The Little One Conquers The World

Swing dancing retreat

2011-05-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

o the past few weeks I've been actively involved with a swing dance community in Busan. Ever since I arrived in January 2010 I've looked far and wide for a swing dancing group to join. I've heard of some in other cities but was never able to find them or get a contact about it. FINALLY randomly, I stumbled upon a flier on one of the english websites and kept in touch with a woman about it. About a month ago, my friend Katie and I got the guts to check it out. We were definitely the only foreigners there in a room of Koreans (always a bit intimidating). A few people asked us to dance which we did but we were so nervous and really didn't know what to do. It'd been a long time since my swing dancing days in San Diego. I had a lot of catching up to do. So Katie joined the classes and we've learned so much already. I was going to take classes as well however I was going to miss a lot of them due to weekend trips I have planned. But we've been going to the swing dancing bar every Saturday for the past 2 months now and it's been so much fun. However, it wasn't until we had the swing dancing retreat that we were finally 'accepted' and people were able to talk to us, etc.

So we were invited to the swing dancing retreat. We weren't sure what to expect from it. We knew that they rented a pension in Sojudong which is VERY close to us...next city over. We took a taxi to the pension which was literally on a mountain beside a stream. It was very gorgeous and scenic. I got to see a view of my city of Seochang that I hadn't seen before. It was so relaxing and tranquil.
And then the games began. We were divided into 4 or 5 teams.
Game 1: 4 legged race relay race. Now I'd done 3 legged races before but not a 4 legged race. so 3 of us at a time run to the end of the path, around the stick, and back to our group, and the next group ties their legs up and goes. It was quite hilarious actually. It was tough to get the rhythm down perfectly when you have 3 people. Some teams were totally cheating lol. They'd have a big guy in the middle and 2 girls on the outside and he'd pick them both up and just run. Or 2 guys on the outside and girl in the middle and they'd pick up the girl, etc. Katie's group actually had a really good stride going. My team didn't win that one lol.

Game 2: Human Pile-up. This was by far my favorite game. I'd never thought of this ever and it was so much fun! 8 people per team, and u have to figure a way to pile up so that only like 3 or 4 feet are touching the ground. It was HILARIOUS!!! Especially since I couldn't understand a nything that was happening. They just kept telling me to climb on so-and-so's back. The first round was only having 5 feet on the floor, 2nd round was 4 feet, and 3rd round was 3 feet. Oh lord it was tough. I feel so bad for the guys who were piled on and stepped on. What good sports they were :) It was great watching the other teams too. In this other picture is Katie's team. Well a butt shot of her lol (she'll totally hate me for saying that lol)!! She some how got managed to et piled on. I think my team either came in 1st or 2nd place with this game. I never would've thought about something like this but I will definitely keep it in mind for any other situations. So fun!!

Game 3: was fun but not as fun as the others. We had 4 or 5 pieces of paper and we had to go from point A to point B but could only step on the papers and with 1 foot each so people were running all over putting one in front of the other, people falling over, losing their balance, etc.

Game 4: Couple Dodgeball. Now everyone's played dodgeball, but couples dodgeball?!!? OMG it was fantastic! lol. So couples dodgeballs is that everyone is in a girl/guy couple. The guy is the protector. He can get hit by the ball as much as anyone wants to hit him. The girl has to hold on to him some how and if the girl is hit then they are out. So Round 1 was just holding onto him and following him around. I held on to my partners belt loops. Round 2 was getting on his back. So now he's running around giving me a piggy back ride. Which i thought was gonna be tough. But Round 3, I couldn't hold on to him!!! My hands had to be in the air. So he ran around holding onto my legs for dear life. My pants kept getting lower and lower and knew i was going to moon someone eventually lol. Felt bad for the people around me. Round 4....he couldn't touch me. So he's running around with me on his back, my hands in the air, and his hands in front of him, and he's trying keep me on his back...oh my god!! It was a mess!! It was a fantastically awesome, fun mess. WE WON!! :) I was very proud. His poor back though lol.

Somewhere along the way there was a bit debate about a game...which resulted in a massive 'rock/paper/scissors' match with everyone. I love that 'rock/paper/scissor' or 'gowi/bowi/bow' solves any issues anyone ever had in the world :)

Out with the Old, in with the New in Springtime

2011-04-11T01:33:00.000-07:00

Happy April everyone!! And Thank God April is here. March was a bit of an intense month me...quite possibly one of the hardest I've had since being in Korea. Everything from faultering relationships, friends leaving, and work (among other things. Needless to say, I was in a sad place. It was the first time that I realized how much I'm looking forward to going home. Seems like no matter where you go, the same kind of drama follows you around. And every time you try to have faith in people or you let your guard down, you're once again reminded of why it was up in the first place...and why, you should never let it down ever again. Definitely not the easiest life to lead, but it has to be better than constant disappointment. The good part, is that I'm WAAAAAAAY too nice and forgiving with some things. I can forgive and move on. Somethings just aren't worth dwelling on (which has actually proven to be one of my downfalls in the past. However, at this point in life, I just can't be bothered).

So On to April :) Where the countdown begins, the sunshine comes out, and many more happier memories ahead :)
Some things on the agenda... Jinhae Cherry Blossom festival, Templestay, Jeju Island, Namhae Island, Folk Village and DMZ in Seoul, Tattoo, and spending as much time with Jennifer Scott as I can :)
In case I forgot to mention, in January, my friend Jenny moved here to Korea. She was my roommate when I studied abroad in Italy. She's from LA as well and we've remained very close through the years. Though I didn't get her here in Busan, she's only an hour bus ride away so we've had many good times already and there will be more to come I'm sure. I'm so happy to have her here. It couldn't have been better timing :)

THAILAND... Phuket... Paradise

2011-03-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

Our flight to Phuket went smoothly. We arrived in the later evening. We read in a tour book that we should take a shuttle into the city (that way we don't get ripped off too much by taxi drivers, etc). So we did just that. We took a shuttle, however it took a lot longer than expected. They made a few stops on the way to pick up and drop off other people. By the time we got to our hotel, it was pretty much closed. There was a receptionist sleeping on the couch waiting for us. We got to our room (which looked quite a bit different than the picture on the website) and slept sweet Thailand dreams.

DAY 1-- We woke up to the sun shining. We couldn't wait to get our day started in Phuket. We stayed in Karon Beach. In Phuket, there are 3 main beaches, Patong (the crazy party/tourist beach), Kata (the quiet, secluded, relaxing beach), and Karon (the beach in the middle). Katie and I had a great breakfast in the hotel, got into our beach attire and set out on our beach day. My friends James and Kristin (whom are good friends of mine from Busan) were also there in Phuket so we went to meet up with them. We stopped at 7-11, grabbed some wine coolers to start our journey. Karon beach was soooo nice. There were so many cute restaurants and shops. The ocean was so blue. It was gorgeous. We met up with James and Kristin and made our way to the ocean. We had a great time all just soaking up the sun. I was too white for my own good so was sooooo happy to soak up the rays. The water was beautiful, the weather was perfect, it was an amazing day. We drank Mai Tai's on the beach which were delicious and just chatted. Kristin had lived in Busan for awhile but left 6 months earlier back to Canada so we had fun catching up. We saw some people earlier parasailing and decided that we needed to scope that out. So we did and I decided that I should definitely do it. I'd never had before and really wanted to so I was very excited. I was a bit nervous at first. The guys who were in charge of it strapped me up SO quickly. Life jacket, clips, and ropes, all in about 2 seconds. Before I could even give Katie my stuff, they were saying "run, run run!" lol. So I ran on the sand, into the water, and UP in the air I went :) The water was such an amazing color of blue/green. I could see so much. To me, there's nothing in the world like the feeling of floating. When I went sky diving and paragliding, my favorite part was the floating part. Just being high in the sky looking down on the world. It's an amazing feeling. I took so many pictures. There is one (in the pic to the right) of my feet over the water and you can see just tons and tons of jelly fish below. At one point, the boat slowed down enough to dunk me in the water and I was REALLY hoping I didn't get dunked in jelly fish...I got lucky lol. It was a lot of fun. Kristin took pictures from the boat below, and I took her water proof camera case up in the air with me :) It was really enjoyable and I'm so glad I did it. Definitely a highlight of the day. Katie went next. She loved it just as much.
After a few more hours of lounging around the beach, it was getting near to sunset time. Katie and I had read in Lonely Planet about a bar called 'After Beach Bar' that was on the side of a mountain known for the sunset view so we decided it was vital that we made it there for the sunset and so we got in a tuk tuk and headed that way. We got pretty girly cocktail drinks and watched the sunset. It was gorgeous

I will start by saying that I DID wear sunscreen.

MORE PHUKET POST COMING SOON....

THAILAND.... Chiang Mai... Tigers, Elephants, and the night market! Day 1-3

2011-02-20T23:43:00.000-08:00

Sa-wa-dee-cuh..... Hello!!..which was about the only word I learned in Thai :( Kinda hard to catch onto actually. After my Japan trip with Katie, we decided we wanted to hit up Thailand together too. So we did. Lunar New Year was the perfect time. New Year layed on a Wed-Friday this year, so since I had extended my contract, I had a few extra days to take off, giving us exactly a week again. And it was Soooooo WONDERFUL!!!!
In our attempts to save a few thousand Won, we decided to fly out of Seoul and fly into Busan. We had it perfectly planned out. Bus to Seoul in the morning, fly from Seoul--Shanghai (layover)-to Bangkok (sleep at the airport)--to Chiang Mai. We knew it was gonna be long but didn't really think too much about it. It started to go downhill when we were misinformed about 2 different buses going to Seoul. We wound up riding a bus 3 hours after we'd arrived hoping to get the first one and barely made it to Seoul with literally 5 minutes to spare. Our bus driver was a rockstar, and we made a really great friend on the bus who helped us out alot. We were so scared of missing our flight (especially since we'd arrived so early and should've had plenty of time). We were so relieved when we made it on the plane and everything was ok :)
En route to Shanghai, we met a new friend, Jamie, whom was also a fellow Californian and teacher in Korea. We became friends and hung out at the airports together, etc. Katie and I had a horrible nights sleep in the Bangkok airport. No matter how many times I've slept on the floors in Korea, I will still never get used it...especially on hard tile. However, we survived and caught our 8am flight to Chiang Mai.
DAY 1-- After checking into our hostel at around 10:30am, we caught a tuk-tuk and headed to Tiger Kingdom. One thing on my to-do list was to cuddle with a tiger. Crazy, I know...which is why I love it :) I had a hard time trying to figure out if I wanted to hang out with the baby tigers, the toddler tigers, or the 2 year old tigers (and trust me, there was a HUGE significance in size). Katie decided to be photographer and let me do the tiger cuddling. White Tigers are my favorite animals. These tigers weren't white but they were so cool. I had mixed emotions at first since I'd heard about how, at some places, the tigers are sedated. I asked a lot of questions and what I learned was this... The tigers are at the Tiger Kingdom until they're 2 years old. Up until they're 2 years old, they're still babies (even though they're huge) and are trainable. They're around humans from the day they're born and are trained by a specific method from birth. Since they're little, they're a lot more easy to train. Once they're older than 2, they're considered more adult and not safe for humans anymore. It is then, that they're transferred to a wild life preserve or the zoo. , dangerous (to humans). They were sleeping when I was with them, however I saw them with other people when they were awake. They didn't seem to be sedated. They were walking around, playing in the pools and with their trainers. It was so fun to see them (the two in the photo are sisters) having so much fun. They're just so cute...like bit kitties!!! Don't let the pictures fool you (I used to be an actress lol). I'm pretty sure I was flinching and jumping up every 5 seconds (anytime the tiger moved at all). In one of these pictures, the tiger rolls over so he can get up and I nearly ran out of the cage lol. I had a great time though. I'm so glad we did that.

After our afternoon with the Tigers, Katie and I decided that it was vital that we start our Thailand vacation with massages. She read online about this place that train people who are blind to do Thai massages. Like Korea, I can only assume that it is near impossible for people with any kind of disability to get a job. So I was glad that we could support them. The massage was very nice. The masseuses all wore watches with non-annoying alarms that would go off every 20 minutes or so to let them know the time which I thought was cool. They used their arms, elbows, knees, etc to massage all the pressure points all over. They ask in the beginning whatt kind of pressure you want (medium for me), but it was still painful at times... I will blame that all on the stress and tension I had built up. I enjoyed it so much and it was nice to see so many other people there helping to support them.
After the massages, we walked around one of the main streets of Chiang Mai where there would be a very famous night market (though it wasn't night time yet). We explored one of the Temple grounds, Wat Chedi Luang. There was the actual modern Temple, and then the Temple from way back when that had originally been burnt down and restored. It was really cool how there were elephants all over the outside of it. I've definitely gotten accustomed to Asian courtesy by constantly removing my shoes when going in and out of houses/Temples (hence why I hate shoes that tie now) and always having a sweater or something appropriate for such an occasion. I was glad because many people were being turned down at the door for having their skirts too short or showing too much shoulder. I took lots of pics but will only post a pic as to not bore anyone (if anyone still reads this lol). We saw several people paying their respects to Buddha, doing the 100 bows, etc. It was so beautiful inside. We exited the side area and we had just missed 'Monk chat.' Wish I had known. It looked so cool. You can just sit around with the Monks and ask them anything you want about culture, Buddhism, life experiences, etc. Just to talk to them. I would've really enjoyed that. They had all these inspirational quotes on all the trees in the area. It was really nice.
Towards the evening when the market opened, we were excited to shop. However, we had no idea how big it actually was. Think of a 4 way intersection and markets that extend for several blocks in each direction. So big! We managed to buy little things here and there which were really cool. We both got beach dresses, I got beach sandles, a ring watch, a brass-like bracelet, we got some food, and root beer (exciting and rare to find. we were very excited about that), gifts for relatives, and other little things here and there . We must've started shopping around 7pm and continued until 11pm...and we still didn't see everything. It was so overwhelming because we wanted to buy everything. We were able to haggle with the people which made me think I could always get things at a cheaper place so it was hard to commit to them individually. We saw these random candy like things that were sooooo colorful and pretty (see picture). We asked what was in it and found out that it was like coconut milk and sugar type stuff. So, for $0.01 each, we decided to try it. Definitely wasn't bad. A bit bland for taste but interesting to try. There were kids dancing and singing in different costumes. They were sooo cute. Some of them were really good too! We saw a cart of like 20 different types of...BUGS!!! There were beetles, crickets, flies, chrysali (is that right? plural of crysalis? )just all kinds of creepy crawling things that people like to eat... WIERD!! So yes, it started raining and Katie and I went back to our cute little hostel and packed up for the next days events.... The Elephant Sanctuary :)

DAY 2--The van picked us up at 8am and we drove for about an hour. We arrived at the Elephant Nature Park. We watched a movie about the woman, Lek, who started it. She is amazing. Truly an inspirational person. She has has started from nothing and managed to rescue 36 elephants from abusive owners. Many of them were riding elephants (the kind with the big chairs) or street walker elephants...both of which can be very traumatizing to them. When I arrived in Thailand, I really wanted to ride an elephant, but after learning about it all, I changed my mind. Many times, the owners will put them a trecherous 'training' period in order to show the elephants whose boss which involves poking and cutting them in the eyes, feet (which are VERY sensitive) and all over their body with spears until just tons of blood is leaking out. The elephants have no where to go but just take it. It's horrible. And ironic, that the elephants are such a strong symbol of Thailand...they're becoming extinct...that's this is a reason why. It's so great to see them so free and taken care of. She hires entire families of refugees from other countries and gets them work visas, etc. They act as cooks, elephant trainers, cleaning staff, etc. Needs lots of people to help run a place like this. Every elephant has their own trainer that they bond with and listen to. She's really an incredible woman. Sooo...on our adventure, we started by feeding the elephants. They are all vegetarians and eat a lot of fruit. We fed them watermelons and bananas. With 36 elephants, you can just imagine how much food they go through (they practically support the entire town with all the produce they buy from local farmers). I was a bit nervous at the beginning of the feedings. We're supposed to hold out the food for the elephants and they'd retrieve it themselves with their trunks. But they were so BIG, and Strong, and I was just really nervous at first. I warmed up quickly though. After elephant feeding time, was human feeding time. They offered us a buffet for lunch and it was DELICOUS!! It was heaven. So many delicious foods to choose from. I don't do well at buffets. My eyes are constantly bigger than my stomach and I just make myself look like a pig. But it was soooooo good!!!
After lunch was elephant bath time! We went into the river that was on the reserve and got to bath the elephants. They loved it. They were playing with us, washing themselves with their trunks, and we all had a good time getting dirty. We actually had 2 chances to bathe the elephants. Once in the early afternoon and a few hours later in the early evening. Both times were just as fun. They really are amazing elephants. In between those two times, we had time to roam the grounds and hang out with the elephants, just walking with them, etc. Some of the stories we heard were just so sad. We got to learn about them individually...the bad elephants, the teenage/naughty elephants, the 'mother-like' elephants, etc. We got to watch a documentary that was made about the reserve which was aired as a travel show on television (in an english speaking country...not sure which one) very interesting. I managed to win a really cool tote bag when I answered a question about it all afterwards. All in all, we had a really busy, impactful, amazing day. I was so glad we went. It was definitely an experience I'll never forget. I now have a soft spot for the very large, but very sweet animals.

After the Elephant Nature Park, we went ventured out for our last dinner in Chiang Mai. We had an evening flight to catch. We found a restaurant near the market area that we were at the night before. We had a very nice dinner filled with fruit smoothies, mango curry, asperagus and shrimp. It was just sooooo delicious. Such a nice chance from kimchi :)

So that concludes my section on Chiang Mai. Next up is Phuket....

Taylor was tricked

2011-01-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

My friend Taylor wrote this on her blog (which was a convo she had with a friend back home via chat). I thought it was hilarious and wanted it to be in my blog to remember what kind of ridiculous happened here in Korea... :)

TAYLOR: so we're at a pub, pre-music festival, doing our pre-drinking
me, william, danielle, kate. I'm giving danielle a lot of hell because thats what i do best, and
then she turns it around on me and says, "you know what, if you REALLY loved me, you'd get on the floor and squirm like a snake." So i look her square in the eye and say "fine!" and instantly throw my chair back from the table, to stand up with defiance and squirm like a snake as requested.
TAYLORS FRIEND: That would be a great fb status!

TAYLOR: what i DIDNT know was that a server was passing behind me with a tray full of cocktails.. i hit him square in the hip, thank god nothing flew anywhere, but he looked incredibly startled and i turned around in horror, apologising over and over. Anyway, i turn back to everyone, who are laughing their asses off, and i point my finger at danielle and i (half) shout, YOU SET ME UP!!!!! so i threaten to get her back, things settle down, time goes by

well, jenny and conor are on the other side of the table, throwing phones (because why not)
and they keep ending up in my general area. so i confiscate all the phones and put them in my scarf (like right up against my neck) for safe keeping. Will says, 'you realize that someones gonna call at some point and it's gonna take you 100% by surprise' i laugh, agreeing with him, but dont do anything about it. I go over to the other side of the pub to talk to dave and george, meander over to hailey after a little bit, dance with myself, and then mike comes over and says, 'hey i've got two beers, you want this one?' to which i obviously reply, 'yes!' so he goes back to the table where he's joined will, kate, and danielle. so i follow him to chat with him and thank him for the beer. and as i'm approaching where he's sitting, all of a sudden i feel like, an EXPLOSION!
I dont know what it is or where it's coming from, i freak out, and my very full beer goes all over mike (the one who gave it to me), so i'm freaking out, trying to pat him down (awkward), and after i calm down a bit i realize it was one of the phones. I pull it out, check who called.... it was william!!! so i look up at him... 'you fucker'

TAYLORS FRIEND: I like will

TAYLOR: i turn to kate who has up until this point not done a single thing and i say, 'i'm watching you. you're all in this together. you're trying to take me down, but i'm watching you, and you wont be able to do it.' she swears innocence ... an hour or two goes by i'm leaving

TAYLORS FRIEND: I have faith in her!

TAYLOR: i go up to them and i say, 'hey guys, see you at the show' and kate says, 'take your lucky condom!' We've been passing around condoms earlier in the evening. i'm ready to go though, i dont wanna play this game. i say, no no, i wont be needing any lucky condoms tonight
she says, 'no no no you have to, it's lucky. everyone kiss the lucky condom for taylor.' It gets passed around the table one last time she shoves it into my hand and in an effort to get the hell out of there, i stuff it in my pocket and leave.......stupid lucky condom

so i get to the show and almost instantly i meet some guy i've never seen before, seems nice,
interesting, i've been talking to him for about 3 minutes when i find something... strange in my pocket. i fish it out and hold it up so i can see it..... and it's the condom! so now i'm standing in front of this nice strange man, holding a condom up in the air and he says, ".... i JUST met you."
....and i just look at the condom....shake my head...and curse her... because damnit, she wasnt even there and she got me!

my damn friends suck...but at least they're funny about it .... i hate them. in a nice way. kind of.

TAYLORS FRIEND: I like it. Awesome

TAYLOR: they said they would watch out for my counter-strike, but we all agreed, i'm too lazy for that.

Little by little... catching up

2011-01-13T22:15:00.000-08:00

OMG... I'm so bad at this. I don't know why I've been so lazy about my blog when I love writing and manage to keep up my facebook...wierd. Let's see... catching up...cliff notes version.

SEPTEMBER-- Japan
OCTOBER-- Dad visited for my bday. It was such a great bday to have him there. He got to meet all my co-workers and some of my friends. We had dinner at a BBQ restaurant. It was an amazing trip. He got to visit my school (the picture on the left is of one of my classes. They threw me a bday party. They wrote "happpy birthday. We love you' so cute!!!), meet my kids, and some of my friends during a bday dinner. It was so nice to have him close by. He is one of the major reasons i'm here. He is my biggest supporter when it comes to traveling and exploring the World. His last weekend here, we took a trip to Seoul to meet my grandpa (his Dad). Papa Ralph was in the Korean war so beacuse of that, he got a discounted trip/tour here. I know it was a bit of a rough trip for him but it meant so much to me that he came. Having 3 generations of Riffenburghs here was awesome. We had some good dinners, saw some good sights, etc. It made me realize how much I missed my family. Papa Ralph came back to Busan area with me for a few days and saw my kids, etc. My kids were very impressed. They loved talking to Dad and Papa and asking questions. Now, when I tell them that I am 128 y.o,they're like "no you're not because we know how old your grandpa is" lol. Smarty pants.
Also in Oct was halloween. I never know what to expect of halloween overseas since I know it's an American thing. But my school held a halloween party and the kids dressed up and we walked em around, etc. It was pretty cute. Then Saturday night, I went out with some friends. I didn't wanna spend a lot of money and wasn't totally prepared to dress up. I wound up finding a really cute shirt/dress thing that resembled a geisha a little bit. It was actually really cute that I know I can wear again so I used that. Played it off as a geisha lol. Which is cool since I had just come back from Japan and dressed as a geisha.
Other fun evens in January were PIFF, the Pusan International Film Festival. Katie and I went to a Filippino film that was held on the beach that was really nice! I really enjoyed it. Beautiful scenery. Then there was the fireworks festival in Gwangalli Beach. Managed to go to a friends roof and watch from there. The bridge was over the ocean and it was soooo gorgeous! One of the best fireworks show I've ever seen without a doubt. So awesome :) So lots of things happened in October. It was a good month.

NOVEMBER-- Patrick visited. Patrick is one of my very close friends from San Diego that I met while working at the Westin. He decided he needed a break from reality and came to Korea for some fun. I took him around Busan and did a few things I hadn't done yet (Busan Tower and the Aquarium). Visiting the aquarium, I found out they had a diving with the sharks programs so I will definitely be doing that soon. He had quite an adventure here. He seemed to really enjoy it. He met all my friends (and even some new ones). We went to Seoul again and hung out with a bunch of my other friends there who are also here from San Diego. So we got to talk about home a bit. I got to see my friend Tina. Tina was one of my first friends here, and she quickly became a close friend. She had a rough time in Busan and eventually moved up above Seoul. so I don't see her very often anymore so it was nice to be able to hang out.
I was also involved in NanoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month). Similar to Script Frenzy which I did in April, I had to write a 50,000 word novel. It was tough, especially while Patrick here, but with a little push and hard work, I successfully finished it. I'm going to try to edit it a bit and possibly get it in a self bound book too.
End of November is... Thanksgiving! American Thanksgiving lol... another thing I was missing from back home. My friend Stacy and I got together here and made our own Thanksgiving. My parents had sent me some TV dinners that had some turkey and gravy in it. Stacy had turkey burgers, and we made mashed potatos and green beans. Put together with a glass of wine (or in our case a couple), and wha la...Thanksgiving dinner of Champions :)

DECEMBER-- was very busy for me. Towards the middle of November, I was working Saturdays which continued a few weeks into December. The extra money was nice but it really kept me busy. Sundays, I had rehearsal for a Musical Revue show that I was involved in. A bunch of us theatre nerds in Busan put up a Musical Revue...different songs from different shows wiht the theme of 'One Moment.' Sundays rehearsals kept me busy too and we performed on Dec. 19th. It was a good show. I had a blast. I hadn't been involved in theatre in 10 years. It was such a great feeling. I definitely know that I need to keep that part of my life active. Hoping to do another one in March, if not the Vagina Monologues sooner.
At the end of December, I also took on working mornings for 3 weeks at the local Middle School. My friend works there and she went on vacation so I covered her classes. It was a bit challenging...working from 8:30-12, and then my school from 2-9. I didn't have a book to work with so I literally just had to make my own lesson plans (thank goodness for internet in the classroom and waygook.org... I just used other peoples powerpoint lessons). The classes were small and the kids were good. I am glad it's over but I'll miss them. Again, more money in the bank :) Pretty sure those 3 weeks will finance my Thailand trip in January and Bali in July :)
On top of all the craziness, I actually started dating someone. He was relatively new to Korea (yes, American) and I'd been friends with for a bit. We had a great time together. I forgot what it was like to have someone to snuggle up to at night and look forward to seeing everyday. I forgot what it was like to know someone cares about you...even if it's just a little bit. For Christmas, we took a snowboarding trip together with some friends. I love snowboarding and I'm always amazed how much better I get every time. I even did the black diamond slope (which was NOT very black diamond lol...especially if I could do it... way too easy). We all made dinner together in our pension and had a Secret Santa gift exchange. A lot of fun and a good Christmas. And naturally, just as I started to let my guard down, it fizzled out. I was a bit disappointed. Reminded again why I had been on retirement/sabbitcal from dating for so long. I hadn't dated anyone in over 2 years. We had a good time together but definitely a snap back into reality.
JANUARY-- I spent New Years Eve with 'the guy' and some other friends. We layed pretty low. Had dinner together, and then went to a local foreign bar for some drinks. It was so wierd knowing that we were counting the seconds until midnight and it was only 7am Dec. 31 back home. After midnight and some drinks, we went to the casino where the boys won a little bit of money. Kate and I lost $5 (btwn the 2 of us) and we all had a 3am dinner...breakfast?? The next morning, my friend Will, made us a New Years breakfast of champions...eggs, sausage, french toast, coffee/kaluha, juice...it was all very delicous. Through the holidays, I was constantly forgetting that it was Christmas or New Year. They're not very big holidays in Korea so there weren't many decorations, or chocolate, or carolers, or lights. It was very different. Almost like it didn't happen.
My very good friend Jennifer Scott, who was my roommate in Italy 5 years ago, moved to Daegu (about 1 1/2 hrs away). I got to meet up with her last weekend and was so happy. I love her to death and just knowing that someone I'm that close with is so nearby makes me so happy. I know there will be great adventures planned together in teh future :)
January 29th, i'm going to Thailand with my friend Katie. I can't wait. We're going to have a blast. It's been so fun planning, etc.

Ok... off to work but at least that's a little bit of an update to work with :) lol

running behind

2010-10-31T20:55:00.001-07:00

I'm sorry, i'm running behind...very behind on my blog. I haven't even finished my Japan blog and so much is happening already. My birthday, dad/grandpa's visit, halloween.... and now is nano wrimo... I have to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of Nov. I'll return to reality soon...promise!

My trip to Japan,...Kyoto

2010-10-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

Katie and I had a nice relaxing train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto. Ironically, during this trip, we were both reading the same book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo so that is pretty funny I think. We stayed at K's House Hostel in Kyoto. This hostel was recommended to me by several people so I was glad we booked early. I've noticed that the older I get, the less willing I am to pay to stay in a mixed dorm room with 12 people. We opted for the 4 person room and were very happy we did. When we arrived there were 2 people there from San Sebastian, Spain (the Basque country. I got a lesson in history talking to them). They were very nice. It still reminded me why hostels are still a great way to go sometimes. So Katie and I got a great first nights rest and were ready to take on Kyoto.
Our first day there, we were hoping to rent bicycles. We'd noticed in Osaka, that EVERYONE rode bicycles. We both absolutely loved that. Our hostel rented bikes out and the rumor was that it was supposed to rain, so we wanted to get an early start...but the bikes were all sold out. So we walked instead. The first place we walked to was Kiyomizu Temple, which turned out to be one of my favorite places we visited. I really enjoyed this Temple. It was about 20 minutes from our hostel, up a hill, that once again had a lot of souvenir shopping and yummy snacks. The Temple was really beautiful. Since it was on a hill, it's surrounded by tons of greenery around. The first thing we noticed once we walked around a bit was this room people were going into. You take off your shoes (naturally because we're in Asia) and put them in a bag that you carry with you. You enter this dark dark room. You leave all your attachments at the door. Anything that you worry about or that you carry with you, leave at the door. you walk through this completely pitch dark room/maze. There are beads along the wall that you follow with your hands. Then in the middle, after a few minutes, you see this stone. Make a wish, and turn the stone. And as you walk out, you surprisingly feel A LOT better! :) I actually really enjoyed that. So more walking around meant seeing the black buddha statue...black? what? Yes, black. I don't know anything about this or understand but it's quite funny. And then another shrine with incense coming out of it (it smelled so good :) ). Next stop in the Temple was the love and matchmaking section... perfect for me, right? :) (just kidding...kinda). Yes a whole section in the Temple devoted to love. Here, I am standing in the entrance way and when you walk in, there is a statue of a Japanese God who is in charge of love and good matches (as the sign says) and the rabbit beside him is his messenger. Apparently, I should keep my eye out for more rabbits. The area was packed with women, packed with couples. There was a lot to see!! And of course, everyone wants to find love. One of my favorite things (also most hilarious) was the Love Stone. There are 2 stone about 50 feet from each other or so. You are supposed to touch one stone, and then walk with our eyes closed to the other stone. I did this successfully :) (with Katie's help so I didn't completely clobber other people in my path). So hopefully that is good luck in love for me! There were a lot of little things like this to do. Another one involved rubbing the head of this little man gnome thing. They keep it simple, if I pat this little dude, then my prayers will be answered. So we walked around the grounds more. It really was gorgeous. I loved that it was up a mountain a bit so we had a good view and the green trees of fall around it were gorgeous.
On the way back down from the Temple, Katie and I stopped to have green tea floats... green tea with peach ice cream and ice... it may have been one of the most incredible things ever in my current life lol. It was phenomeonal!! Perfect for a hot day (and yes I mean VERY hot!!!)

GOING TO WORK... more later....

My trip to Japan,...arrival in Osaka and Tokyo

2010-09-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

After 7 years of desperately wanting to visit Japan, I finally made it come true :) I am so happy. First let me say, that Katie and I are 2 very 'camera happy' people. In the 7 days we were there, we took over 1000 pictures between the two of us...I'm not posting all of those. So the few posted are some of the better ones. There are about 180 posted on my facebook. Ok so....
Chuseok, is Korea's version of Thanksgiving. This year, it fell on a Wednesday, giving us Tues-Thursday off. I asked for the Monday and Friday off back in May and bought a ticket to Osaka. It took awhile to find someone to go with, but my friend/neighbor Katie finally arranged it so she could go with me. We had an incredible time!!!

I first arrived into Osaka at 11am on Saturday. Katie had a separate flight and was arriving later in to the evening. So first things first, I had to exchange papers to get my rail pass, and figure out how, via rail, subway, bus, etc I would get into the city of Osaka. I had read in my travel book that no one in Japan spoke very muh english and it was hard to get around. I actually found it quite easy. There were english signs, and if I looked lost, people would volunteerily come up to me to help me. VERY VERY nice people. It took me about 2 hours to take the train and subway to Tenjibashi___6-chrome in northern Osaka area (the name is sooooooo long). Then I managed to get a bit lost on my way to the boys house...naturally. But I arrived safe and sound at around 1pm.

Saturday:Katie and i had decided to give couchsurfing a shot. For those who don't know about couchsurfing, check it out, www.couchsurfing.com. A website dedicated to young people traveling on a budget. People all over the world offer up their couch or floor for travelers to sleep on for free. I wouldn't do this alone (unless at another girls house) but since it was Katie and I, we decided to try it. There were a few guys in Osaka (they were English teachers from Australia, Canada and US) who were letting us crash. I will just say now that they are the "Kings of Couchsurfing." They have a whole calendar full of hosting couchsurfers like 5 days a week!! and up to 9 people per night!! That's dedication! Luckily, it was just me and Katie this night. Mark was the only one not working on this specific day, so I hung out with him, for a bit exchanging stories about the differences between Korea and Japan, relationships, movies, and I got a lesson in Japanese writing (they have 3 alphabets!!! CRAZY!! And I can actually distinguish them now, with his help). We didn't do much touristy stuff upon my arrival since we were picking up Katie around 5 and I just wanted to relax a bit. Around 7, we met Katie at the subway and went out to dinner with Mark and his roommate David. They took us to a Yakitori restaurant, chicken skewers. They were delicious! katie is a Vegetarian (or pescetarian because she eats fish) but she managed to find some veggie stuff as well. We had a great dinner and we treated the boys for letting us stay there (and yes, it was expensive).

Sunday: On our first big day out in Japan, we decided to go to Tokyo. We took the Shinkansen, the bullet train to Tokyo. Took about 3 hours :) My friend Alan (the one who visited me here), his brother Andrew lives in Tokyo so we were going to stay with him. However, with a bit confusion with arrival dates, he had other plans, but still offered to let us stay at his place...very nice of him. So we arrived at his apartment in the Meguro area of Tokyo, unpacked, and headed into the city with the intention of buying tickets for a Kabuki show. We really wanted to see a Kabuki theatre show. First things first...conquering the Tokyo Subway system. We managed to get around but it was sooooo confusing at first. Of course with our luck, once we arrived, tickets for Kabuki were sold out. So instead, we decided to venture the streets of Shinjuku (the entertainment area of Tokyo). Katie and I both had 2 different travel books so with the combo of the two, we had a lot info about the city. Once we arrived in Shinjuku, we saw a large group of people marching the streets in robes, carrying some kind of shrine. We were curious what was going on. We took a few pictures and watched the chanting, etc. There was a huge table lined up with tons of sushi and everyone was drinking beer in a very happy mood. We realized it was the 1st day of Autumn Festival. We were standing on the sidewalk, looking at a map (trying to get to 'piss alley') when a random guy came up to us and just handed us both a beer. What a nice guy he was :) Then his friends came over and started talking with us, which some how lead to 2 guys giving us their robes to wear and a big photo session took place...their idea, not ours...though we were happy to oblige :) It was a very funny, random, great first introduction to Tokyo. Shinjuku was HUGE! We read in her book about this tiny alley area that was really cool to go down, had cheap food, and intresting things. Well it was actually pretty hard to find. We wandered the streets for a long time. Once we got there, we sat down at another Yakitori restaurant. They made us chicken and vegetable skewers which were very delicious. They kept giving us more skewers so we kept eating. We didn't realize until later that we pay by the skewer, not for pre-set number. So our 'cheapish' dinner turned very expensive already. We weren't very happy...but weren't letting it get to us. Lesson learned. So we started walking the brightly neon colored lights of Shinjuku, Tokyo, just taking it all in. We found some interesting bars, funny signs, random english errors, and even manged to find ourself lost in the 'adult entertainment' section of Shinjuku. There were posters of girls everywhere and the girls themselves dressed to different fetishes. I don't know if they're 'strippers' or 'karaoke girls' or 'massage girls' or what. If they were there for 'company' or 'happy endings.'
Definitely an interesting experience. We headed back to the apartment on the earlier side in order to get a good head start on the next day ahead.

Monday: Venture #1: Happoen Lake. Katie read in her book about a cute park near Andrews apartment. So we spent the morning venturing out to find it. Once we did, we realized how absolutely beautiful it was. It is supposed to be famous for cherry blossom season, but this was still gorgeous. With the start of autumn, the trees were starting to turn colors, the lake was beautiful with the orange fish inside. We really enjoyed it. Turns out that it was a National holiday as well so there were not 2, not 3, but 5 wedding that we witnessed in the park. The wedding pictures were all taken at the same place. One couple would finish, the next one would come in. It was pretty funny. We were at one point, on this little peninsula on the lake (where the picture was taken) and we were waiting there for quite awhile because we couldn't leave due to all the pictures being taken. We enjoyed the view. It was very interesting to see the bride and groom and their family and friends all dressed up. Some of the brides wore traditional Kimonos first and then changed into the regular white wedding dress afterwards. It is very noticable how much the people do NOT smile in pictures. Everyone looks miserable! But I think that's just part of their culture in some way. So we walked around a bit. Wound up finding a cute little tea house, a pagoda, and shrine (the picture). It was a beautiful walk.
Next on the agenda: tattoo parlor. For the past 5 years, I've been wanting to get different tattoos. Nothing big, just small. Recently I came to the realization how I can incorporate all of them together. I'm going to get a charm anklet about my travels. So one of the charms on it is that I want the word "passion" written in Japanese Kanji letters...and I had to get it done in Japan. So Tokyo was probably the best place. Tattooing is still not very common/popular in a majority of the Japanese culture (not to the extent it is in Western culture). The tattoo parlors were very hidden and our maps were not very good. We must've walked around for HOURS looking for the places. We asked several people who sent us on a wild goose chase. But getting lost in a new city is always fun :) We were in a pretty suburban like area but we randomly stumbled upon this building which was huge and looked like it was made from legos. So random...but so cool. In the picture on the right, I'm taking a picture of the map on this guys camera...naturally, while I stuff my face. Attractive, I know. But low and behold we found the parlor. I made a reservation for that night. All of a sudden, the fact that I was getting a real tattoo kicked in. I was sooo nervous, but so excited :) We had a few hours to kill so we ventured around a little bit more. In the same area, is also the World's Largest Intersection. Something like 3 million people cross the street there everyday. Ridiculous! so of course, we contributed to those statistics as we crossed the street ourselves...and took pictures of course.
Right next to that intersection, next to the subway station was this statue of a dog. The dog is named Hachiko. The story was that he lived in a house there with his owner. Everyday, he'd wait for his owner at the subway station when he got off work. One day, his owner died of cerrebral hemmorage and obviously didn't return. The dog went back to the subway station everyday for 9 years waiting for his owner. Even when it was taken in by another family, it still escaped in order to make it to the subway station to wait for his original owner. That is loyalty. So they put up a statue in his honor. I thought it was a very sweet story.
So a few hours and Japanese noodles later, I went back to the tattoo parlor to get my very first tattoo. My tattoo artist was really nice. She showed me the sanitized, packaged needles when she set everything up. She pretty much wrote the design of the tattoo exactly like I wanted it...size, font, location, everything. I was very happy about it. When I arrived there, I was sooooo nervous. The reality of the situation kicked in...I hate needles. I say that but then I've had my belly button and tongue pierced so I knew i could do this too. I just remember everyone talking about how much it hurt. I was so nervous. I was definitely mentally preparing myself for awhile. Katie was a rockstar, reassuring me everything was good and holding my hand, etc. Once it actually started, it didn't hurt as much as i thought at all (granted i got it in a good location, away from the bone area, etc). When she started, it mostly just felt like a papercut....and yes, I know papercuts hurt...but i was imagining A LOT more pain so I was ok with that. It was VERY tolerable. The closer to the bone, the more it did hurt but it wasn't 'painful.' The total process took about 1 1/2 hours (prep, and the tattoo itself). I was VERY happy with it all. Happy that it didn't hurt as much, happy the way it looked, happy with the place, the price...not so much. But I guess I'm paying to have it specifically done in Japan so I was ok with it. So the picture is the actually process and what it looks like. "passion" :) The size itself is about the size of my first knuckle on my ring finger.
Afterwards (I couldn't feel it at all...felt totally normal), we returned to Miguro to the apartment. We caught my friend Andrew just as he was coming home. We all went out together, along wtih 2 of his friends, to grab some food and drinks. I had some YUMMY food that night. Seared chicken (raw chicken...like raw fish...seared...wierd but DELICIOUS), asperagus (oh how i miss asperagus and artichokes), and other veggie and chicken dishes. After snacks, we went to O bar. We had more snacks. I indulged in a drink called Sometimes a Bitch... I'm sure some people think that's approriate :) After O bar, we went to Red Room Bar. It is a tiny tiny, hole in the wall bar that is literally filled with HUNDREDS of red chandeliers and lamps. Some were really cool, some were really wierd. Drinks were strong, but cheap. Quite an interesting bar. They actually don't allow pictures inside (why? who knows) but we snuck a few anyway. It was a fun night. A great, almost night out in Tokyo.

The next day, our last day in Tokyo, Katie and I decided to have a sushi lunch...mmmmm. We went to the conveyor belt sushi place. We've heard the were pretty cheap and delicious. They were pretty cheap...but omg I could eat sushi all day and it could've easily added up. I have heard that American sushi is different from Japanese sushi but I didn't find it THAT different. American sushi joints have a lot of rolls. They use things like cream cheese and hot sauce. In Japan, they do have rolls, but definitely not very many and very different. They're fans of mayonaise...wierd right? It actually works pretty well with sushi. But the fish and rice, itself wasn't that different. It was nice to have some salmon. I hadn't had that in awhile and it was delicious :) There was a water faucet for every seat at the sushi bar. We were really confused until an older woman showed us that we pour green tea powder (powder??) into our cups and the faucet has scalding hot water...and there is our green tea. Strange?? Cool? Ok. :)
After sushi, we headed to the Ryogoku Sumo Wrestling Stadium. Yes, we were very excited to see some Sumo wrestling...especially since we missed Kabuki and those were the 2 cultural things we really wanted to do. During the day is when a lot of the amateurs compete. The stadiums was pretty empty for that, but that just means we got better seats. We had no idea about the rules for Sumo or how to do it, etc. It was easy to learn. Turns out that each match is 30 seconds-1 minute long!! First person to go out of bounds or hit the floor loses. So we watched for awhile, cheered a bit, and even got to meet some of the amateur wrestlers. Seriously, they were HUGE!!!!!! Katie and I took WAY too many pictures of the Sumo wrestling. P.S. I've never seen so many butts in my whole life. It was just craziness.

We took a break from the Sumo for a few hours to go check out Asakusa's Shensoji Temple. This was really beautiful. Our original plan was to just stop by the Temple, see it for about 40 minutes or so and then go and see a professional Sumo match. Once we found the Temple, we realized there was a long street we had to walk through with SOUVENIR shopping (my favorite :) ). We stopped in, looked at some things, and decided we'd buy some stuff on the way out. Ironically, the little street had significant historical value. It is a bit much and a little boring to write, but it is was significant. Interesting, I thought. Then we arrived at the Temple. It was beautiful!!! Bigger than I thought.
The big red thing in the middle is a pretty important trademark for this specific Temple. On the side of the Temple also has a 5 story Pagoda, the biggest in Tokyo. The combo of it all which makes for some beautiful pictures. On the picture on the right, you can see the Temple entrance in the background and then some smoke in the middle. The thing in the middle is filled with incense. You're supposed to breathe the incense which are supposed to have healing powers. Healing what? I don't know, but I'll take it anyway. The incense thing, I noticed were just about every Temple we went to in Japan. Pretty important. We saw one of the shrines which was made out of gold and really beautiful, big too. We walked around a bit and explored the premises. I can bombard this page with pictures of the Temple. One of the pictures on the left, is me taking in the incense. Below that are some people who are washing their hands. Washing their hands in this water signifies purity. So I since I participated in the hand washing, I feel safe to say that I am once again pure :) Then comes the Omikuji. I read about this in my tourist book. They are fortune tellers (which we noticed also at almost all of the Temples). Since this was our first one, it's special. It's the one that means the most. So here is how it works. You shake the shaker box and a stick falls out. You match the characters of the stick with one of the boxes in front of you and you pull out your fortune (as my serious of photos will demonstrate). My fortune was 'regular' (it literally said that on the fortune). It said "when spring comes, Katsura tree flowers are in full bloom, smelling so well. Your fortune will open wide when your season comes. If you get the chance, open, you will get fame and honor, climbing the way to top of the sky, you can meet the fortune soon. Your request will be granted, the patient get well soon, The lost article will be found, it is good to start a trip, and marriage and employment are both well."
I found this fortune hilarious in many ways. 1. Because the english is not proper and it just makes me laugh now. 2. There was a drawer with hundreds of this fortune. 3. It's soooo vague. But I guess that's what we get. The good news is that my marriage is well. lol. So my fortune was 'regular' and katies was bad. We didn't see it till later, but we realized we were supposed to tie our fortunes to what looks like mini clothes lines. Her response "my fortune is just bad. I'm not tying it up there." But I did. We didn't know what it meant but figured we were doing the right thing. It wasn't until I arrived home and read up on it that I realized that if you have a bad fortune, you're supposed to tie it up so that the bad luck gets lost in the wind. Since she still has her bad fortune and I tied up my 'regular' fortune, I wonder what that means for us lol. So we walked out of the Temple, bought a few little things for souvenirs for ourselves and friends/family and went back to Ryogoku to watch the professional Sumo Wrestlers. There were a ton more people in the audience. There was also a huge difference in the bodies of the wrestlers. The amateurs were just plain FAT. The professionals were still fat, not as fat, with a lot more muscle. And there were actually several foreign wrestlers as well. I've never known any foreigner whose grown up to wish to be a sumo wrestler. I think that would be hilarious. The amateurs, went through all the rituals before a fight, and then they just fought. The professionals, would get ready, and then psych each other out...like 5 times! It got boring after awhile. We just wanted them to fight already. So yea, we really enjoyed that. On our way out, we saw the Asahi Brewery in the distance. I was told to try to seei it, but we ran out of time. Still looked cool from the distance. The gold flame is pretty famous. Definitely a distinguishing feature you can see. So after Sumo, we headed back to Andrews, retrieved our stuff, and headed to the JR Shinkansen Station where we took the Bullet train to Kyoto for our next adventure :) Tokyo did us well :)

It's the time of the Season for Change

2010-09-09T07:18:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have probably been the hardest on me yet. It seems like a little bit of everything slowly ate me. It started with the sadness of more of my co-workers leaving. My boss left, whom I was close with (who I found out later also screwed me over with vacation days. Sneaky snake), one of my closest friends here in Korea, decided to go behind my back with a couple of things (and chose a guy over our friendship...sadness), and so many of my friends just all left at the same time. Not to mention the Italy drama I've been dealing with. The Italians sure don't make it easy for people to live there for more than 3 months. Uggg. So granted to say, a little bit of everything creeped up on me, wore me out, prevented me from sleeping for months, and eventually gave me lymphangitis (which I didn't discover until I had a big lump on the side of my neck which scared the bejezus out of me). A mix of all, also creates for a bit of homesickness. I hate to use that word and I hate to say that i miss home...however, I think I do. I miss little luxuries of home like bathtubs, ahi tuna tacos, and frozen yogurt.
Even though, I'm in a low (hey i'm a poet, and i didn't even know it...and a nerd), I've still manage to have some fun and meet new people :) A few weeks ago, I heard of a Russian ice skating show that was in town. I knew that after all my 'girl-drama,' that an ice skating show was just what I needed. I had also recently met a new girl in town (literally new to my small town). So I spent the day with her showing around and my new Korean friend Suzie (the girl I met on the bus on the entry below). Suzy is a 20 y.o Korean student who wants to move to England in December for school (and boys). She's very cute. We spent the day having sushi, exploring the beaches, and ended with the Russian ice skating show. Half the show was a ballet and the 2nd half was a cirque de soleil type of show with lots of acrobats. It was very different from what I expected but VERY good :) Besides the ballet, they did ice dancing, men and womens singles, group performances, they had arialists, ridiculous hula hoopists, a guy even performed a fire show on the ice...again, I've never seen that before. It is amazing how no matter where I am, ice skating always makes me happy. I really hope in the future I can do more with it. I left very happy. Liz's Korean co-teacher, Michelle was also at the show with her family. It was a great surprise to see her there. We had a great day.

Another fun/cultural experience I've had recently was learning how to make Makali. Makali is the Korean rice wine. It can be delicious or gross...kinda an acquired taste, but I enjoy it. We took the cable car to the top of Geumjeong Mountain/Fortress. I had never been up there. It was so beautiful. There was a short hike (hard to miss all the Koreans in bright neon clothes in full hiking gear), and we arrived at the top. We were picked up in a van and taken to the location. There were some little villages along the way. I'd never guessed there would be. It was so quiet, so surrounded by nature, and quaint. Very lovely. When we arrived, we were in the middle of a farm like area. There was a big tent with a small pool kinda area. We were told that we could put our feet in...it was a hot day, so some of us did! And it felt amazing. It was kind of a random spot for just a big tub of water. We weren't sure what to think, but no questions asked. Our 'sun-sang-nim' aka teacher, didn't speak English, so we had a nice Korean girl with us to translate. The teacher started off by giving us all a bottle of his own makali that he is famous for making. It was very different than we were used to (no carbonation) but very fresh and natural. So we learned that at first they take the 'nudo' (that's how it sounded like it was pronounced. I think it's rice that's been soaked in water for a bit and grain/wheat) and mix it with other stuff... and then you step on it to mush it together... as demonstrated by the nice Adjumma here. She said she was very famous for her makali and been on TV before. She was so funny and cute. We were all a little bit turned off at the idea that this alcoholic beverage, which is commonly served at many Korean restaurants, was made by feet!!! (however we realized that grapes are usually stomped for wine as well... some things are just
better left not knowing). However, when given the chance, I did it as well. We rinsed off our feet before taking the plunge into the unknown. It was so sticky and gewy feeling between my toes... but almost therapeutic at the same time (i know, i'm crazy). It got to be more and more sticky vs. grainy. When it was at the perfect consistency, we had to shape it into pizza pie type shapes. We had a contest for the perfect shape... I thought mine was good, but I didn't win :( Turns out that our teacher, also was a Vetenarian and made/sold pottery... a man of many talents. Very interesting person. He gave a piece of his pottery away to the winner. OK... Once the nudo has been in the closet a few weeks, it gets hardened... then we put it in the big bowl and pound it into powder. That big stick thing was pretty heavy. Once the powder is all crushed up, we use it as a filter... and out comes makali! :) Oh the wonders of the world :) Very interesting. Our teacher was a very interesting man. He made pottery, he was an animal doctor and he put on this show playing a korean mandolin type thing. It was very beautiful. An amazing cultural day :) I really enjoyed it.

Another newbie in my life is Ms. Yeboni (Yeboni means 'pretty' in Korean). My friend Dominique is leaving Korea to go home to South Africa for a few months. She is planning to come back in February. She had 2 kittens. So I took one and my friend Katie took the other (she named her Saja). Katie lives really close to me so we sometimes get the cats together to play. But they're about 3 months old...still pretty little. So cute. Yeboni definitely brings liveliness back into my apartment. It's nice to come home to her. She's very active and very cuddly. :) Makes me miss my Lila so much.

So a few weeks ago, I went with a group to Hobakso Lake...aka Pumpkin Lake in Miriyang. There was supposed to be a lot of cliff diving and natural rock water slides. It looked amazing. It was sponsored by a church group so I got to meet a lot of Philippino missionaries who were really so nice! Their english was perfect. Just very sweet people. We took the 'scenic route' which involved a mini hike up a mountain to see the 'freezing place.' a random glacier area. It was a VERY hot day. The higher we went on the mountain (and we didn't go very high), the cooler it got. We arrived in this area that was gated off and it was just freezing!! It felt incredible! REALLY it felt great! Then we hiked back down, drove about 4 minutes and we arrived at Hobakso. It was really beautiful!!! We were planning on cliff diving in the big lake (in the background), however the 'korean version' of a lifeguards kept blowing their fog horns at us... yet they wouldn't motion or say anything. Just blow the horn. Ultimately it got annoying, so we had to stay out of that area. We found out it was because that area was very deep. Most Koreans can't swim very well, if at all. So they don't allow swimming in the deep end. At least there were some other slides there and other smaller cliffs to jump off of.

OK I gotta go to bed... i'll finish later :)

A day of new Korean friends

2010-08-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning at my friend Mary's house. We'd had a 'girls night' the night before, which involved wine drinking, girl talk, and music. We had a great time. However, we stayed up too late, and I couldn't sleep at all. I left around 10am. I had to take a 45 minute bus ride back home. I was to meet for lunch in Ulsan (25 minutes away) with my former boss (whom I'm still close with) and his family. I was sitting by myself on the bus. I saw a girl sit across from me. Before I knew it, she was sitting RIGHT next to me and in my face with 20 questions. "What's your name? Where are you from? What are you doing in Korea? How long have you been in Korea? Where do you live? Do you like Korean food?" This is actually quite normal and I'm pretty used to it. However at this point, I would've enjoyed a little nap on the bus. But i sucked it up and chatted away with her. Her english name is Suzie, she's about 20 years old, and an economics major at Pusan National University. We chatted during the whole bus ride and before I knew it, I had a new best friend. As I write this, at 2am (less than 24 hours later) she has managed to call me twice and text me twice. I love meeting new people. Especially Koreans. She was a very very sweet girl. Though I would've still enjoyed my nap lol. I'm embracing the situation and hope to have a new friend along the line.

My boss told me that he had a friend in my area and she would pick me up and bring me over (so nice!). Korea is one of the only places that I would ever trust a random stranger to come up to me, smile and tell me to get in their car without them telling me who they were or what they were doing or where they were taking me :) This has happened about 3 times. First time being when I arrived in Korea at the airport. (I had a random guy come up to me. "Daniel?" "yes?" "come." he put my bags in his car and away we went. he barely spoke english so what could I say? Luckily, it was the right guy and situation :) ) So anyway, this girl picked me up... english name is Grace... and the day began.

Grace and I had lunch with my former boss, Ho, and his wife, and 2 kids, Daniel (english name) and daughter, Hy Mina (korean name)... his son used to be in one of my classes so I knew his english name, however don't know his Korean name...wierd? The daughter is barely 2 years old. She's the cutest thing EVER!! And her Korean name is actually decently easy to remember. I am not a HUGE meat fan. In fact, I only prefer to eat beef... chicken has slowly grown on me the last couple years. In Korea, pork is the MAIN meat so i've been a bit more lenient with that, however when I"m with my boss, they ALWAYS go to a duck restaurant. I've never had duck in my life. However, I've now had it 3 times. It tastes like ham lol. I feel like duck is considered a delicacy so I should feel thankful for it and i know it's not cheap. However I'd take beef or chicken anyday. I still get a guilty conscious. We had a great lunch together and then Grace and I headed back.

In the process of Grace getting lost through Ulsan, she also invited me to her house (walking distance from mine) for iced cocoa. Sounded delicious. Her mother really wanted to meet me. I'll never get used to people who are sooooo excited to meet you jsut because you're a foreigner. lol. So i went to her house and we had great attempted conversation and iced cocoa. Grace is an english teacher at the same chain as my school but at a different location. She teachers grammer (in korean) but she's is very limited in speaking english. With the help of her struggling in english, me struggling in korean, and her dictionary, we managed to talk for hours. Her mother arrived home and asked if I liked kimchi jigae (kimchi soup) and cold noodles (a summer specialty), both of which I'd become pretty accustomed to so i said yes. So she said I was to stay for dinner and she would make it. Apparently she used to own a restaurant so I was excited for some Korean home cooking :) During this conversation about dinner, the mom whipped out a HUGE box of Korean grapes (which yes, are different from grapes at home) and corn on the cob (which is also different...). So we snacked on those. I was told that after my 3rd grape, eating the whole grape and spitting out the seeds, I was told that you're not supposed to eat the skin, and that the seeds were good for your health (like everything else in Korea). So good to know. I spit out the skin and ate the rest of the seeds. hmmm. Then we had corn on the cob. If you never visit Korea, you may never experience this extremely odd corn and the cob sensation. The corn is CHEWY. Not served with butter or salt or anything, just chewy! Very strange lol :) We chatted more, the mom started cooking up a storm, and kept asking if I was ok. Koreans don't sweat very much and I was sweating up a storm so they were really worried lol. They kept adjusting the fan on me to make sure I was cooling off lol. Awkward! When the mom went to get more food. She came back with Grace's cousin and his wife. They had a new 2 month old baby. Babies are cute in general, but this baby was pretty ugly lol. I still had fun playing with him. I wasn't sure at first if the 'wife' was the sister, or friend...she looked sooooo young!! I found out that she was about 20 or 21... still young, she looked younger than THAT! The mom showed me how to make cold noodles (one of my favorite summer dishes), and made Doenjang Jigae (soybean paste vegetable stew) on the side. Doenjang jigae is actually pretty good. I should've paid more attention how to make that. We all had dinner together on the floor, at the table, traditional Korean style. The mom packed up the doenjang jigae for me to take home. During dinner, something was brought up about shoe size. I told them that I have small feet. Size 225 (or 5 1/2 for the Western folk). Apparently Grace's mom has the same size feet and had accidently bought the same shoes twice so she gave me the 2nd pair as a gift. They were a pair of heels that had a purple and green band. Really beautiful actually!! (i was surprised since usually older and younger people have different styles). I wound up leaving Grace's house with A LOT of grapes, 3 stalks of corn, and a huge container of jigae, and a pair of heels :)

I felt like I had an amazing day of culture and diversity, and meeting new people. This is one of the things that I love about living in Korea. You never know what your day is going to be like (at least on weekends), you never know who you're going to meet, how they'll treat you, and you learn something new everyday about a completely different culture. I love it. :)

At least I had a good day. The night wound up sucking pretty bad. It's never easy to realize that someone you thought was a good friend is not at all. No matter what city, state, country you're in, some girls will be girls... petty, selfish, and backstabbing :( At least the day was great!

Boryeong, MUD FESTIVAL!!!!!

2010-08-02T23:07:00.000-07:00

The #1 Festival of the year came and went and it was amazing. The Boryeong Mud Festival :) Since I decided to come to Korea, this was the one thing I was looking forward to. I'd seen pictures on friends facebooks and I couldn't wait. :)

The City of Boryeong had previously been known for the quality of the mud on the land. I don't know the entire story, but what I've vaguely narrowed it down to is that they turned the mud into Cosmetic mud (which is very good for your skin) and had a 'health fesival.' Over time, it became more and more popular which eventually just turned into an over all mud festival. This festival brings in MILLIONS of dollars into the small, non-touristy city of Boryeong. They have some local mud but also wind up bringing in Mud from other places as well.

As the time got closer, I (along wtih Gill and Lacey of course) signed up to go with a group on a bus. We left at 8am on Saturday. It was a brutal morning. Everyone (besides the rebel kids drinking in the back) tried to sleep for the first few hours. We stopped about every hour for a potty break...sometimes more when the early-drinkers couldn't hold it any longer (which got to be quite annoying after awhile). The bus ride took 6 hours total and we arrived around 2pm. It was pretty brutal. We were sooooo ready to get off the bus and into the mud. We were a little disappointed with the weather which was a little rainy, gray and cloudy but that didn't stop us. We checked into our accomodation (included in the bus fee). We had a smaller room, me, Gill, Lacey, and their friends Ryan and Gavin... there was just enough room for all 5 of us on the floor... literally a small blanket on the floor and a small sheet to cover us (which we found out later didn't cover all 5 of us). I'd never stayed at a motel like this, and soon learned that I would never want to ever again lol. We changed into our 'mud clothes' and headed out! The festival was in a large area right on the beach. We first found a locker (lacey and i in the locker room), and headed out to take on the world. We tried to bring a camera but it was really difficult. No one wanted to risk their camera getting all muddy. So we only have a few pictures but still good enough for you to get the main idea.
The first thing we did was join in the mud wrestling pit. Just a huge blow up pool filled with mud and people just wrestling all over the place. It was sooooo much fun, but we all got our butts kicked pretty bad. I was spitting out mud right and left. It got pretty intense. I've never been mud wrestling but this was definitely the exact definition for it. As soon as you step in, you get thrown into the middle, as soon as you get up, someone is falling over you. If you do make it up, then there will be another guy taking out your feet from under you. It was on grass so it wasn't VERY hard but still rough and there was so much sand on the bottom of the pit that my knees were cut up pretty bad. There were soooo many people in there! I never would've guessed that being in a place surrounded by American military guys or Korean guys that the Korean guys would be the more aggressive and brutual type. They were REALLY rough with us girl. Don't get me wrong, it was still fun but we weren't surprised when someone got hurt. A few hours later, we went back there and they were monitoring how many people were in at one time and how long they stayed in. So I was glad we got in some good wrestling while we could. It was so nice to just let go and get all dirty and mudd :) So much fun!
Later, we went back to our room, showered, changed, and went for dinner. We had BBQ...which was not impressive at all. it was just a random tent set up for the tourists so i'm not sure that quality wasn't on their priority list lol. We managed to snag a few beers and headed to a club. Lacey wound up kissing a fat guy in a speedo. Random? Gross? absolutely lol. But she's crazy like that. She loves pictures and randomness lol. One of the things I like about her. We left that club pretty quickly though (it was pricey). We wound up finding a house party. A group from Daegu were just partying in their guesthouse... the entire guesthouse and front yard area. So we hung out there and met new people, western and korean. It was fun. I have absolutely no idea what time went back...maybe 4am? Ugggh, i swear time in Korea flies by!

Sunday morning we woke up and had to be out of our guesthouse by 11. We loaded our things into the bus. Luckily it was a BEAUTIFUL day :) Bright and sunny. So we stayed for mud festivities until 4pm. Gill and I were the only ones who decided to get muddy. We put on our mud clothes (i was a tad bit hung over) and back into the muddy madness. We hit up a mud station first and painted each other. Remember, this mud is cosmetic so there is actually a specific way to 'wear' it. Paint it on, wear it a bit, rinse and repeat. lol. While
we were getting painted, these two old Koreans came up to us and take over...apparently we were painting each other wrong??? Of course i got the old korean guy and she got the old korean woman. They just painted our legs and arms. It was pretty funny. We were hoping for some more wrestling, but it was still monitored, tame, and boring. We did the obstacle course thingy again... man it really tears up your knees. You're trying to crawl through and it's just all sand Ugggg! The picture at the very top is from the obstacle course. We walked around a bit, stood in line for way too long to get painted with color mud, bu it was too long a wait. We got over it pretty quickly. We went back to the beach, rinsed off in the water, and layed out for a bit. A great last day at the mud festival :)
It wasn't until the next day we realized how SUNBURNT we were!!!

Bell rang for class... more on Mud Fest later :)

the start of goodbyes

2010-07-23T05:48:00.001-07:00

When I came to Korea, I knew that there would be a lot of other people coming and going. However I wasn't expecting, what I thought would be the constants in my life, to go as well. I knew I would have some Korean co-workers and I guess I thought they would be the constant. It wasn't till a few months later that I realized how wrong I was.
Almost everyone who was working at my school when I arrived has quit... maybe it's me lol. I doubt it. I was told later that that is the issue with working at a private school. A lot of people come and go so much. But I have a good school. Seriously, I think of everyone there like my family here. It is so sad everytime someone leaves. About a month ago, we found out one of the Korean teachers is pregnant. She's been trying for over 2 years so this really was a miracle and we're so proud of her... but i didn't think she'd leave a week later. Literally a week. 1 week later, another girl said her family was moving... so she left the next day.
There has been another guy roaming around my school. When I asked who he was, I was told that he was the new director. I wasn't quite sure what to think of that. We already had a director. My director was Ho and he was great. He was the one who interviewed me, who took a chance on me, who has helped me continuously in every way he can since I arrived, whose invited me over to his house for multiple dinners with his family. Even though I know times were tough at my school, I didn't think he would leave. Today he said he wanted to talk to me and Rory (my British co-worker) after school. He took us into a class where he said
"when i hired you guys, I made a lot of promises to you. I promised to help you in whatever way I can. I promised to take care of you guys and to make this the best environment possible. But now I have to go back on that promise. I have decided to leave the school and today is the last day." I guess I should've seen it coming. But I'm still so sad about it. He said "you know many students have quit the school lately. I think it's because of me. So I am doing what's best." Which is complete bull shit. People have their own reasons for quitting the school (it has the best reputation in my city, the only one with foreigners, and the biggest). But the fact that he's taking the blame means that he's been contemplating for a long time. I knew he was stressed and depressed. But i guess i considered him the glue that kept everything together.
We have a new director now, John (and yes, these are their English names lol). He seems nice. Ho promised that he would be as kind and helpful as he was. I really hope that is the case.
But I guess this is the beginning of the next month which will be full of good-byes. ... I think the saddest goodbye will be to Gillian and Lacey, who have been my partners in crime since I arrived. They leave in August. I'm enjoying all moments until then.
Call me emo, but happy Danielle may be temporarily on hold. :(

My 6 month Anniversary

2010-07-21T01:23:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to put it out there that this is my 6th month anniversary of being in Korea :) To me, it seems like a big deal for many reasons...

1. This time last year seems like yesterday 2. Time is FLYING by 3. I'm half way through my contract and 4. Someone once told some of our mutual friends "Danielle won't survive 6 months in Korea" so to that ex-boyfriend I would like to say 'I'm happy to prove you wrong. After 4 years, I can't believe you'd underestimate me that much.'

A bunch of my good friends will be leaving Korea in the next few weeks so I think the next 6 ahead of me will be different too. We'll see what the future brings :)

Visitor #2... ALAN from San Diego in Korea :)

2010-07-15T23:16:00.000-07:00

I have a friend, whom I met in San Diego about a year ago. Alan was the neighbor of one of my closest college friends, Chanine. We've kept in touch over the course of time, meeting up every so often when I visited San Diego for work. One day a brilliant idea popped into his head that he should visit me in Korea. Being the genius that he is, he bought a ticket and 2 months later, he arrived in Seoul :)
There is really nothing like the feeling of having a friend from home visiting you in your new country. Not only can you show them everything you've learned, but they keep you in touch with reality.
Alan arrived in Seoul on Friday night. Due to my late work schedule, I wasn't able to meet him then, but I arrived in Seoul via bullet train at 10am on Saturday. My friend Lacey joined me on the trip as well to visit her friend Kevin who'd just arrived in Seoul. We met in the subway and went back to the hotel to drop off my luggage. Once in the hotel, he had a huge table decorated in what seemed like a MILLION things that he brought for me... a care package from him, his friend JR, and my friend Chanine... seriously, the most awesome, nicest, kindest people ever! There were DVDs, San Diego shirts, flip flops, fruit snacks, couscous, photos, bed sheets... how he managed to fit all of that into his suitcase is beyond me. I felt soooo special. There was so much stuff. I am so lucky to have such awesome friends. Little things from home remind me that people haven't forgotten about me. It meant so much.
After the opening of the gifts, we headed to Insadong to meet Lacey. While on the subway a nice Korean man decided he wanted to be my best friend. He talked to me for a good 20 minutes and almost missed his exit. I'm always amazed, even in a big city like Seoul how much people want to speak english with you. It really is amazing. ANYWAY, Insadong is such a great street. It has the best tourist shopping that I have yet to find anywhere in Korea, it's gorgeous and they have the Court cake presentations! lol They're hilarious! My brother David and I discovered it during his visit. They take huge chunks of fermented honey and wind up stretching and pulling it and doubling it and making it into like 60,000 hairlike strands and wrap it around some peanuts or almonds. It's delicious!!! And the presenters are so funny!! I tried to take another video of it but my camera ran out of memory. Darn it!
After Insadong, we explored a bit. Our ultimate goal was to go to Seoul tower around sunset time so we just strolled around on our way there. First stop was the heading to the Gyeongbok Palace. I visited there with my brother David, but I guess you can never visit a Palace too many times. It was just as nice this time around as it was the first (with less rain). After our walk through, we went took went to visit the Blue House... the President of Koreas house. The walk there was really beautiful. We passed by some old style Korean houses, a lot of antique shops and cafes. Very nice area. I thought we'd be able to walk around, a tour or something but now. There was very tight security outside so this was about all we got.
After the Blue House, we wanted to find the river. Along our walk, a protest was breaking out. At first we were intrigued, but after we saw old ladies beating police officers, and the riot force come in, we decided, considering we were American that we'd better go. Who knows what it was for but better safe than sorry. After that, we went to the Cheonggyecheon River. We bought a glass of wine and listened to the liveband playing La Bamba and some other spanish music. Wierd? Yes, but VERY enjoyable :) Almost like home. It was so relaxing. Next to where we were sitting (u can kinda see it in the back of the picture), there was a tiny ramp going into the water. There was a little girl walking down it and into the water. On her way in, she managed to slip on the ramp and land flat on her bum. Her father rushed after her and when he got to her, he fell right behind her as well. They were both drenched. The little girl and her older brother started laughing up a storm :) It was a very very cute moment to watch. It was those moments that for some reason, really hit a heartstring. Someday I''ll have that...hopefully... maybe I'll have something like that. We managed to make it to Seoul tower after that. It was a bit of a hike but it was worth it. It was gorgeous. The entire area surrounding Seoul tower is just filled with thousands and thousands of locks. I guess it symbolizes love for a lot of people... best friends, lovers, family. They write a message on the locks and then place them all around. Pretty impressive. Of course me... I'm anti-love lol. I made that clear in my photo lol. It was just amazing how many locks there were. Pictures couldn't capture it (1 cause it was dark. 2 cause the surrounding area was so large). Once we got up to the top of the tower, we had a gorgeous city view of Seoul. It was beautiful. There were windows all around. Written on top were different city names... if you headed that direction for so many miles, you'd get there. There were maybe 25 different major cities in the world. It was very interesting. Of course, I found my favorite one... Italy <3. onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QRuFBPEFkos/TEe9ykic75I/AAAAAAAAAnI/jKRyGPUrT0U/s1600/Alan+at+school.jpg">nt?" lol. I guess he's a little taller than they're used to. It was hilarious hearing him being called a Giant. Some of my upper elementary and middle school girls were soooo excited to meet him. They all got so shy. It was pretty cute. "Teacher, very handsome" they'd say. It was adorable. After a long, fun week, the weekend came again. He was leaving Sunday and I was going to miss my partner in crime. But of course I wouldn't let him leave without a proper send off :)
On Saturday, we were supposed to go to a Lotte Giants baseball game, but due to the rainy weather, we wound up bailing on it. We decided to go tourist shopping through Nampodong (the market area). Lots of things to look through. Once the rain became unbearable, we found the cutest coffee shop and took a break. I REALLY liked this coffee shop. Everyone gets their private little cubby. It overlooks the market area (it's on the 2nd or 3rd floor). In each cubby, there are pillows, a flat screen TV, and little table and we just sat around for awhile. The perfect girl friend date place :) When the rain calmed down a bit, we met up with my friend Thom. Thom worked at my school before I did, I am his replacement. It's been great hanging out with him and finally putting a face to a name in all those emails. He went home for a bit, but came back to Korea a few months ago. We 3 decided to go to Busan Tower. We didn't quite make it to the top, but we got like halfway through when we decided to find a place to sit and drink some left over Champagne. However, it was pouring rain. There was one dry bench where we tried to sit, and we were shooed off by some Koreans (apparently that was his umbrellas spot... not for us). What a jerk. We improvised the best we could... Which turned into us putting our umbrellas on top of the vines (which i am assuming create shade because they definitely didn't keep water out). Quite an adventure for sure. Around 6pm, we met up with some of my friends in Seomyeon where we were all going to have a BBQ dinner together. And what a dinner it was!!!!

We started at Donae-Nu, a great BBQ restaurant. We weren't that surprised when we got placed in the 'dungeon.' FYI, people tend to place the foreigners in the corner or in a seperate area... apparently, depending on the bar/restaurant, we're bad for business. Yes, now I know what it's like to be segretated against...however I'm pretty used to it by now. However we had a long table and we were next to another long able of about 10 Korean guys (more on that later). We had a great dinner. My friend Gill, Lacey, and Mary came (Mary brought her friend Cari), and my friend Thom, and Sunny (Sunny is one of my Korean co-workers that I"m close with) and some of Lacey's friends, Gavin and Josh (??). After going through a couple of beers and sojus, some of the boys decided to challenge the other table to drinking contests. Sonny was like "they shouldn't do that. Korean men can drink a lot." lol and she wasn't lying. Who would've thought that the American boys who drink like fish would still lose. There was a couple rounds of that. Then Lacey stepped in. She challenged one of the guys to drink. He said "if I win, I can kiss you." Her response "You can kiss my ass." Well I think she underestimated the amount of beer in that very large bottle (a Korean small bottle is an American large). So the crowd began chanting "kiss, kiss, kiss." lol. She she did it. The rules were that he couldn't stop until she did, and there began the world's longest kiss... a good 8 minutes straight of pure just making out!
It was quite eventful to say the least. At one point, we all (Koreans and foreigners) sat at one table and played the '3,6,9' game that we play in our classrooms. You go around the room counting. When you get to a number that has a 3, 6, or 9 in it, you have to clap. Sadly and Pathetically we never made it pass 20 lol. Who would've thought. The Koreans did better than we did as well! Embarrassing for a native english speaker lol.
After the dinner festivities, we headed to a bar in Seomyeon (the center of Busan) called Fuzzy Navel that had just been redone. We watched the World Cup game there. And it got pretty crazy! The Koreans go crazy over the soccer... especially being in the World Cup. I took a video of what kind of craziness was in the bar. It was packed!! (though it doesn't look like it from the video). There is a picture here of me, Thom, and Sunny. Kinda nice to have us all together. Since i was Thom's replacement at my school and Sunny still works there. I told them I was going to give the picture to our boss lol. NOT! Thought he'd probably be really excited if I did. More pictures were taken and more fun was had. We made new friends, danced around with the old ones. It came to a sad ending however when Korea lost in the World Cup game. Definitely brought a damper on things. So we moved the party to Kyungsun University area where we hit up one of our favorite bars, Kino Eye.

At Kino Eye, the fun continued. More drinks, dancing, talking, laughing, etc. Mary and I found this guy who was walking around with the Korean flag like a cape so we thought we'd indulge in our inner Korean.
Honestly, some of the night was a bit of a blur. I had no expectations of staying up till the sun rose. But I knew that Alan had to catch a 6am train and I was very sad to see him leave. Another great traveling partner. Knowing people who have the same passion in traveling as you do is such an attractive quality! It was great having brunch together and exciting stories of Europe and South America and where the other should go, etc. Definitely got me a bit more amped to see more of Central and South America (of course that's AFTER my European ventures... and Canada travels, and Africa and India travels... and eventually I'll figure out where I want to live and do with my life). :) One can only dream. :)
So we all saw Alan off at 6am. It was sad but we all had a great last night. Rumor has it that he passed out on the train and had to be woken up in Seoul. That's what a whole night of drinking will do to you. My story is that I drunkenly decided it would be a good idea to go HOME (since the subways were running) instead of staying with Gillian or Lacey. So I went to the subway and waited and waited. Well they start running at 6, but it still took like 40 minutes for it to reach where I was (in the middle of the line). So I survived the subway, and hopped on the intercity bus to go home... and of course, I managed to fall asleep on the bus as well. I woke up just as we were entering Ulsan. I hopped off the bus in a sleepy, drunken, daze and searched frantically for the bus going the opposite direction. I finally found one and took the 10 minutes back home... Finally arrived home a little before 8:00. I was MISERABLE! I slept about 3 hours, and then headed to my Sunday writing group. It was quite a chaotic 24 hours. :) But good times were had. Alan, visitor #2, trip= SUCCESS!

It's getting Warmer....

2010-06-29T08:26:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally hit full force. Winter took its sweet time, and now it's not only getting warmer, but a bit humid.... which makes for perfect beach weather :) There have been several days in which I've spent soaking up the rays at Haeundae or Gwangalli Beach. Both very nice beaches with tons of half naked foreigners walking around in boardshorts and bikinis, while the Koreans stand around and watch. The Koreans love their beaches and never cease to amazing me (hence the guy to the left).

A few weeks ago, I got to go on a field trip with my students to Fantasia Land... a smaller version of Disneyland (though Everland is in Seoul... this place was pretty small but still fun). I had a great time with my students and co-workers. We took the school bus to Tongdosa area (Tondosa is a famous Temple nearby). We gathered up all the students... around 45 or so. Once inside, they were informed that they could roam around on their own for a bit but had to be back in an hour in time for lunch. Lunch was pre packed for everyone. They took off!! This was the time that I, along with the other teachers decided would be good for a quiet lunch just us... and a few of the middle school girls who stayed behind. I was pretty curious what our boxed lunch would be in the land that didn't eat sandwiches or lunchables. But I was impressed. It was 2 kinds of chicken, rice, kimchi (of course!), and some little green thingies. It was actually still a bit warm and pretty good. And of course pepsi to wash it down.
Once we finished, I had been requested with some of the middle school girls to join them on some rides. I was definitely up for it. I will admit that my stomach/body can't handle some rides like it used to but I still enjoyed them quite a bit. I figured nothing could really be as scary as some of the rides at 6 Flags Magic Mountain in California lol.
We went on several rides. One being the boat that rocks really high back and forth. The picture on the left is my co-worker Iris and some of our middle school girls (along with some other people lol). They were so excited. It was so great to see them all hyped up and to hang out with them out of school. They even spoke a lot of english for me :)
I used to LOVE rollercoasters growing up. Don't get me wrong, I still get a major adrenaline rush from them :) However, it's amazing to see the difference in how my body handles it. When my body twists and turns, it makes me more sore now, I get more nauseated when I ride a lot of loops. I used to do amusement parks like pro! What happened to me? One of the rides we went on, had the most amazing backdrop. I couldn't believe some of the pictures that were painted on there. SOOOOO inappropriate for children! There were a couple different pictures... but for some reason I can't upload them. This is just one. Either this is giving people the wrong impression of what should happen on rides, or I've been missing out! The picture below on the left is of me and Julie (another co-worker). I was a bit nervous about this ride (tho she was a little too excited!). We're in this circle thing and it just keeps flipping back and forth 360 degrees. Uggg! The darn lap bar KILLED my leg!! And the fact that I was upside down for long periods of time... again, can't handle it like I used to lol. We did everything from the haunted houses to the 3D shows to watching live bands play. There are some really great Korean musicans I've noticed. There was a group of 2 guys and 2 girls that were playing like violin, saxophone and other instruments and they were just so awesome!! I think it's so funny how they play so many english songs. People can sing them, but no one knows what they're saying. Wierd since I can't figure out the words to the k-pop songs to save my life. I have fun trying though :) The picture on the right is of Gia (she is the daughter of one of my co-workers). She was sooooo cute! Front and center for the show. Clapping and dancing away. Mmy co-worker, Esther asked me "is it wierd for you that no one is dancing?" Me-- "Gia is dancing" ESTHER-- "Gia is a special girl. Very different from most Koreans. Most Western people dance to live music. We don't." ME--" Why?" ESTHER--" I don't know. I think they would like it if we danced, but no one does." ... interesting. But seriously, watching Gia puts a smile on your face for sure :)
On another note, would someone please tell me when Snow White dyed her hair blonde and grew gigantic boobs? I don't remember either of those things in the fairy tale. In fact, i don't remember her being this seductive at all!! Oh Korea lol.
And one last comment, for all the readers out there whom I know are dying to make a height comment. Yes, I managed to get on all the rides.... but barely (see photo). Again, I'm still short for Korean. But JUST tall enough :)

AFTER the amusement park, I left with my boss and his family to have dinner with them and some friend for the wife's birthday. They're such a sweet family (even if my boss does creep me out sometimes). We had a great dinner, up a mountain in this hidden away restaurant that was right on a lake. It was sooooo beautiful and peaceful and tranquil. This restaurant was known for their duck (which was apparently quite expensive). I'm still picky on the meat thing, but I did try it. It's not bad. But I think my conscious got to me. I can't do it. I stuck to the pork (even though pork isn't my meat of choice (beef) but here in Korea, I've managed to eat a lot of pork at BBQ).
I hung out on the guys side for awhile, talking smack about the World Cup (my boss lived in England for awhile so he was talking about how they were going to crush US... ha ha we wound up tying at the World Cup ). Then I joined the womens side of the table.

Going to bed... write more in the morning

Venturing Samcheok/Penis park and Seoul with my brother

2010-06-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

I WILL APOLOGIZE TO MY FAMILY IN ADVANCE. I HOPE SOME OF THE STATUES MAKE YOU LAUGH AS MUCH AS I DID, BUT IF THEY MAKE UNCOMFORTABLE (MOM!) SKIP TO THE MIDDLE.

When David told me that he wanted to visit on the dates that he did, I told him right away "just a heads up, some friends and I have been planning a trip to the Penis park for that weekend. So you're coming... sorry lol." I know that's not usually the first thing a guy wants to hear. But David was a rockstar about it and we went to Penis park for Buddha's birthday. Although, a lot of Korea is Christian, Buddhism still takes up a large portion. I am going to assume that the holiday of Buddha's birthday is a lot like our Christmas. Many things were closed (though not all thank goodness) and people went to visit their relatives in another part of Korea. So we went to Haeshindang Penis Park.

David and I met up with my friends Gillian, Lacey, Christina, Katie and Ryan at 7:45am at the bus station. It was a 4 hour ride so we wanted to get there at a decent time enough to explore. It was long but we mostly slept the whole time. When we arrived, we actually had a bit of a hard time finding a motel. Many were full. Plus, people see a big group of foreigners and get scared, I think. We wound up finding a REALLY nice one. We were happy. We dropped off our luggage and headed to penis park. Samcheok was BEAUTIFUL!! Just the bus ride to the park itself was absolutely GORGEOUS!! (on the right) All along the coast, blue water, green mountains, cliffs, it was amazing.
When we got there, we walked into the park which is was actually at the top of a mountain area. It was a bit of a hike... though it was relatively flat and easy (or so I thought until our hike back!). We walked through and saw a pond in the middle with a couple of frog happily jumping along the Lily pads. So peaceful. We weren't quite sure what to expect, however slowly but surely, the penises started arriving. First little things like on a bench post, then bigger things like statues along the path. Then we got around the top of the mountain area and we had a SPECTACULAR view... of the scenery... and Chinese zodiak penises. All 12 Chinese zodiaks were there. I was born the year of the rat... same as my grandma. There was actually a lot of great detail in these penis statues. I was pretty impressed with the continuity in them all as well as the carving detail alone. Couldn't help but take kodak moment. It was very interesting to see all the people who were there. People of all ages, very old, very young (lots of kids), lots of families. Considering how consenservative Korea is, I was surprised they had a penis park in general... even more surprised that they have a sex park (yes with statues, etc) in Jeju (which I may visit in August). Interesting country Korea is :)
After we passed through the top area, we continued on our journey down the other side of the mountain. Along the way we passed a variety of different/interesting/wierd/disturbing/hilarious/crazy statues... (as seen in photos). There were times that we had decide which way to go (Gill looks like she's not sure which way to head... pun intended, ha ha! I crack myself up sometimes :) yes, I'm a nerd). Then we had to walk down a long pathway of stairs. In the middle of the 2 paths of stairs was like a huge garden with flowers in different shapes and colors. Standing at the top with the blue ocean and green mountains in the background... it was soooooooooooo gorgeous. One of the most gorgeous views I'd seen in Korea I think. It took my break away. That was the view looking down. Once you got past the penises in the distance and looked up, you could just see the bulging penis canon (the canon is the parks trademark I think). It just really isn't something you see everyday. I still laugh as I look at how silly some of these photos/statues are. Who makes these things????
Once we got to the bottom of the mountain, we couldn't help but indulge in even more scenery. The beach was beautiful. The water was crystal clear, the rocks were perfect/gorgeous climbing rocks , and shells all over the shore. David decided he wanted to jump off the cliff. At first I was like 'why not?' then i looked at it... it was pretty big. He climbed up and once he got to the top I started freaking out (yes I do have 'mom mode' tendencies). He wound up jumping but from a lower distance. I got it on video too. Boys will be boys. The water did look refreshing though. It was pretty hot out. Of course, we took a few other photo ops. And yes, as you can tell, I've started taking on the Asian "V" sign in pictures... which I was recently told didn't stand for the "Peace" but for a 'V' as in 'Victory' that was commonly used after the war... a little Korean history there for ya :) We were running late catching the last bus back into Samcheok city, so we had to run all the way back up and down the hill, the way we came, to make the bus. The easy walk was a strenuous run. I am not a good hiker. And I was very out of breath after, but we made it.
We had a really good time. On the way back to our motel, we stopped at an Italian restaurant. No Italian food is as good as the food in Italy, and the Italian food in Korea isn't as good as the Italian food in America, but it was still pretty good for Korea.
HWANSEONGUL CAVE IN SAMCHEOK.......THE NEXT DAY, Saturday, our plans were to explore the Hwanseongul Cave in Samcheok, and then head to Seoul. So we took the bus to the cave. Again, the scenery was breathtaking! So many gorgeous views!! Again, it was at the top of a hill. There was a monorail thing that we could take up the hill but there was a HUGE line and we were on a time limit in order to catch our bus to Seoul. So we hiked it... 2 kilometers or so... all of it was VERY steep. I had a hard time hiking quickly on a not very steep hill... this was ridiculously steep... i seriously almost died!! I thought I was going to faint several times and even got nauseated a bit. I seriously think there is something wrong with me. However... I made it and inside the cave was worth every penny... and it was so cool inside... cool like chilly... which was awesome since I was so hot from the hike. But inside the cave was incredible. Really gorgeous. I'd never been in a cave before. It took us about an hour or so to walk through it (and we didn't even have a chance to go all the way through... but we got the basic idea). We all HAULED all the way back to the bus stop. Those 2 kilometers I almost died going up were a piece of cake going down... it was the dodging in and out of people that was the tricky part. David and Lacey took the lead and retrieved our bags from the storage unit while Gill and I came in next and we all waited at the bus stop ice cream in hand :) Then we took the bus back to the Samcheok station to catch, yet another bus to Seoul where another adventure begins :)

SEOUL. I will start this story by saying, FIRST, that before we got on what was supposed to be a 4 hour bus to Seoul, I had called the hostel that we had booked, and let them know that we would be arriving later than anticipated. I told them we'd arrive sometime after 10. They said they appreciated the call and that they would be waiting when we arrived. Well the 4 hour ride took 6 hours, and it had started pouring rain on the way there. So granted to say, that we were soooo tired when we arrived. We just wanted to find the hostel and kick off our shoes... especially after the long wet walk to get there. Once we arrived, there was a note on the door for us... it said "Welcome Danielle. Here are your rooms, 3 people in 1 room, and the 4th person in another room." and at the very bottom, in small print, said 'please use the code to get in." Koreans commonly use keypads instead of keys for entry. So first I was pissed, because we'd paid a few dollars extra, to be in a 4 person bedroom just to ourselves... and now they were splitting us up? I was not happy. And next, the note was attached to one building, and we couldn't find the key pad. It was raining and chilly, and hungry and we were tired, so we just rang the door bell. Weren't even which door was the entrance (it was a very vague and confusing note). A guy comes out the balcony and starts yelling at us... just starts going off on us for no reason (keep in mind, it's 11:40pm on a Saturday so time/day wasn't even THAT BAD). He kept talking to us like we were retarded and asking us stupid questions which ultimately resulted in him telling us, with no reason at all, that he didn't want our business and to go. He came down, gave me my deposit back and literally slammed the door in my face. I was in shock. NEVER in my life had I been treated so disrespectfully. I was pissed and angry and embarrassed (I was the one who had picked the hostel). We tried to do the right thing and call to say we'd be late, then we get kicked out cause the letter was written poorly and didn't clarify which building/door we were supposed to use??? I will NEVER recommend that place to anyone. We found a motel (which was fine but the point of the hostel was to all be together :( ) and we found a chicken place that was open late. We hadn't eaten since 10am that morning besides little snacks here and there so we were pretty starving.
After eating, it was around 1am. We were exhausted but we'd promised some friends we'd meet up with them. So my Seoul friends met us at the close subway stop. David decided to catch up on some sleep. We had fun just hanging out with the guys and getting a little glimpse of the Seoul nightlife. The one thing that I've noticed a lot about Korea is that you can never tell how quickly time is passing. Whether I'm at school or at a bar... the FLIES. When we walked out, the sun was up... Scary! I'm waaaay to old to be staying out that late lol. ANYWAY.
The next morning David, Lacey and I walked through Insadong area. Insadong is a street known for good shopping. I was impressed with some of the souvenir shopping they had. They had a lot of traditional trinkets that were pretty interesting. Lacey left in the late afternoon and David and I met up with my friend Derold. Derold and I went to college together in San Diego so it's great being able to visit him here. Derold first took us to Dongdaemun, which is another shopping area... more clothes though. David wanted to get some stuff. While he was looking around and trying on things, the employees noticed there was a skateboard. Derold told them that David was professional so they wanted 'a show.' So there, in the middle of the 7th story of this store, David put on a little show. They were very impressed. We both left happy customers. One thing I bought was this set (on the right). Pants and shirt... pajamas like. But read it... SOMETINGS TASTE FAVORITE SOMTTHINGS. 1. The writing is so messed up I can't tell what it's supposed to say 2. Even if the writing was correct, what's it supposed to say???? Just another example of Konglish... Koreans trying to write English. It's HILARIOUS (some kids wear shirts that say Boston, Massachubetts on it HA HA!!!!)
Next, Derold took us to a Shabu Shabu dinner. I'd heard of shabu shabu but had never eaten there. It was very interesting. They put this boiling broth in the middle of the table and you just put everything in there and let it cook. It was delicious!! And very light. At the end, they have noodles and rice and just mix everything up. It's hard to explain, just believe me when I say it was awesome :) We had a great time visiting with Derold. David and I went to bed decently early that night. I was excited that our motel had a bathtub. I told him not to disturb me for 20 minutes while I enjoyed the luxuries of having a quite bath by myself (versus with a bunch of other people at the jimjilbang).
The next day was Monday, our last day of vacation. We went back to Insadong area, but passed through so that we could go visit the Gyeongbokgung Palace. There were a few things I really wanted David to see while he was in Korea... 1. was a Temple 2. was a Palace and some other stuff. We never made it to the Temple :( But I dragged him to the Palace... and he actually really liked it at the end :) We stayed there for a long time exploring the garden, different buildings, taking pictures, and then there was even a Korean cultural museum... free. That was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be too. A lot of history throughout the years. It had a lot of information, pictures, and actual artifacts from several centuries. Things they used to cook with, hunt, write, everything.
After our visit to the Palace, I had originally wanted to visit the Korean Presidents house nearby (called the Blue House), however, we ran short of time. We wanted to buy some souvenirs before we caught our bus. We HURRIED to get our souvenirs. Literally running from one shop to the next getting what we could (I still didn't find postcards... it's so odd to me that Korea has VERY few postcards and they're hard to find). We ran to the subway, hurried through, ran from the subway to the train station (David ran faster and got our stuff from the locker... i lost my breath) We finally arrived at our train platform just in time to watch it pull away... of course. The perfect ending to our day. So we managed to switch our tickets, grab the next train, get something to eat and then headed back to Busan safely and quietly. We both slept on the way. We arrived back at my house around 11pm. We were both beat. Of course I had to work the next day, but it was nice to just relax a little bit. We had a GREAT GREAT time in Samcheok and Seoul. I am so glad he was able to visit me and we had the chance to explore around a bit :)
David had 2 days left. He spent it skating around, going to jimjilbang and just relaxing a bit. Though we'd been traveling around, we hadn't actually had real homestyle Korean food. I didn't want him to leave without knowing what we eat here. So before school one day, we had lunch at a local place by my house. We ordered 3 main dishes (1 being like a soup), and the rest are just side dishes that the Koreans love so much :) It was delicious :) HE liked it... well most of it I think lol. Some of it is still strange even to me. But at least I know how to order and for the most part, what I'm ordering... that's the hard part.
David made it back home safely. I had so much fun with him and was so glad he could make it out. I think he's caught the travel bug... the same one I have. It's an amazing thing. I hope that we are able to take a trip somewhere in the future. There is a big age gab between us so I hope that as the years go by, the closer we continue to get :) I love my brother!!!

My brother David's arrival

2010-05-27T07:15:00.001-07:00

My brother David arrived in Busan on Friday May 14th. I was was soooooo excited! I'd been looking forward to his visit for several weeks and it finally arrived :) It was his first trip out of the US. I wanted him to fall in love with traveling as much as I have so taking this trip was a big deal (at least I think so). Getting him at the airport was quite an adventure. He arrived around 9:30. I got out of work at 9:00. After a bus, a subway, a taxi and 1 1/2 hours later, I picked him up. We arrived back at my house around midnight. He was so tired and I was so excited! I had made up a little bed for him on my floor (he said he sprawls out a lot at night). He brought a whole suitcase full of goodies from the family and my 'other' family (the Witchers. Their son Brandon was my high school sweetheart. He passed away several years ago and I have remained VERY close with them). I feel so fortunate to have such great people in my life.
The day after David arrived, I dragged him out and about in Busan. He really wanted to see Haeundae Beach. On the way there, we stopped at at Shinsegae... the biggest department store in the WORLD (Guiness Book of World Records says so). We walked around the department store a bit and explored the top floor which is actually an outdoor park. I'd never been to that part. It was really beautiful! I really enjoyed it up there. Perfect for my writing group ;) Then we looked at the spa, the ice skating rink, and indoor golf range. Then we had a great lunch. One of those places where you load up a plate with veggies and they fry it up in front of you and add some chicken. It was delicious!
Right across the street from Shinsegae is Naru Park. I hadn't been there either. So we walked around there a bit. He had heard that it was a good skateboarding spot (David is an awesome skateboarder) but we didn't see any good skating spots. The park itself was pretty cool. We found this random statue, literally in the middle of flowers and stuff. A naked woman, giving birth. There are so many examples of Korean art that I will never question... I just don't understand it! lol. Still pretty funny none the less.
After the Centum City, Shinsegae area, we went to Haeundae Beach. I think the beach concept is so funny. Koreans LOVE the beach... but they hate the sun and color. Whiter is beautiful. So at the beach, you'll see a bunch of half naked foreigners, and then a bunch of fully dressed Koreans... and usually the Koreans are staring at the foreigners. David and I took a walk on the beach and along the boardwalk. At the end of the day, I wore the wore the poor guy out. Between his jetlag and
just being a busy day, I'm afraid he hung in as long as he did. What a trooper my brother is :) Thank goodness for the subway to get a little bit of sleep :) And Sunday we did it all again :) I had told him awhile ago about jimjilbang, the korean bath houses, aka spas, and he was very interested in going to one. He LOVED it... definitely my brother. I could spend the rest of my life in a jimjilbang and die happy. They're seriously amazing. America is seriously missing out. Needless David went to the jimjilbang SEVERAL times after that trip. The one we went to was called Hirshumchang... the biggest bath house in Asia! Think of the kind of baths the Romans used to take in the old days. It's like that. An amusement park of bath tubs. It's crazy how a lazy day of several hours of doing nothing but relaxing at jimjilbang will wipe you out. We went home, had dinner, and David passed out after that.
Next, he had the opportunity to join me for some of my classes at school. My kids were so excited to see him. I'd talked him up for awhile but yet, many kids still asked if he was a new teacher. He was a rockstar in the classroom. He remembered a lot of the kids names, he played with them, and completely took over. I was so proud of him. I'd never seen him in that kind of scenerio and he rocked it. For several days after, the kids told me they didn't want me there, they wanted David lol. A lot of my middle school girls had crushes on him. They would all tell me how handsome he was (well duh, would u expect anything less from someone in my family?). This week was only a 4 day week. I spent the days at work, and David would explore/skate different parts of Busan and my city Seochang. I was excited when my co-workers decided to do our monthly employee dinner while he was there. He got to see what it was really like. Just everyone I work with, meeting for dinner and drinks (Koreans and their drinking... lol). David was pretty tired after a day of skating. He stayed for dinner and then headed to bed. Dinner was good though and I was glad he could try Korean BBQ. Koreans are infamous for their many side dishes so he definitely indulged in those as well.
Sometime in the middle of the week, David managed to lose my house keyI think I actually held my cool better that he was there than if I had lost it myself lol. Luckily my brother is like a monkey and managed to climb up to my 2nd story window, and climb through my bathroom window. Being small has it's advantages :) But hey at least he can say he broke into an apartment in Korea. .
Before we knew it Friday came.... Time for Seoul and Samcheok... and well that is another story/blog of it's own :)

1st trip to SEOUL, Hashing, Writing, and AMAZING weather :)

2010-05-07T05:51:00.001-07:00

Spring is finally here!!! Woohoo!!! It took FOREVER!! But it may be the best spring EVER! Started out perfectly. Lacey, Gillian, and I took a weekend trip to Seoul. Gill read about this cute art village called Heyri (which we learned later was referred to as Ha-dee). So we went out on a search. It was quite an adventure. We took the 8am train to Seoul via bullet train (this train goes 300 km/hour!!!). We arrived a little bit before 11am. We locked up our bags and looked for the subway. I've been told that Seouls subway system is chaos. We found the line we were supposed to take and it took forever after that. We waited, maybe 40 minutes or so for it to come (aren't subways supposed to come every 15 minutes or so?) and then once we got on and sat down, it waited another 30 minutes. Seemed like FOREVER!! We rode for another 40 minutes. Then transferred to a bus. Luckily the bus ride was only 20 minutes. The journey seemed to take forever. We were happy to have finally arrived. And even happier that the weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! Seoul's weather is supposed to be a few degrees cooler than Busan so we could only imagine what it was like in Busan.
Heyri is a small art village on the outskirts of Seoul. The small village took 20 years of planning to put together. It's filled with art galleries, and bridges and just different artistic things. It was so cute and beautiful. We were greeted at the gate by a giant blue man. It was hilarious that a lot of the Koreans were actually bowing to it. This guy is bowing with it, but 3 people were actually bowing TO it... I was just slow with the camera thing. We had fun just walking around and exploring different areas, doing different things, etc. One cool thing we found was this old school bus. Inside is a little store. Tons of jewelry, knic knacs, etc. Real pretty inside actually, just a bit cramped. I also had to take a photo next to this building. It's ALL purple (my favorite color). Granted u can't see the whole building, but it was cool :) There were different bridges across little ponds and every bridge was different (here are Lacey and Gill at one). And then there are little playground areas all around too. So I had to take advantage and be a bit/little kid again. The playground equipment was a bit different than usual. I actually had to climb through a tiny little hold to get inside of this thingy. We sat down at a chocolateria for some ice cream, iced coffee, and relaxation. We met some other foreigners that we chatted with for a bit. We didn't go into any of the art galleries (we ran out of time and were tired from the journey) but just wondering around outside and in the little shops was great. We found this little store that had a bunch of little dolls that children had made in other countries (yes including US... not sure if the dolls were for show or sale) but I think they were for a charity. We had a great time visiting. Leaving, was ANOTHER adventure. We took a bus back that said it was going to the subway station. Remember, the bus we took getting there took about 20 minutes... this one took 45!! We were so confused. Definitely took the countryside scenic route. Once we FINALLY arrived at the subway, we took it back to the train station.... but the subway stopped midway, everyone got off, and the speakers said final stop... again... confused. This was the same subway that we took...???? To this day, we have no idea what happened. We got fed up, we were tired, hungry, etc. So we took a taxi to the train station, retrieved our things, and then headed to my friend Marcus's house in Itaewon.
Marcus and I had been emailing for awhile. He is the best friend of one of my friends back in

Florida . (Hi Nick!!) We hadn't met yet but thought it was very sweet of him to offer to let us crash at his place. (Marcus is on the left). were sooooo relieved to FINALLY arrive (almost 9pm!). His friend Marty was there and for the next few hours we all chatted and played online (we were introduced to the scary world of Chat Roulette... scary!). I came to find out that Marty actually studied in Florence at the same time I did. He lived very close to my school. I can't believe we never ran into each other there. So it was a really great time reminiscing and talking fabout things there that only someone whose lived there could understand and relate to. We headed to a bar later on. OH BEFORE I forget.... let's talk about how many more foreigners there are in Seoul than in Busan. Just getting of the subway in Itaewon, there were SOOOOOOO many more us. It was actually kinda uncomfortable. In Busan, there are lots but it's pretty spread out so you see people here and there. There were foreigners right and left in Seoul. Very different. Why that's uncomfortable, I have no idea. It just is. To explain it, I have this comic strip :) A couple in Seoul draw these comic about foreigner life in Korea... I swear that EVERY comic is DEAD on. To get more of an idea of their comics and what life is, check out ROKetship.com. I'll post more comics cause seriously, they're HILARIOUS (maybe more so if you're here and understand some of them). So back to the bar story. Not much to tell. Went to a foreigner bar, met some new friends, had a drink or two. I met a girl who was literally my height. She was VERY excited (or just very drunk) to find someone her size. Granted to say we took a couple pictures. We ended the fun-filled evening by eating Kabobs on the street (a favorite Italy past time), the boys got McDonalds (yuck) and even ran into a guy dressed as Steve Urkel in there (apparently I missed that). One the way back to Marcus's place, we had fun making fun of many of the Korean couples who dress identical. The trend here right now, is if you're dating someone, you wear the same shirts, sweatshirts, shoes, and yes, even underwear. It's crazy when you walk by a window and see lingerie for sale that is cute, but not sure if I'd wanna see my boyfriend in a speedo version of that same pattern. ROKetship, again has a great example.

SO the next morning, we enjoyed a wonderful Western breakfast of pancakes :) And they were delicious!! Afterwards, we headed to Changdeokgung Palace near Insadong (infamous shopping area :) ) The palace has been rebuilt in places a few times, but it is hundreds of years old. So big! and so gorgeous! We thought we'd be able to just go in and look around, but no, you had to sign up for an English tour (which personally I like better because it's very interesting to learn the history). The Palace was sooooo huge!! It was hard to keep track of what happened where. This picture on the left is Chong-jon Hall. The coronation ceremonies of the King or another grand official was done here. It's so crazy to imagine this room completely FILLED with Korean royalty. Then there was a secret garden that was absolutely beautiful. There was a pond area (though it was a bit dirty) with a bunch of little buildings and gazebo type things around. I love the traditional style Korean buildings. It's so different than what I'm used to back in the US, and even in Europe. Looking at one reminds me that I'm LIVING IN KOREA!!! Sometimes it is still hard to believe this. I get to see and do things that some people NEVER get to do in a lifetime. I feel so lucky in so many ways.

So before I get all emotional (I'll save it for my writing group), I'll finish my story. After the Palace, we headed to Hongdae University where we met up with my friend Derold. Derold and I went to San Diego State University together. It was just pure coincidence that he was moving to Seoul just weeks before I moved to Busan. So we finally were able to get together. It was really great to see a familiar face. Gillian was CRAVING mexican food, and honestly, I don't blame her. We found a great little spot and ate burritos and margaritas. They were GOOD (it's not as good as Southern California mexican food, but I'm not complaining). After dinner, we went to Gio Cat Cafe. My friend Kiva, from my writing group, told me about this place where you just hang out and play with cats and have coffee/tea, etc...literally a Cat Cafe!!! This would NEVER be allowed in the US. Animal rights, sanitation laws, I could just see so many things going wrong. But I'm not in the US and this is one of those places that just make Korea awesome. There were several cats around, some were very tired, others were playing. They had a list of all the cats, their names, their breed, and something about their personality (playful, stand offish, etc). Yes it was in English (these little things help so much). It really made me miss my cat, Lila. She's seriously the best cat in the world. I miss her cuddles. I miss her waking me up in the middle of the night chasing my feet. I miss coming home and seeing her stare at me in the window. It was so nice to play with kitties again :)
So just a random funny photo. This plate of noodles was next door to the cat cafe. The chopsticks were moving up and down. Some electronic thing. I'm convinced it was blowing up air in order to keep the chopsticks up and floating around (but I couldn't feel it). There wasn't a string, etc but it was just really cool. Yes, i'm a nerd :) Easily entertained.

On Another AMAZING weather note... I've been getting more involved in hashing lately. Hashing is like a game type thing that involves working out and drinking (wierd combo i know). Apparently it's popular worldwide, though I'd never heard of it till here. I've gone twice and it's been really great. There is a person or two who lays a trail around a city, or up a mountain, wherever they want. Your job is to follow the trail... sometimes you may get lead in the wrong direction and told to go back to a certain point, etc. It's a lot of fun (pic on the left is a view from my first hash, and the pic on the right is the most recent one). Literally a game around a neighborhood area. Both times I've gone was more of a hike, up and down dirt hills. Technically everyone is supposed to run, but I hate running so I walk... and i still get a good work out in. Walking up and down hills for over 2 hours will definitely wear you out.
The guy who leads it is in the American military stationed here. He offered to get anyone antyhing they wanted that was American at the military base. He is an ANGEL to me... because he brought me 2 12-packs of Dr. Pepper!!!! and for $7!!!! I found Dr. Pepper at one place and it was $2 for 1 can... i just got 24 cans!! I don't drink soda that much, but Dr. Pepper is my soda of choice. It made me so happy :) Of course I had to carry it home for over an hour after that. That must've been pretty entertaining to watch. But I've met some more people and been having a lot of fun. The bartender at one of the bars we went to was wearing a San Diego Chargers hat. He used to live around the SDSU area so we instantly became BFFS. lol. Gotta represent! So I have pictures of the hash coming later. They're mostly on Lacey's camera so I'll post more later.

This past week, we had Wednesday off school (the week went by so quickly because of it). Wednesday was Childrens Day. As hard as the kids work here, they deserve a day off in their honor. On Tuesday, we didn't have regular classes. We planned a bunch of different games and a party. In this picture is my co-worker, Iris, and some of my students. Thsi room is actually like 3 classes combined. Most classes are only between 4-10 kids. Many Koreans like to share things. Sometimes this is awesome. When someone has food, you automatically get some too :) But some of the snacks these kids gave me scared me. Shrimp chips, dried squid. I like shrimp, and i like chips but the combo of the two didn't sound/smell too appetizing. I won't even get started on dried squid. One of the girls brought Baskin Robbins ice cream sandwiches.... she was my favorite :)
SO on my day off, I hit the beach!! It was an amazing day for the beach. I had lunch with another friend, and we layed out for a bit. I don't know if I've ever experienced MY definition of PERFECT weather. Not in Florida or San Diego... I'm either too hot and wish for more of a cooler breeze, or the breeze is too much and I get chilly. The weather was PERFECT!! I was hot but didn't break much of a sweat because the breeze was just perfect. I was in heaven. A few hours later, I looked up and saw a group of Koreans on the stairs above the beach... they were ALL staring at the other foreigners next to me who were playing volleyball something. It cracked me up. (edit ROKetship comic here... I seriously could post a comic for EVERYTHING). Ironically, I actually got to finally meet Thom... the guy that I replaced at my school. When I interviewed with ELC, I got to speak with him and ask him about his experience there... this was back in September?? We'd kept in touch ever since but never met. He is now living in Ulsan but was at the beach in Haeundae for the day. I managed to spot him out of a crowd and we finally got to meet. Pretty cool to meet someone whose worked at my school and knows all my co-workers. Anyway, Once I got up and walking around, I realized that the music that was in the background was actually live music. It was actually good music. Some classical sped up a little bit, and slower type music. This girl was playing the violin and she was soooo cute! I didn't realize till she got closer how much older she actually was. All the women here try to look young and dress young and use lots of bows and things to make them look younger. She was around 30 or so. But so cute :) After here was a girl band. They were AWESOME too!! They played the electric cello, electric violin, the keyboard thingy and something else. Again, some faster version of classical music. They were great... and ironically dressed like skanks. I walk out in a tank top and sunglasses and some of the older traditional Koreans think I'm the one dressing scandelous. But seriously!!! Look at those leggings!! You can't even see where her shorts start... and just because I'm showing my shoulders, I'm the bad one? lol. The difference between Western culture and Korean culture :) This pic isn't even that bad. There are girls whose skirts are WAAAAAAAY shorter. It's ok to show your legs and whatever else is up there, but still not 100% acceptable yet (tho it's getting better) to show your shoulders or God forbid a v-neck shirt lol. Never a dull moment :)

One thing I'm very proud of is that I officially finished Script frenzy. Script frenzy is just a nation wide event where all the writers try to write a 100 page script in 30 days. Mostly just a motivator for people to start and finish something. I joined with another guy from my writing group. He was a great supporter and pushed me and challenged me all 30 days. There were some days that I was like 15 pages behind... but low and behold... I finished my 100 pages :) So now as my life continues in Korea, I just wanted to let all my loved ones know how much I love and miss them. Mothers Day is this weekend (and Fathers day next month) and I wanted to tell my parents how amazing they are. Thank you for always supporting me and not laughing at me (to my face) when I did stupid stuff. I love you :) And on that happy note, my brother David is coming NEXT WEEK!!!!! I'm soooooo excited. We have big plans playing tourist around Busan, Seoul, and a visit to a smaller city as well. :) More to come....

I Love Cherry Blossoms!!!

2010-04-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

April has been a pretty good month to me. It's FINALLY warmed up a little. It is still not a 'normal' Korean Spring. The weather is so this year, that the Koreans keep saying that the 'Earth is mad at us.' My boss and co-workers have all told me that they've NEVER seen weather so up and down like this. From Saturday, April 10th, the weather was so warm I could've layed out at the beach, Sunday was FREEZING, and then Tuesday it drizzled snow, then come this past Saturday, I was back in a t-shirt. The Korean weather predicitions are sooo unreliable as well so there is really no way to really tell what will happen.
Anyway, yes April has still been pretty good to me. Last weekend, I went to the Cherry Blossom festival in Gyeongju. It was soooo beautiful. I was very excited that my friends that I went with Lacey and Gillian were just as excited as I was and that they wanted to ride bikes along the lake too. We arrived Saturday evening. We found a cute little italian restaurant. The food was sooo good and the restaurant was one of the cutest restaurants I'd ever been to ever. My mother would've loved the ambiance there. It amazes me how little WATER the Koreans drink. At most restaurants they give you a tiny cup of water and for the Koreans that lasts all dinner. Us Westerners are either refilling ourselves constantly or the waitor is constantly refilling and refilling these tiny cups. The food was great. It was nice to have something different. Then we walked around the downtown area of Gyeongju. We did a little bit of shopping, and at one point were looking for a bar to grab a beer. We found, what we thought was a bar, it said Baccarat Bar. As soon as we walked in we saw a woman in a tiny dress singing live karaoke (live karaoke is rare here). We got pretty excited until one of the bartenders waved us over and told us that this was a 'karaoke bar.' We were a bit confused until we saw another woman come out in lace and we realized it was probably a STRIP CLUB! Ooops. We
ran out and opted for beers in our motel room. It was still a fun night.
Sunday, we grabbed breakfast at Paris Baguette (Korean bakery chain)
and figured out which bus we needed to take t go to Bomoon Lake Resort. I've heard a lot about this place and was excited to visit. We finally arrived, rented bikes ($8/day) and just rode our bikes around the Lake all day. It was beautiful!! We stopped for a few photo sessions along the way. It was a big overcast and pretty cold but still very scenic, and a good work out. The Cherry Blossoms were so gorgeous. I loved being surrounded by them. After the petals fell off, the floor looked like little patches of snow. Some of these photos may look like the path was empty, but a majority of our time was spent weaving in and out for crowds trying not to run over people (though some deserved it). The Ajumas amaze me sometimes (the old Korean women). Because Korea is a Confusious society, the old people have the highest reguard of respect. Now to a certain extent, this is a good way to think. Even in America, we give our seat on the bus to the older people, we help them across the street, etc. A common courtesy. However, the older people here, Ajumas (women) and Ajoshi (men), KNOW they are respected and know they have priority over everyone. They will push you out of the way, or if they know they're in their way, they won't move!! There are many people on the bike path, we have bells to rings as we weave in and out. You'd think if you heard someone saying "Shile Hamnida"--Excuse me in Korean, AND a bell, over , and over, and over and over again... you'd look behind to see where it's coming from and move to the side. Nope. Not even a flinch. No look back, nothing. Honestly, even getting yelled at would be an acknowledgement (yes they also yell at you for, Whatever sometimes). I wanted to run them over. They were pissing me off right and left. The younger people, the kids, the families, all so nice and smiling and yelling how beautiful we were, etc. The flip side is that every blue moon, you'll meet and Ajuma or Ajoshi on the subway/bus/train who is really sweet and nice and curious to learn about you.
ANYWAY, along the way, we saw a lot of interesting things. There are the pedal boats in the shapes of ducks and swans. If it was warmer out, we would've definitely done it. It looked fun. I saw this building (left) last time I was in Gyeongju and really liked it. The whole middle is cut out in the shape of a tower (famous tower statue in one of the temples). It just looks really cool. Right across from that was a little festival. We random ran into it. The first thing we noticed was the band...the same band as in Cheongdo for the Bullfighting Festival... they dress like women, and hobos with their faces painted. They're just wierd and I really don't understand it. But they took a liking to us (naturally the only foreigners around). They tried to get Lacey to karaoke but she decided to save it for another time. So we decided to sit on some steps and people watch.... while eating my corn dog and drinking coconut milk out of a coconut (which I had yet to see in Korea so it was a bit exciting). On our way back, we nearly died going into this little plaza area. There must've been hundreds of kids (though it doesn't look like it) on their little 4-wheeler motor bike thingies. There were so many!! I felt like it was bumper cars! We wound up walking our bikes through. Someone had to be the grown up. After surviving the kids, the ajumas, cold weather, and finished our bike path, we found this sign... Oops :) (no bikes). Ironic that his is the only location we saw this sign, and it was facing the opposite direction we were going...and there were a lot of other bikers on that path. We found it pretty funny.

As for adventures in the wonderful life of teacherhood, I've learned a lot about the Korean education system. My school is on the 4th floor of a building and apparently some of the kids were being naughty and spitting out of the windows. Someone came up and told us something. So the secretary, Angelina (who is sooo nice... but the kids are scared of her) called all the kids out of all the classes. They all sat in the lobby while she gave every single of them a lecture. I know it was a sad moment, but I had to take a picture. It doesn't look like many people here but there were probably 150 students there. They all look so sad and guilty! It wouldn't surprise me at all if it was some of my kids. But in this picture you can actually see many of my students. They're good kids... but still kids. ANOTHER example of them being kids is, last Friday, Angelina, the secretary started freaking out and laughing a lot. I couldn't understand what was happening. Apparently the kids were stuck in the elevator!!! At first everyone was a little freaked out. Then I was told that the kids were in the elevator, maybe 15 of them, and as it was headed to our floor, they decided to jump... stopping the elevator right before it reached us. My director, Ho and Angelina were talking to them for about an hour as they waited in the elevator for help. I went over to check it out and some of my students were there and were like "Hello Danielle Teacher. See you next time." I have a feeling they were thrilled to miss class :)

Well another month and another Temple event. This month we made Mandu (dumplings) and flower pancakes (for weeks, i thought it was FLOUR pancakes... until we made them and it is an actual FLOWER). I went early to listen to the Dharma Speaker again. I really enjoy going to the Dharma talks. I leave feeling good, like I went to church. Yet the message mostly consists about learning about a deeper part of yourself... not about changing your lifestyle, or how you're a bad person, or anything like that. Just finding the true you. Many of the Monks whom speak were raised in the US but now living (for SEVERAL years) in Korea.
After the talk, we went outside for cooking. It was beautiful outside. The area was covered in Cherry Blossoms that were just starting to fall. We cooked Mandu first. First order of business, washing your hands... Well the bathrooms in Korea usually only have
cold water and soap is limited. So I opted for rinsing and then using hand sanitizer (hand sanitizer's become my best friend here). Then we had to put on the proper cooking attire... apron and head piece. Now I officially look like a working Ajuma (you often see them cutting herbs on the street that they're trying to sell). They had already pre made the Mandu stuffing. Since we are a the Buddhist Temple, it is vegetarian. They do not eat meat. It had different cabbage, kimchi, tofu, and other veggies, i have no idea. We mixed it all together, and put it in flour skins. We got to shape them to different mandu shapes. Actually not that easy trying to keep it together. The foreigners all got creative with their shapes but were later told that the shape is very important... who knew?? We made tons of them and then while they were getting fried or steamed, we made the flower pancakes. They brought out pre made dough, we got to roll and flatten and put a pretty flower on it. Yes... made quite simple for us. The preparation for making the dough actually sounded difficult. The dough was actually made of rice (of course since EVERYTHING is made out of rice here). Once it is cooked, it turns into rice cake (squishy rice food... i've actually grown to like a lot. It's in just about everything). So pretty much we fry the rice dough, put a flower on it, and eat it with sugar... it was DELICIOUS!! And looks so pretty :) When we finished cooking, it started to drizzle a bit so it was perfect timing.

I'm still really enjoying the writing group I've joined. I go every Sunday (unless I'm on a weekend getaway). I was 'forced' to join Script frenzy. Script frenzy is a website that encourages writes to write a 100 page script in 30 days. There's no fee, no prize, just the satisfaction (and a congrats certificate) that you finished something. Many writers start but never finish. So this is just a way to encourage finishing. In November they do it with a Novel. April is a script. I don't know ANYTHING about writing a script. But I took it on. I am now halfway through and I'm up to page 52. :) The longest thing I've ever written and it is a good feeling. :)

Next weekend I have a trip to Seoul planned with Lacey and Gill. I'm very excited to visit Seoul. I hear so much about it. Also excited to visit my friend Derold, a friend of mine from College in San Diego whose also teaching there. It'll be nice to see a friend from home. But Seoul is more of like an NYC of Korea... so much to do and explore. So I'll keep you posted!

Korean cooking, travel plans, and Springtime :)

2010-04-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

Another Blog in the day of ME, living in completely different world, where everyday is an adventure and learning experience :) I can't believe sometimes that I've been here for just about 3 months. Times a flying when you're having fun.... only 9 months left in my contract, or 15 if I extend it another 6 months (and yes, I am considering it). We'll see what happens.

For the latest going on my life... my Korean friend Sonny and I have continued our 'Cultural Cooking Fridays.' Our last cooking date, she taught me how to make Kimbap... the Korean version of sushi rolls, but without as much fish. We used crab, carrots, cucumber, raddish (not a fan), fish cake (i have mixed emotions about this), and scrambled egg. It is still quite yummy. This time, one of our students, Jenny (who also lives
in Sonny's apartment building) joined us. Jenny is so cute. Her
brother is also one of my students. She really enjoyed the cooking and watching me try to read and pronounce Korean words. She sipped on pineapple juice while Sonny and I enjoyed our wine. Since Sonny has an oven (a luxury to us foreigners), we are going to make a chicken and broccoli casserole next time (yes, American food week). The only hard part can be finding cheese... oh how I miss cheese! But it should still
be fun.

On other dinner/food news, I was invited to have dinner with my boss and his family. He's been inviting me to his house for dinner for a long time now. I kept pushing it back (partly cause I was a bit uncomfortable at first) but finally went. We went to a pork/duck restaurant (not my pick of food) and he invited his English friend Tom. Tom, an overweight, late 50 year old, English guy joined us. He was a very interesting character. He was sooooo outspoken and sarcastic that I couldn't tell if he was nice, funny, and happy, or if he was a bitter, sad, and lonely old man. Wierd?? Most of my good friends/family know that I am very hesitant when it comes to meat. I try to only stick to beef and chicken if I can help it. But being in Korea, I have eaten a bit more pork. However, I wound up 'trying' the duck here. It was actually a big deal for me (mentally) to try duck. Though it didn't taste bad, I still didn't eat too much, the brain got to me. But it was still a good experience. The picture here, was of my boss's wife. She used to be an english teacher as well, so she spoke pretty good english. She was very funny :) Their daughter was soooooo adorable!! It always amazes me how much the Koreans drink. We're at a nice (somewhat expensive) dinner, and she was drinking a 'cocktail' of Soju, beer, and pineapple soda. and I'm talking several glasses!! The guys were drinking even more. I couldn't believe it! And I couldn't believe they didn't look drunker.
My favorite tradition in Korea so far, is the Employee dinners. Once a month, we go out to dinner, drink, and the boss pays for EVERYTHING!! Soooo awesome :) This past week was my 3rd empl0yee dinner. We have hired 2 new Korean teachers, one of the other Korean teachers (Sonny, my closest friend at work) is leaving :( (though we still plan on hanging out more), and Rory, the newest foreigner, british guy, officially got his new Visa and will be here for a year as well. So there were some things to celebrate. One of the new Korean teachers, sister owned a pork restaurant (sam gip sul = pork) so went there. Sooo yummy! We were there for a bit, and then I ALWAYS forget we go to a 2nd restaurant for after dinner appetizers. I'm a fat kid, so I like to fill up on dinner alone. We've gone to different restaurants for after dinner appetizers in the past... this time, I didn't feel like I was missing out on much. The first thing that came to our table... BUGS!! Pulpa? Cristalis? That part of the bug. Still gross and I refuse to try it. So let's see... Bugs, Kimchi, and Makali in a bowl?? Yes, Makali, Korean rice wine... is served in a bowl... Wierd? It's definitely got a unique taste to it, but it's not bad at all. That's how much people drink at once. So yes, I drank some Makali out of a bowl.
So that's always fun :)

This past weekend, I layed pretty low. Some friends and I were originally going to go to Gyeongju for the Cherry Blossom Festival however, due to the extremely strange weather this year, they were JUST starting to bloom so we are going to go next weekend instead. This weekend, we went to the UN park in Busan which also has beautiful Cherry Blossom trees. Before the UN park, we walked around Gwangalli Beach. I hadn't been there yet and it really was GORGEOUS. We had lunch at Breeze Burns, the local hamburger joint which has great burgers and fries :) Reminds us of home. Then walked along the beach. Once we arrived at the UN Park, we were surprised to see barely any Cherry Blossoms blooming. We were actually too late to go into the park so we just walked around it which was still very nice. This gazebo was right outside. It was really picturesque. Itll be even nicer when all the trees are in bloom around it :) All around the UN park, there are a bunch of fertility statues. It is pretty funny to see some of the phallic statues, and all these random reproductive parts.

My friend Gill spent the night at my house Saturday night and we had a fun girls night. I was excited because she was the first person who came to my house. We made tacos, drank wine, and watched, what we thought would be, a good movie (disappointing). For months, I've been eyeing a thin mattress topper and thought that her coming would be the perfect time to get it. Besides going on my bed, it's nice to use on the floor when I have company, etc. It must've been HILARIOUS watching me carry this HUGE mattress that was bigger than me in height and double my size in width through the city, on the bus, and then up the hill to my house. I ran into some of my students on the street and they looked at me like I was crazy!! But it was worth it when Gill and I had a comfy place to sit.
Sunday, we met up with Lacey at Shinsegae...The BIGGEST DEPARTMENT STORE IN THE WORLD!!! literally. I believe it's like 13 stories?? Very expensive... mostly brand name stuff... Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc. There is an ICE SKATING rink too (though the most expensive one in Busan) and a Spa/Bathhouse. So we decided we needed to try to the bathhouse there... aka Bathhouse = jimjilbang. Shinsegae's Spaland was supposed to be the biggest/nicest jimjilbang. Well i was VERY nice but I think I was expecting more. There were night many baths or steam rooms. Only 5 baths, and 1 steam room (the last one I went to, Hirschenchang???) had twice that!! And the massage/scrubs were DOUBLE the price and just ridiculous! The rooms (each room has different oxygen flow that helps certain parts of your body to certain things??? Wierd but cool) were BEAUTIFUL!! But the room itself and it's purpose was kinda lame. I really enjoyed the first one I went to better. Hirschenchang was maybe not as beautiful, but more variety, and half the price... ALWAYS important :) But at least I tried the one in Shinsegae... the biggest department store in the world!

One a seperate side note, Just some extra little photos I picked up here and there. Some gorgeous plants... I heard it was cabbage... which would be hilarious. Then another diary of one of my students who was talking about her new face mask. It is very common, in Korea, if you are sick, to wear a mask around your mouth so you don't get anyone else sick. I think it is very polite. However, sometimes their views are skewed. Wearing the mask prevents kids from getting sick, yet they never wash their hands after going to the bathroom (GROSSSSSSS!!!!) So I'm sure everyone gets sick anyway. She talks about yellow dust season. In Spring, the 'yellow dust' which is kinda like pollen and other dusty stuff comes over from China... this is what creates acid rain, and why people get sick. Many people talk about 'yellow dust season.'
My last photo which made me happy. was the big statue of the Trevi Fountain (from Rome, Italy). It was like being in Italy in Korea! I've seen 2 different Italian fountain statue thingies around. It's pretty funny if you ask me. When I scrapbook this photo, I can use the new stickers I found... They're Italy/Traveling stickers but written in Korean... I thought it was HILARIOUS!!!

So that's about the latest that's been going on in my life the last few weeks :) The next few weeks should be very fun as well. The Busan Lotte Giants baseball team has just started their season. There is a stadium close by. The Koreans go CRAZZZZY for their baseball team. So I think a game is definitely something I should experience, baseball fan or not. Then Gyeongju for Cherry Blossom season, Then the first weekend of May, I am going with some friends to Seoul. Taking the DMX (North Korea border) tour, and exploring a small art village. Should be fun :) MORE TO COME....

All is routine...

2010-03-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

Hi All... another blog in the life of Danielle. There actually isn't a whole lot to report on. Even though everyday is an adventure here, my life is starting to be quite routine and normal now. However, I am still learning things and exploring as much as I can :)
Right when I got comfortable in my school schedule, it was changed on me. I just about had all of my kids names down, and I was very happy with my break time, etc. It seemed like the days were flying by me. Now, with my new schedule, I'm not 100% satisfied but it works, the days go by slower :( I have new classes, some new kids, some the same. Instead of having 3 break split up, I have them all one after another in the beginning. So then all 8 of my classes are back to back... i run around like a chicken with my head cut off. I feel bad when someone comes up to me asking a question about their class and I can't remember which class they're in. But I always say that being busy is better than being bored so I can't complain. I have had the opportunity to make some extra money by teaching some extra classes. I am working every other Saturday from 2-5pm (yes the hours kinda suck but oh well) and in exchange, I get more money and more vacation time. Also, I come into school 30 minutes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to teach a conversational class with the Korean teachers. They said that they all learned a lot of grammer and writing but they do not think they speak well (i think they all speak VERY well.. i can definitely ask them just about anything), but they wanna speak then that's what I'm there for. We just have conversation about... whatever comes up for the day. Today was about natural disasters (since there was an earthquake in Los Angeles, my home, last night), which turned into a lesson for all of us in bad hand signs (like the middle finger, and other various hand gestures, i had no idea were bad lol). I still need a lesson in Korean swear words. As my co-worker Esther says "you need to know when they're saying bad words... either to you or each other. They will definitely talk about u straight to your face cause they know you can't understand." I think it's funny. Every now and then I'll say something to the kids in Korean and they're SHOCKED! "Teacher knows Korean?" and I usually just say "a little. you have to teach me." Since I am the 'speaking' teaching, I tend to get off the books sometimes if there is good english conversation going on. One of my classes really enjoy teaching me Korean words. They try so hard to explain things to me in English, so as long as they're speaking english, and I get to learn Korean, I think everyone is happy. It's really cute watching them get all excited to teach me new words, and see them laugh when I pronounce it funny, or they laugh cause my hangul (korean writing) looks like a 5 year olds.

So away from school, there hasn't been a whole lot going on. Mostly just hanging out with friends doing different things. 2 weeks ago, I went to a Toga/charity event party which was raising money for a Korean orphanage. It was TOUGH trying to turn a full sized fitted sheet and turn it into a toga. It was fun trying. There were soooo many foreigners and good food! Ranch dressing, and cheddar cheese!! Mmmmm. I was so happy :) We stayed there a bit, and then ventured into Kyungsun (when I say we, I mean my friend Gillian and Tina, in the pic, and my friend Albert, who is kinda my neighbor). I had never been to Kyungsun so that was fun. We wound up at a dance club and danced till 5AM!!! I am pretty sure that Korea is the first and only place I've been in my life where time flies EVERYWHERE all the TIME! My 2 months here have flown by, my days at school go by quickly, my nights on the town fly by... I can't tell what time is around here. I don't know if that's good or bad.
Saturday night, we went with my friend Lacey to a B-boy musical type thing. Lacey is a break dancer so she's always finding out about cool dance performances. This one was supposed to be really good and she got free tickets. I had no idea what to expect and I was BLOWN AWAY!!! It was sooooo great. It was literally a musical... kinda. No singing and no talking. Just acting and dancing about a ballerina who fell for a break dancer. It was really funny! And sooooo entertaining They were REALLY GOOD!! It was one of the best shows I'd been to in a long time. I LOVED IT!!

So just so my parents don't think I party every weekend (As much fun as i am having, I am also serious too... lol), I will let you know some of the other events I've been involved in/are starting this weekend. Last weekend, I ditched out on seeing Alice in Wonderland in 3D to take a Korean class. It was really really helpful. There were so many things cleared up that I was confused about, and I finally got some clarity into hangul (the alphabet characters). I even wound up reading my first word 'bus' this week (i only could understand it cause they say 'bus' also. If they had another word for 'bus' it would be a lot more complicated). But I'm definitely starting to get the hang of it all, the characters, the order, the syllables, the boxes, etc. This weekend I am torn between my 2nd korean class and attending a writing group... though I've pretty much made up my mind to go to the writing group (I wasn't able to attend the first meet up because of work). I'm VERY excited about the writing group. I've been wanting to join one for awhile in LA. I've always enjoyed writing. I love writing poems, short stories, etc. So I've started writing a lot about my experience here (i think i'll attempt an Eat, Pray, Love type novel) so it'll be great to have some support and help with that. This weekend is also another cultural event day at the Temple... English Dharma and Korean calligraphy (hopefully this helps with my hangul) on Sunday. Saturday, I'm going to attempt to go to a Bullfighting Festival in Cheongdo... about an hour or so away. I never connected Korea with bullfighting but it should be pretty interesting.

Independence Day, Moonrise hot spring festival, and more!!!

2010-03-03T06:01:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I've written! So much to catch up on :) Hard to beat Gyeongju but there has still been a lot of excitement in my life.
I found out that at the end of the month, there is a local temple in Busan that hosts a cultural events day for the foreigners. It's free and they just teach a lot of traditional activities. In January they learned how to make kimchi (i missed it but this would've been great seeing how Koreans LOVE kimchi). This month was kite making. The theory is that you make your own kite around the Lunar New Year. You write what you hope for for the new year... your wishes, hopes, dream, as well as what you DON'T want. Then you fly the kite high in the sky :)
The bus for the Temple picked us up from the Nopodong terminal (the main subway/bus termainal in Busan) around 1:30 and took us the Temple. It was so beautiful. The 'see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil' statue was in the entrance of the Temple property. Gotta love it....pretty fitting I think. Then in front of the Temple itself were these big hand symbols. I know they are very important and mean something in the Buddhist religion... I just haven't figured out what yet. Whenever I see the symbol, the description was written in Korean... but I will find out!! I wanted to take pictures when we were in the temple, however I am not sure if we were allowed, and I wasn't about to be the one who was disrespecting Buddha :)
Once in the Temple, there were about 35 people all sitting in about 3 big circles on mats. We had a piece of thick paperish type material in the diamond kite shape, 2 sticks, markers, string, and then we were instructed, step by step, how to make a kite :) It was a lot of fun. My friend Gillian took pictures of the process... I'll have to get them from her. The hardest part was thinking of what to draw on it... what do I want this year? Love (maybe not from someone else, just love within myself), health, my family to be safe, healthy, happy, success (if not in money then in finding what I want to do with my life), things like that. I used symbols in representing it all. Some of the kites were really elaborate and beautiful... mine looked like a 9 year old colored on it lol. I'm sooooo not artistically talented :) But it was still fun. Then we went outside to fly them :) Luckily it was a nice/semi-windy day. The picture on the left shows most of the group flying their kites... it was a bit crowded so my friends and I went into a different area. My kite didn't like me at all. First it wouldn't go up for the life of me (i was sooo frusterated), then once it finally got up, the string got crossed with some of the other fliers causing a lot of complications in the sky lol. Then finally the string on the spool was yanked, broke, and my kite flew away to a far far away land without me... :( I hope that doesn't mean bad luck this year... I was actually hoping to keep the kite to put on my wall for decoration. Oh well. At least Gillian and Christina had fun (though Christina's kite flew away also later). Next class in March is calligraphy. That should be fun!!

This past weekend was Independence Day here in Korea (when they were freed from Japan during the war way back when). In Haeundae Beach, they host a big bonfire event called Moonrise Hot Spring Festival. Since Haeundae is the most popular beach in all Korea, I was very curious to see how crowded it would get and what would happen there. The 2 nights before the festival, a friend of mine arrived in town, so we spent the evening roaming the streets of Haeundae. First off, I would like to point out the toilet in his hotel room...the most complicated/wierd/yet cleanest toilet in the world.... Yes, there is a wash or spray for everything and I do mean... EVERYTHING... lol. And yes you can get a massage as well while you're sitting on the toilet lol. I almost fell to the floor laughing!! Definitely the highlight of my night.
So yea we and I just bounced around the streets all night... almost looks like Christmas doesn't it? I will always be fascinated in the fact that drinking, is an older, successful mans job. In Korea, it is customary to drink Soju or beer when you have dinner out, and with co-workers. You will often find adult men in their 50-70's passed out on the street, or roaming the streets completely beligerant. This is a lot more common/accepted than seeing the younger generation out getting drunk (though they do too, trust me... but most live with their parents so I believe they control it a little it more). So yes we took a picture with this older man who was sooo excited to be talking to foreigners (though neither of us could really understand each other). I was a bit surprised he looked normal for the photo lol. At one point we ended up at a very popular 'foreigner' bar called Fuzzy Navel (great name right). I'd heard about it but never been. There, I was 'forced' to take their famous flame shot. They piled glasses up to make a pyramid, put a shot glass on top, layered it with about 5 liquors, and then managed to put the whole thing on fire...and when I say fire, I don't mean a little flame, I mean you have to stand back 6 feet because the whole thing will blow up!!. The is a little bit of liquor on the top of each glass. The bartender, River (whom we became great friends with) , lit the top of the shot on fire, took a drink of some strong liquor, dunked his finger tips in the liquor, lit his fingers on fire, and then spit the liquor in his mouth through the fire on his finger tips and onto the shot, creating a HUGE explosion and creating a flame on top of all the glasses. It was the first time I'd seen something this big!! U gotta see the video to believe it. Pretty cool! Needless to say I was a bit tipsy after that.

The next day, I decided I was going to explore a bit more. My friend Tina and I had previously walked around Haeundae beach but only in 1 direction, I was going to walk in another direction... plus I really wanted to exercise a bit :) This walk turned into a long 1 1/2 hour walk along the beach, up/over/through a hill, around a lighthouse, traditional Korean gazebo type things, a fishing area, and the APEK building. It was a GREAT WALK!! The APEK building was pretty interesting. You got to see the seats of the representatives from about 30 countries around the world. It tell you a little bit about the building, the surroundings, etc. Outside of the building is a little trail area and there are glass statue type things of every country and something that represents that country... naturally the U.S. had an eagle. Though I enjoy my walks alone, I can't wait to come back on a non-cloudy day with a friend and take really cool photos. It was beautiful!
On my way back, I noticed this HUGE pile on the beach of what looked like pine branches. I honestly couldn't tell what it was. There is a huge branch coming off the top, and about 20 kites flying off the very top of it. I knew there was going to be a bonfire the next night for the Moonrise Festival, but Wow... this was gonna be a HUGE bonfire :) I was so excited!!
The next day (Sunday) I went to a break dancing competition with my friend Lacey (I think it's awesome to have a girl friend who break dances!). On my way into Busan, I saw this mini marching band in the middle of the street playing around in circles... wonderful colors! lol I have no idea what they were practicing for or what or when but it looked pretty funny. Only in Korea :) I met up with Lacey and some of her other friends in Nopodong. There were surpisingly a lot of foreigners at this competition. There were about 20 or so teams of break dancers and they literally just battled each other 2 at a time. It was so funny. The MC would talk inbetween each battle and I often caught myself listening in deep concentration.... I couldn't understand a word (besides please and thank you) lol but I listened just like I could. I thought it was pretty funny. The break dancers were actually VERY good! I was impressed and entertained for sure! I love dancing :) I think next weekend we are actually going to another dance thing... not sure what yet but the we got free tickets so I'm in!! :)
After break dancing, I met Gillian back in Haeundae for the Moonrise Hot Spring Festival :) It was definitely a sight to see. When we arrived, we saw the bonfire, it had just got lit. This picture doesn't do it justice of how big it eventually got. But this gives you an idea of the setup, how many people were there (thousands!!) It was crazy trying to walk around. In Korea, the older (as we call senior citizens) get the most respect out of anyone. If they are walking, you let them go in front of you. If you don't let them through, they know they deserve to be first so they will elbow their way through a crowd... heck they elbow their way through a crowd no matter what, no matter where. Those little Hazumas (old women) are brutal!! If there is a line, they will push your back forward making you push the people in front of you, until there is a slight break where they will then push you aside so they can walk through. I know this is very customary and traditional, but this may be the one thing I will never get used to. I've seen people fall over from being elbowed or pushed aside and the old people don't care. It's soo rude!! ANYWAY... Gillian and I managed to get pushed through a crowd to where we could see a little bit of the traditional Korean dancing and singing on the beach. It was quite lovely.

As I continue to enjoy and explore this new foreign land and culture, I've really taken the time to enjoy the little things. Everyday, I take a bus to school or a bus into the city. Every single bus driver waves to each and every other bus they pass on the road. I don't know why but this just makes me smile. Listening to my kids call each other 'Unie" and "Opa" (meaning big sister and big brother). If there is a boy in your class that is 3 months older than you, you refer to him as your big brother. I understand calling friends who are older that but it's funny hearing the kids say it when they're literally the same age. As I buy food at the local grocery store, I am often just stared at... for no reason, just that I'm foreign, but blunt stareing lol. It warms my heart a little and I don't know why. Our culture is so different in so many little ways that you'll never know of until you see the opposite somewhere else. When I am out to dinner with people, I have to slurp my soup as loud as I can. If I do not slurp (and yes make the big slurping sound), it is considered an insult that you are not enjoying your meal... in America, we learn it is rude to slurp. I feel like I learn so much everyday. Culture, traditions, and language. I love roaming the streets and watching the cars drive by, knowing that they will all run the red light in front of me (apparently rules on road are purely just optional. This is very common) and know that if I am not walking far enough over on the sidewalk, I will get honked at. Forget the idea that the car move over a little... Oh no... I need to be shoulder to wall on the sidewalk lol. NEVER a dull moment in Korea :)

As I head to bed, I wanted to share with you that I am still having minor issues in the grocery store. I really need to learn hangul (korean alphabet) cause I can not figure out what ANYTHING is in there!! lol But still managed to survive (i love that it's cheaper to eat out than to eat at home... I just wish fruites and veggies weren't so expensive!!!). But I manage to get by. I make things similar to the picture... little salads (which can be quite colorful as u can see), and potato soup with tofu, lots of fruit salad with yogurt, boxed food, instant rice, stir fry, frozen potsticker dumplings which I can make on the stove things like this :) I haven't even attempted the meat yet. I can say chicken (dalc) and beef (sogogee) but it looks completely different. One day I'll have to figure it all out... and I"m looking forward to it!

Day trip to Gyeongju (aka Kyungju)

2010-02-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

Last week, my friend Tina and I had planned on going on a trip to Gyeongju. Then we realized with lack of money, maybe we should just do a day trip. Now she is sick. But i decided I still wanted to go. I believe this is our longest national holiday all year, so I wanted to have something to show for it. When I told one of the Korean teachers at my school that I was going to go alone, she offered to go with me. So that made things a bit more exciting :)
Sonny and I headed for Gyeonju on Tuesday morning around 11. Took the 20 minute bus to Nopo-dong and then the 1 hour bus to Gyeongju. Thank God she is Korean cause Gyeongju wasn't THAT english friendly. There was some stuff but not a lot. We arrived at the bus terminal and it was a bit cooler than Seochang. Gyeongju is a very old city. Many of the buildings are set more in a traditional korean style (see picture on the left). As we set out on our journey, we passed a very popular amusement park and water park... and yes the water park was called California Beach. I just thought that was very funny.
Sonny and I both decided that the first thing we wanted to do was to see a temple. The Bulguksa Temple specifically. We took the bus ride up and around the city and hills, until we arrived. As we were taking the bus ride, we noticed that there was still a lot of snow left in Gyeongju. In Seochang, we had 2 days of snow, and it was all gone and melted now. Here there were still many patches, there were still semi-frozen lakes, and and it was still snowing just a little bit. Neither of us counted on this. We actually thought it may be a little bit warmer! I had bought a new pair of boots the day before and i was very excited to wear them... so I did. Needless to say, when we arrived at the temple, the ouside area was covered in mud and ice. My new boots barely survivied. They definitely had a big mess on the bottoms (that i had fun cleaning off later). Bulguksa Temple was beautiful (once we hiked up a big hill). The picture on the left was the entrance. Once we got into the main courtyard area, this statue (on the right) as well as another statue in the shape of a tower stood next to each other. The theory behind it is that the
Beophwagyeong preached side by side together to spread the word of their religion/doctorine. The Temple was painted so elaborately. The detail and color used is amazing. Reminds me a lot of the 'awe' i experienced with some of the European cathedrals. It is amazing when you see the whole thing decorated in tiny detail. The temple itself, you are not allowed to take pictures of inside. But there was a big Buddha statue, and other smaller gold statues beside him. They were all holding up a symbol with their hands that was a meditation type symbol where the ring finger and thumb come together. I think I need to do more research on Buddha and learn more about the symbolism. There were many paths to take that lead to different statues, drums, rooms, etc. Even though they all had a tiny blurb about what they were all about, I wish they had guided tours. Those always seem to be so informative. I'm going to have to look into that. The picture on the drum is just a nice view of the roof tops of some of the traditional Korea buildings (and my friend/co-worker Sonny). On the right, are tons and tons of tiny towers built from rocks, obviously by people like me. Sonny said that people build them as a sign of good luck on their families. I am pretty sure there is a structural theory behind that (hence the Christmas tree shape). Of course, I made one, but I wasn't as picky at my perfect shape and rock formation... it was cold! So yea, that's my little tinky tower on the right :)
As we walked out of the temple, we were approached by this little old lady.. Hazuma, that said she has food and to come into her restaurant. So we followed her over... we were starving. But we ordered a few dishes and they were really good! I ate crab and shrimp with the shell still on for the first time. I figured since it was just crab and shrimp, I'd eat that normally anyway. Koreans eat it with the shell... nutritional value. Then we had like a stir-fry type dish of some veggies, mushrooms, in a soy sauce type sauce. It was DELICIOUS! And then more soup that had rice cake and seafood in it, kimchi, seaweed stuff, and some kind of root (it was kinda sweet... good!). My tummy was happy. I just want to point out the 'hangover soup.' I dont know what's in it but I will let you know lol. I think it's funny.
After lunch, we took a bus to the Gyeongju National Museum. I thought it may be closed due to the holiday, but Sonny thought it would be open... I was correct. It was still very beautiful outside and we walked around a bit. After, we took a walk thru this park area where apparently they do theatre sometimes. On the other side of the park, I saw these big hills. I asked Sonny, what they were and she said that they were Kings tombs. The bigger the tomb, the bigger the King (not fat or tall but a big deal type thing). I have informed my family that when I die, I would like to be mummified... however this may change my mind. I like this tomb concept :)
Then lastly Sonny and I went to this... thing. It was used to look at the stars... astronomy thing. Very old. Kinda cool the way they explained it. After this, we walked over to get some bread (I guess Gyeongju is famous for a certain kind of bread). Sonny gave me some and it was ok... has some kind of red bean something in the middle. Not bad but not great. So that was my trip to Gyeongoju!

Lunar New Year 2010

2010-02-14T17:23:00.001-08:00

Happy 2010... again :) I've had a great holiday weekend, trying new things, and hanging out with new friends, etc. My 4 day weekend couldn't have imagined it going any better :)
Early Saturday afternoon, I took a bus to meet my friends Lacey and Gillian (and their friend Christina) in Ulsan... another big city about 25 minutes from me (20 min. south is Busan and 25 min. north is Ulsan). We wanted to get away and do something fun but not go too far. With the snow the past 2 days, we weren't sure what to expect. Luckily the snow stopped Saturday morning, it was just still really cold. We got a cheap motel to unload our bags. As cute and little it was, it is so strange knowing that the "love room" (as it's translated) is purely used for people to have sex for a couple hours. Not really used for traveling, etc. The room had many products, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, hairspray, etc as well as 'personal products' condoms, lubricant, even dirty tv. So wierd lol. I tried not to think about it and just laugh it off a bit.
After we unloaded, we walked the town in search for a BBQ lunch. Well we didn't really think about it being a holiday weekend and most things being closed. There were soooooo many places closed. We found the downtown area and there was close to no one there! We were so surprised. We thought it'd be easy to find a place to eat lunch but it was actually tough...we wound up finding a BBQ place and enjoyed a nice meal (my first meal where we actually sit on the floor). We really weren't sure what to do after, so we roamed around and wound up at another 'bar' that opened early. Turns out that some of the 'bars' here, you can order a drink but you must order food as well. I say 'bar' because, it looks like a bar atmosphere, but nice. Maybe more like a lounge atmosphere? But yes, you have to order food. Since it was early, we were the only one's there and we had just eaten, e just ordered some soju and a fruit platter. So yummy :) I love fruit. Surpringly, fruit and veggies are actually quite expensive at the grocery store...more than home I think. So it's nice to eat a bunch when you can. Once we finished there, we stopped by Paris Baguette (the popular bakery chain around here) and decided that we needed to pick up a Valentine's Day cake for ourselves. So we did. It was so pretty :) (the cake the right). However, we did see this little cake there as well. We thought it was so cute because it said 'travel' on it. So 19,000 won is equal to just about $19. Not too bad right? It's so cute!! So we headed back to our motel, showered, got ready for the evening, and ate our yummy cake. Yes, the candles was to celebrate us girls on Valentines day :) lol. Nerdy? Absolutely. Funny part was that we didn't think to get plates or forks or chopsticks or anything. The motel had coffee cups so we all ate the cake in coffee cups and with our fingers lol. That was a sight to be seen for sure.
When we finally left the motel, we were headed to a bar called Elune when we got stopped by some random foreign guys who convinced us to go into another lounge type place called Bee. They asked us to sit with them, but we were happy getting our own booth. We ordered a kiwi flavored drink that was yummy! Maybe it had soju in it...apparently you can mix soju with anything. To make this story short, we had some drinks, another fruit platter, met and hung out with some more s.african people (they were a bit sketchy), then headed to Beat Bar (which we heard was good). Beat bar had a live korean band playing but they played a few american songs. They were actually quite good. The amps were up a bit too high though, to the point where it was unenjoyable. However, we danced while we could. Gillian was funny. when she dances, she pulls everyone in to dance with her. The korean girls were so shy but excited to be dancing. Definitely puts a smile on everyones face. While we were there, a korean guy took a liking to Gillian. She told him she wanted to go to noraebong (karaoke bar) and boy he never let us forget it the rest of the night. We decided we wanted to leave Beat Bar... to loud, so we headed to Elune which was more of a clubby place. The guy was very aggressive about trying to get us to go to noraebong but we wanted to go to elune first. So he agreed he'd go with us to Elune first if we did noraebong after (p.s. it was us 4 girls... who did he think he was trying to make our decisions for us? Yes we were very annoyed). Apparently Elune is a club, with a cover charge, etc... which we were not about to pay. Luckily Gillian, had had a bit too much to drunk, was gutsy to the point of just pushing past security and dragging us girls in... Korean guys must've paid for us lol. They came over to us again with beers for all of us. He must've really liked her. By this point, it must've been 1am... I was coming down from my buzz and ready to head home soon. But Gill was on a roll. She was so funny. Dancing on top of the speakers, pretty much bouncing the bouncers. The club was actually pretty dead. We were only there for a little bit and we left. I think the rest of us girls were ready to go to bed, but Gill was VERY intent on singing Lucy in the Sky of Diamonds... and again, this guy was sooooooo pushy! I think we were all about to clobber him. Again, literally pushing us out the door, not letting us talk about our plans, keeping Gill's purse hostage until we got there. He was a creeper for sure. We went to 3 karaoke bars. The first 2 were full or something and finally got into the last one. We finally get to noraebong and everyone sings for awhile. The karaoke bars here are a bit different. You rent a room for an hour or so. Room has long table, songlist, etc and you control everything. It's your own private karaoke room. I kinda felt bad because the guys obviously paid for us to be there, paid for snacks, food, and a huge pitcher of beer. We sang maybe 6 songs, and took off. By then it was 3am and we were DYING... definitely can't hang like I used to anymore lol. Getting too old. Something very strange was, that when we had checked into our motel, we asked the lady 'do we pay now or later?' and she said later... well at 3am when we got back, she wanted us to pay... wierd?? Overall, we had a really good night and time in Ulsan. We left the next afternoon

SNOW in Seochang!

2010-02-10T23:35:00.000-08:00

Well hello all. Sorry I haven't written much lately. I wasn't sure what to write since the last few days have been pretty normal. Wake up in the morning, Skype with friends, go to work, and then come home and catch up on some of my American TV shows, and then go to bed. I have a few new things to report now.
FIRST... I just wanted to say that I recieved my ID card...YAY!!! I officially exist as a resident in Korea. Besides my name, I am not sure what else it says but that's me! lol
SECOND, I just wanted to mention that today, it SNOWED! :) I don't know why this makes me excited... probably cause Italy was the only place I lived where it snowed a little bit. I woke up this morning and my kitchen windows were completely fogged up. When I went to look out (it was kinda loud in my kitchen), it was HAILING outside (the photo on the right is outside my window... the hail all bunched up). Now I've been in hail a few times, whether it's been in LA, or in the mountains, but it is still fun everytime :) Of course when I tried to take pictures, they came out like nothing, but I it WAS hailing... I swear! (picture on the left was my attempt at taking a picture of the hail). Later on it started to snow just a little bit. That was fun to watch :) I was a bit nervous about taking the bus to school... more because I didn't have the right kind of shoes for this weather! Time to go shopping I guess :) I've been trying to get boots for weeks!
THIRD As I was relaxing in my warm apartment, watching Private Practice, drinking tea, this morning, my ceiling light (aka main light of my house) started flickering on/off. I thought it was just going to go out... but no... kept flickering and then SMOKING! I could smell the smoke and see it very visibly. I turned off the light (now provided it's snowing out, my apt was VERY Dark). Since it was only 11am and I didn't hve to be at work till 2, I called my school director who called the owner of my apartment. The owners live in Busan City and they were at my house in 45 minutes. They were the sweetest Korean couple. Surprisingly they both had very good english (I know the woman used to be a flight attendant for Korean airlines). The husband fixed my light, fixed my shower drain, and gave me a night light above my bed. They were so nice and so sweet and informative and gave me their phone number for any problems. I definitely feel like I could call them. They said they have 'empty nest' syndrom so they want to help in anyway they can. The wife has some english teacher friends in the Pusan National University area so she offered to introduce me to them :) Their 2 sons are grown and living away (one is in the Korean military). So way too much information, bottom line, I don't understand people who think the Koreans are mean. I've met nothing but nice friendly people! They were so nice, they even drove me to school (which solved my walking to the bus/shoe problem). And I am excited to be able to turn on a light and know my apartment won't blow up :)
As I write this, I am at school on one of my breaks. It started to snow just a little bit harder! Not super hard but hard enough for the kids and other teachers to make a big deal about it. The picture on the right is me with Christine (my co-worker). She took her class out to see the snow so some of the students are with us. I followed her example and took 2 of my classes out into the snow later as well. The picture on the left is my class playing in the little section of snow that gathered on the driveway. And naturally I wanted my own photo in the snow :) Again, not a lot of snow but enough to get excited about... snow in Seochang is very rare so they are all very excited (think snow in LA... it is rare but it has happened before). Just a few days ago it was beautiful out in the high 50's. Now it's gray and cold and snowing. As much as I am enjoying this, I do hope it only lasts today and maybe tomorrow. This weekend is Lunar New Year. I originally thought it was a 3 day weekend but was jut informed it is a 4-day weekend...even better! My plans are pretty flexible. Going day by day to see what happens . But hoping to see more of the South African girls (there is talk of dinner and movie nights!), a visit to Ulsan with some new friends, and then a day trip to Gyeongju with Sonny, one of the Korean teachers at my school. All the teachers are VERY nice and sweet and I get along with them well. Some are married, some have kids, etc. Sonny said most of her friends have families so it will be nice to go do something with a friend who is single lol (her parents worry cause she is 28... in American years... and still single. She seems very happy that way)....p.s. I found out I am 27 in Korean years :) It's a very complicated system they have between birthdays and new years. I'll explain more later lol.
So as far as classes go, things are going well. I've officially just about caught on to everything. The kids know me and there is only about 7 kids whose name I still don't know or I confuse with someone else. Most of my classes are very good and fun. The most common question I get asked is, 'if you don't speak Korean, how do you teach or communicate with them?" Well most of my classes (i say most cause i have 1 class that is the exception) speak/understand pretty good english. If they dont understand charades pretty well :) Here is how the day works, each class has 2 teachers, a homeroom teacher (one of the korean teachers), and a foreigner teacher (me and Christine... Christine is Korean but lived in New Zealand so has a very good in english... she leaves at the end of the month when the S.African girl comes in). The Korean teachers teach the kids grammar, what is what, give tests, and do most of the 'teaching.' I, as the 'foreign teacher' (or Way-gook-in sunsang-nim) practice more of the speaking, reading, and writing. They practice with me what they learn with the homeroom teacher. So it really isn't that hard. I have 1 class of middle school students who are KILLIN ME! Some know absolutely NO english at all, others just don't talk. It's so hard to get with them. Their book is a little too advanced for them I think. When I ask them to read, they do that well, but when I ask them to fill in the blanks, half the kids won't do it, and when I ask some of the kids who did do it, their answers, they look at me blankly like they have no idea what I'm saying. But when I look at their book, their answers are correct... so I don't get it. The other day we talked about 'preferring' something. "Julie, what do you prefer to eat in/or eat out (or if that's too complicated...) do you prefer dinner at home or dinner at restaurant?" I ask each student the same question and 1. no one listens to anyone else so after I get to the 5th person who asks 'what? sports?' trying to guess the answer cause he has no idea what I"m talking about, it just gets me mad. 2. Some still don't understand the question. I'm thinking to myself 'just say what the person before you said, even if you don't understand. 12 people went before you saying the exact same thing..." It gets very frusterating and I dread having that class. I feel like i'm just wasting my time. The teacher before me, whom I've been in contact with, said it was his hardest class as well and sometimes you just have to go through the book, whether they understand it or not. Many of them are there because they have to be and don't care and don't wanna learn, etc.
The book they use has a lot of the same exercises over and over so they know what to do. I try to repeat the same greeting everyday, if I switch up a greeting, I"ll use it for awhile till they understand. Words like 'repeat' I do not think they knew but understand now when I say it and wave my arms, it means to 'say after me together.' The other kids are good kids and are curious to learn. However, the phrase 'teacher, no book, games today,' never gets old. Everyday,they want games lol. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for coming up with the games I have. Games like Connect4, I've turned into an english game, and sentence race games. Even some of the quiet/shy kids come alive when we play a good game. What is funny, is that most of my kids are at the age where boys and girls hate each other. I could have a class of 2 boys and 6 girls, and I'd try to make even teams for a game and I'd get, "No, teacher! Boys and Girls. Girls no." lol. So funny. And everything is 'die.' "Teacher, let's play, die." my response is "I kill you?" his response, "no teacher, I kill Rickie." hmmm maybe later. In one class, I we created a story where every person added a little part of the story. Seems easy, but they didn't quite get it. The story went "Homer (one of the boys in class) and Girl are together. Homer eats Girls cup. Girls is mad at Homer. Homer kills Girl" lol.
Every once in awhile, I catch one of the kids swearing in english. It's so hard not to laugh. Sometimes I wonder if they know what it means and how bad it can be. But then again, I don't know if I should give them an english lecture on swear words. I think they just say things because they, can but don't really know how to use it or what it means. One of the other Korean teachers was asking me how bad certain words were. She was confused why certain words were on TV but others were not. So I explained that some were worse than others and how they're used, etc.
So now, I'm gonna Skype with my mom for a bit before school. Hope everyone is well:)

Visitors/new friends

2010-02-05T01:26:00.000-08:00

I am on break from work right now but I'm so excited I had to post this ASAP. My director pulls me out of class, out of the blue about an hour ago. He says "your friends are here." I'm thinking 'who are u talking about? i have no friends here lol.' and in the lobby are 2 super tall, really pretty girls. Kath and Sandy. They said they used to be friends with Thom, the english teacher here before me and recently heard from one of the kids parents that he left and there was a new foreign english teacher so they came over to introduce themselves! How great is that?!?! Just in the middle of the day, stopping by to say hi :) I was very excited. Both girls (whom were VERY tall, i might add) are from South Africa but speak with more of a british accent. We exchanged phone numbers (tho i accidently left my phone at home today). They're coming by the school at 9 when I get off to grab tea after :) They said there were many foreigners in my city. This all makes me very happy. The beginning of new friendships. Today is a great day :)

My First Co-workers dinner :)

2010-02-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

1. I just wanted to make a correction on my previous post. Apparently I had the definition of hachima wrong? I still have to clarify a few things but I think i had it wrong lol. So confusing. 2. I had a great night last. I went to dinner with all my co-workers. I usually get off work at 9 but tonight I waited around till 10:30 for us all to go to dinner. We went to a chicken place by the school... actually the first place i ever went to in Korea (this was where the director greeted me). There were about 10 of us total and the owner of the school, Dreamon came as well. I've only met him once for about 2 minutes so it was nice chatting with him. Dinner started with cabbage salad, and like pickled raddish shut, and another little salad. They put the plate in the middle of the table for everyone to share. I don't think double dipping exists here ... YES! We ordered a couple different chicken dishes for just everyone to share (and when I say we, I just mean them lol). The picture on the right, I believe, is chicken large intestine. They said 'try this. It's good. Careful it's spicy" I ate a bite "it's a little bit squishy. What is it?" After much Korean talking trying to find the name of it, someone finally tells me "it is large intestine... you know the shit part area" lol. WHAT?! It's mixed in with potatoes so needlesss to say on THAT plate, I just ate potatos. No large intestine for me. The rest of the chicken was normal and tasted very good :) I really had a great time. This dinner was hosted for a couple reasons, 1. to welcome me, 2. to welcome a new korean teacher, 3. because winter camp is over... the Korean teachers no longer have class in the morning. So this other picture on the right is of me and Dreamon, the owner of my school. He was HILARIOUS! Cracking jokes right and left, asking me advice about what to do with one of his other teachers at another location (who am I to tell him what to do/not do with trouble teachers lol). Even after a couple shots of Soju and glasses of beer, he was the life of the party. There was a lot of conversation between me and everyone else about korean cultural differences and life stories. Everyone was laughing and having a really good time :) I was told that they couldn't have asked for a better foreign teacher and they hope the new teacher coming in is like me. Awwww :) They said they really admire the fact that I do not judge any of them and I am interested in their culture and want to try different things. A lot of Americans do not adjust well. One of the teachers, Joann (pic of us on the left), told me that I should call her sister...Unie (like undie without the d). I was told my by director to call him... Opa ... brother (Ho is the guy on the pink cell on the pic in the upper left). This is very common in the work place but it definitely made me feel accepted. Ho, my director, asked if I had ever had Soju... no i have not. So he got like 3 bottles. I really had never had it before. Everyone was drinking it out of a shot glass but some people were shooting it and others sipping. I was told for my first time, I had to shoot it. So I did. It was surprisingly not as bad as I thought. I was expecting it to be like vodka. Well it tasted a little bit similar but without the strong horrible aftertaste. Ho made me pose like this (pic on the right) but I'm still not a big enough drinker to chug a bottle!! lol. Over all a very good first soju exerience. Seemed like they would 'cheers' every time they drank it. In Korean, they say 'Gombae" which is just like cheers. I told them my way to remember that is to remember the green cartoon character called Gumby. They thought it was funny. Korean tradition apparently you can't pour your own drink. You can pour other peoples drink but not your own. Politeness? I don't know. I'll let you know. From what I hear, everyone usually gets pretty drunk. But because Dreamon As long as they were talking to each other, they'd speak korean, if they were speaking to me directly, they'd speak english. We were there for quite awhile. Till 2am or so. Usually they go karaoke after, Dreamon likes karaoke apparently. But instead we went to another restaurant type place...this reminded me of a hole in the wall, after hours type place. small, a few metal tables in the back. More food... more raddish stuff (tried it once didn't like it. Thought this was was different so I tried it... I still don't like it lol). But the soup was sooooo good. They said similar to miso soup with rice in it. It was YUM!! So we were there awhile longer, more conversation, etc. Good times!! :) Then Sonny gave me a ride home.
They were so funny. After long funny conversation, Esther tells me " we want to come to your house. It is traditional to have a housewarming party." Wow here too? lol. I think that would be fun!! My place is big enough to have people over :) Only 2 problems... I have nowhere to sit. I have a big chair and a bed. 2. I would have to cook. Traditionaly, it is considered rude to bring anything big (wine, etc) to a party. The host likes to take care of everything and considers it an insult. Little cakes are allowed though. So yea I have to cook. If you know me, you know that I LOVE to cook. But having only been here 2 weeks, the grocery stores are VERY difficult. I can't figure out what anything is. My fridge and cabinets have basic things in it... spaghetti, eggs, water, yogurt, tofu, cheese, etc. lol. So there are 2 things that worry me. 1. Finding something to cook 2. Finding something they like! I said something about apples dipped in peanut butter yesterday in class and the kids looked at me like I was crazy. They said 'very not delicious teacher.' Ok I LOVE apples and peanut butter lol. So if they don't like that, I don't know what else to make lol. Then of course they'll want alcohol (Koreans drink A LOT!). I don't know Soju from whiskey lol. ok...i think i could figure it out but honestly, I haven't drank much here yet. So many things to consider :) We will see how it goes....

Bath houses, shopping, and everything in between

2010-01-31T05:43:00.000-08:00

Another great weekend in wonderful Korea :) No joke, I wake up every morning thinking to myself "I am in Korea." If you asked me last year if I EVER thought I would be here, I would have called you crazy. I never would have thought I'd be here and never thought I would enjoy it as much as I do... I am gradually falling for it :) All I need is to become attached to ANOTHER country... I will never be rich... I keep spending my money traveling back to the places I once called home.
Well this weekend started on Saturday morning when I took the 45 minuteish journey bus and then subway to Seomyeon to visit my friend Tina. I accompanied her and some of her co-workers to the bathhouse (called jim-jil-bang). I was originally going to stay home and rest and then had been invited to my directors house for dinner with his family, however, I did not want to get them sick and everyone at school that going to the baths were a great way to get better. So I did, and happily so :) I was so excited however I had no idea what was in store. There were 3 of us girls and 2 guys. We went to the 2nd biggest bath house in Asia (the biggest, also in Busan is beautiful however not as many baths). It was called Hurshimchung Brau (bottom blue area in the picture says Hot Spring Park). I have been told by several people to prepare to be naked, as a lot of Westerners are not comfortable this way. But I say, women are all the same so I have to try it at least once. The initial fee to just go in and do the basic baths is 7,500 Won (AKA $7.50). We are given a bracelet to wear and whenever you want a service that costs extra or food, you just charge it to your bracelet(so smart!). We sepereated men/women, were assigned a shoes locker and then clothes locker. I think all 3 of us girls were a bit nervous about being nervous at first but u just start seeing 100's of young girls, mid-aged women, and then VERY old women walking around buck naked. No one cares, no one stares (or if they do, it's actually on at your face cause again... I'm a foreigner). If you actually walked around WITH clothes, you'd be alittle bit MORE uncomfortable I think. After, we walked into the main bath area. I wish so much that I could've taken pictures. There is no way to describe this place. 2 Floors... first floor was the main bath area. In the middle with statues and everything with rock ledges was the main bath... 3 sections, warm regular bath tempature water, a little hotter water, and a little cooler (also referred to as the Longevity bath). Amanda, Tina's friend who was a pro, filled us in on everything. The water that runs through each bath is natural spring water which has many minerals, etc very good for your skin. If you walk outdoors, there was a REALLY REALLY hot pool with a REALLY REALLY cold pool (think pool with millions of ice cubes) next to it (there is a theory about the high sensation you get from switching from one to the other being good for your blood circulation)... and yes we tried it :) Let me tell u, I did NOT enjoy that cold pool. If the high they feel is numbness then I got it. We spent the next couple hour bath hopping from salt baths to high pressure baths (with high pressure water fall like things coming down... AMAZING on my back... like a massage), Chinese herb baths (good for sickness and joint pain), saunas, steam rooms, a mud sauna (for a price... which i will partake in on another trip), washing baths (yes people bring their own soap, etc), exfoliating baths, just EVERYTHING. After 1 1/2 hours we took a break to check on the boys. We were given 'sexy' (aka look like a hospital nurse) uniforms to go into the next room. We met in the 'rest room' aka nap room. There were family, individuals, couples, everyone just in the middle of this room laying on tile (that was warmed from underneath) taking a nap. BEST IDEA EVER!! There was also a Crystal room, infra-red room, and an oxygen room (all heated at different tempatures that are supposed to aim at certain things, like anti-aging, joint/muscle pain, weight loss, blood circulation, etc). While Amanda enjoyed a chair massage for $1, Tina and I went into the Oxygen room, grabbed a wooden moon shaped brick and joined the other 15 people in there in taking a mini rest So quiet, and tranquil. So great. About 20 minutes later we all took a journey to the pedicure area... Dr. Fish, they call it. You stick ur feet into a tub with fish... the kind of fish that eat the dead skin off. Ewwww lol. But everyone said it is fine and their feet felt good after. I want to take pictures when I do it so I passed this time around. Then we seperated again boys/girls and got our exfoliation scrub. You lie on a table, while a woman rubs you down head to toe with an exfoliation sponge (very rough... kinda hurts a little) and when I mean head to toe, I mean EVERYTHING lol. Again, kinda wierd.. but no one else cares but me so whatever. They also put a cucumber mask on you ... and I mean like real cucumber (not slices but shredded like) then they wash your hair and give u mini massage. I was not complaining one bit. However it was kinda gross to see all the dead skin that came off me. My skin felt sooooooo soft after :) We did more steam room, etc and finally headed out around 6 (we arrived around 1:30 so it was quite a long day!!). We were all STARVING after. We attempted to look for a specific indian restaurant but were so hungry we just settled for the closest thing... Papa Johns Pizza lol. Yea something new and different right. But it definitely hit the spot. I took a picture of the milk... just in case u didn't know where it came from lol Thought it was funny.
That night I met up wtih my friends Taylor and Kaley briefly at Metal City. Coincidently there was another girl there, Becca, whom was the organizer of the Meetup website that I am apart of. We've been emailing for awhile so it was great to meet her finally. I left around noon. The combo of the bath house and my eye (I have learned that i am allergic to the Busan subway in my right eye only lol. Everytime i get on, it gets really irritated) I was ready to sleep. I was very proud to have found Tina's house on my own lol. So I spent the night with her and the next day... SHOPPING.
We took the subway to Nampo-dong. The city most famous for the cheap market where you can bargain, etc. We spent ALL day there. We found a great place to eat, buffet style. They had pasta, steak, sushi, salads, appetizers, Everything! It was sooooo good!! Tina and I definitely stuffed our tummies... but still had room for coffee and dessert :) The dessert table was amazing!! We didn't know what to do! We limited ourselves to one plate so we would have to split everything lol. We tried a few new things, things that looked familiar and just whatever looked good! We decided the strawberry mousse was the best (the blob of strawberry... kinda looks like ice cream scoop a little). It made my tummy VERY VERY happy! Soooo good. I could probably live on that forever! The green tea cake was good, of course :), and then there was like a lime merenige type cake which was great too. Some was so-so. But the strawberry mousse YES!!! And it went perfect with coffee too. We spent our day looking for bags, shoes, house supplies, and knick knacks. We pretty much found just about everything we wanted then some extra things in between. I found these amazing boots that i fell for. I'd seen of the teachers at my school wearing them and I really liked them. I got the seller down to 15,000 won ($15) which i thought was GREAT! They were so comfy but a tad too big. Every place I asked if they had a smaller size, they didnt'!!! One Korean woman even told me that I had 'baby feet.' :( And here I thought I was gonna be normal. I was pretty disappointed :( When we finally left around sunset, we took the subway back towards Tinas (well she would get off there and I"d take it a bit further). There is a small section on the sunway reserved only for the elderly, disabled, or pregnant women. I"ve sat there before when it was empty and just got up if there was an elderly who needed to sit and no one got mad at me but I have heard stories about people getting yelled at. The older Korean women "hagimas" have quite a rep of being aggressive and expressing their emotion. Amanda, one of the girls whom I went to the bath house with told us a story about how a hagima, literally lifted her skirt on the subway and spanked her upper thigh... apparently talking about her skirt being too short. Hagimas will elbow their way through a crowd, push you out of line for everything (this has definitely happened a time or two) . However, during this subway trip back, one of the Hagimas sitting in the old people section, motioned for us to sit. She and this other older man then were sooooo very nice and talked to us about if we were students (no we are english teachers). They were very excited for us, asked us where we were from, and talked about how we can make lots of money (lol duh!) and they were just curious about us. I thought they were VERY VERY nice :) When a homeless guy came by selling gum (p.s. barely ANY homeless people in Busan. I have seen 2 on the subway, that's it), Tina was going to give him money (she has a bit to learn about the big city) and the older woman waved her down, 'no no. no good.' lol. Later another homeless guy came around begging for money but he was like squirming on the floor like a snake all throughout each subway car. Wierd... hmmm. Just wonder what kind of approach he was attempting to take on. After my successful day shopping, I got home and rested soundly :) Now it's Monday and time to start school :)

I caught the travel bug... literally

2010-01-29T07:13:00.000-08:00

I just finished my first full week at ELC. It's been a busy week as far as work goes, visa stuff, and just learning things. First, it turns out that next month my school is changing it's name. Instead of ELC, it will change to Toplus... which is hilarious hearing the Koreans say it cause it sounds just like Topless lol. Our sister school in Ulsan is changing too and we're getting new/better (or so I've heard) books. Should be interesting.
On a FUN and EXCITING note... We're getting a new foreign teacher next month!! YAY!! I'm very excited. She's 25 and from South Africa (Which is just so much cooler than another American... another place to visit and learn about:) )!! Yea, who knew they'd teach english lol. AND she is going to live right next door to me. I'll have a friend!... well hopefully... provided we get along ok, etc... which, lets face it, I get along with everyone. It'll just be nice to have someone to ride the bus home with and maybe grab a beer or something after work. I want to eventually venture Ulsan (the other big city about 30 minutes north of me... popular university area with more foreign bars) so it'll be nice to have her to explore with also. I had the option of moving into the room next door that she will be taking. Just for safetys sake, I tested the door handle to see if it was open... it was... wierd that it is unlocked in the middle of the night?? It's pretty much the same as my apt. but completely empty. At this point, I at least have tv, dresser, chair, washing machine, bed, etc so I think I"ll just stay here. I'm growing quite attached to my little room :) My director has invited me over to his house for dinner with his family this weekend (though i think we cancelled... due to my bug) and was like "i'll pick you up at 5:30 and you can spend the night." I love my director and all, he's awesome. However, I'm not quite sure why I would spend the night. Assuming he just doesn't want to drive the 30 minutes to take me home, but if anyone knows me, I get pretty attached to my bed. I like sleeping in my own bed as much as I can. But I don't know if it's rude or not to turn that down. When we go out to lunch, he always pays. I read in my tourist book today that the boss's almost always pay and it is considered rude to fight for the bill too much. Hmmmm what else is considered rude that I don't know of. Learning these things as I go...
He made me get up early today (ok so 8am isn't THAT early) so we could drive into the city. My test results from my hospital health check came in and we had to drive to the immigration office to apply for my Identification card. I pretty much need this card to do anything here... open a bank account, visit the hospital, get a cell (technically... though i got one thru my director so I am lucky). If anything, I'm really excited just to have an awesome souvenir!
This week at school actually flew by!! It went by so quickly!! If it continues, this will be one quick year. Because the classes come and go so quickly, each day goes by fast as well. I've attempted to learn more of the kids names but the common ones are still hard to get... they just all blend in together, all the Toms, Tims, Sallys, and Jessicas. Thank God for names like Obama, Alien, Seven, and Tarquin that at least make 1/3 of the kids names easier to remember. I've started to become a little bit more familiar with my routine, the books, the tests, homework, games, etc. I've been given a deadline to finish each book. Most of them I have to have finished by the end of February (should be pretty easy) it's just up to me however I want to do it. So the flexibility is nice. I've started getting creative with some of the games. The whiteboards have horizontal and vertical lines on it so for some of the older, more advanced classes, I've introduced Connect Four (yes i just drew the table) and the teams are divided up (usually boys vs. girls... yes, they're at THAT age). I ask a question in english and whoever answers first with the correct grammer gets to put a circle in their spot. They like this because it gets them thinking strategy as well and it lasts all class long. Some of the younger kids have to write english journals. Many of them wrote about how they were sad that their last english teacher Tom left and they were very curious about the new english teacher (which would explain all the blatant stares I got for the first week). However one girl wrote "Today we have new teacher. She is Daniele. I like new teacher. I hope she like me. I like her looks" Just warmed my heart. :) Then there was the 7 year old who in the middle of class just mentions "teacher, big titi!" as she holds her hands over her boobs. What do u say to that?!?! You don't, you just turn back to the board and go SO.... lol.
Though this has been a great week, I finally managed to get sick. All the foreigners I've met here so far or anyone whose been here before always say they got sick in the beginning. I'd survived a week and hadn't gotten sick so I thought i was in the clear... well apparently not. I started feeling it coming on Monday and by Tuesday it was full blown... the COLD... aka Travel bug. As much as I wanna say "where did this come from," i guess I don't blame my immune system from weaking a bit on me. After all, I did box up my entire life, move out of my apt, store boxes, moved to Korea, and worked for 4 days super jet lagged... I guess I can see why I got sick. Though, my dad says it was because I stayed out till 3am last Saturday... maybe that too. However, I think I deserved 1 night out out of my 10 nights in so far lol.
On a future note, I found out that we have two 3 days weekends coming up!! 1 is Chinese (or Lunar) New Year, February 13-15 and the other is Solar New Year on March 1. So I'm trying to plan a weekend trip somewhere. I was originally thinking Seoul but thinking I"ll save that till at least March or so... maybe it will warm up a big. Thinking the city of Geongju right now. About 1 hour away, very historic. You can rent a bike and ride around the city checking out temples, hiking, parks, etc. Could be fun :) I'll keep you posted on that.
So at this point, I don't have many new pictures to put up. I mostly just worked this weekend so nothing new to show. Most of what i learned this weekend was more about the culture. I ask a lot of questions, "What is the theory behind Kimchi? Koreans love it," (it is good for your body) "What are the marriage, dating norms here,"...arranged marriages aren't practiced much but parents often set up their kids with people their prefer... but it's optional if they like that person or not. Having kids out of wedlock is very frowned upon... it means you can not make your marriage work. Divorce is starting to take a rise. They're at about 19% divorce rate... he was SHOCKED at our divorce rate. Being gay pretty much does not exist. Because they're a very Confusious practicing culture, being gay kinda throws off the balance of 'senior and junior.' It is a mental disorder that foreigners enforce lol. They're very much about someone always being in charge... hence the the theory of bowing to the elders. Someone is always in charge, husband over wife, elders over the young, brothers over sisters, stuff like that. Being gay also throws off this balance. I've learned a lot about the culture. It actually seems like there is theory behind everything that doesn't make sense to us. I asked my director (as he stopped at a red light and then went thru it and then another car did the same thing and we almost collided... but no big deal) "why is it so crazy on the road? There are lines and lights but no one pays attention to them very much." He says "awhile ago, Korea was a very poor country. People lived on 4 hours of sleep and the more they got done in 1 day, the better so they could feed their family. People were going going going to get things done. The country has gotten much better since, but that mentality of going going going all the time has stayed. You must get done as much as you can in one day. But be respectful of other people along the way" ... ok! So hence the theory behind your typical bad Asian driver. lol
So as I wrap this up, I'm getting ready to head to my first bathhouse experience. This should be an experience in it's own (bathhouse=naked Sauna.. i've heard 2 sides... gender seperate and gender mixed... I the one i'm going to is gender seperate... i hope! Also the water you soak in can be different kinds of water, mineral water with ginseng, certain mud, even pine needs, all supposed to be good for your body/skin). I'll take pics of the place, but no way am I taking pictures of inside lol. From what I've been told, this should be really good in trying to kick the cold I have. Wish me luck!

Weekend of Exploration in Busan

2010-01-24T17:07:00.000-08:00

I had a great first weekend here in Korea. Where to start... Saturday, I woke up with ambition to explore my small city of Seochang. It was VERY cold that day (low 40's). So after wrapping up in my scarf, gloves, beanie, and big winter coat, I was ready to go! First step, figure out where I live. Joan, one of the other teachers gave me a ride home from school the night before. I thought I knew where I lived but I got completely lost, go figure. Took a few pictures in case i got lost, i could attempt to ask someone. Here's what I got about where I live :) This first picture on the right is along the main street (Seochang-ho ro). This is the landmark I use to turn the corner onto my street. Hard to miss right? lol. Once I go up a little hill, I look for a church and the high school (in picture on the left). I live to the left of this picture.
Then once I pass that, there is a small street to the left and I live right there in this builiding :) No idea what it says inKorean but there is an A and B building so I can read that lol. And yes, my building is the B lol. Then my address... Yea i don't know how to say it right. But i can find my way there so that is the important thing. lol.
So..... on my day of exploration, after taking a walk trying to figure out where I live (yes i literally walked the streets to make sure i knew how to get home, etc) I took a walk into the city. I plan on walking as much as I possibly can. Lord knows I need the exercise lol. Plus the tempature was in the low 40's maybe high 30's so it was a bit chilly. I needed to warm up. The streets were pretty busy on a Saturday. I found the Lottemart (Lotte pretty much owns the city. Lotte department store, lotte mart (korean walmart), lotteria...aka korean mcdonalds), found more little markets, cell phone store (since i got a new one :)), clothing stores :), etc. So after I located everything, I took a walk the opposite direction of the main road from my apt. I found a little park area (and yes that is workout equipment in the back YES!!) and sports area. There is also a lot of hiking around there. I'm very curious to check it out. I think that could be a lot of fun!! And yes there is me being the perfect tourist lol. I am hoping when it warms up al ittle bit to get the energy to run up to the park in the mornings... by morning, I mean like 10 or 11 am lol since I don't work till 2.
After the park, i decided I needed to attempt to take the bus by myself to school. I was very nervous about this. Not only does no one speak english but all the buildings look the same. I could use cash or get a bus card. I decided on the card. Getting it was an interesting experience also. Trying to convince the young girl at the convenience store that I wanted the card and also to charge it (no english). Good thing I used to be an actress. Charades is coming in very handy lol. So I bought a MYbi card... good for the outer and inner city buses and subway in the city. I was originally told that I could take any 'green' bus. They all stop at the school. Well 25 minutes later, the bus stops at an apartment building. We did not pass my school. So I walked to the other side of the street, hopped on the bus going opposite direction. 3 stops later, on the way back, I found my school... lol. ELC... English Language School. 4th floor of this building. I was pretty proud of myself. I rewarded myself by stopping at the bakery across the street. I deserved something to eat. Of course, i couldn't figure out what was what. So I settled on this... actually not bad. Fresh bread with the middle carved out and filled with veggies and little pieces of ham... cheese on top. I learned today to ask for it tattatan (prounounced this way)... warm. This bakery, Paris Baguette, is actually a popular chain in Korea. There are also good sandwiches and chocolate milk, coffee/tea, etc. I like it :) So after I ate, i stopped back at the convenience store for something else to drink. I decided to be adventurous. I 'inny minny moed' the bottled section and landed on a white tea with a pretty bottle lol. I"m such a girl. Usually like I white tea, but I was NOT a fan of this. Note to self: pretty bottle... yuck! But at least I know now and moving on. Took the bus home, found my land mark and everything was good :) Just some extra photos of the city of Seochang.It's definitely not a big city but still a good city. I like it :) It's home now. Basic bar... a place I"d like to check out when i meet friends some day lol Hof (beer), Soju (still have yet to try), and tea. Just my style. Then there's the fish truck. Something just going down the street like nothing. ha ha. just not something i'm used to seeing everyday. So when I got home, i started playing with my new cell phone that my director gave to me. It is in english but sometimes not quite accurate english. I wound up pressing buttons, etc and all of a sudden the screen went blank and was asking for me to type in my PUK code 10 times. WHAT?!?! I freaked out!! I was supposed to meet my friend in the city later. I had no idea what a PUK code was and was afraid to ask for help that they wouldn't know what it was or read english, etc. After completely venting to 2 of the only 5 people I knew in Korea and asking in panic what I should do, I finally just settled on going to the store. The girls in the store were young and didn't know much english. Some how I managed to get my point across. Technically they are not allowed to do anything to the phones without my ID card (which i will get in 2 weeks or so) but since it was under a Korean name, they wound up fixing it for me...either that or they were tired of dealing with me lol. Ultimately, Disaster averted. I could relax. Note to self, don't explore the phone too much.
So after my explorations, I wound up hitching a ride into the city with my nice co-worker Esther. We drove with her 2 kids. I don't know if it's a Korean thing or a careless thing. For several blocks one of the kids, 4 y.o. standing up in the backseat, no big deal. Neither had their seatbelts on the entire time, no big deal. It is not my place to judge or say anything but I was definitely a bit shocked. She dropped me off at the Haeundae Beach (very popular beach) subway stop where I was to meet my friend Taylor. Taylor and I had been emailing for months. She was a friend of a friend who has already been living in Korea for a year...aka my contact for everything! We ran around a bit and then had dinner for my first Korean BBQ dinner. How the Koreans don't get fat with all this food, I have no idea. Especially since traditionally, they drink beer with dinner. I like this tradition lol. It's actually not a lot. 1 big bottle to split. Taylor was a pro. Cutting the meat with scissors (yes they use scissors... no knives here), when the bottom bbq rack gets black how to change it out (if ur meat burns, you will die... or so they say here). After going back to her place, changing, etc we went to a bar in the area of Seomyeon to visit her friend Jenny who just got a job as a bartender (illegally of course but she worked out a great pay deal!). We met one guy who was soooo drunk he was hilarious... apparently used to be part of the Korean mafia, etc. Quite a character. After a few drinks there (yes normal drinks like vodka tonic... tho their tonic is a bit sweet... different), we went to the PNU area (Pusan National University... known for the foreigner bars... yes i am a foreigner aka english bars). We explored a few until we stayed at one. Lots of Canadians. The wanna be DJ for the night, Michael, was all over me... kinda weird. "i love you. You are so beautiful. I just want to kiss you" and he would keep hugging me and kissing my forehead and cheeks, etc. Kinda weird right? Pretty sure he was like almost 40, yuck! Granted the guy was hammered! But it was still funny and a nice welcome to Korea... yea this guy is from Seattle lol. Nothing new there. Then I met Yoon. Korean girl who had lived in Japan and Canada... great English. She was constantly telling me all night how 'huggable' I was. Is that a 'short' reference? I don't mind being huggable but I thought i was supposed to fit in with everyone here height wise lol. Who knows. We returned home at 3. It was a fun night. A good start to Busan.
The next morning I got up with Taylor and her friend/neighbor Jenny. We were supposed to meet up with my other friend Tina (another friend of a friend. However I realized I was low on money and hit the ATM... 2. No luck. Something about these Korean banks and ATMs. Apparently they rarely rarely work with American cards (hence why we get our own bank accounts). So weird. I was freaking out though. I had no money!! Again, Korean culture... just plain nice people!! Jenny loaned me money... granted she's not Korean, but still, just so nice and trusting. I really respect that. Jenny and I went to meet Tina at Lotte department store (and hit up Coffee bean on the way... yes there is one. I am pretty sure when she took me there she thought it was korean chain. I think I may have let her down when I said they were ALL over California lol. I still enjoyed my tropical passion tea latte though!). We then had lunch... food court type thing. We all got a mix of different salad type stuff. It was good but too much money for what it was worth... again, lesson learned :) I like learning these little things along the way. Jenny bailed and Tina and I decided to hit up Haeundae Beach for our first day of exploration. Haeundae is the most popular beach in Busan. We took the subway (i had pretty learned most of it already. Only 3 lines... just very long lines but easy to read). When I say popular, i mean you can't barely walk in the summer. Even for the winter time it was PACKED! But it was beautiful. We walked around there and it was really great. Lots to do. Lots of bars (and yes foreigner bars and korean bars), food, shopping, etc. Also known as a pricy area. The one thing I liked (and this will sound silly but actually a big deal), there was a tourist information area. They had subway maps, they had city maps, they had brochures on temple stays (yes I want to do a Buddhist temple weekend retreat), cruise information (i am thinking of cruising to Osaka, Japan), everything. Maps especially are very hard to come by here. Very few subway maps around. So this was a huge deal. I was so excited!
After exploring Haeundae, we headed back to Tinas in Seomyon. We ventured around looking for places to eat (trying to decide if we wanted street food or restaurant. The street food actually looks very good)and randomly chose a sit down chicken place. Yes, more cutting chicken with scissors lol. It was very good. They do a lot of the lettuce wrap type stuff (though their lettuce is very different). But it was good. Claim to fame for the weekend. Asking for a large beer to share. The waitress showed me the size sheet... i don't know their measurements.. seriously? I asked for the second smallest (assuming the smallest would be for 1 person. 2nd largest would be big enough to share)... OOPS... nope...she brings out a pitcher lol. Good times! Tell me where you can find a pitcher of beer in US for $7 HA! Still amazing :) She made a point to say "save room for dessert" what? I hadn't had any kind of dessert yet. She took me to a street vendor and she got this sweet bread type stuff (think funnel cake. tasted very similar), the middle mushed down, tin layer of chocolate spread on top and then sunflower seeds. It does not sounds like much, but it was HEAVENLY! Amazing! Loved it :) One of those things I probably would've never tried unless someone told me to. So glad I did :) More to come lol. Then was the mission of taking a bus back home. Once i took the subway to Nopo-dong, it took me awhile to figure out which bus I get one. I found out later that I took the more expensive bus (I love that $1.80 is considered expensive for public transportation). I will look for the cheaper one, but still not complaining about the expensive bus lol. It definitely got me home. And I was very excited to know that I could walk home and not get lost :)

1st week DONE!

2010-01-22T06:52:00.000-08:00

Whew I survived my first week of school. A bit overwhelming but by the end of today, I definitely feel like I have something down. It's all a work in progress. Work is very busy. Between keeping up with my 8 classes and remembering all the kids names (they all make up their own english names like Cindy, Tim, Sally, and Bart... yes like simpson. Someone even named himself Obama), and trying to figure out where I am and how to get where i am going has been a challenge in itself. Lets see...
School has been pretty routine. I wake up in the morning, do some cleaning/organizing around my apartment, chat/skype/facebook friends (when i wake up it is usually like 3pm california time), shower, get ready for school and then school from 2-9. Starting this week I am vowing to work out before school. I have no excuses. I was really hoping to get a bicycle. However, turns out that it's not very safe to ride along the main road to the school. Not any sidewalk or even lanes big enough to fit a bike on the side. So looks like I will be walking as much as possible.
Today I got picked up earlier by Ho, my school director, and he took me to the Ulsan hospital. As an international teacher, you are required to get a health check before you can obtain and ID card (need ID card to open bank account, get a cell, etc). Let me start by saying that the decorator at our hospitals needs some serious lessons. These are the waiting rooms at the hospital. Let me just say that 1st... their waiting rooms have COUCHES!! leather and suede!! The main waiting room also has a huge fish tank to the right (not visible in his photo), people are walking by in the back but in back of them is a piano... yes a piano is played in the waiting room of the HOSPITAL! Then there is a 7-11 and a coffee stand there...you can pay 500 Won (50 cents) and have a chair massage. We are getting ripped off in so many ways!!! Back to my check up... i probably went between the 3rd and 1st floor 4 times. Paper work on 1st floor, urine test and blood test on 3rd floor, sight and hearing on 1st, then x ray on 3rd, etc etc. After the hospital, Ho and I went to the civil service officIerica the parents do it anyway but it was a big thing here. very odd. After was lunch... where to go. "what do you want to eat? Do you want korean food, hamburger, or TGI Fridays?" HA HA!! So random. While I have the urge I decided to go for Korean food. We went into a store that reminded me of target and on the side was a food court type thing. He took me there because I could see in the window what kind of food they had.
Hmmmm after looking at all this, how was I supposed to choose? lol. I couldn't tell what some was. At one point I pointed to a plate (on the left) and was like 'sushi!' Ho said no they don't have sushi here. hmmm. We ordered 2 dishes and decided to share (i read that it is very traditional for the Koreans to share their meals with strangers. It is almost an insult if you do not). He got Kimchee stew (which was surprisingly better than I anticipated) and a rice dish. They give you a cup of rice and a large bowl of veggies and sauce. You pour your rice in and mix it all up. Very tasty. I tried to remember the name of it in Korean... but i forgot lol. I wound up getting seafood Udon soup. Comes with a small cabbage salad (yummy!) chicken cutlet, kimchee (of course), and yes sushi lol... it was definitely our kind of sushi... i guess they do not consider that sushi though. This is the normal size of a korean lunch. As big as it is, I was not heavily full after. My question is, if they eat this much food at one meal on a daily basis for every meal (check out how much food comes on some of the other plates) how do they not get fat? Where us Americans tend to watch what we eat and still blow up like a balloon. Makes no sense to me lol. Overall it was a great meal. I enjoyed it. Afterwards, I hopped on the bus for the first time and rode 25 minutes back to school from Ulsan. One of the teachers was very nervous about me riding for the first time so she met me at the bus stop. Very sweet. Then back to school (this is the teachers area at my school. My desk is covered by the plant).
I have come to the conclusion that the Koreans are just very very nice people. Everyone has done so much volunteerily to help me. Ho was so nice and friendly. He's picked me up at home everyday and took me to school, taking me to the hospital, helped me exchange money at the bank (i needed my ID card... which i didn't have), gave me his own families personal cell phone and has invitied me over to have dinner with his family. His mother is a chef so he offered her services to give me korean cooking lessons! They loaned me money to shop with before I had exchanged mine. They didn't even know me and gave me money. The girls I work with have all offered to give me a ride home everyday. They have all gone above and beyond. I am so greatful for them. It is almost like I don't know how to respond to their generosity and kindness. Just not common in the US.
So with that said... I am going to head to bed. I am hoping to take my Saturday to walk around the city of Seochang. I've been in contact with some friends in the city and am hoping to make a trip on my own by bus into Busan. Bus to Nopo-dong and then subway to either Hwamyeog or Seomyeong... and yes i am starting to learn the city names lol. So weird. And hopefully explore Busan in it's entirety on Sunday :) I found out that I have February 15th off work so I am hoping to plan a trip to maybe Seoul??
OH and for those asking my new address is: Pyungsan-dong 20B 1N Yangsansi Kyungnam Republic of Korea :)

My First day of English Classes

2010-01-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

For my first full day in Korea, I think I managed pretty well and learned so much already! I am in a suburb called Seochang which is about 20 minutes or so to the big city of Busan. I woke up around 8 am, unpacked and got settled into my new humble abode. Some photos :) The first photo on the left is from the entry way. Hardwood floor living room, tv on the left. Thru the sliding glass door is my little kitchen and the door on the left is the bathroom.
The photo to the right is standing in front of the kitchen. I have a full sized bed in this little space. The wall in the middle is my closet. The side towards the bed opens on the top (for clothes) and the side by the front door opens on the bottom (for shoes, etc). As you can see I was still unpacking, etc. So there is a little of everything around. To the left is my little kitchen. i got the basics, stove, microwave, big fridge (no oven), and then in the nook on the right there is a washing machine. The photo to the right is the view from my kitchen window. I know it doesn't look like much but it actually looks better in person (trust me, i don't live in the ghetto or slums lol). The person next door is growing a lot of crops. Next door is also a high school. See if I can get pictures of that for later. The next picture below the kitchen is my bathroom. Tiny but it works. The one thing I am not used to is not having a seperate shower. The shower head is attached to the sink for water. It can be held right above the sink but it's easier to just take it off and wash yourself. There is a drain in the middle of the floor. Still very weird but not as bad as I thought. I just have to make sure not to get my towel wet which is right across from it. From what i have heard, this is pretty common in a lot of the Korean homes. So hopefully you just got a little bit of an idea of what I come home to everyday. Again, nothing huge but perfect for little old me :)
So at 1pm, Ho, the director of my school, picked me up and took me to the school. On the way, he described the bus system (i live off a main road so I will be taking the bus 10 minutes to school). I am a little disappointed because I was hoping to get a bike and ride around but he said that certain parts of the main road do not have a bike lane or sidewalk area to ride bikes so it is not very safe. I can walk along some parts where there are lots of shops but again, a certain area doesn't have a sidewalk. Looks like I'll be doing many trips to Busan and get my walk/workout on. Because of the rain, I have yet to explore outside my apartment. But I look forward to doing more of that when it clears up.
Ok, school. I arrived at school. Everyone asked if I was hungry and immediately ordered me udon soup (which i was familiar with). A delivery service brings it in a very nice dishes (no paper or plastic here) and when you're finished, you leave it in a basket by the door for them to pick up Pretty cool! The soup was very good! Esther went through some of the basic procedures with me and I shadowed Christine for most of the day. It looks pretty easy. Some of the classes had 3 kids in them, others had 16. Between 2:20-8:20 there are 9, 35 minute classes with a 5 minute break inbetween. Depending on the day (there are 2 different schedules), i have 2 or 3 35 minute breaks. OH this is a pic of my school :) at least the inside. It is on the 4th floor of a large building. And yes it's hard to figure out which building is which. They all have korean characters that all look the same lol. I really need to learn the alphabet. So yes because of all the crazy classes, it gets very busy. The books are very self explanatory. Lots of reading outloud, fill in the blanks, games, etc. The english teacher here before me wrote me out an entire 'how to' list explaining everything about getting around the city and how the school works, etc. It can get very confusing and overwhelming the first few days. I was asking so many questions. I think its one of those things that you'll just learn with routine. So it is a work in progress. As soon as the kids heard there was a new teacher, they searched far and wide for me. Not like I don't stand out or anything (yes all the other teachers are Korean). When they found me, whether i be in the teachers lounge, the classroom, walking around, etc, I just got stared at. It was kinda cute actually. They'd look at me stare, smile, wave and say hello. All very curious about the new english teacher. In every class I went into, I got asked 'where are you from,' 'how old are u,' 'when did you arrive in Korea,' 'do you speak korean,' 'what are your hobbies?' They were so cute. when they'd play games in class (one person had to guess a word and the rest of the class had to describe it), say the word was 'ink' they would say 'a pens friend' or if the word was moon 'the suns friend.' So cute. There are lots of kids and all very different. Some have ADD pretty bad (i wonder if they do the whole ADD thing here in Korea). I really think this could be good for me. I can learn so much.
After class, one of the other Korean teachers offered to take me to Lotte mart, their version of Walmart (apparently Walmart came here and failed... hilarious). I was so overwhelmed in Lottemart. 1st u have to pay like 800 won (80 cents) to get a cart (stupid), then she helped me go throughout the store to get everything i needed. Toilet paper, dish soap, food, hair straightener, notebook for school, mat for outside the bathroom, etc. Some of the food they had was pretty normal. I think I'm going to go aisle by aisle and just see what's what. I bought a korean tomato sauce and for spaghetti so we'll see how good it is. So it was probably mydownfall having her there cause like home, I went for 10 things and came back wtih this (below). Go figure lol. All necessities though

So that was my day #1 in a nutshell :) More to come...

p.s. one thing I didn't really think of... silverwear. I can usually find spoons (but different spoons) at Lotte mart but I haven't found forks or knives yet. lol. I'm sure they're around. I just have to find them... chopsticks it is!

Arrival in Busan, South Korea

2010-01-19T15:32:00.000-08:00

This summer, while i was visiting Europe with my family, it was suggested to me by 3 people that I should teach english in South Korea. My first response "if i was gonna go anywhere in Asia, it would be Japan" and I didn't think much more of it. Then after visiting Ital for the 4th time, I realized I needed to be there again and would do anything to earn enough money to live there for another year. Then realized maybe teaching english would be a great idea. In Los Angeles, where I am from, there are very few jobs right now due to the economy. I LOVE traveling so figured might as well look into this english thing. I originally wanted to go to Chile or Argentina. As great as an experience as that would be, I wouldn't save much money. So I started meeting a lot of people who had/are working in Korea as english teachers and heard nothing but positive feedback. I was sold....
After months of paper work, preparation, and packing up my entire life, I entered in the city of Busan, South Korea last night on January 19th. It was a very long flight. I tried to sleep on the plane but let's be honest, it's so uncomfortable. Upon my arrival in Busan, I was approached by a man asking with a thick accent "Daniel?" I followed him to the car where he took me to the school that I will be teaching at. He did not speak much english but we still managed to make good conversation. It was about a 45 minute drive to the school in the city of Yangsan. Yangsan is a city in the suburbs outside of Busan (South Koreas 2nd biggest city and a beach/port city. I like to think of it like San Diego though i heard it is more compared to San Francisco). I met the director of my school and 2 other Korean teachers at a chicken restaurant around the corner. They welcomed me with food and beer... how did they know?? :) That was a great start. Then i was taken to my apartment. I am living in a pretty small studio apartment but honestly, it's just me, I really don't need much. It has very nice, clean wood floors, a tv, small kitchen, bathroom (the shower head is above the sink... no seperate shower areas). I am excited to have a full sized bed! :) The kitchen has basic cooking utensils and washing machine inside. So I'm set. The apartment is right around the corner from a main road so this week as I explore I will be buying things like more hangers, korean hair straightener (desperately need one!), and another trash can (there is only 1 and it's TINY!). Otherwise I"m pretty much set. It is almost 9am right now. Time to get unpacking. Just a little info on my arrival. I start my first/only day of training today at 1pm. My work hours at 2-9pm but I go in early today. I will post more and some pictures soon :) I"ll keep u posted. Until then...