World's Worst Blogger/ The Rest of October 2008

Not that I am really that upset about it but I have decided that I am officially the world's worst blogger. I honestly cannot believe that the last time I updated this thing was October 22 when I was sent home sick... you can now all rest assured that the minor sore throat that I had that Wednesday afternoon did not kill me. Although judging by my director's reaction when I told her one might have thought it was possible.

In the beginning my plan was to update this thing daily, that quickly turned to weekly and now it looks like it will almost be a montly affair... if that. I wish I did update more often because now everytime I do I find myslef with so much to write about. Here goes...

We (Ally, Michelle, Trevor, Eru, Bu Kyoung, Harry, Seung Chul and myself) decided to go camping on the 25th of October. So I figured we would be in the middle of nowhere, having a bonfire and sleeping in a tent. Not at all. On the way to our "camp site" we stopped in Hampyeong, home of a Butterfly Festival. We stopped and played around at the festival site, most of it was shut down but we wandered around and walked through a sort of insect museum all the while sharing a pitcher of beer that we had picked up along the way. This was completely acceptable that a group of 8 of us walked around drinking beer at first it was a little bit strange but we all quickly became comfortable with it.We arrived at a large house in the counrty, it reminded me of one of the frat houses in Grand Forks (shout out to my girls, you know what I'm talkink about). Inside was where we would spend the night... hardly my definition of camping. It was so nice to be out of the city though, we were walking distance from the sea and the house was surrounded by farmers fields. We had a BBQ, samgyopsal - pieces of pork cooked on a grill that you wrap in different kinds of leaves often with garlic and pepper paste or anything else you fancy. Of course we also had Kimchi and later finished the meal with the very popular dried squid! We spent some of the night exploring but the majority of it was spent in our room playing drinking games. It was a fun night but I have to say that I was a little bit disappointed that we didn't have a bonfire. What's camping without a bonfire?

Then there was HALLOWEEN! Halloween fell a Friday which was perfect for my Academy's Halloween party. This thing was huge. Our Academy has a system of rewarding students for good behaviour or good grades with fake money. Students collect this money and evey so often the Academy puts on a market for the students, so it worked out that this was done on Halloween day.

The party consisted of: 1) The Photo Shop - This was mine and Kelly Teacher's station and the first one that students would come to. We were in charge of dressing each class up in costumes and taking pictures of them. 2) The Food Corner - Three older Korean women were hired to cook food that students could buy with their fake money. 3) The Market - Where a huge table was set up and covered with all kinds of junk for students to buy; candy, notebooks, stickers, pencils, etc... 4) The Ghost Room - A room that had a few cheesy decorations and no lights on where Enda (the foreign teacher that worked here before me) was in charge of explaing the origins of Halloween to a bunch of elementary school students who don't speak English (I was happy to not have his job). From about 2:30 - 6:30 we had 50 minute sessions with different students. I wore cat ears and made myself a tail and everyone was surprised and impressed.

At one point in the Halloween celebrations the kids were gathered into the small lobby of the school for a draw and I think in an attempt to kill time they were offered the opportunity to perform a number of their choice. Two little girls sang a Korean pop song and did a dance routine. A young boy danced and sang along to a Mama Mia song, his dance was included a few bend and pops and some nice smacks on his behind. A couple students insisted that Enda and I sing, there was no way I would do this alone but I didn't have the heart to say no. I insisted that the other teachers dance as I sang a few lines from 'The Locomotion' which happened to be my weekend norea bang flavor of the month... not my best performance. Later that night was the first time that I went out with all of my co-workers and my two directors. We went to Sangmu (an area of Gwangju that is quite popular, it has a lot of Night Clubs and restaurants) . We went for samgyopsal and then went for shellfish that is cooked on an open grill at your table. I am always amazed at the amount of food that Korean people can pack away and yet they are all so small. I had a really fun time but I think that was because everyone was speaking Korean and I really had no idea what was going on so I ended up drinking a good amount of beer, soju and Korean raspberry wine, so much that I don't remember leaving my co-workers and taking a taxi downtown to meet my firends. This made me a little bit nervous about Monday at work, but when I got to work and mentioned it to my boss she laughed and said "I don't remember either" I guess I really have nothing to worry about here...

Sent Home

I slept for a long time last night but still felt tired when I woke up this morning, it was dark and raining outside so I decided to stay in bed until I had to go to work. I woke up a few hours later I had a sore throat and thought that it looked swollen. When I got to work Mrs. Kim asked me how I was and I told her that I was ok but had a bit of a sore throat thinking this was no big deal. She insisted that she take me to the doctor's right away. Being a person who rarely sees doctors I told her it was fine and that it will probably just go away, but still she insisted that I go and get looked at in case it becomes something more.

We went to a small Doctor's office that was only a 2 minute drive away, we waited only about 4 minutes and saw a Doctor. Mrs. Kim explained to him that my throat hurt when I swallowed and that it was swollen. The Doctor looked down my throat, in my ears, then the nurse pulled the back of my shirt up and he checked my breathing - finally he told me I was normal, asked me about allergies and how my muscles felt. We were given a prescription and were out the door. So now I have pills that I need to take over the next three days along with some packages of some sort of liquid. I am not sure how I feel about all of this since this is something I would never do at home.

We got back to the academy at about 2:45pm, Mrs. Kim insisted on ordering me some Korean soup. I did my regular classes for the day and all of the children were told to be extra good because Jessie Teacher is sick - this just made them concerned. "Teacher, you are sick?" "Teacher is your body sick?" "Teacher are you ok?" they are cute but this whole thing was blown way out of proportion. I might just keep my mouth shut next time.

My last three hours on Wednesday are supposed to be conversation classes, today Mrs. Kim ccacelled them and sent me home at 5:30pm with my medicine, some pumpkin soup, my vegetable/rice porridge (which of course was accompanied by kimchi), and instructions to go to bed. My boss takes such good care of me!

The down side is, now I will feel bad if I go out tonight...

So Much to Say...

Holy smokes time here has been flying by over here!

Part of my job is to correct all of students' English diaries twice a week. We have close to 130 students so that makes for quite a but of journals. I really enjoy doing this though some of them are written so bad that I have no idea what they are trying to say, this is common since Korean and English are completely different languages. I get some that are VERY well written, some of which I am sure are legit and some of which I am sure have been copied off of the internet. There has not been a time that I have corrected and not laughed out loud though. Two Thursdays ago (before our trip to Seoul) I was correcting these diaries and this is what one of them said :

- Tittle: Jessie teacher
I like the Jessie teacher because she is funny and friendly. she is my personal model to fallow she is very qualified as a teacher. The Jaci teacher are friendlier than I expected Jessie teacher is very very friendly! I love you Jassie I love you! -

How precious is that?

In another one that I recently read a student told me how pissed off they were. "I was very very very pissed off" all I thought was "where the heck did you learn that?" Another one wrote about how delicious fatback is and how much they enjoy eating fatback, I am not sure about you but I have no idea what fatback is... I later realized that it was just a bad translation but it was good for some laughs. The diaries might just be my favourite part of my job.

I have so much to write about... where to start.

After work on the Thursday before Ally, Michelle and I went to Seoul (October 2nd) I met Michelle, Trevor, E-Ru and Bu Kyoung downtown at Speakeasy (the local foreigner bar). We decided to participate in the Pub Quiz that they hold every second Thursday, each player pays 5000 won ($5) and teams of 5 compete in 10 categories of 10 questions. We thought it would be somewhat easy but it was actually pretty hard and we only scored 32%, I got really excited when they asked to question: what country holds the record for longest outdoor skating rink? I won't lie I felt proud. Good news was we won a pitcher of beer for our very creative team name "The Chugging Chugglers"- I think the guy felt sorry for us. After the Pub Quiz and a few drinks at Speakeasy Michelle and I went to my favourite place Wow and Joy, we go there quite a bit this night was not busy so the guy who works the door sat with us and had some pizza.

The plan was to leave for Seoul on the 7am bus the next day but Michelle and I stayed out too late and my cell phone died so I did not have an alarm clock to wake me up. I woke up at 11am in a panic thinking that the girls had left without me. They laughed at me when I called them and asked "are you in Seoul?" We ended up on the 12:30 bus. The bus ride was not bad at all, we went at a good time because our bus only had us and 4 other people on it so it was nice and quiet. We arrived in Seoul at about 4:30pm and took the Subway to Mushroom's (you remember Ally's friend?) apartment where we were spending the weekend while he was in Gwangju. It was nice to have a place that we could stay for free.

Seoul was great! There were so many people there. Anytime of the day anywhere you go there are tons of people. Friday night we met a few of Ally's friends from Gwangju who now live in Seoul. We went for dinner at a nice Italian Restaurant, something that you cannot as easily find in Gwangju. Then we did some shopping and went to a few differnt Soju restaurants. Seoul has everything, any store that I thought I might miss I am pretty sure I can find it in Seoul. I found a Lush, which was exciting because I was almost out of Ocean Salt. I paid an extra $10.00 but I figured that would be cheaper than having it shipped to me. Another nice change in Seoul was that there are so many more foreigners, many signs are written in both Korean and English and people don't stare and point at you like they do in Gwangju.

Saturday we did some more shopping at an undergroud shopping mall, I swear you don't even have to ever go outside in this city - it was kind of creepy. That evening was Jool's salsa competition (we later found out that Jool's group won 1st prize - 1 million won), it was held at Lotte World a big amusement park. The competition was really good there were a few group performances and at the end they had a number of dancers from all over the world perform it was very impressive. For some reason my boss called me twice on Saturday and asked me if I was in Seoul and when was I coming home, I wondered what this was about.

That night we went to this huge crowded market on the street, they sell everything food, clothes, handbags shoes. You can honestly get anything that you want at any hour in Seoul. We went to another mall where the hours were 7pm - 5am, or something like that. We didn't stay out too late that night because the plan was to get up early and go to Itaewon, we were all up and out of the house by noon, which was good for us! We went for lunch at a place called Gecko's, ally's friend Shi-Un met up with us. It was funny, shortly after we sat down at our table Amanda, the Canadian girl that I met in the airport in Toronto walked in - what are the chances of that? She lives an hour outside of Seoul and there are millions of people in Seoul. It was good to see her!

We left Seoul around 6pm on Sunday - it felt good to be home in Gwangju but I want to visit Seoul again and see more of the city.

My week after that wasn't too eventful - I think the most exciting part was the fact that I got up every morning and went to the track. I figured out that Mr. Kim had been calling me in Seoul because there were more problems with my plumbing and something was leaking. So the same plumbers from last time were at my apartment and drilling up all of my concrete floors by 8:00am on Tuesday. It was terrible I went to the track in the morning and then spent some time at Michelle's when I came home for about 10 minutes the place was a disastre, my living room, bathroom and dressing room floors were all destroyed so that they could get to the pipes... I guess, I never really knew what was wrong. When I got home after work at 8:30 they had just finished and the place was mess - dust and rocks everywhere. I spent two nights cleaning the place. I moved all the furniture and everything. I was not impressed at first but was happy to finally clean my place really well.

Later that week Mr. Kim told me that I would be having my voice recorded, I will read something and it will be recorded. He said "next Thursday I will pick you up at 12:20". I really had no idea what he was talking about but he told me that I would be paid so I agreed to do it.

That Friday Ally, Jool, Michelle and I decided to have a girl's night out. We went to Wow and Joy my favourite place - I met Ally and Michelle there, as soon as I walked in the guy at the door recognized me and said "Ah window, your friends" and pointed to Ally and Michelle. He knows us so well! We went to Buena Vista, another bar and then ended up at a Salsa bar with all of Jool's Salsa friends who I love, they are so much fun. We again drank too much Soju.

Saturday I worked my two hours, it was not easy... At 4:00 Cloudia picked me up by the little grocery store by my house. For a long time we had been planning a day for me to visit her sister-in-law's home and meet her nieces. We drove for about 20 minutes and when we got there we were greeted by three smiling young girls, Cloudia's sister-in-law and a very grumpy little boy who really loved yelling, screaming and stomping around. It was really nice they were so friendly and very interested in English and Canada. I showed them post cards and a book about Manitoba while we ate fresh fruit. I taught the girls how to play "Go Fish" (it has really becom my specialty) and they taught me a game with marbles, I don't remember what it is called and I was not good at it but it was fun. Then they took me out for dinner, when we go to the restaurant it was empty we were the only ones there but there was a playroom for children so it was soon packed with people. We had samgyopsal, pork that is cooked at your table with mushrooms, onions, kim chi, soup, all the many side dishes that always accompany Korean meals. I tried many new things - Cloudia insisted that I try an insect, so I did. I'm not sure what it was but I didn't like it, but like I said before I will try anything once. The soup was new to me too it had something that looked like a cow's body part in it, Cloudia insisted I try it before she tells me what it is, so I did - it was not very good either, they told me it was hardened cow's blood. I didn't even know that was possible. The rest of the meal was very good though and Cloudia's sister-in-law took charge and cooked for us and the children. On the walk back to their home the girls begged me to sing to them in English, so we sang what all Koreans know - Mamma Mia. I can't count the times that Mamma Mia songs have come up or the amount of times that people have asked me if I have seen it, which I haven't but Cloudia's sister-in-law wants to take me to see it. Next time I visit them I will take pictures!

That night we celebrated Sung Gyun's birthday at the noreabang that has all of the wigs and masks. I was stoked that they had a Michaelangelo mask since I have been trying to convince the girls to dress up as the TMNT for halloween, I don't think it's gonna fly. We were introduced to one of Sung Gyun and Seung Geun's friends who quickly drank a lot of Soju and was hilarious the entire night. He kept almost falling asleep and then next thing you know he was up dancing like a mad man. You rarely hear people swear in Korea, especially not in English - every so often you hear students swear but nothing serious. This guy would randomly yell "f@cking eat sh#t" (my apologies but it was too funny not to share). I was so embarassed because he later did this at the restaurant that we went to. This guy was so funny though, I think his name was Ju Ill and he is an instant party. On Sunday Michelle and I walked to Chosun University for a festival called Gwangju's International Community Day. There was a photo display, a bunch of different types of food, flea market, 1000 won beer, performances and a talent show. It was put on by the Gwangju Internations Center where I think I might take a Korean Language class. It was nice we had a few beers, ate some african food and watched our friend Mike perform a Barenaked Ladies song.

At 12:20 on Thursday I was outside of my apartment waiting to be picked up to go and record. A van pulled up and a Korean man jumped out and started talking to me really fast. I had no idea what he was saying and I tried to tell him that I don't speak Korean at all. He seemed to get really frustrated and then he wouldn't leave he hung out and kept trying to talk to me. So I called Ally and asked her to translate, turned out that this guy owns a gym and just wanted me to go to his gym. It really was not that important at all. Ha haha he was so worked up. A few minutes later a van pulled up and a woman jumped out "Hi Jessie, I am Rosie I will take you to record", "Ok". So we went to a recording studio and it turns out that I recorded some information for a popular cable car on Duryun Mountain. It was so fun. I had to read four pages of English so of which wasn't correct but it would have been too difficult to change so I just went with it. I got paid 200 000 won, I was shocked. They said that they really like my voice and that if they needed anyone again they would call me. That was exciting! I later met Michelle and Ally at Wow and Joy, we must go there way too often because they have started giving us free stuff!
Friday night we went downtown of course and later ended up in a noreabang in Sangmu. Saturday was the monthly Korean/Foreigner dinner, Mattie, Michelle and I went together after spending only a half an hour at the Kim Chi Festival. It was great we went for Shabbu Shabbu with almost 30 people. We met so many new teachers and some Koreans.

I am sure I have left out so much that I want to share, there is so much. It's so hard to stay on top of this - this update alone took three days to put together. I really make trouble for myself when I don't update this thing regularly, I will try harder to do that. I hope everyone is well!

Much love!

Don't worry...

I am still alive, I am soooo tired though I will fill you in soon on my weekend to Seoul and my not so exciting week I promise. I love you all!

Tigers and Wigs

Last Friday I met Grace and the gang for her birthday. I gave her a pair of earrings and a bracelet that I made, I wasn't going to bring any of my jewelry stuff with me but Gabrielle assured me it would be a good thing to do and I am so glad that I did (thanks Gab!), she loved them and put them on right away. This was the first time that I had seen an actual Karaoke Bar in Gwangju, one that is not a private room. For a while we were the only people there and then a group of older Korean men and women arrived, I guess they were not impressed with our singing because they left after only 10 minutes. Later that night I was supposed to see Jool's Salsa group perform downtown, somehow Michelle and I showed up an hour late and missed it :(Michelle thought it was at 11:00. So we ended up spending the night downtown going back and forth from upstairs, Speakeasy - the foreigner bar, and downstairs, Buena Vista - the Salsa bar. I have to say that I much prefer the Salsa bar!

On Saturday I worked 1:30 to 3:30, I had two classes. When I first started I had taught one of my classes the essay skeleton, I think my director must have liked this because she asked me to teach my 1:30 class how to seperate the book that they have been reading into introduction, body and conclusion. When I finally saw the book I realized that this would not be possible since the book was not written in that format. So I made the best of the situation and had the class write an introduction and a conclusion together. This is probably my most advanced class and I always think that I am prepared for them but they finish everything very fast so we end up playing a lot of games. My 2:30 class on Saturday is supposed to be my director's niece (Chau who goes by Jenny) and nephew (who goes by Tommy), they have both spent time living in Canada and speak English very well. For some reason this past Saturday I had a class with Tommy, Jenny and two younger students whose levels of English are nowhere near Tommy and Jenny. I was baffled as to why they were there, I guess they needed a babysitter.

Saturday afternoon after stopping at 7-11 for a few pitchers or beer and bottles of Soju, Michelle, Ally and I met Jool and Soku at Gwangju Stadium to watch a baseball game. The KIA Tiger vs the LG Twins. I thought this was a great way to spend the afternoon but the game was not very exciting, we ended up leaving before the end - no one had made it home yet.

Michelle, Ally and I were downtown by 7:30 - half an hour late for the monthly foreigner dinner that another teacher in Gwangju organizes, hopefully I can make it to the next one. We decided to go to Miller Time for a drink and some potatoes that Michelle and Ally really like. I was not really a fan, most of the food in the bars here is deep fried - it is getting really old. After Miller Time I wanted to see if I could take some money out of my Canadian account at one of the bank's downtown, I was in for a big surprise when I thought I was taking out 50 000 and it ended up being 500 000. So that was fun, it was a good thing that I had opened my bank account here and was able to deposit most of it into there. We went to a noreabang, this place was great there were different wigs and masks to dress up in and perform. Two of Ally's Korean friends joined us (Sung Geun and Seung Gyun), like most times that this happens, they were shy at first but this quickly faded after a few drink and a few songs!

On Sunday I went downtown for lunch/dinner with Michelle and Ally. We ended up eating at this Outback restaurant, it was good and I was so happy to finally have a salad with oil and vinegar instead of cabbage with either a creamy kiwi or strawberry dressing. We ate so much and then decided to walk from downtown to Home plus to pick up a few things, but no one really knew the way and we were all really tired so Ally made a phone call and turned to us and said "mu mushroom friend will pick us up", "what? your mushroom friend?" I thought this was pretty funny, then she explained that she calls him that because of his haircut. So we walked to meet him, we saw a man sitting in front of a store with a woman and a child, this man must have done something to piss some guy off because next thing we know this guy is running at the man sitting outside the store and they started fighting, I couldn't watch - it made me feel sick to my stomach, especially since the little girl was shreiking, it was very sad. When we met Ally's mushroom friend I was disappointed to see that he had gotten a hair cut and no longer had the mushroom do, but he was very nice and he drove us to Home plus.

On Wednesday night I finally made it downtown to buy a phone card to phone home, I was pumped! Michelle and I had dinner and then met up with Seung Chul, Dongmin and Suki and we finally went to the little Bohemian place by my house that we had been wanting to try out. It was cute but nothing special. My phone card was 10 000 and gave me 104 minutes, I was able to call Jenny, Dave and Meagan! It was awesome to talk to you guys but I was saddened when I tried to call mom and I was out of time, 104 minutes goes fast! I will call you on the next one mama!

Last night I went out with Cloudia and Rachel (another teacher at my Academy), it was nice. Until yesterday I had thought that Rachel did not really like me but I realize now that she is just really shy. She told me that her family owns a Restaurant on Mudeung Mountain and that she will invite me sometime.

This weekend is a long weekend so there is no work tomorrow, Friday - I am told that it is Foundation Day. Ally, Michelle and I will be leaving for Seoul at 6:00 tomorrow morning, I will tell you all about it next week!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Where does the time go?

I have been feeling like I have had no time at all... at least no time for this blogging business. Before I came out here I thought for sure I would have tons of time, I thought I would spend my days writing emails and snail mail to all of you. I made an effort to collect everyone's mailing address and have yet to send out any mail... sorry :P

I think that the dates on this blog are not accurate and I am not sure how to change them, I think the last time I posted something was actually Wednesday the 17th, not Saturday the 13th... unless that is when I started the post, I'm not sure. I guess it does not matter. It's been about a week then since my last post, let me try to remember the exciting things that have happened.

Last Thursday night I decided to venture out to Sangmu (a place I had never been before) and meet another teacher who is from New Zealand. I invited Michelle along, after work we met up and hoped in a cab and I tried to give the cab driver the best directions I could while showing him an English map of where we wanted to go. It didn't work out that well and like almost every other time that I have taken a cab anywhere we ended up phoning our Korean friend Ally and having her translate - she saved the day. Sangmu was a lot further than we had expected but we made it there ok. I realized that I had in fact been there before for that fun lunch with my directors! We wandered around, went to WaBar (since we like the one downtown), then ended up buying beer at 7-11 and sitting outside drinking it. Our new friend went home and Michelle and I stopped in for a couple more Obek at a place called Red Rock, we figured we may as well make the most of our long trip to Sangmu - this had been the most expensive cab ride that we had taken, 7500won (for about 25 minutes).

The next morning Michelle and I woke up and met Jool at the bank so they could open a bank account for Michelle. It was so hot out! We went to the Lotte Department store and Jool and I got manicures, we had lunch and then went to work. That night I had planned to go out with Cloudia again to her friend's resto-hof (the same one I had been at the Friday before). Before I left work that day she gave me directions, and taught me what to say to the cab driver - I was so impressed when I told him the directions and it actually worked. I was let out at an intersection that I remembered had been close to where I was going. I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to find it because I can't read any of the signs, all I remembered was that it was on the second floor of a building - so I looked up and right away I noticed a bulletin board with pictures tacked to it and remembered that my picture had been put on that board, I made it! Cloudia was impressed but said she was worried about me and hadn't called because she was testing me. Most of the same people were there but this time Cloudia had brought her baby girl Sol-Mul (any ideas on what I should name her?), she is too cute! Cloudia had also invited an old co-worker of hers, Jasmine. It was another great night, after Sol-Mul had been taken to her grandmothers house we made our way down the street to a noreabang - a guaranteed good time.

I woke up a little bit late the next day (Saturday), Mr. Kim was waiting for me downstairs to take me to the bookstore. Woohoo! Mrs. Kim met us at the bookstore and I finally got some materials for my classes, I got a whole whack of story books, some activity and journal writing books and a set of DVD's to show to some of my classes and then hold discussions. I was so happy! I went for a Korean lunch of Shabbu-Shabbu (it was so good!) with Mrs. Kim and Wendy before rushing home to open my apartment so that "men could work on it", do what work? I wasn't sure but I got home and four men were waiting for me. This was also the first Saturday that I had agreed to work and had not had time to prepare anything and I did not know what to expect at all - winged it again!

Saturday afternoon Michelle had planned a party because she had received Taco Seasoning from home and wanted to make everyone Taco Dip, her party started at 3:00 but I wasn't off work until 3:30 and when I got home the men were still working on my apartment. They fixed my bathroom sink and I think something to do with my heat - not sure. One of the men spoke some English so I asked him to show me how to use my washing maching, he was happy to help and I was sooo happy that he knew how to use it, three hot weeks without being able to wash my clothes it was getting questionable. I offered him and the other man some soju, they laughed at me and accepted water instead. I didn't get to Michelle's house until just after 6:00 and everyone was already ready to move, we never stay in one place the entire night - this particular Saturday we ended up at a noreabang before 7:30 which was a first, usually we end up there way later but it was still super fun! We ended up going to about four or five other restaurants/bars after that. I agreed to go ice skating the next morning at 10:00am but it didn't happen since I didn't get home until about 5 or 6am. Madness!

Sunday I slept pretty much all day I was exhausted! I wanted to go ice skating with Harry and join Jool's Salsa class in the afternoon but neither one happened. I did however end up going for dinner with Michelle and Ally who were both just as tired so we all agreed on an early night - next thing we knew we had the bright idea of just the three of us going to a noreabang to "practice" for the following weekend. Soooo much fun but probably not the best idea for a Sunday evening.

I spent Monday night at home - I needed to recouperate.

I met Jool downtown for lunch and shopping on Tuesday. She helped me buy this device that I plug in to kill mosquitos, I guess because I am so close to the mountain I have them very bad here. I mean you think Winnipeg is bad - this is way worse. I was eaten alive this week, so much that my students thought it was fun to try and count the number of bites I had, while another one came up to me, mid-lecture, and applied afterbite to the bites on my arms. I later realized that someone had left the screen in my back porch open, so the combination of closing my screen and my new bug plug things are much better.

I stayed in that night but have been having so much trouble sleeping, I am not sure what it is but I wake up almost every hour, sometimes I have the weirdest dreams. Other times strange noices from outside wake me up. Oh I was woken up by weird foot steps on the roof of my porch again. I got a way better look - turns out it was a pigeon, not so scary.

Last night when I got off work I went to meet, Seung Chul, Dongmin, Ally at Michelle at a restaurant. I, again, could not give directions to the cab driver so Ally did for me. We ended up getting lost, the cab driver must have spoken to Ally and Seung Chul about 6 times and driven around in circles for about 15 minutes until finally finding the place - this was probably my most frustrating experience so far, I have not yet so badly wanted to be able to speak Korean. Now I will practice even more. We had dinner, went to a bar and then ended up at Wow & Joy. I declined (almost) all offers of Soju last night, it had hurt me too much on Sunday night.

Today Mrs. Kim took me to open up my bank account, I am hoping this means that I will get paid soon because we are planning a trip to Seoul on the 2nd of October to watch Jool's Salsa competition, and I don't want to have to miss it. I was offered a credit card but decided to be responsible and decline, I told Mrs. Kim I wanted to know how much I was spending. She told me I was so smart and then told me hilarious stories of all the irresponsible things that some English teachers have done. Before classes started we walked to the bakery together to buy some sandwiches. Street vendors were just setting up, women lay out fruits and vegetable to sell on the street, I watched one older woman bend over to open a cardboard box of potatoes and the biggest rat I have ever seen (except for maybe the one Jen and I saw in Peurto Plata.... Oh no no no, the one we saw in Southdale was the biggest) scurried up the street, it ran past a woman who flipped out. I laughed and was grossed out.

This evening Ally came over with an extra gas burner that she is lending me, she is so sweet! She also brought a small vacuum and did my floors.

This weekend should be fun, tomorrow is Grace's birthday and a Salsa performance and Saturday after work we are going to a baseball game, should be a good time! I will let you know how it goes...

I'm still alive!

I have really been slacking on this blog business, this is what has been going on:

Friday night the staff from my academy was supposed to go out for dinner together - we had to cancel because the directors were too busy so instead my supervisor Cloudia "the Queen of Obek" (Obek is a pint of beer) invited me out with her and her husband. Their friend owns a bar so we went there for a few drinks, the owner had closed the bar for the holiday so we had it all to ourselves. When you go for drinks in Korea it is customary to order side dishes - so along with lots of drinking comes lots of eating, we often go to three or four places in a night and there is always plenty to eat and drink on the table in front of us. Cloudia asked me what I wanted and I told her to order her favourite dish - she chose tak pal, chicken feet. I had never had these before nor had I really thought about trying them but I am in South Korea I am going to experience everything that I can while I am here - so far I have been doing a pretty good job at this. They were not bad - very chewy, not sure if I would order the same dish again but at least I can say I tried it right? Cloudia's husband and his 4 friends don't really speak English and Cloudia's isn't that strong so we sat around and drank maektchu, her with her dictionary and me with mine. The guys were drinking soju and got pretty hammered, we started playing drinking games. My first night out in Korea I was introduced to a game using the soju cap - the object is to use your thumb and fore finger to flick the brim of it off (next time I will take a picture to better explain this), we played this until Cloudia's husband flicked the brim off right into another guy's eye. He got mad and left the table, I think he was crying.

They were all so nice to me Cloudia told me she would teach me to cook Korean food and her husband wants to take me to Suncheon and show me around. The owner of the bar made me promise to go back and drink with my friends. Cloudia put me in a cab around 1:00am because she knew that I had to be up and out by 11:30 to go to Wendy's grandparents house. As soon as I got home Jool called me, she was downtown with her dance friends - I decided to go for one drink with them and then home to bed. As if that plan never works - I met Jool and Vivian and WaBar, we went to another small Korean bar - there was a group of about 15 people there (all of them dance Salsa with Jool) it was so great to meet so many new people. Korean people are so much fun! We moved and went to another small Korean restaurant that belongs to the family of one of the girl's that was out with us so we were well taken care of. It wasn't long until we were at a noreabang and everyone was drinking, singing and dancing! I didn't get home until after 5:00am. This is madness!

This past weekend was a holiday weekend in Korea - Chusoek, which is comparable to Western Thanksgiving. I was told that the main day of Chusoek is on Sunday when people usually visit their ancestors graves. The day before it is tradition to make songpyon - a Korean rice cake (Janny, Delanie and Amanda - we had these at folklorama), this was what I went to do with Wendy's family.

I woke up around 9:30am on Saturday and freaked out thinking I was late I wasn't. I even had time to pick up a Chuseok present for their family. It is customary to give gifts for Chusoek, Korean people are very practical so the gifts should be useful. For the past little while store shelves have been filled with gift sets - of soaps, shampoos, toothpaste, spam, teas, juice, cookies, etc. On friday my directors gave me a beautiful bath set! I bought Wendy's family a box of different juices and a bag of candy for the children. When they picked me up I met her father for the first time he said "I am amazed at your gift". Wendy's family is very nice - her mother and father are both different types of doctors, her and her little brother are both wonderful students to have. They are all very interested in Canada so they ask me a lot of questions - I am sometimes ashamed to not know the answers but for the most part I do ok. They told me that they want to show me many places in Korea!

I thought that we were going to the country but I was wrong we stayed in Gwangju - but went to the west side of the city. Wendy's grandparents house was lovely, they have a small but very nice front yard with so many different plants. Their house was a lot bigger than I expected. The grandparents, though they spoke no English, were very welcoming and did whatever they could to make me feel comfortable. Chusoek is always a lot of work for Korean women, they work very hard for days preparing for the holiday. Wendy's mother and grandmother were busy the entire day. Wendy, her brother Dennis, her mother and her grandmother (I can't remember many Korean names) taught me how to make Songpyon, sesame filled rice cakes. They say that if you make them well that you will have a beautiful son and daughter. We then ate a Korean lunch - it was so good!

Saturday was sooooo hot and Wendy wanted to take me to some sort of park in the city - of course I could not say no. When we got there we rented this little buggy bicycle thing. There were a few people out riding bikes we got one that we could both peddle and drove around the park. There were trees, paths, hills, and a small body of water in the middle of it. It was 35 degrees outside and she wanted to peddle as fast as we could - good grief. It was so much fun though, I felt like a kid.

Later that night Michelle came over and, after a quick stop at her place and a bottle of soju, we ended up going to Trevor's place because he was having people over. I met Ally's brother, Eru, his girlfriend Bu Kyoung, Dong Min, Suki, Cassias and Sam, I was impressed when I mentioned Canada he named some cities and Winnipeg was one of them - he is the only Korean I have met here who not only knows Winnipeg but has been there. This whole group is so great they are a lot of fun! They decided to take us to a bar/restaurant on Mudeung Mountain - it was spectacular! We could see the entire city of Gwangju! We later went to one of the University campuses and of course to a noreabang - good fun!

Sunday I was supposed to go to my director's house for Chusoek but she told me she had gotten a flu so i ended up staying home - which was nice I caught up on sleep. Later that evening Michelle invited me to a party at her place. I went and the same people from the night before were there plus two - Ally and Sung Cho (Dong Min's brother). We sat around and drank for a while and I taught the group how to play Animal Farm - they loved it! (Really who doesn't?) We ended up going downtown to meet up with Mattie at a Soju bar - this was good I was so hungry because I hadn't eaten all day - we ate great Korean soup! We went to Wow and Joy and then of course to a singing room! Nights out seem to be ending the same everytime but it is always a blast! Most were ready to leave around 4:00am but Michelle and I opted to stay downtown and wander for a bit - we tried a couple of bars but the ones we tried were closed so we took a cab to her place.

The next day I got home in the afternoon, did a little bit of cleaning and then figured out how to watch TV on my computer - I watched the entire second season of A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila, it was a VERY unproductive day!

I slept a little bit late on Tuesday and was awoken by Mr. Kim phoning me - I could not really understand what he wanted, then he asked me if I was alone so I knew he would be coming over. Finally he and some other man were looking at my bathroom sink that had been clogged since I got here - they didn't really deal with the problem they just detached my drain hose and directed it to go down the shower drain now. Oh well, I am just happy that it drains. Then it was back to work ugh! We had our staff meeting at 1:30pm this time Cloudia sat next to me and translated as much as she could for me (I am glad that I went out with her on Friday, I think we really bonded). It was not a bad day for teaching. I had made a list of things I wanted to address with my boss 1) I would prefer to work only 2 Saturdays a month - she said she will talk to the student's parents and see. 2) I need to know how to use my washing machine - it's hot here and I could only pack so much - she came to see but doesn't know how to use it so will have to call someone... GREAT - I will have to keep waiting. Then there were a few other odds and ends around my place that I hope will be taken care of.

After work I went for dinner with Grace, her friend Jairan, Ally and Michelle. We went for fried chicken and beer, this is so popular here! We went across the street to a Soju bar and started playing drinking games - I had originally planned on this week being my detox week, so much for that plan... Grace told me she would teach me how to make Kimchi jigae, so I am excited to go over to her place!

This morning I got up at 8:00am, the night before the five of us planned to go for a hike at 8:30 Ally and Michelle didn't make it so it was just Grace (Ally's mother), Jairan (her friend) and myself - I think I was the youngest one on the mountain. It was so beautiful! It was hot and the hike was hard work - but it felt great. At a couple points in the hike there are excercise machines set up for anyone to use - no need for a gym pass, on our way down we stopped and used the machines for a short while. These babes are quite a bit older than me but they are in such good shape - I think they do this hike every morning I hope to go with them. (Next time I will take pictures!)