i would kill for some grace

here is my friend soon and here mom in traditional dress (hanbok)

my accident prone friends have rubbed off on me. last night we were out after work, celebrating bens birthday when i tripped down the stairs. no major injuries although my ankle is twisted and i spent all day before work with it elevated. ugh. my friends were so much help, with all the laughing at me they were doing. let's see if i take their sorry asses to the hospital the next time they hurt themselves! not bloodly likely.

other than that, it's my last day at this school. monday i start the new one. apparantly it will be one of the biggest schools at the company, i think around 16 teachers. that means i should find some cool people to chill with. anyways i only work there two days before the holiday. BEIJING. so much excitement surrounding this that i had to use capslock. now i'm hoping my ankle is fully healed by the time i go. i don't want to be hobbling down the great wall. erm.

last weekend i went to my first korean style wedding. i can't remember if i've blogged about this yet, if i have, too bad, read about it again. there were some major differences. some expected, such as the bowing, the traditional clothes worn by the family. some not, such as the smoke machine, golden trumpets that shot confetti and the band that played mid ceremony. one thing that i really liked about the whole shindig was that before the wedding started there was a room where the bride was elevated and you could come and talk to her. that was cool. so i managed to get a bunch of pictures together. oh, another thing was that i was the only person who brought a gift. everyone else brought money.

anyways, when i upload pics i will post them on here. i will also send out a mass email with my addy. i want licorice.

oh, something else that stressed me out was that early in the week my computer just stopped working. there are people who come to your house to fix them, but when the man came to mine he just shrugged his shoulders and left. so i went ALL the way down to the base to get it fixed. finally it's done a few days later, and my world is right again. i really need a new one i think. but first i want to buy a new digital camera. living in asia and having out of date technology is never any good.

lots of love,
jen xo

more stitches

well it's raining due to some typhoon so hiking did not happen this weekend. it's ok though because i really just did not have the energy for that today. last night i went out to dinner with mel, and our buddy dax met up with us. it was raining last night too so the streets were pretty slippery. in anycase, mel jumped on dax, dax went down, face to pavement. dax starts bleeding, i freak out, run into a restaurant and steal the napkins from some table while being yelled at. i yell back. we head to the emergency room. here they want to charge him around 100 bucks a stitch so we leave and head just outside the city to the second emergency room where they give him 11 stitches over the eye for 50 bucks. it was a late night and i'm tired. here are some pictures of the damage. second friend in 3 days to get stitches.

he looks so happy but i think it's because he is now officially 'hardcore'.

apartment pics

oooh bathroom. notice the cushy, pink, flowery toilet seat. tres chic.

living room, with colbert report on in the backround.

more living room and a little kitchen.

kitchen.

undecorated bedroom. i spent the least amount of time here. i can hear those damn dogs the loudest from here.
and more bedroom.

all for the affordable price of : FREE

so yay, it's friday. this week flew by. i'm a little sad about it because i'm at the halfway point for the school i'm at right now. 2 more weeks and i'm back to phonics, model sentences and angry middleschoolers. i'm sure it will be fine, but where i'm at now feels like a holiday.

tonight i'm laying low, watching a movie. last night was a late one but i came out better than some people. not difficult as i didn't need stitches. anyways, not my story to tell, but it's nice to know that there are some nice people in this country who will help out foreigners in need.

so here are a few pics of my apartment. notice that i have separate rooms for my living, and sleeping areas.. very excited for that.

hopes for the weekend in no particular order:
sleep, a lot
dance
have indian buffet
meet an old friend for lunch
hike (though it's raining, and i think it will be all weekend.. arg)

gatbawi

so i'm almost done my second weekend here. it feels like the first because i spent the previous one sleeping. friday night i went to mels where we played some poker. i didn't win but it was only a 5,000 won buy in. saturday i got to see my friend tristan. we havn't seen eachother in months. she went home for a vacation and came back with a whole new life. i'm really happy for her, and hope that she stays in korea for a little while. after that i met carey downtown so that we could go to a dvd room. on our way there we heard some drumming (there's always something going on downtown). we go to see what's up and we see a couple of ajummas dressed as clowns and one man dressed in drag singing and dancing infront of a new store. of course they noticed to two foreigners and dragged us into the show where we were forced to dance around crazily. then the man in drag started asking me questions in broken english, trying to get me to say that korea was better than canada. it didn't happen but everyone was laughing. i'm sure i'm on about a hundred korean cellphones now. we finally were able to get away and watch a movie.

today (sunday) i decided to make the hike up gatbawi. i've been trying to hike this mountain for months, but everytime i try to something comes up. so i left my house at 1 and got home at 8. it was an intense hike, but beautiful.these lanterns were at one of the temples up there.
here's what all the fuss was about. this is the stone buddha. i was so happy to finally get there, after hiking for so long, up jagged rocks that i almost cried! haha. it was very steep, and there were ample opportunities to break my ankle.
a random view from the top.

another.
view of the peak, where the buddha is.

i found this hermitage while i was lost. they were drying hop peppers and the rest of the place was gorgeous. the entire time i was listening to chanting monks. i actually turned off my ipod.
a view from about halfway up.

that's a whole lotta buddhas. at the hermitage.

here's some more.

anyways, i always feel good after hiking.. like i accomplished something. especially when i go by myself. right now though, i am so exhausted and not really looking forward to teaching tomorrow. hope everyone else's weekend was smashing.

love j

it figures

ok, so last year i was tormented every morning by the blue trucks, the middle school, and the drunk puking man outside my window. you all know this. though sad to leave all of that, i was excited to live in this new area and new building, hearing that it was much quieter.

someone lied.

apparantly i live outside wild kingdom this year. i live right beside a bird park. sounds cool. i like waking up to the sounds of chirping birds. EXCEPT these birds sounds like they're dying babies. seriously. also, there are dogs. well, dogs which sound like hyenas, or coyotes which howl at about 6 am to 7:30am.

for once in this country, i would love to wake up because my body is ready to.

ouch

so i found out today, that though i have a long list of skills and abilities, being flexible is not one. mel dragged me this morning to her pilates class where we were forced into awkward and sometime painful positions for... well i don't know why.. apparantly this is good for my core.. apparantly i have tense shoulders.. if she could speak better english i'm sure there would be more criticism.. mostly for the entire time she either laughed, or gave me confused yet sympathetic looks.. if i still hurt later then i'll go again.. no pain no gain.. and all that crap..

i'm hoping for a weekend of dancing and hiking.. in that order..

i am officially adjusted to the time difference.. i wonder why it was easier this way around..

kiwis! and i don't mean people from new zealand.

hi hi..

i'm back in business and almost adjusted to the time difference again. actually i'm finding it easier to adjust in korea than i did in canada. i'm on day 5 and i slept semi-regular hours last night. my social life has been somewhat lacking though because i find i pass out at around 10 pm.. no matter where i am. i have fallen asleep at many of my friends houses in awkward positions. i'm trying my best to follow mels advice and just 'push through it!'

when i first got back here i was feeling pretty darn homesick. this is a new feeling for me. i wasn't homesick through university or at all last year. not once. maybe at christmas time but that was it. i woke up on thursday morning with this feeling of dread. i felt trapped and wanted to come home so badly. actually strongly considered it. i decided to give it some time and chalk it up to jet lag, exhaustion and very very delayed culture shock. i'm feeling better now though, and i attribute some of it to being settled into my apartment. i like it a lot, i have a one bedroom instead of the bachelor and live in the same building as lots of cool people. i don't like the area of town so much as i did jisan (from last year) but it's ok. i knew last year that i would be giving up the best area of town for my holiday, which was well worth it. though now i feel like i never left korea. i'm still not fully recovered from the homesickness but know that it will get better. especially once i get into my routine and fully engage in my social life.

because of the jet lag i've been sleeping a lot, so i don't have much to relate back but the school i am temporarily at is great. it's the most advanced school and the kids are fantabulous. i am able to carry on full conversations with them and don't have to explain a lot of vocab. it's also a much more relaxed atmosphere i find (especially for a temp like me).. no forced repetition or model sentences. i'm sure i'll be sad to leave in october.

today or tomorrow i should be going to pay for the beijing trip. i don't really have the money right now but know i'd be bummed to stay home in daegu while everyone else is on a trip for chuseok. plus, it's china. i'll buy tons of mao memorabilia.. i don't care if this is counter-productive to his whole philosophy..

not much to tell other than that.. i was invited to a wedding by one of my best friends kyung-soon.. there are tons of pics of her in my blog from last year.. she's getting married on september 24th in seoul.. this will be my first korean wedding so i'm excited for that.. her fiance thinks that i'm coming on the honey moon because we made a joke about it and he agreed to it.. haha.. i hope he remains this agreeable through their marriage..

anyways, i still have no net, but will write again soon.. check your mail for my phone number..

love you

j