a serious update... or january in a nutshell... or it's a really long one...

I can truly say that I brought in the new year with grace and style this year. I think I did anyway. The evening started out that way, kind of. Ok, maybe I'm wrong and it was actually a night of total and complete debauchery... it was so long ago now that the details are fuzzy, though that could also be blamed on the champagne.

Lisa and her most wonderful flat-mate hosted a party - and since I was still living with them at the time, I sort of did too, even though I didn't know very many people there. Lisa and I started cooking the day before - sausage rolls (from her dad's famous recipe), vol-au-vent, dips of all sorts (two Canadian imports - my world-renowned spinach dip and an onion dip). there were meatballs, and plates of veggies - and that's just what we made. There was also a cheese porcupine (you know when the cheese is stuck to toothpicks and they are stuck into a melon to make it look like a porcupine!) sandwiches, crackers, breads, and on and on, like I said, my memory is a little hazy...

The spread at the start of the evening... see the porcupine!?

The bathtub was filled with ice and cold water and the drinks were dumped in. Somewhere in the range of 30 bottles of champagne, as well as unknown amounts of wine, beer, and liquor. (I vaguely remember shots of jack daniels at around 5 am.)

The bathtub at the beginning... should have taken before and after shots...

All we needed were the guests, and like in that famous movie, if you build it they will come... the rest, as they say...

Someone brought these awesome noise making balloons and we all went nuts with them!

It was a truly brilliant night. Sorry there are no photos of me, that's what happens when you're the official photog and no-one knows how a real camera works! Oh well... I think there might be a few shots of me floating around somewhere, but I will likely never see them... and so, neither will you!

At midnight.

The last guests left the party at 7:30 am. If that isn't a night of debauchery then I don't know what is! It reminded of my late twenties when I'd go out clubbing on St. Laurent with the girls *wink wink. Not something I like to do often, but amazing when it happens.

The next day I 'moved' to a different flat a twenty minute walk from Lisa's to (of all things considering my allergies) cat sit. I spent a week there and moved into my own place when my duty was up.

This is when life in London really began for me. No more hanging with people I knew all the time... having my own space... finding my way to work from my new home... getting all the shopping done... and all the other stuff that comes with life.

My room is in a house with seven other people. A Kiwi couple in one room, a (I think) Polish guy, a Columbian exchange student, and three Algerian guys. There is no common room, just the kitchen and two bathrooms, but that's ok. My room is what is referred to as a "double" because it's big - almost, in fact, as big as my apartment in Korea was. (There will be pictures when I tidy up...) It came furnished, almost, but it has everything I need now.

My house. My room is the bottom window.

It's on the first floor and I have huge bay windows that look out on the street. This can sometimes be annoying as I can't leave my windows open, but I don't think I would in London even if I were on the fifth floor! (More on crime in London in another post.) I DO get lots of light though when I want/need it (or when the weather chooses to co-operate!)

In early/mid January, I had a couple of visits with D & A of Korea fame. They finally made their way here after seeing most of Asia, Australasia, Russia and much of Eastern/Northern Europe (I think anyway - check her blog for greater detail - coulda woulda shoulda (doesn't open in a new window, so wait til you finish here!!)) It was kind of surreal to see them here, but it was amazing to have the opportunity. hint hint... anyone coming to london... ?!?!?!

The rest of the month has been mostly work and more work. I work at a regulating body - I'm a spoke in the wheel of bureaucracy... how ironic. It's boring, but it pays for the extraordinarily high rent and cost of living... I just get by really. Sometimes I work overtime on Saturdays.

Sometimes I go into work with Lisa on Sundays - which is incredible. I don't want to name names, but many of you must know where she works, and for me, it is the most amazing place to be learning. If you want more on that you'll have to email me directly, as I need to be more discreet here than in Korea... people... speak... English!

To get to the Tate Modern... follow the orange posts...

I've walked around nice places like Green Park and St James Park (they're both next door to the Queen's house, otherwise known as Buckingham Palace). I went to the Tate Modern a couple of weeks ago, which was one of the nicest museums I've been to... oh the Miro's and Picasso's and Pollacks. I even bumped into an old J-school friend while I was there. Weird.

St James Park

Also St James Park... looks out of a fairy tale...

I will leave you with some pictures and put January out of my mind (and this blog) now... though, if I think of anything, I will let you know.

A black swan at St James Park.

One last thing for January, I hate Haggis for the first time on Robbie Burns Day. It was good, but I preferred the vegetarian version. We even read aloud the ode to haggis... good times.

The Haggi' fresh out of the pot. Veggie on the right.

The meat one being chopped up.

On my plate and ready to go.

A little peice of Korea

This weekend brought me my first "Canadian-Korean" experience. When I moved to Korea last year I had never even tried Korean food here. This weekend, I did.

I met up with a friend who had lived in Korea for three years, but that I hadn't seen in about ten. We both brought along a bunch of friends and headed to a Korean restaurant in the west end of Montreal.

The restaurant wouldn't seat us because we were too many. hmph. I told my friends "welcome to Korea!" We found an alternative nearby, a restaurant called Hwang. It was pretty good.

Since a lot of the people eating had never had Korean before, my friend and I decided what to order and we all just shared everything. We ordered so much we might as well have said "one of everything, please!"

We had galbi, bulgogi, deok galbi, dwen jang jigae, pa-jeon, jap-chae, kimchi (a bunch of kinds), pork bone soup, and, of course, rice. I ordered a bottle of soju which came in a little tea pot and they served us warm tea with our food. It was all pretty good except for the jigae which was lacking in flavour a little.

The deok galbi made me really happy, since it's my favourite and I hadn't had it in so long, though the little restaurant near kat's house in Ulsan does it a thousand times better... I'll have to wait til I'm back in Korea to get some really authentic food... oh well.

Then it was on to the noraebang! YES! There is noraebang in Montreal! It's WAY too expensive, but I think if it caught on the price might go down... but at 30$ an hour, we opted for only the one... which is not enough time. It was fund anyway though. I felt like I was in Korea again and it felt good to be there. I think my love affair with the land of the morning calm is not yet over... for now, though, I'll have to make do with what little I can get around here. I wonder if they have noraebang in London... and if anyone would come with me.

g & t, fire, and newness...

another weekend has passed. i've only got about four left in korea, so making the most of them is pretty important. on friday i went to mr. parks (of a hobo-christmas fame) to hang out with brandy and a bunch of other waegooks... at around 1 am kim and i decided to go shopping at the "trial mart" next door for some shirts. this is one that we both bought:

HAHAAHAHAAHA!!!! you thought it said "poopie", didn't you!?!? i love korean shirts!

on saturday i went out for a nice dinner with kim and scott (who is new in town and knows kim from back home), then we went to the "cockstail" bar near kim's house. i'd never been before, though i have been to the one near my house... this one was much nicer.

it was nice to go out somewhere that you could drink something other than beer. (korean beer doesn't sit well with me, and lots of bars don't have mixed drinks.) it was a nice place too - plush and comfy chairs replaced little stools, dim atmospheric lighting, and the best part, a bar show. yes, the bartenders throwing bottles around.

they started light with just a plain bottle. then they added light sticks to the bottles, then sparklers, and finally full on flames. it was cool. here are some pictures.

pretty cool flames

more cool flames.

this was a guy blowing fire.

these are the addictive deep fried spaghetti and seaweed snacks - provided free of charge!

i stayed out WAY too late, but it was a really good time. lots of good friends and lots of gin and tonic. i can only hope that the rest of my weekends in korea are as good as this one was.

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!

happy birthdays

first to Abbey. what a night! and second to Buddha, what a great day off!

dave made this adorable sign!

yesterday abbey hosted her birthday dinner where we indulged in all manner of tex-mex; nachos and salsa, quesedillas, and tacos! then of course, there was the ice cream birthday cake from baskin robbins! i think we all gained about ten pounds in a few hours!

mmm... tacos....

kim even made a pinata for the event! it was loads of fun to watch abbey trying to break it. finally it fell to the floor where she beat it open.

hit it!

finally we all headed to the noraebang (karaoke) where fun was had by all. we were joined by a mass of other people and sang late into the night (or early into the morning - i got home at 4am and i left before almost everyone else!)

and all that thanks to buddha having his birthday today - which meant no one had to work and we could all stay out! this weekend: pohang.

starface and sfunz

sorry no posts for the last couple of days, i went to busan on the weekend. i met up with kat, jess (her sister who was visiting from canada), kevin (a friend from orientation who lives up north), and chris... along with a bunch of gimhaens.

we went to kebapistan for dinner and then it was on to haeundae to go to starface - a bar i've been hearing about for weeks but hadn't made it to yet. you pay 15,000W (~17$cad) for an open bar. not bad. their gin and tonics were really nice. they had a pool table, but it wasn't as readily available as the one at fuzzy navel, so i didn't get to play at all. they had a live jazz band too, which was really cool... it's been so long... reminded me of the good old days at luba lounge in montreal.

the band at starface

after the band finsihed playing the music was 'do it yourself'. which i thought was awesome. they just had a computer with winamp and a huge playlist and anyone could play whatever they wanted. that reminded me of house parties with ranya.

DIY DJing...ah, the memories...

we (me, kat, jess, chris, and kevin) left starface around 2am and headed to the noraebang. we sang for about 2 hours and then went back to the motel that we were staying at - the sfunz.

our motel - the sfunz!!!

there are tons of hotels and motels in haeundae beach - it's the biggest beach in korea, so it's a popular holiday destination. we just liked the name! not to mention that it was only 40,000W (~45$cad) for a room, and split between us (three in one, two in the other) it was next to nothing. the rooms were decent and it had a great location.

girls room - already messy after five minutes!

bathrobes included.

a massive king size bed.

it was a good night... i can't say as much for the bus ride home on sunday... i didn't want to move... my stomach was being super loopy and after only about five or six hours of sleep i was in no mood to be taking the subway and bus for an hour and a half... so i got an intercity bus from down the street of out motel... straight to gimhae... so happy i remembered that it exists.

it was a great weekend... i always have a good time when kat is involved... and it was even better because i got goodies from canada... caramilk, smarties, salt and vinegar pringles, starburst, cuticle oil, advil, nytol, minty aero... and on... it's great... enough junk food to get me through the next six months! thanks jess!