Suwoning Around

I'm so cold, Jack!

2009-12-18T19:43:00.001-08:00

Here are just a few piccies from a recent snowfall - the first real one of the winter. And my first snow for 3 1/2 years - more than exciting, I can tell you! Now I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...

Yeongtong Park, where so many summer's days were spent

Happy to be in the snow!

Snow graffiti

The snow falling outside my apartment

Once Upon a Time...

2009-12-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was teaching the 5-Ws to four of my favourite kids, ones I see every afternoon, and decided the best way for them to practice was to write me stories making sure they include who/what/when/where/why. I love these stories, they're so random but unlike so many of the kids I teach, these kids have great imaginations and almost the ability to actually get it out in English so I'm pretty impressed. They're semi-edited them so they're easier to read but I've kept some of the mistakes in so you get an idea of their broken English. Enjoy.

LYNN:
Our class goes to the zoo with my teachers. It was Saturday. Because we were bored. We ate a lunch in the park. Suddenly an elephant cookie came out of the jar and eat our lunch! We was very sad because we have our favourite lunch. So, we decided to ate the giant elephant cookie. But it was so big! But we ate it. Finally we was fool!

DOLLY:
I go to the hospital. And I'm happy! Because doctor said "You broke your teeth, then you ate a candy and cookie!!" But doctor said "You didn't eat a candy and cookie". And I'm a surprise! And I think this doctor is silly! Because at 6 o'clock he change to robot!

CATON:
Frank and I went to Homeplus last Thursday. The coupon contest was at the coffee shop. Dolly sister and Lynn want to do it because they can get money so they do the coupon contest Dolly said "hundred, million, billion". And Lynn said "Ninety, five hundred, ten million, trillion". So Lynn won! She got 100,0000,000 money. It was very fun.

FRANK:
I go to the Everland with Caton. We drink a hot cocoa and eat food and we play on a boat in the water. It is night, 6.30pm. We watch a movie, too! It is very fantastic!!!!!! The chair is shake and in the movie the character is really out with the people but we take the glasses off, it is just in the movie. I think it is a magic. Why did we go to the Everland? Because it is lots of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cuteness at school

2009-11-16T01:59:00.001-08:00

Some of my favourite girls in the afternoon classes today decorated the white board for me - no apparent reason, usually teachers only get this kind of treatment if it's their birthday or your last day... so I consider myself pretty lucky!

The girls hard at it

Chris - also usually in the class - was feeling sick after getting
the vaccination for Swine Flu so was meant to be lying down
but I think he felt a little left out of the action!

A close-up of the "Kind Sophie Tearcher Tree"

I love these kids, they seem to have a lot of fun learning and don't find it too difficult, and we play a lot of "learning" games (read: games I make up on the spot) when they get finished early.

The gorgeous girls, Kelly (shy as hell but so sweet),
Claudia (very smart and has a slight lisp, love her!),
Amy (also supremely shy but cute) and Julie (Loud and
very funny, one of my favourites in the whole school)

I've been teaching Amy, Julie and Kelly since I arrived but Claudia was new when we shifted schools. She's great though, so sweet. She told me one day her favourite movie was Richie Rich (old maybe mid 90s Macauley Culkin film) and I said the actor Richie was in my favourite movie when I was her age, My Girl. The next time I had this class she told me she watched it! So Cute!

This is what she said in her lispy broken English: "Teacher. My Girl movie, I watch. Thomas is Richie! Thomas, bees, and die."... about sums it up!

In for a close up

11/11

2009-11-16T01:54:00.001-08:00

In Korea, November 11 is Pepero Day. Pepero is like Pocky (the Japanese version) which is sold in NZ, it's sticks of pretzel/ wafer/ biscuit covered in chocolate, and is a very popular snack here.
Pepero day is huge, and while I haven't seen Valentines Day here yet, seems to be just another reason for Koreans to get loved up. But really it's completely comercialised and created entirely by Lotte, a massive company here who manufacture fricken everything, food, housey stuff etc, have fast food chains, an amusement park in Seoul and great big department stores.
This sight was to be seen all around the country in the days leading up to 11/11:

A display of Pepero outside a convenience store

Great day for teachers, as the kids all bring you pepero, and my desk has been stacked with the stuff since last Wednesday. Also randomly they promote Ferrero Rocher, I was stoked to get some of those as well! Not so stoked to get a lollipop (I think the girl forgot and felt bad, and I think it was actually meant for her but she insisted I take it)... or a stick of gum...

Anguk and the Owls

2009-11-16T01:37:00.000-08:00

A couple of weekends back my Kiwi friend Skye and I went on a trip into what is now definitely my favourite area of Seoul - Anguk. It's super near a lot of the other bits I've loved too, and is a really cool place to explore - lots of random little museums, heaps of amazing little botique stores selling clothes, hats, jewellery and ceramics, and cool cafes.
Our goal was to get around three of the museums, Tibet, Chicken Art (simply to finally answer the question that's been plaguing me for some time: is it art featuring chicken or do the chickens actually MAKE the art?!) and the Owl museum (because owls are practically my favourite animal)... however slowness/lostness/museums being closed meant we only saw the owls... but did a lot of wandering around too and all in all was a rather lovely afternoon! Here are some pix.

Love these flowers, so sunny looking, outside a bank

Anguk is a bit of a mesh with old and new

The Owl Museum is really just a room packed literally to the rafters with things featuring owls... a kooky old lady started her obsession with owls in grade 2 and since then has been collecting... and collecting... it's pretty overwhelming, the bizarre things she deemed worthy to go behind glass, including a towel of Harry Potter and his owl, a pen with a tiiiiiiny little owl on it - which was a freebe from some university and (it's Korea, so it's obligatory) some neon flashing owls...

Inside the Owl Museum

Owl cookie.... about the size of a 1year-old baby

Mini Owls

After this I was told not to take photos so that's all I got but it was pretty funny experience. The fee to get in included a free drink so we sat after at tables alongside wee families whose children were given stamps and pens to draw owls... so we did too! Mine is now adorning my fridge.

Bizarro drawing on the wall outside the museum - Love it!

signage

An eave on a very old house and a persimmon tree

Halloween # Dul

2009-11-11T01:31:00.000-08:00

So I officially LOVE Halloween. Because after all the history and feelings toward it, it's really just a chance to do three of the funnest things:
1) dress up
2) gather with heaps of friends
3) drink!

Mum always sheltered us from Halloween, I remember not being allowed to watch any Halloween specials on The Simpsons (which I completely understand and appreciate now, they're so graphic and I still hate watching them!), and there was no trick or treating (not that Omarama or Te Anau were very big on that)... definitely respect that decision.
But once I'm a grown up girl surrounded by North Americans, I see the benefits of the "holiday".
I kicked off my Halloween experience at Now Bar carving pumpkins. Was a lot of fun, very messy, but I was pretty pleased with mine:

Aidan, Ann, Sara, me and Michelle with our

skillfully carved pumpkins.

Yup, mine's the speckled one in the middle.

One proud jack-o-lantern-making Kiwi right here.

Then on Friday night I spent a lot of time and effort getting ready.I decided last minute to go as Edward Scissorhands, so mega washed out makeup, crazy teased hair, a friend's borrowed jacket and some pointy tinfoil cardboard creations for my hands. I love Edward Scissorhands, and it reminded me of when I was maybe 8, still in Omarama, and mum and dad had rented it the night before from the dairy. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday and they asked me to walk to the dairy and return it, however I hadn't even left my street when I was freaking out that his scissorhands would reach out from the videotape and cut me! I popped into my friend's house to get a bag to take it the rest of the way. Bless.

We all gathered in the park for "Trick or Drink", a tikitour through Yeongtong to particular people's apartment where we all had a shot. Some were nice but most were quite disgusting and passable... but it was a lot of fun just wandering around the streets in a major parade - the police apparently suggested to us to keep it down!

Sara the ladybug dishing out yummy

fruity shots at her apartment.

Aidan created this evil skeleton Legoman
costume - and then let off fireworks in it

Jeremy as Venus Williams (with a Serena in tow)

And old Edward Scissorhands, possibly

cutting up his face?

Scaring Koreans

Full frontal of the costume - I was pretty pleased with it!

Michelle and I had some time to kill waiting for

friends in the park so climbed the fountain.

Michelle the Cass bottle (Korean beer)

Prentending to be a drunken Korean...

Eventually we arrive at Now Bar where the party continued:

Benusa the Sheriff

Edward Scissorhands attempts to show some moves to

Veronica the Tae-kwon-do Kid (sidebar: people are convinced

we're separated at birth and confuse us a lot - pointy noses etc)

Marty the Ninja

Kate the Penguin and Ed with my pumpkin

Penguin and Aidan-Legoman

Benusa Sheriff again

Michelle and I

Cass and Ryan as Mrs C

Sheriff has a long cold one after a hard day on the beat

Halloween # Hana

2009-10-28T03:41:00.001-07:00

The day after Beyonce, WEL kindergarten packed into our buses and headed to the Suwon English Village for a Halloween party. The schedule was pretty underwhelming, with the kids making Halloween cards, baskets for trick or treating etc, but our kids were dressed to the nines. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, they were just SO cute! Here are a selection of the best:

William the Power Ranger (all the kids here

are obsessed with it)

Elly-jelly-belly

Kevin, my new favourite student, I love this boy!

Stephanie (snow white) and Abigail (fairy)

In the hallways were random pictures of

New Zealand - no idea why, so I got to take

a mini hiatus back home - Love ya Dunedin!

The line up of Venus, Mars and Mercury classes

Kyle (superman) totally acting the part!

David the little devil. Generally sweet, but

he definitely has a little of the devil in him: fitting!

Beautiful Abigail as some kind of fairy - SO cute!

Smiley Kevin after getting attacked by the

tickle monster!

Beyonce

2009-10-28T02:25:00.000-07:00

Last week a friend and I went to see Beyonce at Olympic Park, Seoul. I had heard she was amazing live and had very high expectations of the show. Destiny's Child were awesome in their day, and some of Beyonce's earlier solo songs remind me so much of my first and second year at university, and I think she has an incredible voice and the ability to write very catchy pop songs that are great to dance to.
And I wasn't disappointed with her show - right from the beginning it was high energy, she was belting out the songs while dancing up a storm on stage. She performed all my favourite songs, did a high medley of Destiny's Child songs, sang Alanis Morrisette, Sarah MacLaughlan and dedicated her finale, Halo, to Michael Jackson.
There were amazing backup dancers, these staunch big black women backup singers, the entire band was female (and seriously talented) and little home videos of her as a child, very cute. Overall I was totally blown away. Next time I would pay more to be closer to the stage as we were quite far away, but there the sound was great and there were huge screens so you could see pretty well anyway.

If I were a boy

Single Ladies

Jeremy and I looking quite possessed -

we were both pretty stoked to be there!

Afterward all the Koreans were lining up

to get their photo take next to this picture,

so obviously I had to join in too!

Happy Six Months to me!

2009-10-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my six-month anniversary in Korea, which is a pretty weird feeling. I can't believe I am halfway through my contract and my year here already!

Autumn adventures

2009-10-20T00:53:00.000-07:00

Almost overnight it seems Korea has moved from summer into autumn, and it's suddenly got so cold! After so many months of hot humid sticky weather, it's nice to need a duvet on my bed and flannel pjs (thanks mum! x), and heading out at night now requires a jacket at minimum.
So long jandals, my wee tootsies are feeling too frostbiten for you now.
And in the last few days even the daytime temperatures are creaping downwards, requiring scarves, and jackets - so I'm sure it won't be long before hats and gloves are needed too.
It's pretty bizarre for me to think it's October as this is all happening, feels much more like April (which I guess is the Southern Hemi equivalent).
On Sunday I got an amazingly warm boiled wool coat, which after wearing in the bitter wind is definitely going to see me through the winter.
We've also had three amazing thunder and lightning storms in the last week, which I love, one last night woke me up and kept illuminating my entire apartment. Another I got to watch from a bus coming home from Seoul last Tuesday night, it was pretty spectacular, unlike at home where we have maybe two or three lightning strikes and then it's over, here it just went on and on. I saw for the first time with my own eyes actual lightning bolts over Seoul, and because of the light pollution the entire sky was flashing purple.
But the country is looking so beautiful, the leaves are changing so fast and with the clear days, I am really loving exploring!
I'm fast approaching the six-month mark here and starting to feel a little guilty at how few places in Suwon and Seoul I have actually checked out - many weekends away, but not so many looking around my own doorstep. So before I start hibernating in the winter, I have resolved to see as much as I can.
On Saturday I went to Gyeongbokgung, a royal palace in Seoul, with my Kiwi friends Skye and Jed. It was a bit of a mission to get to with a very slow bus and a few subway stops, but eventually we emerged at the gates of Seoul's largest palace. It was nice to stroll around, although very hard to get an impression of how life would have been, with so many groups of Koreans, including a lot of school groups, touring the grounds and high rises sprouted up around the periphery.
The further back we went (this palace just went on for miles!), the more beautiful, with lots of autumnal trees, ponds full of very fat scary looking fish, pagodas and pavillions. All the palaces seem to have very interesting histories and this one was no different. It was initially completed in 1395 before being destroyed by fire during the Japanese invasion in 1592. After lying derelict for 273 years, it was rebuilt before parts of it again being destroyed by fire. In 1915 the Japanese used an exhibition as an excuse to raze the buildings again, however from 1968 onward reconstruction began again.

The front gates of the Palace

Amazing sky and an intricate eave

Not such nice backdrop

I would love a window looking out on this

Ornamental eave, and birdnetting to stop them building nests

Huge pagoda atop the Korean Folk Museum

Beautiful pond and backdrop with autumn colours

Ditto

Beautiful trees

The King's pavillion

After having a good look around, we found a really funky wee cafe nearby which served the most delicious carrot cake, cheesecake and homemade lemonade, all totally delicious!

Next we went to Myeondong, an area in Seoul known for its shopping, where Skye picked up a really amazing SLR camera. Then it was off to Itaewon for my favourite Greek food and home.

On Sunday Sara and I FINALLY made it the whole way around the Hwaseong Fortress, Suwon's shining jewel and a world heritage site. It was another beautiful sunny but crisp day, perfect for the walk, which took us around the periphery of Suwon-city as it once was. It took about an hour and was a really lovely walk.

The fortress was built in the 18th Century. Initially it was to prepare Suwon to become the capital when it moved out of Seoul, however this never ended up happening. The fortress was badly damaged during the Korean war, and has since been restored.

Autumn colours

View down one side of the wall with Suwon spreading beyond

Wall and rushes

More wall and rushes

One of the four gates around the fortress

Sara and I: proof we did it!

On and on the wall went!

I Heart Tokyo

2009-10-07T05:28:00.000-07:00

I am back in the land of the morning calm after 4 amazing days and nights in Tokyo. I completely fell in love with the city, the people, the food, and as I had predicted it holds a lot more appeal to me than Korea does.
Our trip was a little different in that we stayed at the NZ Embassy with a friend from Wellington, who has been doing Japanese language training for over a year so can speak fluent Japanese and knows all the hot spots to go. So it was lovely exploring the city with her although it left a lot of things I still really want to do - all good reasons to go back.
We stayed in Shibuya, which is in central Tokyo and a fabulous area, very easy to get around from there too. I kept a diary so the rest of this is pretty much from that, just so I don't forget anything!

DAY 1 - THURSDAY
The trip over went very smoothly, Sara and I were very excited the whole way, and it was a super short trip (only 2 hrs, and they served us food which we didn't expect so the flight went by in the blink of an eye). In duty free we picked up some wine for Nicci (Cloudy Bay sav, oh, how I have missed you) and I was very naughty and got myself Chloe perfume which I am completely in love with right now!

We made it!

When we arrived at Narita Airport in Tokyo we had about 35 mins to get through customs, immigration and get our bags before we needed to be on an airport limo to go meet Nicci in Shibuya. Thankfully we made it through with 10 mins to spare so there were no dramas of trying to navigate the subway system just yet. I loved that Japanese drive on the left side of the road! I didn't even notice for a little while but it did feel all very natural!
The drive was amazing, past the port, past two massive coloured ferris wheels, over the biggest bridge I think I've ever seen and Tokyo Tower (which really just looks like a mini Eiffel Tower to me - but apparently it was designed similarly). The cityscape stretched off forever and the lights in the buildings were quite dazzling.

First arrival in Shibuya with Nicci

Tokyo Tower -this photo meant to go in later in the story but I forgot it!

Met Nicci, went for a walk through Shibuya to her whare at the embassy, going through Shibuya Crossing, were 3 MILLION people cross every day. 3/4 of the population of NZ! Insane, and so alive and buzzing. Already could see the Japanese street style, most people were dressed amazingly, and a lot of the girls walked pigeon-toed, which Nicci said was a deliberate thing they train themselves to do as they think it looks kawaii (cute).
We walked past a whalemeat restaurant which was quite shocking, as I always expected those places to be down back alleys and with no signage, but this one had a cartoon whale out the front.Back to Niccis and some chilled NZ sav and a lot of catching up.

DAY 2 - FRIDAY
Woke up early and spent the morning reading Listener, eating Vogels and drinking Milo - just a typical morning in NZ but felt very special in Japan! Weather was pretty bad, raining very heavily with no signs of letting up but Sara and I headed to Ueno Park, which many of my friends had recommended as a place to go. The park (at least, what we saw of it) was quite lovely, even in the rain, although this park is home to most of Tokyo's homeless population, and we saw them all lined up huddled under big trees surrounded with all their belongings waiting for food from a temporary soup kitchen, which was quite sobering to see.

The poorest attempts at a photo of us, Ueno Park, Tokyo National

Museum, and a fancy fountain whilst camera battery was dying and

it was pouring with rain: FAIL.

We went to the Tokyo National Museum, a huge grand old building set back in the park. It was a very traditional museum with lots of old Buddist statues, ink drawings, ceramics and beautiful old kimonos. Was nice so see it all, and you really got a sense of just how old the culture is, but I wasn't overly amazed with it all, perhaps because I feel like I have seen so many replicas of these things.

View from inside the museum which we couldn't get out to

I LOVED this wall! Amazing!

Afterward we went back to Shibuya and found some lunch, chicken ramen noodles in broth, fried dumplings (mandu in Korean, not sure in Japanese) and rice. Was very tasty and hearty and pretty cheap - and I really wish you could get food like that in Korea! Everything seems to be defaulted to a high level of spice which is almost kinda boring. It gives so many things a very similar flavour as a result.

Had a wee mosey in a huge 4-storey clothing store and then went back to Niccis for a little moe before heading out to Roponggi where we met some of Nicci's friends for some Philippino food. All so tastey, tofu, fish, squid. Yum. And Japanese beer Asahi, SO much nicer than Cass in Korea!Next the lure of karoke took us to a very cute little bar with a stage toward the back. We sort of took over the bar singing hundreds of songs, which was a lot of fun.

You can stand under my umbrella-ella-ella, eh, eh, eh

There were a group of Japanese salarymen, who would every now and then take the mic, and some of the bar staff would come and join in too! One of the Japanese men kept saying to Nicci I was kawaii but that he was too shy to talk to me, which at first was sweet but eventually just plain annoying so I decided to make him feel as uncomfortable as possible, serenading him with Mariah Carey - Hero and The Bangles - Eternal Flame, made me laugh a lot.

A new friend - who I never actually spoke to but sang to a whole bunch

In full flight!

DAY 3 - SATURDAY

Another great day despite the rain. We went to Harajuku for the best burgers ever - from a cute place aptly named 'The Great Burger' - delicious big burger patties, really juicy and tasty, avocado and mozerella - yum! Sara and I then hit the shops while Nicci went off to Celtic football practice. I got some really great jeans and a few other things. The amount of people in this area was astounding, it's a very beautiful area with big wide avenues lined with ancient trees, but it was tiring trying to get around due to the crowds (it's very popular for shopping) so we flagged and went to a temple nearby Nicci had told us we should see. Unfortunately we were a little late in the day and the gates closed shortly after we arrived so we had to turn back. But it was a beautiful walk through very old trees with the late afternoon sunlight streaming in.

Entrance gate to the temple we never saw

Proof I was there - even if we didn't get through the trees

Beautiful

That night we went to Nicci's friend Dani's apartment where she was having a little get together. She'd recently finished writing a story on organic skincare and cosmetics and was selling off all the sample products to her friends at fractions of the cost to give the money to charity. Was a very lovely apartment with a sweet chubby grey cat, and a nice group of Japanese women. Drank some delicious Church Road red and had real cheese! Something you just can't find in Korea- gooey, smelly delicious, I was so happy! Also had steamed cakes with Japanese citrus on them, really tasty and subtle flavour, deliciously soft and delicate. Want to find a recipe for them to try to make them myself.

Afterward we went to an izakaya (equicalent of a Japanese pub) where we ate edamame (steamed soya beans sprinkled with grainy rock salt) yakitori (skewers of meats), asparagus wrapped with bacon and Chinese rice. Delicious. Also tried Sapporo beer, very good too - So much better than the Korean alternatives! The izakaya was really cute, with small individual areas for groups separated off with screens.

Next we headed back to Nicci's to get ready and celebrate Sara's birthday! A couple of Nicci's friends came by and eventually we all went to a rock'n'roll bar nearby, which was really cute with girl DJs and all these cute Japanese girls dancing. Next went to my favourite place by far, this three-storey club which was just so cool! The ceilings were covered in chandaliers, there were deer heads on the walls and mannequins standing watch in the corners. Each storey had a different vibe, and we danced up a storm there until the lights came on and we were shuffled out into the stark daylight (it gets light VERY early in Japan, like 4.30am - so mum don't think too bad of me!)

Our whare for our stay - Gad love ya Aotearoa!

Birthday cuddles with Sara

A very happy deer

New friends

This place was amazing! Like a great junk store - with vodka!

DAY 4 - SUNDAY

Beautiful sunny day today! We took a long time to get our A into G with everyone a bit jaded from the night before. We went to a really funky cool area near Harajuku for a special birthday brunch for Sara. The place we went would have fit nicely in Wellington and is yet another thing very lacking in Korea, and was a lovely change. Had amazing ginger wine mojitos, amazing jam packed with mint (this whole blog entry seems to be about food!) and yummy creamy tomato penne with yummy mushrooms.

Delicious!

Then walked back through Harajuku where I loaded up on ceramics from this big emporium. Such cool bowls, cups etc, I love them! Next we attempted to see some of the infamous Harajuku kids who dress up in insanely crazy cool costumes and hang out in this area on Sundays. Nicci said they aren't there so much anymore and sadly she was right, we saw a couple but they weren't as amazing as I expected, and the crowds were just insanity. We jumped a train and then a monorail heading for Odaiba, which is down by the waterfront. Went over the bridge on the monorail with the fullmoon glowing over the city, and was very beautiful. We went on a HUGE ferris wheel - my first ever - however I really didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The views were spectacular but I got a serious case of vertigo, usually heights don't bother me but this time I couldn't cope so well. Nicci and Sara thought this was hysterical, especially when they would stand up and make the carriage rock a little. Lots of screaming from me. But better on the way down.

This really dwarfs the sheer size of this thing!

Pretending to enjoy it...

... When really all I wanted to do was this

And a little wimpering

The views really were stunning

More Tokyo at night

Then went on a mission walk to find this mini Statue of Liberty (why in Tokyo bay, I have no idea) along the waterfront, which was super beautiful with ferryboats all lit up, but my feet were killing me so I wandered along behind the girls.

Us and Tokyo bridge and ferry boats

Nicci had made a reservation for us at her favourite (and now mine) and very popular Teppanyaki restaurant in Shibuya so we had to race to get back in time, because of my feet it was elected Nicci and Sara race on ahead while I follow behind with all our bags etc - which suited me find.But my gosh, this dinner, this restaurant, it was one of the best experiences of my life. The place was run by this bunch of very enthusiastic and funny guys who clearly love what they do and are supremely good at it. We sat along the benches around the cooking area so we could watch the whole affair, which was entertainment in itself. Amazing to watch, so skilled. We ate raw corn and prawns (really nice subtle flavour, if a little slimy, but super fresh, I liked them), sashimi (tuna, it was perfect, melt in the mouth crimson goodness), fried chicken, a delicious salad with crunchy noodles along with other things.

Don't come the raw prawn with moi!

The Teppanyaki restaurant

Nicci and the supreme sashimi

After about an hour of being there there the lights went out and the chefs suddenly jumped up with crazy headpieces and masks on and performed a group dance in celebration of about five different people who were having their birthday dinners there - Sara included (Nicci had arranged this when she booked). It was hilarious and amazing, lights flashing, music booming, everyone clapping and cheering wildly. Each of the birthday girls and boys were presented with a plate of little desserts. One of the chefs made a beautiful speech in Japanese, which Nicci translated, abot how honoured they were for the people to choose there to celebrate their birthdays, and paying tribute to their parents as without them they wouldn't be here at all. They wished everyone happiness and success. It was really lovely and beautiful.

Drank some delicious cocktails, more Japanese beer and warm sake - I couldn't handle it, ridiculously strong and not my favourite thing.As we left they all thanked us as a group with a very well-timed clap and bow and left Sara a birthday card with a photo of the three of us taken earlier that night.It really was the most spectacular meal I have ever eaten - and yet another reason I have to return to Japan soon.

Fire burning in your eyes, oh what a beautiful sight.

Dance dance

One of the chefs

Nicci, Sara and I

But MORE birthday cocktails!

DAY 5 - MONDAY

We set our alarm earlish to head to Starbucks overlooking the Shibuya crossing - the very Starbucks and view that is in Lost in Translation. We wanted to watch the crossing in full force with commuters, however we missed the peak hour. It was still cool to sit up there and watch the streams of people, but I think some of the other times we crossed it outselves were busier.

One foot in New Zealand, one in Japan. That's how I roll.

Shibuya Crossing: Picture this times 3 million... a day.

For our final fling, and the thing I had been craving since we arrived, Nicci took us to a little sushi bar where we had delicious freshly made sushi all before our eyes. Raw salmon, raw tuna, eel caramelised with a blow torch, avocado with fish roe - very very delicious, and by far the best I've ever eaten. I just hope one day I can eat that sort of food as a regular thing as it's so tasty, so healthy and so filling, and not horrifically expensive.Then it was farewells and the Narita Express back to the airport.

A very tasty last supper in Tokyo.

Chu-seok at WEL

2009-09-30T05:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend is Chu-seok in Korea, their biggest holiday, apparently a little like Thanksgiving. Everybody goes home to gather with their families, prepare a traditional feast and play some crazy games. This week we had a special day to celebrate at WEL school. All the kids and most of the teachers dressed in their hanboks, which was quite amazing to see.

Grace with Lily and David, our youngest students

Olivia and Abigail

Raina taking the kids in some special dances

One of my Korean coworkers was very kind and gave me her hanbok to wear for part of the day, it was very pretty and floaty but surprisingly hot!

Me in hanbok with Erica

Sara and I in our borrowed hanboks

The WEL waegooks (foreigners), Byron, Sara, me and Carp

After making song-pyeon, traditional glutenous rice cakes filled with sesame (I loved making them, but not so much eating them), the kids had fun with a tournament of Korean sumo wrestling, where they wear scarves around their middles and hold on to each other and have to use all their force to push the other to the ground - very funny to watch.

Julie gets into some traditional Korean style sumo wrestling

Anne, Joey and Rosie watch on

After that the real fun began - a very Korean game where you hop around on one leg, holding the other, trying make the other contestant make their leg fall to the ground first

Olivia hopping along

Then it was outside for a photoshoot:

Venus class - finding the idea of looking and smiling at the

camera a very difficult task

Much better! William, Olivia, Abigail and Julie

David, Kevin and Joshua, our babies, with Sue

Lovely Janice teacher, who lent me her hanbok with her

son Kai (in my class) who was not thrilled at his photo taken

Was a lot of fun, really neat to see everyone so beautifully dressed and to get a little slice of Korean traditional culture.

MEANWHILE - for Chuseok, we're off to JAPAN! We leave tomorrow and are so excited to see Tokyo. So the next post will surely be of that!

My Jandals couldn't handle... the jandal

2009-09-30T05:25:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we spent several hours of our lives - hours we'll never get back - on the Seoul subway system getting to the Korean Military Academy, in waaaay north Seoul - possibly technically not even seoul anymore - to watch the Suwon Stormers in an international rugby tournament. Was well worth the major trek there as it was beautiful sitting in the sun with lots of trees and the smell of autumn in the air watching the games. The event was sponsored by Jacob's Creek so it was kind of a treat to have almost decent wine, it's so scarce here.
Unfortunately my jandals did not appreciate the even quite as much and decided to cark it right there. Fortunately Aidan had some very snazzy sweaty rugby boots for me to wear all the way home through Seoul. I was one classy gal.

This is me selflessly carting some of Janine and Patrick's luggage around, as they were flying out to Ireland the following day.
We went to Santorini's in Itaewon for a final farewell dinner of delish chicken souvlaki, spanakopita and cheese filo pies, and amazing Coldstone Creamery icecream. Very sad to say goodbye to them both, but know will meet again in the not too distant future!

Casino Fatale

2009-09-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

For a night a gang of Yeongtong-ites became (mostly) sophisticated French socialites during a murder mystery game for a friend Elaine's birthday party. My character was Countess Alice de Ville, a wealthy beautiful widow (who secretly killed her husband for his money) who was meant to spend the evening on the arm of a buisnessman (actually a secret agent) after being paid by Mr X, the man who helped her knock off ole hubby.
It was - as I expected - the most bizarre party I have ever - and I truly think WILL ever - been to. We arrived at Elaine's and Patricks and were quickly hustled into a secret room with Elaine, thehost, who gave us more information, pretend money etc, and then everyone sat quietly in a corner of the room absorbing the information, goals for the night etc.
I found the whole thing pretty unnerving at the start, as much as I loved drama at high school, this was like nothing else - walking around with people you spend so much time with in real life but suddenly introducing yourself as some strange person whose information you can't quite remember. It took a couple of glasses of wine before I could get into the swing of things.
Not so for my coworker Carp, who pretty much walked in the door in character and barely lost it all night. Meanwhile there was a lot of nervous giggling from me during much of it.
There was an auction and jewels and money were stolen and everyone had different secrets and reasons for being there, and it was quickly apparent to me that my character was rather secondary and there was no way I was going to achieve my "goals", so instead I spent most of the night in a state of confusion as to what I was supposed to do, who I was supposed to talk to and about what. About 15 minutes from the end I suddenly remembered but by then it was too late.
I was stabbed on the stairs once, brought back to life, attempted to throw a casino coupier off the balcony but was overthrown (decided by a game of rock scissors paper) and finally shot for no apparent reason in a brutal attack. Bizarre-o, a lot of fun, but a lot of work too!

Beached in Busan

2009-09-10T04:50:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a group of us headed down to the south eastern corner of Korea for some beaching in Busan. It was an amazing place, so beautiful, and yet still a huge city (like the entire population of NZ lives there, insane!)
A smaller group of us headed down on the train straight after work on Friday night, making the five-hour journey tollerable with lots and lots of beer.
We offended numerous Koreans by speaking louder than a whisper. It's a strange culture thing here that noone makes noise on public transport, no matter the time of day or type of transport. It's rather annoying when it's Friday night 7pm and you get sushed at for laughing at something. We had to move our festivities to the dining cart to calm the people down.
I was lucky enough to get a personalised Michael Jackson Name-That-Song trivia show from a big fan of MJ, provided a great deal of entertainment for a while.
Once we arrived we headed straight to Haeundae Beach, one of the most popular spots in the city, particularly with westerners. We found really cheap digs (about $8 each!) and went off for some soju cocktail, fruit platter and cassuh

How the fruit platter looked after I got my hands on it.

The woman who ran the hof was very impressed with my skills

The next day I headed off for breakfast with a few other Yeongtongites who'd arrived late Fri night and then it was straight down to the beach. It was beautiful. The beach gets super busy in the peak season, but by October I think Koreans just don't go to the beach anymore, so it was pretty quiet. Water was so clear, such a novelty, and there were some decent waves. The beach was actually closed to swimming except for a small area where we coincidentally happened to be swimming, but everyone was ignoring the messages anyway. They need to go to NZ if they're worried about swell, it was pretty tame.

Janine enjoying the sun and sand

This man is enjoying the sun, sand and himself, at this moment he's taking a photo of his amazing budgie smugglers

Incredible sand sculpture

Haeundae Beach

Sara and I catching some rays

Haeundae Beach

The whole day was spent alternating between the water, the sun, the umbrella and the GS to get beers, and was pretty joyful. More and more people kept turning up as the day progressed so by the end we had quite a posse.

That night we had some very tasty tacos at the horribly named Fuzzy Navel (ew), and also a disgusting margerita with about a TBSP of salt thrown in for good measure. I had to dilute mine down with lemonade (called cider here - still unexplained)... and then I diluted and drank Sara's too as she can't handle salt.

Next up was Thursdays Bar and some delicious wine (amazing for this country)... and eventually a few of us headed to a club but the music was terrible - the doof-doof kind - so we flagged that, got lost for a while thanks to my terrible sense of direction before finding a great bar on the 18th floor of a building where I could throw water out the window and watch people down below's reactions as they couldn't figure out whereit was coming from - sometimes I'm not such a nice person, but it was so enjoyable!

Sara and I

Sunday was rinse and repeat of Saturday, just as perfectly clear and blue and sunny, until we all headed back to the train station for the long - and much quieter - journey home.

Overall I really loved this place, I want to go back again for a better look around and am thinking if I do stay another year, it's very likely I'd want to head there - watch this space!

Bread packaging

2009-09-10T02:45:00.000-07:00

Sara and I found these bizarre hilarious messages on bread from a bakery chain Paris Baguette. I am so curious as to how they came up with these, whether they had anyone around who spoke any English whatsoever or whether they used an online translation or randomly opened a dictionary and stabbed at words to use. Whichever way it's fantastic:

This soft goods the good materials in the body and a possibility of eating with the families together and fiber of these fibers, uses the fresh one materials with family brand where it is f-style and fresh, it uses fine, edo it is good and the mouth to be joyful to Paris newly the fortune well of the baguette's round it is a life style brand with fine

Ooooookay... But at least that one TRIED to use punctuation unlike this fella:

It kneads a dough with the boiling wter high temperature and maturing 56 a natural taste deeply and it saves with chewy it is soft there is the recording wall hun-dred which it will chew it does and a possibility of feeling simultaneously with the bread, the flavour taste there is a possibility of seeing and it is a bread

The best shirt in the world

2009-09-10T02:37:00.000-07:00

This is my alltime fabourite Tshirt I found at a store in Yeongtong for 10,000 won (about $12)
It's title is "Useless Super Powers". This is just a photo montage of my fav pix on it. Some of the English is pretty bad and there are some pictures I'm really not sure what they're trying to say.

Buy Buy Teacher

2009-08-27T05:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I had to say goodbye to my favourite class in the afternoons. They were my last class on M/W/F and were super fun and intelligent. It was the one class where I could actually talk to the kids about their lives without getting 10 pairs of eyes staring blankly back. They would tell me about their weekends (a lot of camping trips, and a lot of study) and their lives in general, which are fascinating simply due to the difference between NZ tweens and Korean ones. The wee dears work so hard and they're still so young and have SO much to go before they can pass their high school exams (considered the hardest ever in Korea) to try and get into one of the top universities. Apparently it doesn't matter what grades you get in uni for most jobs, but where you went. So much pressure at a time I was still interested in Barbie dolls and making huts with my sister.

(from left) Samira, Don, Love (Samira's older sister),

Chester, me, Cherry, Sally and Adam. Such clever kids.

The class left me to go onto a higher level of English study at our other campus so I won't be seeing them around anymore (except Don, who is my director's son). They were super cute on my last day with them, they made me wait outside the class while they decorated the board like so:

And Cherry, Samira and Love were hiding in the closet with a gift of ice coffee and a letter for me, so sweet, and I was genuinely sad to say goodbye to them. My Korean co-teacher Janice got the same treatment, but she was appalled that in her goodbye letter they spelt "bye" "buy".

Cherry, one of the smartest in the class and very

chatty wee lady, she's super funny and always

tells me stories about her weekends.

Chester is hilarious. He's lowest in the class but

always tries very hard and some of his answers are

more than amusing. Potentially to be found on Korean

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy in the not-so-distant future.

Today we got our new schedules and as expected my comfy schedule is just a little harder now... I don't want to complain and moan about it as I feel there is too much of it here, but it is a little annoying some of the changes. I'm here to work, obviously, and I do really enjoy the teaching on the whole but it takes SO much energy and I am worried I'm going to become a really grumpy irritable teacher all the time due to the lack of breaks. Most annoyingly, I've gone from one afternoon class Tues and Thurs to three, meaning I was finishing at 3.30pm, now it will be 5. Not the end of the world but doesn't give you much to look forward to during the week.

Licorice

2009-08-25T01:07:00.001-07:00

Just a few other random photos

Firstly CRUMBLY BISCUITS, aka Crumbles - the cutest and most amazing dog ever. He's my friends' Elaine and Patrick's dog and he's wonderful, so cute and a really nice manner.

Crumbles tries to attack Elaine's pet hedgehog

but can't because he knows the spikes will hurt him

Crumbles you are amazing.

Most amazing sunset a couple of weeks ago, lasted
just a few minutes but was incredible and luckily
Sara had her camera on hand to capture it.

A recent beach weekend at Daecheon. After a
day of lazing on the sand and bobbing around in
the water we went out for some food before
returning to the beach with some drinks and good
company. I LOVE this shot of the whole gang.

WEL

2009-08-25T00:54:00.001-07:00

Here are a few photos from a night out we had with our coworkers. Our school (ECC, which had previously merged with Lyceum) merged in July with another hogwan (Wonderland) to become WEL, originally we were WELP, when it was still a "project" but they've settled on that as a name.

Chris, me, Grace, Ann and Laila

Me trying (and failing) to take a photo like a

Korean with Grace

Conrad, Carp, Sara and Janice

The merge so far has been fine, our new coworkers are fine, but the schools have been running as if they were two just in the one campus for two months. Next month we become one more officially, with the students being given a test to find their levels so they can be blended together, new books etc. At the moment it's very uncertain how this will pan out as we're not told anything (there is a hierarchy with these things, and native teachers are at the bottom of the pile) and we're all very worried at the extra work this is going to give us, particularly because we're already very busy, and we're losing Conrad and a Korean teacher at the same time.

On an UPSIDE, we're also losing Jeff, also known as the devil child in our kinder school. He's just a little upstart who thinks he is above the rules set for all others. He has serious psychological problems and is aggressive and rude, always hitting his classmates, often for no good reason. He and I have never seen eye to eye, and lately he's taken to scowling and seething whenever he's near me, as he spits "Sophie teacher BAD teacher" at me. Oh yeah, and he also hit, punched, kicked and BIT me for simply trying to get him INTO class so he could avoid doing the work/rip out the pages of his book/break all my pencils/cheat off his classmates. The entire school, I think, is rejoycing in the fact that as of Friday he'll no longer be at our school. Thank goodness!

Happy Campers

2009-08-25T00:27:00.001-07:00

Very very delayed post, but before our non-holidays (three days is just a long weekend, not a holiday Korea) we had two days of summer camp with our kids. Lots of fun, lots of stress and two 12 hour days, joyous for us all, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Day ONE - involved a sleep over at school for the kinders, which was super cute. After a full day of classes the kids came back with their mums and I hosted a show and tell contest with the two youngest classes. Very cute, all the usual things happened, one kid shouted his entire speech, another spoke into his chest and put on silly voices and acted like an idiot, and one refused even to stand up and give his speech.
Then we had a huge dinner with all the parents and kids together. Mostly involved smiling politely as a lot of them can't speak much/any English themselves, but they are interested in how you look (let's face it, this is a very superficial society and that's important to them)
Then the kids got put into their pjs for a fashion show. The parents left at this point and there were MANY tears from kids about a night away from them.

Olivia playing

Abigail and Stephanie

Julie, one of my favourite afternoon kids
(she must be about 10 our age) * and please
note, none of us chose to wear the baby pink
polo shirts, it was forced upon us for camp, horrid.

Carp playing his guitar while playing
a game of freeze

Kai with a very serious face

Kai had recently broken his finger and

was all bandaged up, which my coworker

Conrad found very amusing

Mars class, our babies, Oscar, Sam and Daniel.

Oscar is hilarious, he just giggles and is always

in his own little world, Sam is super smart but

lately getting very angry and having huge tantys.

Meanwhile Daniel is not very intelligent, and not very

cute, and not very nice all round.

Kiddies dancing in their jarmies

Julie looking like a bit of a lunatic

Sara dancing with Rosie and Heidi

Day TWO - was a trip to Ocean World, Korea's largest waterpark, with some of our older afternoon students. Fun you say? Well, I thought it would be but involved instead hours and hours of stress at missing children. I mean, harm probably won't come to them in a waterpark with so many lifeguards around and all, but as a group, we had NO contingency plan for missing children, even AFTER I'd misplaced two of them before lunchtime. And it was camp day at the park so it was teeming with thousands of Korean children, all wearing matching lifejackets. I can recognise the kids I teach anywhere, but was given a group of children I didn't know from a bar of soap and I instantly lost them, it was like looking for hay in a haystack, it all looks the same.

Erica, Lynn and I on the bus, I teach these two

every day and they're very sweet, Erica can be

very bossy, and Lynn kinda strange, but I think

they're great.

Sara and her team

My team, which they themselves named Team

Crazy - which is a hugely offensive thing to call

someone here, but they picked it, and I think,

looking at this picture at least, it kinda fits!

Summer holidays on Jeju Island

2009-08-03T03:24:00.000-07:00

I am feeling so relaxed and happy after a perfect few days away at the beach on Jeju Island, Korea's holiday paradise, and it really was. Karma seemed to be smiling on us as nothing was difficult and we kept getting many lucky breaks.

DAY 1 - Wednesday
Sara and I flew in on Wednesday morning and we both had that perfect sense of happiness you get at the very beginning of a holiday, all anticipation and excitement. Janine met us at the airport after spending the previous day travelling down to Jeju by bus and ferry - which was apparently incredibly stormy and slow and caused everyone to be very seasick. The weather was perfect, hot and sunny and lovely. We grab a cab and head off to find some lunch at this cute wee place on the waterfront where we shared one meal and somehow managed to get free icecream. We could instantly see Jeju was quite different from the mainland, everyone is so happy and smiley on Jeju. We got a great taxi again who took us to Hamdeok beach, our base for the next three nights and the driver even called ahead and found us somewhere to stay.

Hamdeok Beach

Our lunch spot on Jeju Island

Then we decided to go to Udo Island, a much smaller island off the eastern side, it was amazingly beautiful, very cute and quaint. We hired rickety old bikes and headed to the beach, although it was very cold so we all failed to actually swim, it was nice just to lie in the sun and relax.We went for a ride around a bit of the island where we were waved at by everyone. There were horses and some of the biggest dragonflies I have ever seen, I almost crashed my bike and ate one when it flew into my face. Quite surreal feeling.

I totally fell in love with this wee dog, which I named Scampy,

he came and accosted us for our snacks, and kept coming back

for cuddles, didn't seem to have an owner, and I was pretty smitten,

despite his need for a very good wash!

On the ferry to Udo Island

Riding bikes on Udo Island - so much fun.

Me, Sara and Janine on our fabulous rusty rental
bikes - all of which matched our outfits.

That night we discovered what became our regular hangout, Sea Blue, a great restaurant overlooking the water, which served the most amazing homemade burgers and the strongest margherita's I have ever tasted. The couple who owned it were so friendly and offered to make us breakfast the next morning, pretty exciting as you can't really get decent western breakfast here (eggs, bacon, homefries etc). Then we headed into Jeju-si, the biggest city on the island to try and find some bars talked about in Lonely Planet - yet again LP FAIL, the maps were rubbish, very hard to understand and the bars absolutely weren't there when we got there. But we found a place to sit and chat before heading off for a bit of Noraebang action. We'd given ourselves a 3am curfew but flew past that after almost THREE hours of singing, a whole bunch of fun, and we were totally ridiculous, amongst the repertore was Mmmbop, a whole bunch of MJ (he will permanently be on the menu at karaoke now, I am sure of it) and Sugababes - despite my North American buddies having no idea who they were - it was bizarre!

DAY 2 - Thursday

We wake up at 8am to a phone call from our friend Elaine who had just arrived on the island after a very early flight. She comes to meet us and we take a few hours before we can function and head off to Sea Blue for our amazing breakfast - it didn't fail to deliver, we were thrilled. We then headed down to the beach, rented an umbrella and spent the day in the sun and sea. Perfect day for me. Lots of swimming, a little tanning, a little napping and some reading. Sara however manages to fall asleep in the sun and ends up pinker than a lobster and some of the most painful looking burn I'd seen in a long while.

When we go into Jeju-si again, this time looking for this special galbi restaurant which serves black pig which is forcefed sh*t - it sounds brutal, but after some of the things that are eaten here (dog, horse, silkworm lavae) it doesn't really seem all that bad. Pigs eat everything so what's the difference if they eat their own poop. Our taxi driver takes us to this amazing traditional restaurant and talks to the owners there who look after us so well. We have an absolute banquet of poop pig - it was delicious, the nicest pork I've had here so far, and very moreish. Our friend Benusa meets us here after spending the day heading down on the train and ferry. Eventually we head back to Hamdeok, get some beers and fireworks and go sit on the beach for a few hours, quite lovely and lowkey.

Janine and Elaine loving the poop pig

Our galbi feast of different bits of poop pig, mushrooms,

prawns, garlic and kimchi, totally delish

Sara and I happy as pigs in... poop...

DAY 3 - Friday

Back to Sea Blue for another amazing breakfast and then we head to Seongsan Ilchubong - Sunrise Peak. This is an extinct volcanic crater which has risen straight out of the ocean and gives incredible views of the area. The inside of the crater has been overgrown with vibrant greenery, which makes it quite spectacular from the air, but when you're standing on the edge you don't really get the idea of if being a volcano.

Seongsan Ilchubong

View from the top of the crater

Me, Sara and Elaine at the peak

Jeju is known for it's mandarines and oranges, and they make famous chocolate with it - I have never been a fan of orange chocolate but this was rather incredible, as well as cactus chocolate, delicious.We had another great taxidriver who took us the scenic way on the way there along the coastline - so what should have been maybe 1/2 hour in a cab ended up more like an hour, so when we eventually got back to the beach in time to see Elaine and Janine off - they were flying home sadly because Janine had to work at a summer camp on Saturday.

Benusa Sara and I stayed at the beach for a very long time, it was just so warm and beautiful and as the tide came in the waves got higher and much more fun.

Korean beaches are rather random places - and especially on Jeju, the honeymooners island.

For starters you're hardpressed to find one who isn't wearing full clothing over their togs - if wearing togs at all. You see them in jeans, in plaid shirts, in SHOES even, it's pretty ridiculous. And then every Korean man there has their girlfriend/wife in an innertube - noone knows how to swim here.

They just like to loll about in the shallows and the lifeguards are sitting out in a boat when the water has barely gone past your chest whistling at anyone who attempts to swim out further. Pretty funny place.

And so many people came up to us to talk to us, they're such sweet people, very good at stoking the ego, they think big eyes and small faces are beautiful and they will always tell you so, the kids especially are just adorable and so nice, they love to practise their English, and they're very fun to tease (eg by asking if they have a boyfriend/girlfriend and then suggesting whoever they're with should be their boyf/girlf whether it be their friend, brother/sister or mother!)

After that there was lots of walking around trying to find a good restaurant - pheasant is another specialty of the island but our wee beach town didn't have anything like it. After dinner we sit outside a convenience store for hours playing cards and generally being pretty silly, a lot of fun.

Benusa and Sara

Moi

While we're there a Korean guy who was rather aggressive earlier in the night to Benusa after some misunderstanding gets his car maimed by a guy who musta been drunk on a motorbike who slams into the side of it. We figured Karma, but it was pretty amazing to see an accident as by and large the drivers here are CRAZY and yet accidents seem to be pretty rare.

- Red lights are a suggestion, not a rule. Taxis will rarely ever stop at them, buses never will.

- Likewise pedestrian crossings, they'll carry on driving even if there are people crossing.

- Seatbelts?! HA! In fact, taxi drivers are often offended if you do wear them because they think you think they're bad drivers.

- Speedlimit? How fast can your car go?! Sometimes scary fast.But the thing is they're all very good defensive drivers. They're very quick to respond when something happens or pulls in front of you, and even quicker on the horn.

DAY 4 - Saturday

Final day, pretty sad and a repeat of the previous days, breakfast then beach. This time we notice these wee cabana huts and decide to see how much they are only noone comes to talk to us for over an hour, then this woman in a bumbag sidles along and we watch as she inflates the price from 30,000 won to 50,000 won (roughly $30 - $50) - insane, and so obvious. Instead we head for some palm trees to provide shade. Spend as much time as possible in the water as is the last swim I will be having for a while. In all, a really perfect holiday, I am really keen to head back to Jeju again, it's pretty easy to get to by plane (only an hour and relatively cheap) and there's still so much more to explore.

Mud, mud, glorious mud

2009-07-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

Mud Festival is a massive weeklong celebration of all things muddy at Daecheon Beach. The mud is apparently very good for your skin (unless you were one of the unlucky ones who had severe allergic reactions to it) and who doesn't like a day when you're actually ENCOURAGED to be as messy as possible!
These people are not my friends. I don't have a clue who they are. I stole this photo from Google Images because we failed to get any good muddy shots of us... so pretend these are people I know ok?!

Wow, me and my "friends" are having so much fun

being covered in mud - there's nothing quite like it

for cooling the blood.

It was a fun weekend, although I wasn't such a fan of the mud, as it really ended up everywhere, didn't taste or smell very nice and I was much more of a fan of just hanging at the beach instead.
So we got up way too early to catch the 6am train. Arrived before the fest had even began and tried to find food (this was about 9am), ended up having bulgogi beef and rice, surprisingly delicious for breakfast! Then we hit the beach, where we stayed for most of the day. Not that far along from the main activities but far enough that we didn't see a lot of mud and instead it seemed more of a beach weekend - which suited me just fun, lots of swims, and it was cloudy but I got a bit of tan from it (hurrah!). Lots of beers, and a good mellow bunch.
Eventually much later we headed down to check out the mud and promptly lost each other, Sara had eyeball problems after being pushed around in a big mud bath (I fell and cut my butt, it hurt so bad) so we tried to clean them up, and lost everyone in the process. But it was fun. Massive queues for all the slides n stuff though so flagged them (meanwhile our friends Carp, Thom and Ann queued for over an hour then gave up as they reckoned they'd still have another 30mins before being at the front)
And eventually found others back at our umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh (by this point it had started raining, and people were seriously feeling the chill, I wasn't (I had my inner radiator on full blast thanks to the sunshine earlier) but chose to stay swimming for I reckon over an hour to avoid sitting on the beach in wet clothes) - we hadn't found Carp et al, though, and noone had cells but were all so cold we decided they'd just have to find their way to where we were staying (prob a 20min walk from the main beach area)
Walked home, petted some elephants (freaked me out a bundle), saw a parade, then shower, wee nap and out for galbi (delish) - Aidian, Thom and Carp stayed home to sleep. Convinced Carp to come meet us, other two were lameos though and stayed sleeping. Saw some fab fireworks and ran around in the rain a lot (it was PISSING down by this point) with $4 sparkling wine that tasted like grape juice.

Pat and I singing and dancing in the rain.

Classic Singing In The Rain pose.

Janine, me, Ann and Sara being awkward
Koreans getting their photo taken - they never
just smile!

Then some genius had the brilliant idea of a 3-hour marathon Michael Jackson tribute noraebang (Korean karaoke) fest, lots of fun, a lot of MJ, I had a killer time!

Ann, Carp, me, Janine, Pat and Sara rocking
the noraebang.

Something I acquired somewhere

along the way...

Next day was HORRIBLE, the worst rain since I've been here, we had to walk in it for 20mins to get to where taxis left from, and all wanted crappy Korean fast food Lotteria, but had to queue for about 20mins for that because every westerner had the same idea! Was very glad to get home.

Dear Diary

2009-07-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being such a terrible blogger. After weeks of exciting adventures, things calmed down a bit with more time spent around Suwon with a few trips into Seoul thrown in for good measure. But they have by no means been quiet weekends, with several big events.

We had a fabulous Canada Day barbecue in the park near our apartments. I really feel links between New Zealanders and Canadians, we seem to both be underdogs against the larger and brasher Australia and America, and seem to have a similar relaxed attitude to life in general. Hence, I was thrilled to help them celebrate their national birthday (plus, who would EVER turn down a barbecue!)

A game of "Beerball", involving baseball while constantly carrying

your beer in your hand. After hitting the ball or before running

between bases you must have some of your beer. Very fun game!

Janine and the amazing Canada Day cake she made,

complete with a plum Canada maple leaf flag.

My Canada trivia team, Ann from America and Carp,

my Canadian coworker. Despite the lack of Candian

nationals, we took out this quiz!

Another great weekend was going into Seoul to meet up with Nicci, a New Zealander living in Tokyo who was great friends with my old Tinakori Rd flatmates (Miss you guys!) and I met when she stayed with us earlier this year. She and some friends found cheap tickets to Seoul and we had a great weekend, it was nice to meet some new people as well as catch up with another New Zealander. Got my first delicious taste of New Zealand wine since I left the country - Tohu sav, you tasted like nectar.

Nicci and I with delicious NZ wine

Sara and I at a galbi restaurant which gave
us bibs to eat with - perhaps they knew
instinctively I can't eat neatly?!

Sara, Nicci and I before heading out for a big

night in Seoul.

I had to farewell my two closest friends here, Laura and Kathleen, which was very sad, I already really miss their presence, we always had such fun together and they were my constant weekend (and many weeknight) companions. Hopefully will get to see them again sooner rather than later, Laura's planning on coming back in January and going to convince Kathleen to come too.

Who would ever want to say goodbye to these

faces? Laura being a pirate (I think) and Kathleen's

"model face" (while I fail at the attempt)

Another very sad time has been the adoption and subsequent death of two tiny and lovely little kittens.

Harry (Potter)

Oliver (Twist)

My friend Janine discovered these two newborn orphaned darlings in her appartment after hearing what sounded like birds for two days. Apparently their mother was dead, and they were very weak and frightened. Because she already has two cats and was looking after a third, I offered to look after them until we could decide what to do with them.

We named them Oliver and Harry due to their orphaned status. I spent two days rushing home at every opportunity to force feed them milk. They were aged at about 7 - 10 days old, and were incapable of looking after themselves at all. But I totally fell in love with them and was happy to do all I could for them.

In that short time I watched them as their shaky legs got stronger and they began to walk (very delicately). However by Tuesday night Harry was clearly fading, it was worrying but I really knew nothing about orphaned cats so I fed him as much as I could and left them to sleep. Sadly, he got worse overnight and died the next morning. I felt horrible with guilt and sadness.

Oliver however, was clearly the stronger of the pair, but he was terribly frightened being alone and stopped letting me feed him. I still thought it would be ok, but he too died overnight on Wednesday.

It was very traumatic, but I have since read a lot about fading kitten syndrome, similar to SIDS in children, where for no apparent reason kittens will just fade away. They obviously needed their mothers and I couldn't give them any more care to prevent it happening.

But I did love them. Oliver was certainly the cuter of the two, with nicer markings, and his ears would shake back and forth when he was being fed - it was adorable.

That almost brings me up to date - except for Mudfest. I will try not to be such a tardy blogger in the future.

The 808 Steps

2009-06-17T04:34:00.001-07:00

With much planning, my coworker Carp organised a weekend away on the Eastern coast in the Seoraksan National Park. It was an incredible place, and a very fun weekend!
It began with us feeling very Amazing Race-y with just 35 minutes to get from work to the bus terminal, a stretch at the best of times and harder with the Friday afterwork traffic. We all pretended to be kind and generous teachers and let our students leave 5 minutes early, but really we needed that little time up our sleeves. Unfortunately our boss chose that night to have a "quick word" with us, and despite our protests and strained faces, he was actually being lovely, having heard we were off to Seoraksan, and gave us some money to help support our weekend! Very kind and unexpected and helped start the weekend off on a good note. We got to the bus with four minutes to spare and travelled for two hours to Chuncheong, where we stayed the night, after some delicious dakgalbi (the chicken barbecue in front of you, totally delicious) - apparently it originated from there, and we weren't disappointed.
The following day we had another two hour bus ride through to Sokcho, a city on the coast and the gateway to the national park. Totally beautiful, the ride through almost reminded me of Fiordland, only it just had a different feel about it. We met up with others there and headed for the park.

Korea does nature: Neon welcome signs!

(l-r) Sara, Ann, Me, Laura and Carp

Carp had given us a little idea about where we were going, but then he pointed out THIS:

Ulsanbawi Rock

And told us we were going to climb it! I almost fell over. It's over 800m above sea level, and we were about to climb 808 steps straight up the side of it, about 400m straight.
It's hard for photos to do justice to just how major this was!

This totally reminds me of somewhere in

Fiordland - minus the tui, and pohutakawa

We walked for maybe 1 1/2 hours up through forest, it was relatively easy going, we passed an amazing HUGE statue of Buddha, a temple and a hermitage where monks still live. I saw my first ever squirrels, chipmunks and woodpeckers - I was LOVING it, while everyone I was with (being either Canadian or American) scoffed at my innocence, but it was so novel to see these wee critters!

And to hear birdsong, it was lovely. So nice to be free of the hum of neon (excluding the welcome sign) and the constant blarring of K-pop music (as much as I do love it) and the noise of the city. Silence! Peace! And because we'd got our a into g so late, most of the Korean hikers were heading down and out so by the time we got to the base of the rock, we were almost the only ones left there.

This isn't the rock we climbed.

We reached the hermitage where there's a teetering rock, which (with effort) you can make rock a little - we all failed, and then watched one single (and slight) Korean man do it almost effortlessly.

The most daunting part of all was looking up at this rock we had to scale, there was a rickety ladder bolted to the side of it and they pretty much just went right up. I'm sure at home you'd not be allowed to climb this without some kind of harness, it was perilous at the best of times. I had moments of horrible vertigo looking back over my shoulder (which I quit doing) at just how far down the ground was.

One of the many, many rest stops - it was

incredibly hot despite being so high up

The view from the peak over Sokcho,

the city we stayed in, and the Eastern coast of Korea -

pretty close to the border with the North

At one point we passed a group of Koreans heading down, and a man was carrying a beer, which he insisted we take - pretty bizarre he thought the need to pack that for this trek, but we were pretty happy to receive it - despite it being warm and flat.

There was also an ahjumma (which is the word for an older Korean woman, who are pretty notorious around the place, they say they run the country) tailing along behind us using her hands and feet to climb, and we were determined not to let her pass us, so were super pleased when we finally made it to the top!

Lazzarin and I on the top of the world!

The temple back down on flat land, most incredible,

beautiful setting for one.

Sara and I having some well-earned Galbi
back in Sokcho

The next day was spent on a hot stinky bus home, there were plans for bungy jumping on Sunday but noone was feeling much up for it. We're hoping to get back over this way in autumn, apparently the colours are incredible, and there are many more walks to do, it's an area definitely worth more exploration!

Some very jaded travellers

Trains, Ferries and Automobiles

2009-06-11T04:42:00.000-07:00

How to: Get to the Beach in Korea.

First, take a 1/2 hour taxi to the subway station, then take two subways to Dongincheon. Perferably have some sunshine in your foreground, and ensure you pack your togs, sunblock and a very cheery mood - you're gonna need it!
Also helpful to have a loud and still semi-drunk Irishman along for the trip for entertainment value. Thank you Aidan.

Sunshine and we're going to the beach - hurrah!

From there it's a simple cab ride with a fabulous driver who plays you A-Ha 'Take On Me' and ABBA 'Honey Honey' on the way - this is his driving music. But do not, under any circumstances, over enthusiastically begin to sing in horrible non-melodic voices. He will tell you to shut up and threaten to kick you out.
Arrive at Woomuido (I can't spell Korean place names) and get on a boat. Sing the predictable "Never thought I'd be on a boat, it's a big blue watery road" lyrics - they are compulsory. Watch Korean families throw food at seagulls with gusto and enjoy hundreds of the scoundrels trailing along with your boat across to the island.

Poesidon - Look at me!

Next, wait 1/2 hour for a bus while reading your Korean phrasebook and being rather proud of being able to read the signs around you for the first time - EVER! Enjoy a Korean man squat down beside you, take said phrasebook and laugh hysterically to himself while pointing out particular words or phrases. I guess these must be in jokes, as I found it funny, but not as funny as he did.

After a 40min bus ride across Incheon (an island, where the Int'l airport is, where I flew in, funny to be back) enjoy a leisurely 15 min stroll across a causeway and around a road to another ferry.

Board ferry. Watch as ferry turns around, travels for two minutes (at most) and docks on the other side. Question need for ferry and the possibility of a bridge. Dismiss. You're on Muuido!

So now, pack yourself into another bus like cattle (or some very intensive bus ghosting - ghosting for beginners if you will) and enjoy another 15 min ride along very narrow but two-way roads through farm land. Be pleased you can only see your friends' armpits and not how close you come to running down SUVs, goats, and children.
And then, dear friends, you are AT THE BEACH!

Six hours of travelling was SO worth it for this!

How to: Have Fun at the Beach

1. Swim. Ignore the lack of other swimmers. Ignore the brown water from the silt pouring in to the China Sea from the Yellow River. Ignore the floating bandaid and itty bitty little dead crab. Put your head under for beachy hair. Rinse. Repeat.

2. Beer on the beach. Obviously.

3. As the tide receeds, follow it, and you'll end up walking for about an hour. On the return trip, splash annoyed friends and marvel at the weird and unique sealife dredged up in the mudflats and laugh at the Korean families wearing plastic yellow waders while digging for clams.

4. Watch the sunset. Pur-edy.

5. Eat galbi (Korean BBQ) on the beach front. Combine with soju.

We are very mini. But we are also having a

whole buncha fun with sparklers. Yippee!

6. Realise fireworks are sold alongside sunscreen and shampoo at the one and only store on the island. Buy a bundle. Write your name in the sky.

Laz's bike is so much cooler - it's pink and has a basket!

7. Borrow/steal childrens bikes and ride around on 'em until you tire of it/until you break them/until a Korean woman - likely the mother of the children who officially own the bikes - comes and scolds you and whacks you on the bum to get off (yes, this is from experience. Bad, bad Sophie!)

8. Steal/raid wood and make bonfire. Fall asleep in front of it. Bliss!

Next week: Seroaksan - The National Park of Wonder!

Map: Not To Scale

2009-05-31T20:30:00.001-07:00

My first weekend out of Suwon to a rugby tournament in Gumi turned into quite the adventure- which began when we got our train tickets from Suwon station and hopped on what we thought was the train to Gumi before being told it was in fact the wrong train.
The conductor was very helpful and said we needed to get off two stations down and RUN from platform 6 to platform 2 - we had five minutes to do so. Adrenaline was pumping as we rushed up an Everest of stairs with legs, hearts, eyes burning and getting to the top,running in circles a little before finding the right platform and being told we'd missed the train by about 10 minutes. And by some small miracle the next was delayed by 7 so we had enough time to exchange our tickets (and get an upgrade to first class, yuss) before we were finally on our way to Gumi.
It was great to finally see some countryside outside Seoul and it looked just as I'd imagined Korea, verdant bushclad hills and sinuous riverbeds. At times it looked like New Zealand, a little like Fiordland, a little like the McKenzie Country, but there was an "air" of Asia about it. Pretty cool.
After about 2 hours on the train we made it to Gumi. We'd been given a map to get to the soccer fields where the rugby tournament was being held, and had been specifically told it was not to scale.
We were intending to get a cab but suddenly on the map we'd walked half the way to the field and as it was such a beautiful day, we decided it was totally reasonable for us to walk. And walk we did... merrily down highways, then streets, then dusty roads, until we had walked all the way out of the city and were still only barely further on the map.
It was an amazing walk, the countryside was beautiful, it was so nice to be surrounded by mountains and rice paddys and farmland. It wasn't until we realised we'd been walking for over an hour and had little to no idea where we were that we started wondering how much further the fields actually were.
We passed a dog farm (heartbreaking, sounded like the SPCA, but we knew these dogs were not going to loving homes) which was on the map and eventually turned onto a semi-main road, off this dusty track we'd been on.
And this amazing Korean farmer stopped and picked us up with his ute and gave us a lift to the fields! It was the best, and saved us much much more walking.
The rest of the day was spent soaking up the sun, watching rugby (I love that I lived in NZ for 24 years and never went to a rugby game, been in Korea 5 weeks and that's where I was) and bush whacking to find places to pee (I avoided the longdrop toilet all day after the descriptions of the smells)
Home to our motel for showers before heading to a westerner bar for the most delicious burgers known to man and a shoeless danceoff - my favourite kind!
Here's a photo essay which is- as always - out of order

Laz and Sanders and the Chicken Dance, naturally

Dancing barefoot in Korea - scandallous

Kathleen and her best friend Cass

Laz, Sanders, Sara and I in the pickup

"We're on the road to nowhere"

On the wrong train

At some point on our long long walk, having a wee rest

So turns out you CAN get burnt through smog and ozone - who knew. So I embraced my newfound Korean-ness and whipped out my umbrella (ella-ella, eh, eh, eh) to shelter from the sun.

Back on the ute, happiness personified.

Tomorrow, When the War Began

2009-05-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

Feeling slightly uneasy all the time at the moment due to the rogue bullet of a leader not all that far north. I really hope it's all just a bluff but you never can tell and I have never been so close to possible war in all my life.
And almost the scariest bit is all the news here is in Korean and I didn't even know about the tests until I spoke to my sister back home - anything could happen here and I'd be none the wiser.
Since I arrived there have been massive loud speedy fighter jets flying around overhead, freaked me at first but got used to them but in the last two days I have seen an unbelievable increase in the number. Noone around me seems all that phased but I just feel slightly unsettled and really hope a resolution is met quickly and without bloodshed.
Apparently if the worst did happen the US army would round us up and get us out, which is reassuring but still think I would prefer to stay here happy and continue my lovely new pretend life (this is not the real world. It is some random parallel universe where everyone acts like hyperboles of themselves back home, everyone earns the same and does the same job and things are ridiculously cheap, the money is pretend and time moves in fast forward)

Anyway, today was our first field trip with the school, we went to an arboretum which was fun despite the fact the arboretum was pretty small and we walked around it twice in a very short space of time. We had a picnic - picnic food here is gimbap, Korean sushi, but they brought us foreigners some sammies, and the kids kept feeding us all their delicious treats - and played some games and despite the following photos, where most of the kids do not smile (as is the style of Korean photos in general I think) a good time was had by all.
This is Brandt - of the "I love your mouth" card - bless him but he is a weirdo, him and another kid spent so long trying to pick me up by my legs today until he declared I was "heavy teacher" - well yes, you're 7 and I obviously weigh more than two of you.

co-worker Carp using a child as a weightlifting machine, as you do

This is the prettiest photo I have ever seen of Abigail, who usually squints, winks and makes herself look very unusual in all photos.

My school - aren't they a happy looking bunch! But the cuteness, oh, the cuteness

Me with Kenny, who has a misshapen, slightly cone head.

Kai and Sam in full flight playing a game

LOVE this photo - William is midair! And I love how all the kids are running in across the fields, it's so the Sound of Music!

Sophie Teacher and her class enjoying some gimbap (which last week I started singing to the kids in the tune of "Mmmbop" and it seems to have stuck, they ask me to sing it a lot - despite it really being a song with one word)

Who's sick of photos of my classes yet?! I honestly can see why parents take so many of their kids, it's hard not to.

But the creepiest thing of the day were we must have been right by an airbase because the number of jets was phenomenal, they were constant, and low flying and unbearably loud (cue lots of squealing from the kiddies) and I had a moment where I felt like we were in a natural disaster/war movie, happy school playing in a field before being bombed to smithereens. Unsettling for sure.

Feeling nibbled at Dr Fish

2009-05-28T04:43:00.001-07:00

The absolute terror at the thought of having small fish eat my flesh didn't seem to be enough to hold back the peer pressure of being taken to Doctor Fish in Seoul. For those who don't know, these wee piranaha-types love nothing more than to nibble away at your skin, taking off layers of dead skin and leaving things lovely and smooth after.
My first encounter was at an aquarium where you put your hand into a tank of them - these were the size of whitebait and I couldn't handle it, but besides intentionally eating dog meat, I'm prepared to do almost anything once while I'm here so away we went to this lovely looking coffee shop, where we paid about $5 for a cup of tea and $2 for the Dr Fish.
Here's a lovely view of some latching on to Kathleen's leg (they seemed to prefer that to her feet, understandably)

Pretty gross right? So we got our feet cleaned then plonked them straight into this little foot spa brimming with fish which I had expected to be itsy bitsy but were actually the size of regular goldfish - and there was another tank with larger ones too!

The first five minutes I could not control myself, I had to cover my mouth so as not to scream and scare off the other people in the cafe, and it was the most unpleasant ticklish experience of my life. I was prepared to pull out and write it off but I persevered and after that it was actually rather nice! After about 10 minutes I was actually able to handle looking into the tank and seeing why my feet were so damn ticklish.

Happier than the start

Just prior to the first plunge, the grossest bit was watching their little mouths hit the surface of the water almost begging you to give them some grotty dead skin to live on.

Yes, all these photos are backward - this is Laura in a fit of laughter at the beginning.

Afterward my feet were definitely improved and I almost wish I had a tank to keep them looking nice everyday - living in jandals does not make for pretty toes (nor does having my feet)Apparently you can also do full body, I don't know if I am ready for that though.

A Korean Birthday Party

2009-05-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I experienced my first Korean birthday party at school. They combined all the kids who are having birthday in the next couple of months into one birthday extravaganza. There were the usual suspects - pretty party dresses, birthday cake and whole lot of food for the children to get hyped up on sugar on - and the less usual - with kisses from their crushes. If my five-year-old self had had to do that (which would have been from the dashing Phillip from the Philippines) I would have freaked out. They start 'em young in Korea however.

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This is Julie receiving some lipstick - I assume in case she was requested to pucker up from one of the birthday children.

This is Abigail and Sam. At six-years-old, they have found each other - some people look their whole lifetime for the man (slash infant boy) who wants to buy a house so he can live in it with the love of his life. But Abigail was lucky. They are engaged, and Sam actually has asked his father to buy him a house so they can live there. And doesn't she look thrilled at the prospect?! Actually, come to that, so does he.

So at this party, the birthday boy/girl picks the person to kiss them and everyone counts to five and that's how long they kiss for.

Olivia chose Ryan teacher - And I think she looked the most thrilled of any of the kids receiving their cheek pecks. Damn cute and I love Abigail laughing in the background.

These photos kinda go backwards, but this is them pretending to blow out the candles - which they had done in the seconds prior but the chief photograph taker wasn't ready and missed the magic moment.

And here are the happy birthday kiddies, Kevin, Amy, Olivia, Abigail, Andrew and Kyle, surrounded with pizza and fried chicken, deelish! prior to the kisses, they each came out in front of the table and said what they wanted to be when they grew up. There were three policemen (guess which), a singer, a cook and a nurse. Bless

I haven't quite figured out if this is a typical Korean birthday party or just what we do at ECC, but I can't wait for the next one!

On Tuesdays the animals get let out of the zoo

2009-05-18T23:37:00.000-07:00

I am really loving my school - and the more I hear about other peoples (not allowed to sit down, not allowed to eat, not allowed to play hangman -my run-out-of-work fallback) I am more pleased with where I have ended up. The hours are awesome, start teaching at 10am and never work later than 6pm, but inbetween that I usually have several 1/2hr - 1hr breaks, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I finish about 4pm and on Fridays I don't start until midday. Can't complain. The other teachers are really nice, Sara started the same time as me which is cool and Ryan has been there for 6 months so knows the ropes, very helpful. We also have four Korean teachers, who all teach English too and I really like them (one less so, but she was very nice to me today so I'm hoping I've gone through my initiation with her and she'll be friendly now.. we'll see) On Tuesdays at lunchtime we get to take the kinder kids outside for 15minutes. That's all the fresh air they get in a week of school - I totally took NZ school for granted! But it's fun, we usually play duck duck goose (they have that here too!) and it tires the kids out for the afternoons, love! Here's the cuteness:

Sam, Olivia and Julie
Stephanie:

Abigail cutting some mean shapes:

Olivia and Julie, BFF's

Sean - cutie!

THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL AT SUWON ECC

-Last Friday was Teacher's Day, where kids bring their teachers presents. Because I am so new I didn't expect any but I was overwhelmed with presents! My most favourite was not the present, but the card from a boy named Brandt - it went a little something like this:

"Ms Sophie. Dear Sophie, thank you for teaching us. I love your mouth. I love you, Love Brandt"

It killed me! I love your mouth?! I can only assume he meant smile?! Very funny. Otherwise I got a whole buncha nice smelling moisturisers, body washes etc - I think they're trying to tell me I smell bad? And a fabulous towel with monkeys on it. Very cute.

-Yesterday a 6-year-old boy sat in my class singing "sexy sexy sexy" for some time - not sure whether he is aware of what it means, because he grins cheekily at everything, and he loves words with 'x's in them. Giggled inwardly though

- I also recently was marking a spelling test were several students misspelt "Counting" - most forgot the "o" - another inward giggle for that one!

- Lots of the kids are getting married, they're all engaged to each other, it's very cute, and so far I have had one marriage proposal, so I asked when we were going to get married and he said "When I am big. When I am 900 and you are zero".. I feel I may be a jilted bride.

-I've had my nose prodded and poked more times than I'd care to count, they are fascinated by its pointiness

-I have also spent a class being called fish teacher because I have big eyes - a rarity here

-A wee girl Cherry is convinced I am having a baby. On the second day she came and rubbed my belly and said "baby?" and I said "no baby" (I wanted to say food baby but I think it would get lost in translation) and then about a week ago, she did it again, and I rubbed her belly and said "baby?" and she said "Noo! No baby, you are a woman!". Bless her wee cottons, I think she's been learning about the birds and the bees at home!

A few of my favourite things

2009-05-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

So there are a lot of differences between back home and here (as I'm sure you can imagine).. here are some of my favourites, my hates, and some very odd things

I LOVE:

-K-Pop music - I sure didn't expect to but after a few short minutes watching the music channel on cable, I fell in love with K-Pop... Which is lucky really as they play it everywhere, all the time! Often the choruses are in English (usually Engrish) which stick in your head even if I can't understand the bulk of the songs (but they're ALWAYS about lovey) And some of the kids sing them a lot, and always know the dance moves so if I run out of work to do or am feeling lazy, I just get them to sing to me! GREAT!
-Now Bar - where all the English teachers from far and wide Yeongtong (and beyond) gather many nights of the week - Wednesdays and Fridays are huge.. Spent a lot of time there already, and I think the best thing about it is the owner Mrs C - she is amazing, super sweet and nice and she feeds us late at night (mostly so we stay longer drinking Cass - terrible but cheap Korean beer). She's fabulous! Love!
-Wearing slippers at school, home, everywhere. I heart slippers, and the ones here are so cute.
-Korea's LOVE of Neon. Neon everywhere, all buzzing and bright, I love it, and it totally changes the look of the streets from day to night.
-Grilled Cheese - American style - Not Korean, but I have been shown how to make REAL American grilled cheese and I LOVE! Rachelle, you know our love for toasties at lunch time, but honestly, these are amazing! I will have to show you how one day!
-Korean Plum Wine - delicious in the park in the sun, and only about $4 for a bottle!
-Deep fried kumara from street vendor after Now Bar in the early hours - Korea's answer to the pie, way cheap and way delicious
-Meat on a stick, yum, from street vendors all over, delish
-Galbi! Korean BBQ, with a little gas bbq on your table, a plate of meat and hundreds of different side dishes. You cook the meat until you like it then wrap in lettuce leaves, so good
-Matching couple outfits. It's true, all couples in Korea have matching outfits - some as simple as matching tshirts, others far more detailed from head to toe - it's flipping cute and often hilarious. -My kids at school - SO cute, even the naughty ones (often moreso the naughty ones)
-Engrish signs - also called Kongrish here - There are subtle ones everywhere, but I heard of one in Seoul in a store apparently called "Make Yourself F*cking Beautiful". Gold.

I HATE

-No soap in toilets - sometimes soap on a stick, but often absolutely nothing, very grotty
-Padded toilet seats - WTf?! So unpleasant and unnecessary
-Having to put used toilet paper in the trash rather than the toilet so it doesn't clog the drains, revolting, and very hard to remember (SO my hates have a lot to do with toilets eh!)
-Hocking/spitting everywhere you go, you hear particularly men go in for a big hock and spit on the pavement. Makes me sick up a little in my mouth everytime I see/hear it
-Kimchi. Not as bad as I thought and I may be able to get used to it, but right now I'd rather have none - definitely better headed on galbi barbecue, but blegggh (For those who don't know, kimchi is a cabbage preserve type thing with chilli paste on it)
-Korean Beer - it's like wee, watery and not nice at all, but it's cheap as (about $13 for a massive pitcher that would fill about 6 large glasses, bargain)
-People not understanding my accent/mocking me for it. First day, funny, second day marginally funny, second week, give it a fricken bone eh!

Totally unusual

-There's hardly ever toilet paper actually in a stall, you have to grab some from a big roll outside the door - and too bad if you forget. This makes no sense to me at all... You're still providing the toilet paper! What is the benefit of it being outside?!
-No rubbish bins anywhere - you actually know where there ARE rubbish bins and could tell someone to meet you beside the rubbishbin in Suwon, that's how rare they are. Instead rubbish is dropped all over the place, often resulting in huge piles of rank rubbish by the end of the day, which is always cleared away, mornings are usually rubbish free. Apparently this creates jobs for Koreans (much sought after) but is totally inefficient individually picking up each piece of rubbish with a long claw. Stupid, no?
-My shower (which is how most of them are) is just on a wall in the bathroom, no curtain or anything, so everyday everything in my bathroom gets wet from the shower and I have to wipe it all down to dry it out. Why people?!
-The obssession with whitening products for skin and being more western in general. These people are beautiful just as they are, I don't think they need to worry about this, plus surely putting bleach on your skin every day isn't a good thing?!
-Sugar in toothpaste. Defeating the point entirely
-Having to wear a hat/cap at the water park Caribbean Bay - no cap, no swim, but everyone has their hair sticking out of them anyway and I really don't understand why.

What a nice rant! xo

New friends hanging at the park on a sunny Sunday afternoon

The amazing Mrs C - delivering us late night pancakes and maple syrup

It's Blog, It's Blog, It's big, it's heavy, it's wood

2009-05-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

Hey All! So I've been in Suwon now for almost two weeks, and it's been great so far. Everything is so different to home and yet kinda the same in funny ways. Arriving was cool, it definitely looked very different, this is a culture that has totally embraced neon - all the churches have giant neon crosses on top, and advertisements in neon cover the buildings (at least, that's what I assume they are, so far my Korean stretches to "hello", "thank you" and "awesome"... so I'm definitely going to have to fix that.
School is fun, it's hard as the kids are mostly super young (our age 5) and are at school all hours of the day so they just want to play, and it's hard to get them to focus on any work except science and art, and even then I have to do 90% of the work as it's all too hard for them and they're total perfectionists. Very cute though, and most are very smart when they actually knuckle down to work.
I was pretty lucky as I had my first three days of school followed by five days of holiday, which was because of labour day, Budda's birthday and Children's day all rolled into one. So that was cool as gave us a chance to have a look around Suwon and beyond.
A Canadian girl Sara started the same time as me, and we live next door to each other, so it's nice to have someone who's as clueless as I am. We were also lucky that the Australian teachers were replaced were hanging around for another week, so they've been introducing us to everyone and showing us around the place.
We took a trip to the Suwon fortress, which was cool but we only had a quick look around, so will have to go back there. Also went into Seoul and checked out the Namsan tower, which was amazing, very high, you take a cable car on a wire up (a little freaky) then walk up further then an elevator to the very top for a panoramic view around Seoul. It was a bit cloudy when we were there so couldn't see heaps, but at night it was beautiful, all the lights were amazing. And there was a huge fence covered in locks which people write love messages on, pretty cute!
Also went to Caribbean Bay, a huge waterpark not far from Suwon. It was a fun day, although a lot of the big slides outside weren't open yet because of the time of year, probably in a month or so we will go back and go on them.
Some very cool people here, which is making the transition a whole lot easier, and I am enjoying getting to know a whole new bunch of people - all of whom have been giving me assholes for my accent, which I'm pretty fed up of! But they should get used to it soon (I hope!) So that kinda catches up to now - this week was only 3 days too, so I am looking forward to the weekend. There's a bar everyone goes to, the lady who owns it, Mrs C, is so cool, and she lets the people she likes take over the place. She's taken a warming to Sara and I (I think helped by the fact we're New Amy and New Claire, who she loved) so heading there after work (Wednesdays and Fridays are the big nights there apparently) other than that, unsure what the weekend holds.

Mrs C - The coolest lady in town

Sara, my Canadian coworker who began the same time as me

My 'hood - downtown Yeongtong at night, gotta love all that neon!