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...

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...

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!