's great!" pleased that he had correctly used a word in english.

surprise #2 came a moment later when the other boy said "shut the fuck up." i was blown away! i can't manage to get them to stop saying "i'm fine thank you and you" and they're running around saying things like that! it's to be expected, of course, but it just took me by surprise. this boy never says anything - in korean or english - in class... so for him to come out like that was really odd.

i told him to never say that ever again and poked him in the shoulder. then i told all of his friends (as we arrived back in the school yard) that he was a bad boy.... which made them all point and call him crazy. hopefully he got the point, but i'm not betting on it.

pinkeye

there is an epidemic at my school this week... of conjunctivitis or for the non-medically inclined, pinkeye. everywhere i turned at school today i saw red, oozing, and infected eyes.

western medical experts suggest keeping a kid home for a few days when they have pinkeye because it's so contagious, but not the koreans. the kids will leave for a few classes, go to the doctor and come back, ready to pass it on to their friends - which is the first thing they do, so that everyone gets to miss a class or two.

i'm wondering how long it will take to spread to the teachers room - at least tomorrow i head off to school #2, where hopefully the same thing isn't going on. i've heard, though, that this is totally normal near the end of the semester when exams are approaching. maybe it's an excuse to give their parents when they do so poorly... "i was sick and couldn't study...".

Signs and symptoms

Pink eye (conjunctivitis)

The most common signs and symptoms of pink eye include:

• Redness in one or both eyes
• Itchiness in one or both eyes
• Blurred vision and sensitivity to light
• A gritty feeling in one or both eyes
• A discharge in one or both eyes that forms a crust during the night
• Tearing

sounds lovely, doesn't it?

there are several reasons you can get pinkeye - allergies, bacteria, viruses, but i know these kids give it to each other - i see them do it. i saw one kid wipe his finger on the dirty window sill and then rub it in his eye - i guess he doesn't know all he has to do is get his buddy to poke him in the eye.

despite using my antibacterial hand sanitizer every five minutes today, my eyes are feeling a little itchy... let's hope it's psychosomatic.

fun with phones

if you've been reading this for a long time, you might remember my troubles with getting a mobile phone when i arrived in korea. i, of course, finally did get one - it's a pay-as-you-go, which has never posed any problems for me, and is actually better since i don't really use it enough to justify a monthly bill.

i've only had to fill it with air time about four times, i usually put around 20 or 30,000 W on it and that lasts me for months. (a lot of text messaging and not much actual calling)... in fact, i couldn't remember the last time i put money on it, so i knew the time was coming... anyway, this morning i tried to send a message and it failed... this is the only way i have of knowing that i'm out of credit. i'm sure there is some procedure, but not speaking the language doesn't afford me that option... oh well.

this afternoon i headed to the phone store to pay up. i went into the store that i went to last time, and the guy told me that i couldn't put any money on it cause you can only do that from monday to friday. i knew this was a load of crap as i know that i'd done it on a saturday before. i know that sundays are a no-go, but saturday? this was the first i was hearing of it. i HAD to get time so i moved on to the next store down the street (there are 3 phone stores for every person in korea).

i arrived in the second store and the woman told me the same thing. i was flabbergasted. had they changed the rules? was i imagining that saturday afternoon that i had topped up my time? i was getting paranoid and upset... i need my phone tomorrow for a very important call in the morning... and then i started thinking, what could i do without it? until monday? how can i possibly live with no means of communication for almost two whole days?!?!

i decided to try a third store, where the clerks have always been very nice to me and where i know i've paid before as well. i didn't go straight there in the first place cause it's a little farthe and didn't want to get sucked in by all the other shops around it. (can't afford to go shopping this weekend!)

i walked in and there were about 15 of my students "oh! elizabeth teacher! hello!" etc... for a couple of minutes. when i finally made it to the back of the store, i looked at the woman expectantly, and, naturally, waiting for a "sorry not today", but she just asked me how much i wanted to pay. "ee manon" (twenty thousand won) two minutes later i left the store to more choruses of "elizabeth teacher, hello!" fully paid up and ready to text or talk as much as i wanted.

i had half a mind to go to the other stores and show them, but i didn't... what would be the point? i just don't get why they told me no. there's surely a good explanation... i just wouldn't understand it... since it would be all in korean.

the guy down the street

a few months ago i was enjoying a peaceful afternoon in my apartment. i may have been reading, or watching lost, or some such activity. it was winter. it was cold out.

all of a sudden i heard a voice - no, not in my head - outside my building (so much for good insulation!). i figured it was someone getting in their car or just passing by. the voice didn't go away though. after about twenty minutes i popped my head out the window to see what the raucous was.

there was a guy standing in the alley one building over, yelling at nothing. i'm not a stranger to mental illness, i'm sure everyone knows someone who has dealt with mental illness... so i shrugged and went back to my book. a while later i heard a different voice yelling something in korean and then the guy stopped and went inside.

this has been a scenario that has occurred many times since then. i'm writing about it, cause it's happening right now. even though it's raining, he's out there - with an umbrella - yelling at the plants, or talking to the crowds of adoring fans, i'm not sure, but i wonder what he must be seeing there. who could he be talking to? what's going on in his head?

even more than that, i wonder who is supposed to be caring for this man? why would someone let him stand in the rain (even with an umbrella?) and talk to the alleyway. korea is a very closed society and you don't often see this side of it. for example, i've only seen one kid with downs syndrome in almost ten months. i think that most mentally or physically ill koreans are sent to live in institutions. at least this guy has someone who cares enough to let him live at home.

he's still going, no one has stopped him yet, like they usually do. i hope he goes in soon though, or he might get sick standing in the rain... if only i spoke korean.

ulsan for you

went to ulsan this weekend to hang out with kat and the hogye crew for a change. i got to ulsan around 8:30 on friday night and met Kat and Rachel at benchwarmers - a foreigner sports bar - under the auspices of watching the stanley cup finals. we weren't allowed to talk about who won or not, but it was pretty obvious, even if you hadn't seen it on the news sites. anyway, we chilled there until around 3 am and headed back to hogye. it was a good time.

kat, rachel, and me.

i met this guy from montreal who knows almost ALL of my J-school friends and i'm almost certain that i've met him before. it was nice to talk about home with someone who knows the city as well as i do.

Ryan - the korean bartender kat exchanges language lessons with.

on saturday kat had her korean study group in the morning, so i slept in and made my way downtown to do some shopping. BIG mistake! i spent way too much money but i have some new clothes (that fit properly, if not a little tightly - in anticipation - i actually bought a SMALL and it fits!!!) and i got a couple of prezzies for people back home. starting to think of that now so i don't end up rushing it in the last week! (cherry - there's something from korea just for you!!! finally found something that screamed your name to me!)

after shopping downtown, i went shopping in the "new" downtown with kat. then we sat and had coffee for a few hours on a terrace. it was great.

saturday night was Darragh's going home party. he's back to ireland on tuesday :( so we ended up staying out late again. i went home at about 4 while kat kept going.

darragh hearts ajumas!

darragh and martin... joined at the hip... whatever will martin do?!?!??

today i went to the homever (kats version of homeplus) and got some whole wheat pasta. yay! i was running low and have only ever seen it in ulsan... but they didn't have any at the lotte which is where i bought it last time... so, happy to find some. then i headed home.

good weekend, with good friends, good food, good beer, and good times. thanks guys!

stuff

well, i've already fallen off the daily posting band wagon... sorry. this is just a quick post to say that there will be lots soon as i'm off to ulsan... we all know that means more adventures of kat and liz... so hopefully, no, definitely will have something interesting to post soon... so stay tuned. we might head up to gyeongju, of winter camp fame, to check out more of the "sights" than i got to see the first time around.

anyway, it's raining right now. the thunder was so loud it set off a car alarm down the street three times! when the lightning flashed i thought a power line had exploded outside my apartment from the flash of light. this, after a sunny day of 25 plus degrees... anyway, how boring am i that i have to write about the weather?

have a good weekend everyone.

**
a little shout out to kassandra - CONGRATULATIONS on the new job!

memorial day

i spent the morning running errands and the afternoon basking in the sun on my rooftop. i didn't really think much about why i had the day off until i came to writing this post.

today is memorial day in korea. a day to remember the sacrifice of soldiers and civilians who lost their lives during the korean war. there's a big televised ceremony at the national cemetary in seoul, just like we have in canada on remembrance day. i didn't watch it. in fact, i didn't know about it until about an hour ago... oh well.

for me today was just another day off. it didn't seem like anything was different today except banks and schools were closed. something familiar in a land far away. remembrance day in canada is very similar. we take one minute out of our day to think about the lost. same here. at 10 am you're supposed to stop and think.

i kind of feel like it's become so routine in our lives to just accept that countries go to war, and inevitably there is a loss of life. canada has been feeling this even more of late, with the loss of almost 60 soldiers in afghanistan - the highest number since the korean war. why should we only think about these people once a year? why isn't everyday a day to remember? is it maybe too hard to think about? does the pomp and parade of the day make us feel differently? or maybe we just can't come to terms with death like that on a daily basis. i know there are people out there who do think about it everyday- the parents, children, siblings, and spouses of those who are overseas fighting.

so though today isn't a day of remembrance for me (as i know it), i'll still take a minute of my time to think about all that has been done on my behalf in the name of freedom- so you should too.

happy birthday to...

my school? yup. today is school #1's birthday, which meant another day off. you might remember school #2 had it's birthday a couple of weeks ago... and school #3 had their birthday today too... how come the schools' i attended never had birthdays? and even if they did, it didn't mean having a day off!!! just another crazy (good) thing in korea!

so i spent the day cleaning my apartment from top to bottom - literally. i killed a cockroach the other day. it was the second that i've seen since september... so i'm not worried about an infestation, but i also want to make sure that i don't have to. some interesting facts about cockroaches:

- Cockroaches are some of the most ancient insects. Fossil records show their relatives have been around, virtually unchanged in appearance, for over 350 million years.
- The popular Latin American song "La Cucuracha" means The Cockroach.
- The common German Cockroach can survive for over a month without food, but less than 2 weeks without water.
- Cockroaches have been found to carry, on their bodies, the pathogens that cause tuberculosis, cholera, leprosy, dysentery, and typhoid, as well as over 40 other bacteria or viruses that can cause disease.
- Cockroaches will feed on people!! They feed at night when people are sleeping, consuming protein materials such as
eyebrows and fingernails.

this is like the one i killed

and don't forget, they can survive a nuclear explosion!

given these facts, i certainly don't want them to live in my house, so i spent the day cleaning to make sure they know! i'm also gonna get a couple of roach trap thingys next time i'm at the store... just to be sure.

tomorrow is memorial day, so everyone has a day off... thinking of heading down to the beach... i promise to update more regularly... i've been getting really lazy about the blog...

see sand, feel sand, enjoy sand

SAND! that's right, this weekend was all about sand. the haeundae sand festival was on so a bunch of waegooks headed into the big city. i made plans with kat (of the amazing adventures of kat and liz fame) and deb (a good friend from orientation i hadn't seen in 6 months) to meet for the occasion. i spent much of saturday afternoon wandering around the beach on my own as all the other waegooks headed to the baseball game... i had to meet kat an hour after the game started so i didn't go. still had a good time though wandering among the various activities on the beach.

no smoking campaign

a mermaid!

volleyball tournament

lots of kids and families playing in the water

the sun and clouds didn't really co-operate with the organizers of the festival, but it was still warm out (25ish). when the sun did show itself it was really nice, but the best part was the sand! no, seriously, i LOVE sand... the feel of it squishing between your toes... nothing beats it! well, almost nothing.

saturday night i forgot my camera at the motel, so i have no pics, but it was a good chill evening. we sat on the beach for most of the night after meeting some waegooks visiting from seoul. one of them was so drunk by 11 pm that his friends were trying to get him back to their hotel so they could go out clubbing.

this guy kept telling us that he had a hot tub in his hotel room and that he was having a hot tub party... and would we pleeeeeeeeeeease come? eventually we all ended up at a bar called U2. his friends explained to me that they just wanted to put him to bed and then go out and would i please agree to go to the hot tub party just to lure the guy back to the hotel. so we did.

the "hot tub" in question, was actually just a really big bath tub with jets in it. he kept saying you could fit 8 people in it, but i say two, maybe, three (if they were tiny koreans). it was hilarious. anyway, we got to the hotel room, and then said "oh, we have no beer! we have to go get beer!" the guy knew what was going on and kept saying "aww, they're not coming back..." i felt really sorry for the guy, but he was really drunk and it was probably for the better that he just pass out.

as we were walking down the street a few minutes later a cab zoomed by. a hand stuck out the window and i heard "thank youuuuuuuu" screamed out the window. guess the guys got to go out like they wanted.

just a totally random thing that happened. a story to tell the grand kids maybe! haha...

sunday was spent lying on the beach trying to get a tan... if only the sun and clouds would have properly participated... or maybe i just shouldn't have put on that sun block... oh well, better to be safe than get skin cancer!

all in all, a good time was had. it was great to (in no particular order): see kat and deb; eat indian food; see the sand; play with boomerangs, kites, and frisbees; meet some crazy waegooks from seoul; dip my feet in the water; see some awesome fireworks; feel the sand; sit on an office chair on the beach; eat turkish food; drink sake in a japanese-style bar; get outta gimhae - even only for a night; enjoy the sand.