The adventures of one crazy Canadian

2008-09-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

my bad my bad...i haven't written in ages. bad natalie. so my year in yeongwol has finished and i've renewed for another year in wonju. wonju is the largest city in the province (not too big for korea at around 300 thousand). Wonju is not the nicest looking city but it's got a far amount of stuff i didn't have in yeongwol. there are two american army bases and a korean one so there are tons of army guys. there are also tons of foriegners which is very wierd for me. it's full of american restaurants and you can even buy cheese in the stores. seoul is about an hour and 15 minutes away so there will be no shortage of supplies.

seamus also moved to wonju and we have a nice apartment about a 10 minute walk from one of the downtowns. Compared to where i was last year this apartment is huge. there are 2 bedrooms, a hallway, a living room and a huge balcony. the area is pretty nice too, lots of restaurants and bars (but it's still quiet at night). the downtown near us (Lotte Cinema) has a movie theather, a grocery store and many many restaurants including outback, subway, pizza places and coffee shops. basically i'm going to get fat.

my school is an all girls school. i teach gr 1 and 2 (canadian 7 and 8). the classes are bigger than what i had in yeongwol at about 36 students a class. and i teach alone. this is not too bad (although i have to tell them to be quiet all the time) excpet when there are translation problems. it's the worst when you know they aren't getting it and you have no idea how to make it clearer. oh well.

before moving to wonju seamus and i went back to canada to meet the future in-laws and stock up on supplies. his family loves me so that's always good.

this last weekend was Chusok (korean thanksgiving) so we had a 4 day weekend. it gave us time to explore wonju a bit. there are about 3 downtowns and the city is pretty spread out. but it seems like it will be a nice place to live. well that's the update for now

2008-05-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

2008-05-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

so i'm getting into the habit of abusing my blog. bad natalie. well i can make it up by giving some big news: I'M ENGAGED!!!! some guy actually managed to sweep me off my feet. so if you haven't guess yet it's Seamus O'Ryan from victoria. we've set the date for January 31, 2009 in victoria. should be fun. he proposed 2 weeks ago in sokcho (the city he lives in here in korea). it was very sweet. he brought me breakfast complete with a ring. very suave. hehehe

then the weekend after that we hide from the world. we realized that we hadn't had a weekend to ourselves so we didn't tell anyone where we were going and hide. we stayed in sokcho (so we could actually get some rest) and did nothing. it was wonderful. we read, watched some movies, and basically just relaxed. seamus even surprised me by taking me horseback riding.

this week was pretty good. on thursday it was teacher's day. there was a ceremony where each teacher got flowers and then the students sang us the "teacher's song". didn't know there was one.

this weekend is the KOTESOL meeting in sokcho so back up there i go. there is also a beach party that could be fun. well that's about all for now.

2008-05-02T05:02:00.000-07:00

2008-05-02T04:59:00.000-07:00

2008-05-02T04:57:00.000-07:00

2008-05-01T00:49:00.001-07:00

so last weekend was the King's festival here in Yeongwol. one of the kings was held captive and eventually murdered by his uncle and the festival is a reminder of that. the friday i had the day off of school so i could see the sights. in the morning i went with kate to the king's tomb to see all the kids having an art competition. then in the afternoon we headed to the riverside to look at the booths. there was an interesting variety of events there. there was a soju booth (korea vodka) complete with dancing soju bottles (why not), tons of food booth, booths selling various different things and craft booths for kids. we came across some guys dressed as tortured victim and before i knew it i was in a wooden cage with a yoke around my neck for all the see. i then got to flail a man and he did it back to me (this got filmed at put on the news later...got many comments on that). i also got to ride a donkey for free (sometimes it's great being a foreigner).

in the evening there was a concert and fireworks. seamus surprised me by coming that night (he told me he wouldn't be there till the next day). then there was more dancing with the soju bottles and more eating.

the next morning was the king's funeral procession (they recreate it every year). that was really cool. they had a coffin and his wives in morning and most of the town in costumes for his subjects. we took lots of pictures and the reporters even decided that we were more interesting than the parade for a while. so again we got put on the news for watching the parade.

then we headed back to the riverside where seamus joined me again in being a torture victim. there was a marching band and more looking around.

we all headed back then for some food and settlers of cattan (which i won).

the sunday was pretty uneventful. saw a tipe rope walker and said goodbye to everyone. still it was the best festival i've been to in korea and it was in yeongwol. nothing happens in yeongwol.

2008-04-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

so this weekend was another one of annie's famous parties. it was to celebrate about 6 different birthdays in march. the theme was 80s and toga (strange combintion but it worked). i headed down with the sokcho crew all dressed in our 80s clothing. we somehow managed to crame about 100 people into annie's apartment and the scary thing is that not even annie knew most of the people there. well it was crazy times for all even complete with greasy macdonald's breakfast the next morning. i love theme parties!

2008-04-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

2008-03-30T02:39:00.000-07:00

so the other weekend annie, andrew, seamus and i heading heading off from gangneong to samcheuck to see a famous korean park. the legend goes that there was this virgin who was engaged to a fisher man. but the night they were to marry he did not come back because of a storm so unstable she threw herself into the sea. the fishing village soon discovered that she was cursing the village and therefore they did what anyone would do. they erected sulptures of giant penises to appease her. of course why didn't i think of that. so now we have this park...this penis park. the whole park is full of penises. broonze, wood, stone. there are penis chairs and penis canons and yes even a 12 foot broonze penis. and the crazy thing about this is that family comes from all over korea to visit. there are pictures of children taking in front of the statues. it's insainity. only in korea.

2008-03-10T03:52:00.000-07:00

I know I know I've been horrible and haven't written anything in...well since vietnam. So I guess you can see by my writing a new message that I didn't die coming back from Vietnam or anything of that sort.

Right now I'm back at school in my second week since classes started. Things look pretty much the same as last semester with the same crazy boys and not so helpful co-teachers but what can you do.

Just before classes started again seamus and I went to the DMZ. We figured we were in the area so why not. It's as everyone has described it as and as everyone would think it to be: a piece of land with some barb wire. But even though it wasn't the most exciting attraction it was pretty cool to see. Once. We even got spoiled by some Koreans. After taking a local bus for about an hour we got to the ticket booth only to find out that there wasn't a shuttle bus to the site like we had previously been informed. We were gonna turn back when this Korean couple (who spoke no English) told us we could come with them. They were so sweet. Not only did they drive us up there in their car but they gave us money for the viewers, took pics for us, and drove us all the way back to sokcho. Gotta love the Korean hospitality.

Last weekend I again went up to sokcho. Friday night was jean's birthday party so we all went over to her place and created mii characters, pigged out on food and played wii. Then Frankie and I caught a bus (both for gangneong and then I left her with annie to head on to sokcho) Arriving in sokcho that night was mostly hanging out with friends (the bus was late so I didn't get in till about 11:30). Saturday was the KOTESOL meeting and then everyone went out for lunch and drinks. The next morning seamus, annie and I were gonna go hiking but well...we got lazy so we ordered pizza and went for a walk on the beach. It was a nice relaxing weekend.

Frankie, kim and I are looking into starting some marital arts soon. We might start gumdo (sword fighting). There are 2 places here and now we just need to bribe jean to come translate for us as we look to see if one of them is where we want to go. Kim and I have also started doing some yoga in the mornings so it looks like it's gonna be an active semester which is great cause I'm feeling so lazy being trapped inside by the cold all winter.

2008-01-16T05:56:00.000-08:00

so in nha trang frankie (the kiwi) decided she was bailing to go on a motorcycle tour for four days and then meet up with us later. we said good bye and continued our lazy beach fun. we then jumped on a bus to dalet (way up in the moutains). the bus ride was crazy. switchbacks like nothing else on barely paved roads. always fun. got there and found an email from frankie waiting for us. things had gone wrong and she was coming to meet us. we found her the next day and got the story. basically her tour guide had tried to get fresh with her. she said no and that that was not acceptable. then she found out that they were to share a hotle room. at that point she made plans to escape from the village. she was in the middle of norwhere with no one that spoke english. she found a french girl who agreed to take her with her and her guide. upon getting her stuff and explaining (through sign language) why she was leaving she met up with her tour guide. he broke down and cried saying that she's ruined him forever and now his blind mother-in-law can't get surgery. and won't she please re-consider...sorry buddy! you were the one that did the wrong. later.

in dalet upon the return of our prodigal daughter we went on a tour...saw some romantic views (awwwww) took a slide down a mountain to a waterfall, rode some horses and saw a motel with alice and wonderland envy.

after a couple days in the mountains we headed back to the beach. we got to a place called mui ne (a little fishing village) and soon discovered that this village was not like the others. seriously we never did figure it our. it was the hotel california. it never started and it never ended. you couldn't find anything and you could never leave. it was full of russians (many who has mofia reslebelenses) and everything was 3 times more expensive. there was nothing but resorts for the most part yet nothing devoted to tourists. couldn't understand it. oh well. had a relaxing time on the beach. then when we were waiting for our bus we literally thought the song was coming through...we had checked out but our bus didn't come for the longest time. when it finally showed up we bolted to escape our russian confusion.

back in saigon now. went to see the war museum and refunication palace today. pretty cool. although very confused over the vietnam war now. no one here can make up their minds as to who was the enemy.

tomorrow we go to mekong delta for a 2 day tour. then go to the night market and leave late late friday night. should be fun.

2008-01-08T03:58:00.000-08:00

In vietnam right now...we had a bit of a crazy deal getting here. we started off planing on going to mongolia and vietnam but the tickets we're insane therefore we decided just on vietnam. then it took longer than we thought to get our visas cause of the new year's holiday and kate's passport was still at the mongolian embassy. ahhhh!!! so we had to change our flights to sat. we then got to the airport and waiting in line to check in for 1.5 hours only to have them tell us that we had to print out something else. blast!!! rushed down to the internet cafe, printed it out and ran back up. other than that the flight went ok. got a nice hotel ran to a restaurant for food and gorged ourselves on western food (mmmmmm mash potatoes, salad, garlic bread and bbq chicken).

the next day we went on a tour to see a temple and a place where vietnamese gorillas who were fight with the north against the south use to hide in holes from the americans. that was a lot of driving but it was cool. i was exhausted and sick at that point so the driving was interesting.

the next day we borded a bus to nha trang. that took 10 hours. uuuhhhh. found a place after and crashed.

got to sleep in after that. soooo nice. then went to the beach. did some shopping. went back to the beach. had a milkshake. back to the beach, dinner. it was a great day.

2007-12-27T00:46:00.000-08:00

Frankie, me and Kate

Kim and I

2007-12-27T00:38:00.001-08:00

Kim, Bradley, Kate, me, Frankie, Gigi and Kent

2007-12-27T00:38:00.000-08:00

The weekend brought us to Daejeon for an EPIK (English Program in Korea) reunion. We got spoiled. They paid for us to take the day off of teaching to hang out with other teachers. They paid for our 5 star hotel room and gave us $20 allowance. Sure, I'll go to that.

The only bus left at 7:20am so Kim, Kate, Bradley and I dragged our tired bodies onto the bus to find Pearly there also (the bus picked her up in her town at 6am before getting us). We slept the 2 hours down then found ourselves in a new HUGE city. We had until 2pm so what else do you do in a new HUGE city in Korea but…..costco. Kim and Bradley ended up with $200 of western food (which they mailed back to yeongwol for $16) while the rest of us were a little more conservative in our spending.

The reunion was fun complete with meeting new people, good food and even a proposal during the talent show.

The next day Kate, John (a new friend we meet) and I took the speed train into Seoul. We meet up with Seamus and John's friend Justin. Since it was the weekend before Christmas we spent most of the time shopping for gifts. John and Justin left in the afternoon to head by to their hometown and Kate left later to meet up with Andrew and his friends. Seamus and I wondered around Insedong (great traditional shops) for a few hours and then meet up with Kim and Bradley for dinner.

Sunday Seamus and I went to "what the book " this great second hand book store and got some amazing Indian food on hooker hill (sketchy place but great food). In the early evening we headed to the bus station to go home. We got there at 5:45pm only to get a rude awakening. The next bus to Yeongwol left at 10pm. WHAT?!?!?! Seamus was so nice as to wait until 8pm with me and then I read in a coffee shop till my bus. Luckily with the lack of traffic I arrived early at midnight, dragged myself home to get some sleep before work tomorrow. Good news was that our toilet had been fixed over the weekend. Somehow the seal had come off so you could lift the whole toilet up off the floor and therefore there was nothing stopping the smell from coming in. ewwwww!!!!! It was really gross. Thank goodness kim lives next door.

I worked Monday and then Tuesday was….CHRISTMAS!!!! Kim, Bradley, Kent, Gigi, Francis, Kate, and I all hung out. Christmas eve was my night. I made everyone sing Christmas carols and give me my presents. We had dinner at sarah's and then watched some xmas movies. Christmas day we spent watching more xmas movies, playing settlers of cattan (seamus bought it for me…it 's in Korean), and eating good food (we had garlic and cheese mash potatoes, stuffing, veggies and chicken complete with chocolate strawberries for dessert). It was a great day. Merry Christmas.

2007-12-20T03:14:00.000-08:00

how we managed to fit about 40 people in Annie's apartment I' ll never now but we did it somehow. Last weekend was Annie's Christmas party. At first she was worried that no one would come but that never became a problem.

Friday we stayed in Yeongwol and vegged out. Then on Saturday morning kate dragged kim and I to her school to help out her nativity play (which was performed on Monday). She gave me the music and sent me to the students for a few hours and they worked on costumes. When that was finished we piled into the car and drove to Taebek to pick up brianne and her dog Ger. We got to Gangneong around 4:30 and after dropping our stuff off at annie's we headed out to meet up with Seamus, Stephen and Mike at pizza hut (mmmmmm pizza). After stuffing out faces we left Stephen and Mike, kidnapped Seamus and heading back to annie's to get ready. The party was great. Tons of food, homemade eggnog, good people, and complete with greasy mcdonald's breakfast and eggs.

The Monday was kate's play. I got out of school early and headed to kate 's school where I instantly became the backstage manager. The play went really well and kate was relieved to no longer have that stress over her.

Then the final update this blog was election day (or as the Koreans say is "erection day " they have problems with r's and l 's). everyone got the day off of school so kate and I took the new high school teacher (a New Zealand girl named Frankie) to Jecheon. Kate and I got needles jabbed in our noses and Frankie bought a guitar. Then when we were eating lunch we met some other foreigners and ended up talking to them for the rest of the day. They were really cool and now we have friends in jecheon.

2007-12-17T04:08:00.000-08:00

2007-12-17T04:04:00.000-08:00

I have now performed in Korea (and how many people can say that). Kate, Kim and I had our traditional Korean drumming performance on Tuesday night. We arrived back stage where we tried to amuse ourselves for over 2 hours only to find out later that we could have watched the other performances (oh well). Instead we got attacked by touchy children and Kim kept going into hysterics (she doesn't perform well).

We even had costumes. We looked like Korean genies with drums strapped to us (I hear it's very 'in' right now). The performance was pretty good although you can 't hear anything when you're on stage. We looked cool though. After we finished everyone came on stage and started drumming and dancing around. Then they pulled Bradley (our cameraman) on stage and randomly gave him a drum too. What a night. It was fun.

2007-12-03T19:52:00.001-08:00

last weekend was one of those weekends were you don't really do anything but you' re tired from it anyways. On Friday was Kent's birthday so we stayed in Yeongwol, ordered pizza and played poker. It was fun but by 11 kate and I were fading so we bailed.

The next day kate and I went to jetcheong to get her a car. Her co-teacher and husband took us there. We stood around for a few hours listening to others talk in Korean in the freezing cold. Never fun. The first car we took out was nearly the end of our lives. The clutch was dying as were the brakes. Then it didn't help that we didn't know where we were going or that kate is used to driving on the left side of the road. So after a few scares we arrived back we a big 'no' for that car. The next car filled the air with thick white smoke and was quickly discarded. We had to wait for the third car to come from another lot so we attempted to converse with the car dealers. The conversation mostly revolved around the typical topics soccer and whether or not we had boyfriends.

After about an hour in pulled in an ugly puck green car. We pilled in and *gasp* it worked. And it worked well. The clutch, the breaks, the steering. All of it. So kate now has a car. We're still working on a name but other than that it 's great. They drove it to her school on Monday and she has insurance for the both of us.

After car shopping we headed back to yeongwol for a quick change and dinner then jumped on a bus to Taebek (about 1.5 hours away). Jeff (one of the Taebek Epik teachers) was leaving for Canada so there was a surprise going away party. We ate some Korean BBQ. On the way drunk Brianne yelled at some Mormons (she's always keeps you on your toes). After dinner we headed to a bar for more soju (Korean rubbing alcohol disguised as beverages) and fruit (yeah fruit). Then off to the noriban (singing room) for a couple hours. It was then around 1:30am and kate and I headed back to brianne as they went to another bar. We played with her puppy for a bit then crashed.

The next morning we all went out for breakfast. Then we headed to a coffee shop for milkshakes and board games. My group played this monkey game and you can never go wrong with monkeys. Then kate and I headed back and lounged around for the rest of the day. So that endth the uneventful weekend.

2007-11-30T01:23:00.001-08:00

I know I know I haven't written in a couple of weeks, you can stop the hate mail (honestly people don't you have anything else to do?)

So where did I leave off…oh yes. Two weekends ago kate and I went to Taebek for Brianne 's b-day party. We spend Friday night lounging around then caught the bus on sat. Now a few weeks earlier kate had forgotten her cell phone at the Taebek bus station so our friend Pearly had picked it up. Now I was bright enough to forget my cell phone back in yeongwol so we were cell-less (not a good thing in Korea). We found a pay phone and gave Pearly a call. She said she would meet us in the main park in 2 hours. We got some grub and then went wandering. There are many exciting sights in Taebek including foreign Mormons (who else would walk in pairs wearing matching suits and ties, carrying black books and sporting Nasa haircuts?). a group of Korean hikers stopped us to pose for pictures (so kate and I are now in some random korean's picture collection). Then we went for coffee (which in our case means hot chocolate) and Pearly found us shortly afterwards.

We got kate's cell phone back and met up with biranne at her place. She had just bought a puppy so that was the highlight for a while. Over the next couple of hour people started spewing in. Around 7 o'clock we all pilled into 8 taxis and headed out for dinner (mmmmmm Korean BBQ). After the dinner (and the drinking) we went bowling. Yup that's right 25 foreigners in a Korean bowling alley. I started by smoking all my opponents in the first game but got to cocky in the second and bombed. It was around midnight when we left the bowling alley and headed for the bar. Kate, Pearly and I bailed on the bar to go to bed cause we had to get up early the next morning to head back to yeongwol for paragliding.

We stopped in at Brianne's the next morning to say goodbye among the zombie-like, some still inebriated group and headed off. We got to yeongwol and scattered to put on every piece of clothing we owned for warmth on top of the mountain. After much disorder we all pilled into various cars and got to the top of Bongrai Mountain. We hung out there for a few hours only to come back down disappointed cause the winds were too strong. So we hung out the rest of the day and pearly headed home complete with an escort to the bus station in her PJ's (which I heard about from my students for the next couple of days).

The next weekend was American Thanksgiving so Kate and I made a feast. We got the use of Kate's school for the kitchen and especially the oven. We started off with inviting 22 people but by the end there were 8 of us. All the Americans but one bailed (of course I mean it's only their holiday) so it was a fun day of Koreans (Kate's co-teacher and her daughter), Canadians (Seamus and me), a Brit (Kate of course), Australians (Mike and Suzie) and our token American (Annie). We had 4 chickens (couldn't find any turkeys), mountains of mashed potatoes (garlic and plain), veggies, stuffing, onion sauce (needed something random, it was a Brit making it) and of course pumpkin and apple pie. We were stuffed. It was good. Kate and I are still living off of the left-overs.

The rest of the weekend Annie, Kate, Seamus and I hung out. I remembered why kate and I go away every weekend cause there isn't much to do. But we had fun anyways and I even had battle wounds (a weekend isn't complete without battle wounds).

2007-11-11T17:36:00.000-08:00

Another weekend of travel and random adventure. I left from work early on Friday to go to wonju to get a Korean driver’s license. I just finished ‘the class from hell’ (they were ok that week but still mocking, loud, and rebellious…but little did they know they were doing it in English mwha ha ha). So I was a little peeved and rushed running to the bus station (I was cutting this whole thing close. The driving centre closes at 5pm, I was leaving at 2:30, it takes 1.5 hours to get to wonju and about 15 minutes to get from the bus station to the driving center…close!). I arrive and get my ticket and kate is nowhere to be seen. The bus says they have to go and the next one will be in 15 minutes. Kate has my stuff. Aaarrrgggg!! Fine. 30 seconds after they leave she shows up. then on the last minute she bails on me (it’s ok I forgive her). I tell her I’m pissy and that I have to go or I’m gonna snap at her. She understands and goes back home. I get on the bus and calm down (I do have 1.5 hours to go). I get into the bus station and it’s 4:40pm. Should I go or forget it? No I’ll try. I get there just before 5pm. They take me in (I love this country), give me my license YEAH and then one of the girls gives me a ride back to the bus station (I LOVE THIS COUNTRY). I’m now gonna head into Seosan to visit Braden before he heads back to Canada for a month. I can stay in wonju (for $35 and take a direct bus in the morning) or I can go to seoul tonight and try and get a bus from there to season and if not stay the night in a sauna for $10. hmmm. Everyone I know in wonju is away for the weekend…I’ll go to seoul, why not? I jump on a bus.

Now here is where the fun begins. So little known to me I miss the seoul stop and keep heading off and I end up in Suwon (about an hour away). I keep looking for the subway, can’t find it (because there is none), finally ask and find out that you have to take taxis here. Ok. Try to get the taxi driver to take me to the express bus terminal. But I’m at the express bus terminal (the suwon express bus terminal but I don’t know this). They take me to the other bus terminal (which of course isn’t right) so I start calling people to try and figure this out. Now it’s a good things that with my spontaneity I’m also extremely calm in these situations. I get a hold of dusty and he talks to the driver…I end up right back where I started. Oh well. I find out that a bus leaves for soesan in the morning at 7am and I’m about to look for a sauna when I get a hold of braden. He gives me the number of one of the Korean teachers. She talks to a taxi driver and (light bulb) I’m told I’m in suwon (ahhhhh). That explains everything.

So I find a sauna in the bus terminal and $8 later I’m naked in a hot tube. Now it’s one thing to be a naked foreigner with another naked foreigner, it’s another thing to be the only one. I didn’t stay there long. I go to the sleeping area and start reading. About 15 minutes in I get interrupted by this Korean man speaking to me in English. He’s a nice man who works for Samson traveling around a lot. We speak for a couple hours. He keeps exclaiming that he can’t believe I’m staying in the sauna. Westerners never stay in the saunas (whatever…it’s cheep). At midnight I go to the woman’s sleeping area and crash until 6:30 get up and catch the bus.

I arrive in soesan at 9am and get picked up by braden. We have breakfast and then head up a mountain. We meet these cute Korean girls who play with us for an hour or so with hoola hoops and jump rope. Then we head down and meet up with some others teachers (Michelle, Korean English teacher, Abi, English teacher, and Harmony, new English teacher) for sushi. Yeah I love sushi and I’ve been missing it like nothing else. It was amazing.

The weekend was good. Full of risk, good food, theological debates ( I haven’t had those in a while) and hanging out. On Sunday I hopped on a bus back to seoul. I got to seoul and had to wait 2 hours until the next bus, then it was 30 minutes late so by the time I got back to yeongwol it was 10pm. Late night but a fun weekend.

2007-11-04T20:21:00.001-08:00

I think I have a talent for strange people finding me here. This weekend was girl’s weekend. I set after school to Gangneong to go visit Annie, only to find out that the bus doesn’t leave until 7pm. Oh well, I headed back home, had some dinner than headed to the bus station again. Nope, not 7pm but 7:40pm. So I opened my book and started reading. About 30 minutes in I get stopped by this Korean guy who offers me coffee. I tell him no thanks. The bus shows up and we start lining up. The same Korean man is standing behind and starts talking to me. I don’t know Korean, he doesn’t know English. You’d think the conversation would end there. Nope. I get on the bus first (he’s taking a smoke break) and I sit down and put my bag on the other seat. Now there are maybe 5 people on this bus for about 50 and the Korean guy decides he wants to sit right next to me. I move my bags reluctantly, hoping he’s going to leave me alone. He still tries to talk to me (it’s not going anywhere) and won’t he stops for a bit I put my headphones in and start listening to music. About 30 minutes into the drive the bus decides to break (great). The Korean man put his jacket on my lap (ok thanks, with the bus stopped it was getting a little cold) then left to help fix the problem. They worked on the bus for 1 hour and the Korean man kept coming back in and tucking me in with the coat (ok creepy!). finally we got the bus going and ended up in Gangneong. He then insisted on staying with me until Annie showed up, thank goodness that wasn’t very long.

Annie and I headed to Emily’s house for a get together. We hung out there till around midnight then headed back to Annie’s. we then preceded to stay up until 2am talking which wouldn’t have been all that bad except I woke up at 7:30am unable to get back to sleep. So I read until 10 when Annie woke up. We had some breakfast and headed to e-mart for some winter shopping (yeah $10 sweaters and $15 jeans).

We jumped on a train in the afternoon to Donghai where the girl’s night would be. We were the first ones to get to Megan’s place. Megan and i headed out to get some things done while annie stayed to greet the others. I wanted to get my hair straighten so we went to this Korean salon. 4 hours, $130, and 3 koreans later my hair was cut, permanently straightened and wonderful (a little expensive but it means I can be lazy for the next 6 months). Back to megan’s then we headed out to dinner. We had Korean bbq. It was good. Then we headed back to megan’s to get dressed. They convinced me to put on heels and makeup and an outfit (what is korea doing to me AHHHH!!!!!). we went to a bar and got drinks and snacks for $5 each (I love kroea). We stayed there until 3am then crashed back at Megan’s. once again, I was up at 8am. So I read. Everyone else got up at 10am, we had some breakfast then headed back to our homes. Kate, brianne, and I took the bus to Taebek (where kate left her phone) and then kate and I headed back to yeongwol. We got back around 5pm had a glorious English breakfast for dinner (ahhh gotta love that grease) with kim and crashed at 9pm. What a weekend.

2007-10-28T20:58:00.001-07:00

So my weekend in seoul was pretty nuts. I spent more money that I probably should have but hey at least I have warm stuff for winter. It’s started to get cold and sometimes I need gloves and scarves. I can’t wait till it starts to snow.

We arrived in seoul on Friday night, found a motel and then went out on the town. We found this great Canadian bar (ahhh it felt like home) and ordered a big plate of nachos (so wonderful) and some beers. We hung out there most of the night and kept meeting up with different people from Ganwon-do (the province I’m in). it was really weird seeing so many foreigners. It was freaking us out. They were EVERYWHERE!!!!! In the bar alone there were more foreigners than in our entire county. After the bar we got some food and walked around getting in at about 3am (yeah this weekend did not contain much sleep).

The next day we sent shopping for various things we needed. That took us all over seoul. It was good to find where the cheap items are and now I have a better idea of where things are in seoul.

So after shopping the main thing was the Halloween party. I went as Natasha the Russian Spy. I had a gun strapped to my thigh and everything. I used it to shot at the drunkers. That was fun. I had a great time seeing everyone I haven’t seen in a while and dancing the night away. After the bar we went to a noriban (singing room) for an hour and then to a club just past hooker hill (such a weird place) for more dancing. The club wasn’t that great and kinda slimy so at 3am I headed back to the motel. I met up with brianne and we crashed for the night.

The next day we got up, grabbed some breakfast (I laughed at everyone who had a hangover) and then we got some spices (I love spices) and some books (there is always a need for books) and started headed home. When we got to the bus station they’re were only 2 tickets left for the next bus (there were 3 of us) so I was going to wait 2 hours till the next bus but luckily not everyone who bought a ticket showed up so I got to get on with the others.

We got home around 5pm on Sunday and shuffled home. We had nachos (started the weekend with then might as well finish the weekend with them) and crashed.

2007-10-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

ok so i've now carved a whole chicken with chopsticks and a boy in my class added a penis to the hangman. what next?

2007-10-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

WARNING: this is a vent...

I'm going to kill something or someone. i have this one class that won't listen. now i'm not talking a little bit of won't listen i'm talking about talking the whole time won't pay attention to anything listen. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! i don't know what else to do. i've tried rewarding them for good behavior, i've tried reasoning with them, i've tried compromising, i even tried yelling at them. i don't know what to do anymore. do i have to go all drill sargent on them. cause i will. i understand now why the korean teachers hit them so much. i'm so fricking frustrated. and this is me. it takes quite a lot for me to lose my patience but i've lost it now.

every other class of my 17 listens. yes some are better than others but i have control of the class. this one no. they' re completely out of control. i'm so angry. this has ruined my whole day. my heart is pumping. i'm shacking i'm so angry. i don't wnat to have to become a major bitch but i don't see any other option.

2007-10-21T22:06:00.001-07:00

Well an exciting adventure of rock climbing I’m back at school sore, tired but happy. Kim, Bradley, Sophia, David and I left on Friday afternoon and headed to Daegu (a big city in the province south of us). About 5 hours later we arrived and upon pacing back and forth cell phones (excellent inventions and necessities in other countries) we found a motel for the night. We dropped our stuff off and headed into the night. We past a pirate and a knight, took pics then headed back to crash for the next morning.

We got up early and found the subway. We were so organized we didn’t even mess up. We took a bus for about 1 1/2 hours to our desired location. Then we saw it: the bull. Yes, that’s right we were going to climb a giant bull. We phoned the guy in charge and he gave us the drill, bolts, and holds to get started (they take the bottom ones off so no one will play and kill themselves). These climbs were crazy hard. They lasted forever and you’re arms burned out in no time. They weren’t the best designed so you mostly had to muscle your way up but it was fun none the less. After about 6 hours of climbing and freezing we headed back to Daegu. We got changed and headed off to Cosco. Now I’ve never been so excited to be in a Cosco store before. English, everywhere. And name brands I recognized. And North American food. We were all giddy strolling around. We left about 2 hours later full of food (we had all brought bags and suitcases to fill with cosco goodies).

The next morning I left early (I had to meet one of my students in the afternoon) and took the train back. It took about 4 hours. I arrived exhausted but happy with the outcome. 2 of my students and my co-teacher arrived and we worked on one of my student’s speech for the next few hours. He goes to the National English Speech Competitions on wed.

So now I’m back at another week of teaching. They’re going by so quickly. This next weekend I’m heading to Seoul for the EPIK Halloween party. I’m going as a Russian spy (I even have a fake gun to shoot at the drunks with hehehe).

2007-10-15T18:37:00.001-07:00

So the speech and the play went pretty good yesterday. My boy (his English name is Fred) got 2nd place in the speech. I’m so proud. I was smiling the whole time. He has so much energy when he talked that it was a breath of fresh air compared to the regular drone that the other’s had. The play was shorter than the others so we didn’t do as well but it was really funny. I had one of the boys dress in drag to be the girlfriend. It was hilarious. He was wearing a wig, a skirt and a pink shirt complete with mid-drift showing. Ahhh I love torturing them.

After the play I took them out for ice cream. Some other boys came by and wanted some too so I kept telling them how good the ice cream was or that I didn’t understand what I wanted. I’m so cruel. Today I’m teaching the 1st years. They are great. They don’t know as much English as the rest but they are so willing to talk. They will do anything for some candy. I did a lesson on describing people today. I’ve never had so many volunteers to describe me before. They would say anything for a point. I kept getting called beautiful and sexy, it’s great.

2007-10-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

So Kate, Kim and I started taking traditional Korean drumming lessons on Monday nights. They’re great. We have bradley’s co-teacher Mr. Bahk translating for us and then we have Mr. Bahk’s master drummer teaching us. It’s really hard. You have two different sticks. One is flat and you use this to make a sharp muted sound on the right hand side of the drum. Then you have a round ended stick that you make a loud sound on your right. You also bring this stick across and use it on the right. The hard thing is that the right side you hit and keep it there to create the muted sound and with the left hand you spring it to create a louder brighter sound. My brain gets mixed up trying to do both. But it’s a lot of fun.

So yesterday Mr. Bahk invited us and Sarah to go see a traditional drumming performance at the cultural center. We went and it was amazing. They are really good. Well at the last number all of a sudden Mr Bahk (who was the mc) called us all by name to come on stage. We all looked at each other and thought @#*$*! Is he going to make us play. We’ve had two lesson. We all suck. Well it wasn’t that bad. We only had to go on stage and dance with the other performers (they dance and play at the same time). So we all piled up on stage and danced our hearts out.

Today I get to judge all the English speech contests from the different school in Yeongwol and then show the English play that I’ve been directing. I hope it goes well. Wish me luck…oh wait no don’t I need to break a leg.

2007-10-09T01:26:00.000-07:00

my bad...apparently the number i gave only works within Korea. so my number for everyone else is 011 82 10 7164 0858.

2007-10-01T18:42:00.001-07:00

So my night last night was certainly an interesting one. The exams finish and I head out for the hike. There are 6 of us going. Mr. Pak, who is the Ethics teacher that has befriended me, Mr Ham who is the 3rd year of middle school English teacher and then 3 others that I haven’t really met yet. The female teachers all went home to look after the children while the males and I went out to play. Well when Korean say hike they mean hike. We drive for about 30 minutes till we finally find the entrance of the hike and start to go up and I mean UP. I’m thinking holy crap this is steep it should start leveling out soon. But I am wrong. So I start to wonder where are the switchbacks? (zig zag paths up steep terrain) but none are coming. As more and more profanity enters my brain and I start cursing the fact that this is my 4 hike in 3 days, I start to wonder if Koreans even know about switchbacks. Then as we get to slight crest I think thank goodness we have reached a resting point, only to see another mountain ahead of me. Once I realize there is more a worse feeling hits my stomach. The Koreans aren’t stopping. Not even for 5 seconds. They keep going. WHAT?!?!?! So it dawns on me why they don’t have switchbacks: Koreans are part mountain goat.

Now I’m not the most incredible hiker but I’m not bad, but I felt like the laziest, weakest thing in the world (at least I wasn’t the worse in the group). Sufficient to say with a 30 minute lunch we climbed over 600m of elevation in under 2 hours. The view was incredible and I’m glad I went but man, am I sore today.

Well, you’d think that that was enough adventure for one day but no, that would be too easy. We get back down and meet up with the other male teachers who had gone fishing. They start to prepare dinner. Ahhh just as it should be: the female sits on her ass while the men prepare food around her . Well the thing about Korean men is that they like to drink and the thing about dinner is that’s when you drink. So out comes an entire case of soju (tastes like a combination of homemade vodka and rubbing alcohol). Now Korean men are serious about their drinking (kinda like the Russians). There is a whole ritual into drinking and pouring soju. Well they start giving me some and well let’s just say thank goodness I’m not a lightweight. I keep telling them no but they insist they I say very little and they give me half a shot glass. Thank goodness I’m a women (hey it actually does come in handy sometimes) cause if I was male they would try and get me to drink even more.

Well the dinner is finished and Mr Ham, my vic-principle and I climb into my co-teacher’s car (don’t worry my co-teacher managed to drink basically nothing, I still don’t know how he managed it). Well it’s about a 30 minute drive and my vic-principle keep singing to me (he’s very drunk). He then start to ask me question (through the English teachers cause he doesn’t speak English). I tell him a little bit about Canada and when he hears that Canadians like beer he gets really happy. I’m thinking @#*# what have I done. Well we drive past my place and end up at a Noribang (karaoke bar). Oh great! My vice principle herds us into a booth, trusts a beer into my hand (thank goodness their beer is basically water) and start to sing. Well to make matters worse he then grabs my beer, puts it down, grabs my hand and pulls me up and start slow dancing with me. I thinking, crap what do I do now? OCWARD!!! He then precedes to dance with my to ever song while pushing his hand on my back to force me closer and not only squeezing my hand but digging his nails into my palm. Don’t ask me what that’s about. Finally they ask me to sing and I’m thinking yeah at least he won’t be touching me. Well someone else sings another song and of course he dances with me and then out of no where he just gets up and leaves. The other teachers look at me and tell me it’s time to leave. We go to the car (the vice principle still no where to be seen) and I grab my bag and book it out of there (my apartment was just down the street).

This morning everyone is back to normal so I have no idea what to make of last night. Today I will head to Wonju with Mr. Ham and his son to meet Annie (a friend of mine from Seattle who will be a new English teacher in the town next to mine). Who knows what will happen there.

2007-09-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

well the weekend was packed with fun adventures. Nichole (who is living by the North/South Korean boarder and Sophia (who is from Nanimo YEAH!!! and is now living on the East coast of South Korea) came over for the weekend to go white water rafting. I ended up having to bail because i had to go direct the english play that i'm doing mid-oct (it's a redition of the karate kid, complete with wax on wax off and everything). it turns out that it was bloody cold so i didn't miss all the much.

we spent the rest of the weekend eating good food, going on hikes, watching movies and hanging out into the wee hours of the morning. everyone left on sunday afternoon and the rest of us prepaired for a relaxing afternoon.

what happened instead was kent (another american that lives here in yeongwol) came by and asked if we wanted to go fly in a light plane. so off we went. we each took turns being the passager. it was amazing. we got to see the whole city and because it's open you can feel the wind on your face which is always a bonus.

the internet is getting (hopefully) hooked up today so i will start adding some pics then.

so now i'm sitting at my desk as the students have thier mid-terms today. in the afternoon the teachers are all going on a hike and then a picnic so that should be an experience.

2007-09-27T00:13:00.000-07:00

well i just got back from Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) and 5 days of craziness. so it started with going to Wonju to get cell phones (my number by the way is 010-7164-0858 for any who may be so inclined as to call me). Alex (my boss technically although he is more like our friend) helped us out with the translation and setup extravaganda. i never realized what a "basic" model actually was. i swear they have cell phones that do your taxes for you now. mine has yoga positions. WTF?! well after the cell phone fun and a quick stop at e-mart (korean wal-mart) we headed back.

kate and i were suppose to head to seoul on monday to meet up with some friends and braden (my friend from CBC) but we got a call from pete inticing us to come out on sunday. so being the spontaneous girls that we are we jumped on a bus. after mauvering our way to our hotel we headed into the night. we met up with some intoxicated friends of ours who were fearless of both cars and Nigerians yet terrified of the hookers on hooker hill (yes, that's right. there is a hooker hill). kate and i split up for a bit and i ended up with pete and some of his friends in a bar shaped like an igloo (only in korea). well the night came to an end and we all headed back to crash (or in some cases sober up).

kate, pete and i headed to the bus terminal to meet up with braden. we found him in front of crispy creams (ahh america influtrating the world one donought at a time) and went for some chinese food. pete headed by home and us 3 remaining went to go look around seoul. we went to the outdoor market which was really cool. ate some turkish ice cream (so good) and then headed to braden's town (about 2 hours south of seoul on the coast called sosan). we arrived at night got some korea BBQ with a friend of his, Mike. then we met up with another friend of his, Abi and headed to do some kareoky. that was fun. 2 hours later we all climbed into a cab and headed to braden's. the next morning was the official chuseok day so EVERYONE was travelling. there was only one bus to wonju so we had to go to seoul. even with buses leaving every 20 minutes we had to wait 2 hours for one. we got into seoul too late to take a bus to yeongwol so we decided to go to the sauna.

in korea you can spend the night in the sauna for about $10. we spent about 1 1/2 in the sauna (which consites of a variety of different pools of different temperatures. you go from hot to cold and back and forth. oh and it's all same sex nudity). then they give you some pj's and you head to a big room where all the men and women sleep on the floor with a leather thing for a pillow. not the best sleep in the world but cheap and do-able. we got up early the next morning and went to the sauna again. then we took an 8am bus back to yeongwol. and that was our adventure

2007-09-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

so for any of you google earth obsessees here are the coordinates for the place i'm sharing with kate in Yeongwol

37 degrees 11' 01.91" north and 128 degrees 28' 15.03" east

2007-09-16T22:31:00.000-07:00

well this last weekend Kate (the brit) and i headed to chuncheon (the capital city) for the weekend to hang out with some of the other english teachers. well i don't think i've ever eaten so much in my life. we went for famous chuncheon chicken for lunch (with enough left overs to feed an army) then for dinner we had chinese food, then snakes. i don't think i will have to eat again for a week. it was fun and a good break from spending all week siting at a desk.

I've decided that to solve the problems in my apartment i'm going to move into kate's with her. she has a big apartment with lots of space and so i'm going to go korean (get a sleeping mat for the floor) and join her. then we will turn my apartment into the guest house for when we have visitors. this will work out better because kate's apartment is on the same floor as 2 other english teachers (mine is 15 minutes away) and the 4 of us have been making and eating dinner together every night anyways that it just makes sense.

I also started teaching today. well that was a bit of a gong show. boys are...well they are very difficult. they don't like to listen so you spend most of your time trying to keep control of the class. basically, it's going to be a challenge (thank goodness i'm not soft spoken). at least with each class i get a better idea of how to control them and keep them listening (or at least not talking korean to their friend). the key seams to be bribery (candy, games, etc...) any way to bargan with them to listen for 15 minutes and then give them a game (but little do they know that with games they are speaking english also [insert evil laugh here]).

2007-09-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

I've never had so many offers for boyfriends before. the typical question when i meet a new class is: do you have a boyfriend? when i say no they usually scream and laugh. well today the boy who asked me stood up and shouted "me, me!". i asked him if he had a girlfriend (usually the best way for them to get embarassed and move on to something else) and he said "yes, you!" so there you have it. aparently i wasn't no time in getting a 14 year old korean boyfriend.

2007-09-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it just takes way too much time and energy to be honest. so because i didn't have my work visa when i was entering the country i had to buy a ticket for somewhere else. i ended up with a ticket for japan which was fine because once i got in the country as a tourist i emailed my travel agency and they refunded me the amount. well i had to submit my invoice to my school so they could pay me back. well things got really confusing when i mentioned that they needed to pay me less than the amount on the invoice. i then spent the 30 minutes trying to explain why they needed to pay me less and no one was understanding. finally my co-teacher understood (or gave up trying) but then he had to phone his supervisor and they talk for a while until they all agreed that they could pay me less.

*sigh* wow maybe to save myself the heartache i should just be dis-honest next time :)

2007-09-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

I think i've descovered a new sport...speed eating. now most of you have probably seen me eat and i'm a pretty fast eater but here in korea i'm unbearably slow. everyone has finished and left the table before i've even gotten started. i swear they don't chew, breath, anything. they just shovel, shovel, shovel. it's almost mesmorizing.

2007-09-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This is not an accurate representative of what my life is like at all times here. this is a vent.

well i've had a great (sarcasm) weekend. first i went to chuncheong on friday to get my visa and resident card sorted out. that wasn't too bad although it did cost me $110 and now they have my passport which hopefully they will mail to me next week or i'm stranded withtout a passport. after we met up with some other epik people and went to e-mart (korean equivilant to walmart). well with girls shopping like well girls and with finding out that pretty much everyone has a better apartment than me i was ready to stop and rest for a bit. I headed back with my friend Pete to see his town (it was on the way back to mine) and that was all good but (and now things start to get interesting) the next day Pete was going to come see my town so we headed down to the bus terminal and with my great brilliance we ended up going in the complete opposite direction somewhere up north of the province (yeah i'm so smart). luckly it was beautiful up there and a great ride with lots of bridges and mountains that the mistake was more of an adventure then a bitch-fest.

when we got back to Pete's town we had some dinner and then i headed (on the correct bus this time) back home (it was too late in the day for Pete to come and return in time). well it took me over 3 hours to get to my town then i lost my way a few times in downtown so by the time i got back to my apartment it was past 10pm and the whole time i'm carrying things i bought from e-mart. one such item was a toilet seat. you see my apartment is not only old and dirty, it's kinda falling apart. my toilet seat is one of those foam ones but it's been ripped and well...that's not very sanitary so i got a new one which i had the joy of installing this morning. the holes in the back where you screw in the toilet seat are too far back so i can't have a lid and the seat only covers about 2/3 of the bowl (yeah!). also my sink and my shower don't drain very well even after an entire bottle of korean drano. at least my shower heater mostly works (luke-warm is much better than cold). oh and my stove top doesn't work. so i'm having a great weekend. i've now designated this apartment a "sleep only" apartment.

hopefully things will start to get better this next week. well thank you for listening to my vent. i think i'm ok now. i'll try to write when i'm happy and satisfied next time so as not to depress you all.

2007-09-06T06:29:00.000-07:00

After about a week of orientation i'm now in my placement in Yeongwol, Gangwon-do. I'm teaching in an all boys middle school of about 500 students and they are crazy. my co-teacher is this really sweet man named Mr. Na. he's a quiet man who is dying to be an extrovert.

today i went to my school to "meet the teachers" and ended up "introducing myself" to 6 classes for 25 minutes each. that was a bit of a shock. if it wasn't for starcraft and harry potter in some of my classes it would have bombed like nothing else.

my apartment is interesting. not quite as bad as my apartment in mongolia but nothing like canada. i was ok with it until i saw the other apartment that the other foreign teachers had. all of theirs are new with air conditioning, big screen tv, new furniture and a nice kitchen and i got the left overs. aparently the teacher who was in this place before was not the cleanest and i'm finding evidence of that all the time (the expresion "so that's where that smell was coming from" has been used on a few occasion). oh well, the other girl are more girly than me so it's probably for the best. the hardest part is that they are all on the same floor and i'm in another building in another part of time. but i'm going to stop complaining now.

there are 6 american here (3 boys, 3 girls), a british girl and me so we got a good group here and many others are about an hour away. tomorrow i'm going to chucheon (the capital of the province) to sort out my visa and resident card. so cross your fingers that everything gets worked out ok.

2007-08-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

well...silly me it turns out that i already had a blog...i just forgot about it. oh well. so here we go again.

i'm sitting in the vancouver airport right now on my way to south korea to teach english for a year. it's strange sitting here and thinking about leaving the country again and heading back to asia. this will now be the 3rd year that i've lived in a different country and i'm getting a little nervous about everything. fear grips me as i think about fear such as: what if no one picks me up at the airport and i'm stranded? what if i hate it there? what if there has been some major mistake and i don't have a job after all?

but i guess those are simply the fears that always follow travel. well at least for me.

i don't really have anything exciting to say so i'm gonna stop. thanks to everyone for the goodbyes and i'll try and keep you entertained over the next year with my life.

2006-09-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

Well hello there.
This is me. This is my blog. Welcome to my world. I hope I don't freak you out too much but I may try sometimes :)

So...i'm back in Abby now back at school. it's a strange feeling being at school when you've been gone for a year. i sometimes think that the last year i was gone only amounted to a summer. But then i look around and realize that i don't know most students. it's also a little strange only taking part time classes. i'm here and yet i'm not (i'm really a figment of your imagination). I'm getting stressed a lot more than i normally do. It's like everything is crashing around me and i don't know how to move anymore. i'm in slow motion and everyone else is running at full tile. it's very confusing.

oh well that the snapshot of me for now.