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Your Birthdate: December 6

A birthday on the 6th of the month adds a tone of responsibility, helpfulness, and understanding to your natural inclinations. Those born on the sixth are more apt to be open and honest with everyone, and more caring about family and friends, too. This is a number associated with responsibility and caring - this birthday lends a degree of concern for others.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

same old

this week flew by.. i'm a little tired so this one may be quick..

one thing that is hard to get used to is seeing the people wearing the medical masks.. i guess when feeling sick people hear put on masks when they leave the house.. they look like SARS masks.. even kids in class wear them.. to me it's bizarre but i suppose they're being thoughtful..

the week was full of teaching.. it's going alright.. sometimes they make me laugh so hard.. we were talking about this article about a man who had a contest to find his bride.. i asked these boys what contests they would have to pick their wives and this one boy said, rock paper, scissors... i died laughing..

last night was marlas 23rd birthday so we decorated her desk, got her a cake.. i bought her a scarf and went in on some speakers for her ipod.. she cried, it was great. after work we went to dinner at dijon, this french/mediterranean place and then to ariana for some dancing.. i will include some pics..

today i went shopping for a comforter.. it's finally starting to feel like fall.. i love it but i can't get by with just sheets on... i managed to find a down duvet for 30 bucks.. it is really ugly though.. as are most things in korea.. and i hear asia.. the idea of having something be plain or one colour just hasn't hit them.. i'm not sure if they are ahead or behind in terms of fashion.. the kurt cobain plaid shirt grunge thing seems to be big here.. i can't decide if it's just back or they're 15 years behind.. they certainly are in terms of music.. anyways i'm told that daegu is the fashion capital of korea.

after shopping i grabbed dinner with a friend and now i'm watching a movie and trying to relax before i go back to work tomorrow. since next week we get another holiday (yes it seems that korea has a holiday every couple of weeks!) we are thinking of going back to pusan! i'd love to relax in that hotel on the beach again and have that good thai... yes, i'm willing to commute to a different city for good pad thai.. meg, i know you understand..

anyways.. not much else is new.. i'm still doing good

miss and love you

jen xo

When in Rome... Get Naked!

alright, so i'm back safe from Pusan.. it was wonderful.. and for the most part we all got along (surprising being as there were 5 chicks in one hotel room)

i have about 50 pictures from the trip.. i'm one of those "let's document every step of this trip" people.. i'll include some good ones.. plus angela, one of the korean teachers who came with us took about 120 pics...

so.. we caught the train earlyish saturday morning.. early for me in korea i guess... i didn't think that Asia had a 7:30 am.. apparantly it does.. just like home.. we rode the bullet train to the coast, i was told it goes around 400 km an hour or something like that.. it didn't seem that fast but we got to our destination quickly enough.. we went to our hotel as soon as we got there.. it was gorgeous.. five star.. biggups to carey and her mom for getting us the deal.. we were right on the beach.. RIGHT on.. and our room was really comfortable considering the amount of people we had sleeping in it.. our first plan was to get some food, and i had heard about a couple of good places i really wanted to try. first was an authentic indian restaurant. i've never had such good curry... it was a beautiful restaurant with amazing food.. after that we went shopping (of course.. ) we were searching for a GAP but that ended up being a bit of a dud.. however, i did find a dickies store so that made me happy.. i got a couple of shirts and then headed back to the hotel because we had scheduled massages (man my life is so tough)

it was fun because i've never had a massage with friends before.. this massage took an hour an a half and it was amazing! those koreans know what they're doing.. it was cool too because sometimes you would have more than more person working on you at a time.. after that marla and i decided that we wanted to try out the sauna and hot tub... and we had heard things about korean "bath houses" but thought we'd check it out for ourselves.. this is where the title of the blog comes in...

we walk in the change room and it's just as i imagined.. many many very naked korean ladies... almost how i picture the bathhouses in ancient rome to be.. lots of naked people.. people rubbing eachother... i'll say one thing for koreans.. they are very comfortable with their bodies.. marla and i thought.. well .. i guess we can go but wear our bikinis.. so we go.. shower up and try to get into the hot tub.. there was a hot tub.. cold tub.. dry and wet saunas.. we were told no bathing suits allowed.. we look at eachother and say "are we gonna do this?" we decided yea, why not.. it will be a cultural experience for us.. and though we were the only foreigners we realized it was a way bigger deal to us then it was to them.. after about 13 seconds i got over myself and started to enjoy it.. though it wasn't a big deal we are still quite proud of eachother.. after what i call the "naked party" we hooked up with everyone again and headed out for dinner..

we just got some western food that time because of angelas discount card.. we ate waaaaaaaay too much.. walked back to the hotel and had a drink in the lounge.. or one of them i should say... it was hilarious.. there was this .. umm band i guess you'd call them.. duo.. not sure.. they were ukrainian and trying to sing the eagles.. we chucked and then headed to the beach.. it was late evening but sooo pretty out there... we played in the water and watched the fireworks... there were people fishing from the shore with these really big fishing poles.. it was really cool to watch..

today we slept in and then headed down the beach again for lunch.. this time to the thai restaurant i heard of.. i'm so excited i got to eat some ethnic food.. i love korean food but i miss the selection of home.. i had, hands down.. the best pad thai i've ever had.. meg it beats wave pad thai.. this thai restaurant was soooooo nice too.. it's weird.. when you eat at ethnic places at home they never feel so authentic.. this one definitely did.. after that we headed to the aquarium!!!

it's the biggest one in south korea and it was huge.. and great.. we spent a few hours in there.. we took a glass bottom boat ride which was cool... and there were sharks.. they kinda popped up out of nowhere to me.. i freaked out a lil bit.. but after awhile i got used to it.. i found out that you can go swimming with them too... folks i think i'm going to do it.. i'm going to go back to pusan and have some thai and indian and then face my biggest fear...

we we'll see...

so after the aquarium we had to head back to the train station.. which was packed... chuseok is like christmas for home... i think it's thanksgiving.. they're thanking their ancestors for the harvest... in reality it just means that the men get the lay around and the women spend all day preparing the feast..

anyways.. i will post pictures.. not 50 but a few..

love you all
jen xo

ps: note in that one pic where i look really really freaked out.. there is a shark behind me.. though really tough to see...

The Countdown Begins

Chuseok is a week away so i'm starting my countdown. today was my day off, but it went by too quickly and i don't feel like i go to rest much. i was up early walking and then met a friend downtown. we had intentions on seeing some zombie movie, but we changed our mind and saw a different one.. the last flight or something like that.. it was alright.. movies here are nice.. the seats here recline! it was great.. we hung out with some british girls who are quite fun... after that we checked out the english bookstore, then i went to a mediterranean/french restaurant.. it was soooooo good... a little pricy compared to the other food here, but i have to remind myself that i am making good money.. i can afford to treat myself. i had cheesecake for dessert too!! it literally brought tears to our eyes. after that we headed to my place and hung out a bit.. i'm just going to relax for the rest of my night since i spent the whole day trotting around the city.

the weather is still pretty humid.. the end of september is when it will cool down (or so i'm told!).. i can only hope. not too much else is new.. i'm just teaching and exploring.. but i guess that's to be expected. i'm a little bummed because i was invited to go to china for chuseok but i had already made a commitment.. it would have been nice to see a different country, and it was a really good deal... maybe next time :)

love ya all..

keep in touch,
jen xo

sh sh sh shopping

so i went shopping today for clothes.. i managed to get some cool stuff...

i now find it hilarious to buy shirts with horrible translations on them... sorry jake, i havn't found any boys tshirts yet, only girls...

the grey shirt says
"Gia Jeans, I'll fly before I'm very old, I don't know why, I just have this feeling" why is that on a shirt? anyways, it was mine for 5 bucks.. as was the blue tshirt.. that has a pic of a vespa, but underneath says "the vesps in the most famous of all scooters"

the other two of shirts i just loved... check out this sweater <<<<< it's almost the exact same as the one i wanted for 228,000 won (around 250 bucks) but i got it for 25.. hooray for me... it's so punk rock..

i'll keep you updated on my purchases...

Making Plans

this week flew by! it's a new month so i have some new students. some of my favourite students levelled up so i lost them (i'm sad) and of course the pain in the ass kids are still here. i had my open classes this week. that means that the parents come and watch me teach their kids, and from what i hear korean moms can be quite picky. thankfully they just happened to come into one of my great classes so all went well.

on wednesday i went out for a girls going away party. it was really fun - everyday i'm meeting new people, but it's weird because some people are only here for a few weeks, some months. there seem to be a few lifers who have been here for 3 or 4 years.

today is my lone day off. yesterday after work i headed to wal-mart with some girls. it was nice picking up some western stuff. i managed to pick up some speakers for my laptop for 8 bucks! and they're very very very nice speakers too! we headed out after that to a bar owned by a canadian. it's strange because during the week i'll be walking around the city and i'll never see a foreigner, but on saturday night they all congregate downtown and i feel like i'm back at home. that pic is of me and a friend i've met here.

today i have to do some grocery shopping. later on i'm going to try to make it to costco. if i see doritos i'm going to go crazy.

chuseok is coming up soon, i think that i'm going to head to Pusan for a night. a girl here has a mom who works at a hotel chain that happens to be in Pusan as well, so we get to stay for really cheap. it will be nice to see some more of the country as well as spend some time on the coast and do some shopping.

love you