Another week come and gone

well everyone, time still seems to be flying by for me.. my one day off is almost over already!

the week has been good but rather uneventful. uneventful is ok though, it means that i've had time to relax. we all seem to be falling into a routine and are looking forward to chuseok, the korean (mid september). i think that i'm going to try to make it to the far northern part of the mountains to check out that temple that i was at before but couldn't explore as much of as i wanted because of the extreme rain. that seems to be slowing down finally, the rain i mean. we're back to hot, sunny weather, but not quite as humid. it feels rather similar to canadian summers - and that's ok with me.

today has been great. i woke up early and went for a hike in the mountains. that's becomming a regular activity for me. i love getting out of the city, just mainly because of the noise. it's nice to be up high, where it's quiet, cooler and the air feels cleaner. after my hike i decided to go shopping. i have an 8 floor department store right near my house and havn't had the chance to go shopping. i get paid on wednesday so i felt it was safe to blow some dough. shopping here feels a little different. i don't know if it's just me, probably not, but everytime i show interest in anything in a store i'm followed around. everytime i didn't buy something i felt guilty! i felt guilty a lot because there are some pricy stores. the first store i walked into was selling prada and gucci (authentic)... i felt like i was in a little over my head... i found a couple of things i liked and bought (not prada OR gucci!!) and i found a couple of sweaters that i LOVE but are way too expensive. i'm thinking of getting one for myself to celebrate my first paycheck, and then eating rice for the rest of the month :)

i bought my first houseplant too, so my apartment is starting to feel more like a home.

i can hear the buzz of the cicada bugs. when i first came here i thought that it was the buzzing of the wires above my head, because it's rather loud, but it turns out that it's these big bugs. they are gross and scary!! i found one in my first apartment and i've never felt like such a chick. i was scared to kill it myself. i actually threw a shoe at it from across the room, doing that grossed out dance that everyone does.

anyways - it's dinner time

love and miss you

jen xo

the maze that is downtown

last night was one of those nights where you plan to come home early but don't make it through your front door until the wee hours of the morning. my neighbour decided to take me out with some of her friends for some dancing. we caught a taxi since it was raining (of course) and headed downtown.

we got there and some of joannes friends were there. she knew that i had been wanting to meet some different kinds of people so she invited some of her friends. these people are so different from her! i love joanne, she's been so nice to me, but she is quite reserved... these people, wow, the exact opposite!

so at this bar, there is this buffet for 13, 000 won, and if you get it, it's all you can drink beer! that's all you can drink for around 15 bucks.. isn't that crazy? needless to say joannes friends were quite festive by the time we got there.

so, i danced, had a great time, joannes friends were hilarious. there were 2 guys who were a little strange, but at about 10:30, joanne wanted to go home. 2 of the girls, linda, and tristan invited me to another bar. i decided to go with them because i hadn't been to many bars here yet and i wanted to see what the nightlife was life. so we went to this bar called the Commune. it's a bar that a lot of foreigners go to. people there were really nice. it's a lot different than in canada. people here come up to you and ask you where you're from and chat. i got some phone numbers of some people. i still don't have a phone though!!

so then we went to another bar, where we met some more new people. i talked to some people who have only been here for 5 days. then, and i don't know why, 2 guys stood on the pool table and were de-panted. that was.. interesting i guess. a bottle of canadian beer was over 6 bucks here! i had one.

so, then i was told that we were leaving and heading to another bar. i left the table of new people i had just met with more phone numbers and email addresses.

so, this one girl that we were with was really really drunk. i was almost ready to head home. this was about 3 am now. but i didn't want to leave linda with the sole responsibility of taking care of her. (even though i had just met her, she was really nice to me) so tristan, the girl who was drunk went into this new bar, called itawon or something.. linda and i realize that there's a 10,000 won cover! and it's 3:30 am at this point. so we have no money so we have to walk around trying to find a bank machine. at this point i should mention that downtown is like a fricking laberinth. everything looks the same, you can't use landmarks because there are always 50 of the same stores, plus everything is in korean. i think it can be assumed that this city was not built on any kind of grid system. we finally find a bank machine but my card isn't working. i can't read the message that has come up on the screen. i get a korean girl in the store to help me, it still doesn't work. we thought maybe it was because it was the wrong kind of machine, we had no idea.

so we went looking for our bank.

as we are walking around we 're asking random people if they know where our bar was. noone does, and then these 2 guys, one canadian and one korean come and help us out. they told us that in korea you can't take money out of bank machines after 10pm!! ok, so that explains that. so we tell them we need to get back to our bar to find our friend. so they are guys so they say they know where they're going.. they don't really. we walk and walk with them, so many people are out partying, everything is all lit up, it's really cool. finally we find the bar we told them we needed. linda and i look at eachother and we're like "this doesn't look familiar, i don't think this is our bar" the guys start laughing. then, after an hour, i realize that i had a ticket from that bar in my pocket. we were looking for the wrong bar. sigh.

so we get to the bar we were loooking for finally. she's not there. we call her cellphone (which we should have done a lot sooner) and she's at home!!!!!!!!

linda and i are completely lost now, and so our two knights in shining armour drop us off at home. if i had money, or could have taken money out i so would have bought them a drink. they totally saved us. they didn't even ask for our numbers, or complain once.

i finally got home around 5 am. that's something different about korea. foreigners help foreigners out. i guess we have to stick together.

so it was one of those night where you plan something quiet, and it ends up being one of the craziest most eventful nights of your life. i was planning on being out for an hour and ended up being out for 9. it's nice being out with people who take care of you.

i met lots of people. i don't know if that is something that i would want to do every weekend, but it's good to know that i have some phone numbers to call if i'm ever in the mood for something crazy. in anycase, i think i really needed a night like that.
nana, don't worry at all times i was safe! i was never alone :)

now however, i'm not going to do all the things i had plans to do! i'm too tired.

i forgot my camera too, which is a shame. no pics this time.

cultural differences

so, the major cultural difference i've noticed so far is obviously the disciplining of children.

tonight in my last class (who are soooo well behaved) i had a girl ask me about my eyebrow ring. she pointed at it and asked me when i got it. i told her 7 years ago (give or take). she then asked me if my teacher hit me when i got it. i was confused and said no, and asked her why she asked. she said that here in korea, if you get a piercing the teachers hit you. this is even if the parents let it happen. i asked the class as a whole to confirm this for me and they all said yes.

then they all wanted to know what punishments kids in canada get. i told them that teachers used to hit kids a long time ago but today that's not allowed. that a teacher can get fired or sometimes go to jail if they hurt a child. they were all very surprised by this.

kids here also have school, plus they go to different private academies. also, and this kills me, on vacation (like summer or other holidays) they have vacation homework!

kids in canada have it soooooooooooooo easy. (in comparison that is)

joke

so - my meg has written me a note for each day that i will be away (love her)

here's what she said yesterday:

mother, father and young son are visiting the circus. when the elephants walk out the boy asks his mother - 'what's that?'
'that's the elephant's tail', she replies.
'no, under the tail,' says the boy
the mother is clearly embarassed and says, 'oh, nothing.'
so the boy turns to his father and repeats the same question. his father looks and says, 'that's the elephant's penis, son.'
'so why did mom say it was nothing?' asks the boy.
the father draws himself up to the full height and says,
'son, i've spoiled the woman.'

hahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

hikes

well today is a holiday. i just had a week off but apparantly we all need another day. NOT complaining. since most things are closed today i decided to take a hike for a few hours. these pictures were taken right behind my building. i walked through some little gardens and shacks (?), past some burial mounds ( i took no pictures of them, i didn't want to be disrespectful) and up the side of the mountain. it's nice getting away from the city and the noise, and to actually breathe some fresh air. you can see it's absolutely beautiful.

shhh we're in korea!

so, i was prepared to write about what things people told me to be prepared for when i came here that i just havn't seen yet... i was about to write about the spitting thing... that being i was told that koreans like to spit everywhere... i thought that this was false until i left my apartment last night to go out and i saw 2 kids playing this game which involved them spitting on eachother... ewww...

well, other things that i heard were:

you can't find bread or pastry
false. everywhere i go i can find bread. it is a little more expensive, but it's plentiful and yummy.

you can't find fruit
false. i can't walk anywhere without seeing old ladies on the side of the street selling all kinds of fruit. plus, it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper than at home. in fact, yesterday when i was walking home, a man with a truck full of apples gave me some for free while i was walking by.
not to mention the men who go by on their trucks with mega phones selling fruit... it's kind of like an extreme dickie dee...
it's so unbearably hot that you shouldn't leave your apartment
while it is very very hot, it's more the humidity that gets you. being surrounded by mountains is gorgeous, i love it.. this city is all green ... but you can leave the house.. what's more of a pain is the rain.. which brings me to:
rainy/monsoon season will be over by august
lies, lies lies. it has rained here everyday since i've been here. some of the storms worse than almost anything i've seen back home. the first non food related thing i bought here was an umbrella, which is, hands down the most useful thing i own right now.

one of the strangest things i've seen so far is that they take little kids and babies to the bar with them. we went to this bar last night, downtown, where this was this korean cover band. it was quite entertaining watching them rap, and cover the black eyed peas! anyways, i couldn't help but notice that there were little babies and children there at the bar with me. i asked around and apparantly this is the norm. there were little kids that lasted at the bar longer than i did, and i left well after 1 am.
oh, i guess i'm back to the days where i smell of smoke when i come home because everyone smokes here. in bars i mean, i don't see many smoking on the street.

there are some pics of our girls night out last night. lots and lots of dancing was going on.

My Home away from Home

ok so here are some pics of my apartment... you'd think i'd clean up for you before i took them... but no... besides, this way you can see how i really live...

the first pic is part of my kitchen... you'll soon see that there was clearly no planning when they chose the colours of this place.

next is my bathroom... now, how ugly is that colour? burgundy kitchen, aqua green bathroom... classy... anyways, here there are not bathtubs or shower stalls, just a drain in the floor.. i like it, you can walk around more when you're showering.. you just get these little sandals to use when you want to go into your bathroom after you've showered so your feet/socks don't get wet..

it's a bacelor, so the next three are my bedroom/living room.. i have a big bed, air conditioner (which is needed here - for sure), tv, vcr, swanky chair, table and chairs... in the back there you can kind of see my laundry room.. they don't use dryers here so i hang everything to dry.

so there it is...

soccer= no riots

well soccer was so much fun.

i got to see 2 professional mens games. china beat n. korea 2-0, and japan beat s. korea 1-0. it was definitly the most fun that i've had here. the crowds were cheering, sometimes booing. i never booed though, it's not polite and we canadians are supposed to be polite right?

that pic is of part of the stadium when we first got there. the second is the korean cheering side. the japanese side i'll have to give props too because they didn't stop cheering once.. and they were almost as loud as the koreans even though there was only a third of them.

check back at my other posts.. i'm going to try to add some pics to them as well.

teaching is still going ok. it seems like my classes are totally uncontrollable or better behaved than me. i'm excited because i found out that monday the 15th we get another paid holiday!! yay...

anyways, i'm off.

sharks

so this post is totally unrelated to s.k. except for the fact that i heard about it in s.k.:

i was listening to the us army base radio station, 88.5.. the eagle, or hawk or something.. and they told this horrifying story about this aussie lady named hazel who visited an aquarium (where i'm not sure, i'm fairly certain it wasn't korea).. in anycase, she was gazing underground at the sharks when suddenly the glass broke, causing sharks to come crashing towards her.. of course the glass cut her, so this poor old lady is laying on the ground, bloody, with pissed off sharks around her.. she's going to sue the aquarium, and rightly so.. anyone who knows me knows that sharks are my greatest fear (superficial fear) .. i basically choked on my korean version of cheerios when i heard this.. poor poor hazel

so, korea related info..

i went to apsan yesterday.. san is the korean word for mountain, it's really close to my place.. one of the moutains that surround the city, which are beautiful but i still curse for the humidity.. a 5 buck cab ride away.. and a small hike to the cable cars.. it was gorgeous.. i got to see the whole city from above.. there were trails to walk, which i did.. i also took a little nap under a tree.. it was sooo relaxing, but it was so hot, and we did so much walking that i was greatful for my bed when we got back last night..



i also managed to find some canadian groceries, though expensive are worth it to me for now.. peanut butter was 5 bucks a jar, as was spagetti sauce..

anyways, i'm off..

miss you

pics: i hope i get the order right.. the first couple pics are of a little temple we found hidden away in apsan.. a buddha and a pagoda..
there's me at the top of apsan, overlooking daegu.. apsan park... and finally.. that's my view when i took a nap in the woods..

temples and pedicures

so since i didn't know i'd be having a vacation until i got here it didn't leave me with much time to plan... i therefore have tried my best to incorporate as much touristy things as i can...

monday i finally moved into my permanent place.. we all live in the same 2 buildings.. i feel like i'm in essex hall again (and that's a good thing!)

yesterday we went to Pal Gong temple.. well, part of it.. there was monsoon like weather and the street turned into a river.. so i missed out on seeing the giant buddha.. total bummer.. but we're going back when the weather is more agreeable.. i did get to check out a traditional tea house (which i have pics of and will attach when i finally get the net at my place).. it was gorgeous.. there are no words..

today, i went grocery shopping, all by myself.. (it's not as fun shopping without you meg, the novelty of a foreign country doesn't make up for it).. i also got a pedicure.. from a dude.. which was strange.. i never let anyone touch my feet so it was weird having a 20 something korean guy rubbing my feet..

well, other than that, i have plans to go to 4 soccer games this weekend... n.korea, s. korea, china and japan i think.. i've never been to a soccer game live before (well - professional)

anyways, just wanted to give a little update.. i miss everyone so much!
if anyone can spare the money... come visit me!!!

pics...
the first one is of a candle thingy in the tea house.. i took pics of it because it reminds me of that candle that charlie has that mom hates! see.. then had them in greece, and they have them in s. k. too!
the other ones are of the traditional tea house i went to