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!)