365 Days of South Korea

The pros and cons of working/living at JETI

2008-06-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything in a long time because I actually left my job in South Korea. It is quite a long story and even though this blog highlights the best time in my life of working in South Korea, there are so many dark stories that most people wouldn't believe that happened to me and my coworkers. This blog was to show my friends and family all the 'good times' I was having in Korea. But deep down inside, I really wasn't having a good time at all. I have met many public school teacher or private teacher who had some great gigs in that they loved their job and their apartments. Then I met an equal amount of people who absolutely hated their jobs and living situations.

Korea is really a hit and miss type of country to work in. Even though the job post for my teacher's training job sounded incredible. Once I got there, literally the first night, things in the contract that were promised were falling apart or totally breached! My advice is talk to the school yourself, ask for photos, and make sure they really explain every article in the contract. Don't consider yourself annoying by asking a million questions. I thought I asked a bunch of questions, but apparently I didn't ask enough because simple things like my employer shutting down hot water in my house on the weekend happened even though the contract promised hot water.

I only survived working at JETI for 5 months and I sure did get to see the good and bad about working in a foreign country. But unfortunately I experienced to much negativity which eventually lead to me leaving along with another coworker. I am an experienced traveler who has traveled to a variety of Asian country and I have also lived in Japan. But honestly, Korea is quite different from most Asian countries. I recently found out that another 4 coworkers were leaving as well before the end of the contract. Now there are a total of 6 position opened with 2 of the teachers renewing their contracts.

If anyone is looking for honest advice about working and living at The Jellanamdo Educational Training Institute (JETI), here are some pros and cons of working in Korea:

Pros
- Great pay - you can save a lot of money because the cost of living is quite cheap and you get a rent free, nearly fully furnished apartment
- Western restaurants in Gwangju - McDonalds, KFC, Popeyes chicken, Starbucks, and other Western places are available because some types of Korea food are not that appealing to Western palates!
- Overtime work - at 30,000 won now (use to be 10,000) there is always tons of marking to be done because trainees are constantly writing essays!
- Opening and closing parties - a great way to bond with your trainees. Sometimes there are up to 100 trainees with a variety of English levels. However, parties are great way to sing and dance the night away with your trainees.
- Field trips - during each one month workshop, you get to go on a field trip with all the trainees to a city in Korea. The trips are paid for and they are great mini break from work!
- Hours of work - now you teach 9am-6pm which is better than teaching either in the morning or afternoon (alternating schedule). So you have your evening free to mark essays!
- The institute is located in between some rice paddies, farmer fields and some beautiful mountains. If you really love nature and isolation from the city, you'll love it here!
- One month long workshops - if you enjoy spending lots of time bonding with your trainees, then it's a great opportunity for you to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner with your trainees. You are also encouraged to spend your free time in the evening with the trainees.
- Lots of team bonding - there were times when after work I was in my apartment on campus and I was told I must come to eat dinner with my supervisors. In Korea, everyone does what they are told and it's about being a 'Korean family'

Cons
- The institute is far from Gwangju - there are only 2 buses:
- Bus 225 - comes once an hour on the hour and takes 30 minutes to reach to edge of the city. If you want to go downtown, it will take up to 45 minutes, on a good day of traffic. Bus stops running at 9pm
- Bus 187 - comes once an hour about the same time as the 225. A way longer route that kinda drops you off near the edge of town. It goes up the local mountain so it takes a while and isn't safe in the winter. Bus stops running at 9pm.
- There are NO amenities near the institute. You need to take the 30 minutes bus ride to town for groceries or to eat at a restaurant. There is a small town about a 20 minute walk down the winding road. In the town there is a local corner store with some basic supplies. There is also a bank and post office. Otherwise, anything else you need you need to go to Gwangju!
- In Korea, not only at my job, but at many other schools, Koreans are always right. What I mean by this is that there is no room for negotiation or having an opinion. You must do what you are told no matter how much you disagree because in the end you never win a battle in Korea.
- Status and power - In Korea, the older you are, the more power you have. Being a young female in Korea, I was frowned upon constantly and scrutinized. My older male coworkers were respected way more despite some of their unethical behaviours (for example, one of my older male coworkers came to work hung over and stinking of alcohol. My supervisors turned a blind eye to it even though in the contract it's grounds for termination).
- Taking time off for personal appointment or vacation - if you need to go to the doctors or take a day off to be sick, think twice. In a workshop, you can not because there is no one to teach your classes so you must be there. If you want to take vacation, this is impossible. Once we were in Korea, we were told we must take our vacation at the end of the contract (even though this wasn't mentioned in the contract). This is because the one month workshops literally run back to back with only one week breaks in between so you can prepare for the next camp. So it is a very exhausting job!
- Lack of communication - Korea is still catching up at learning English and is quite far behind then most Asian Countries. It is very hard to communicate both at work and in the city. There is constant misunderstandings that have caused many problems. Always ask your employer to write down what they want you to do. One day they tell you to do something and the next day they'll change it. Even if you mention what they originally wanted, they will deny it. My Korean employees would constantly change their mind which is frustrating because you would do a lot of work for nothing!
- Being ranked - in Korea, like most Asian countries, it is all about being #1. In the camp, you must give each trainee a different score. So even if 3 people wrote perfect essays, each one needs a different score (100%, 99%, 98%). So at the end of the workshop, one trainee is selected to be number 1 even though in actually you might have 20 trainees with a score of 100%. Even the instructors are ranked. This can be unfair in a way because if you receive a score of less than 3 out of 4, you can get terminated from your job.

There are really so many other things that I could go on and on about. When I was looking for information about JETI when I applied, there was nothing on the internet. My friend and I took a chance because we love Asia and Asian culture. I just want to provide some insight into teaching at JETI.

If you have any questions what so ever please feel free to email me at backpacking_roxy@hotmail.com

I'll be glad to give you the good and bad about anything you like to know!

All the best to the future JETI teachers!

Last images of Korea...That I forgot to post!

2008-03-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some last memories/moments of my time living and working in Korea. Even though I will now be going on to my 6 month of living in Korea, I realized this is definitely not the place where I want to be in life. I have enjoyed my time exploring different parts of this country, definitely not the food, and getting to experience a different culture. Lots of good times and well a fair amount of bad times (mainly work related) that have lead me to choose coming back to Calgary to my family and friends. I have truly gained an appreciation for my wonderful life I have back in Calgary. Canada is a beautiful country that is full of opportunity and many luxuries. I am happy to be going home.

So here are photos:

One night, with some last minute instructions from our employers, we were told we must all go out for dinner to the Outback Steakhouse together. It is apart of team building. I am not a fan of fake scenarios where you can feel the tension between the Koreans and foreign teachers. Lots of kissing butt by pouring alcoholic beverages to supervisors (I didn't do this even though people who are lower in the totem pole of status should be).

After a painful dinner where my employers got drunk and then proceed to drive home afterward like assholes, yes, I said it because I hate people that drink and drive. The girls and I decided to take a taxi but first we were going to wonder around a new part of Gwangju. It was the new part of the city and was full of flashing lights and neon signs. I think it's funny that at the Outback Steakhouse, they give each guess a complementary dinner roll with butter in a bag for a gift. It's weird. But the girls and I decided to hand it out to random people on the streets of Gwangju. The funniest thing is that high school kids were all over it. But full grown business men where scared to death of white woman approaching them. Literally, a group of 5 men ran away from us! Korean men, well, they aren't the bravest.

Here is a typical street vendor selling different foods. I had to take a picture of the girls because as you can see those Korean men are staring. This is super common in Korea to have men stare at us white woman. Sometimes they make comments and snicker. I find it's rude and sometimes I said to men, 'Hi, can I help you because you are staring?" then they turn away because they are embarrassed.

Here is the newer part of Gwangju. For some reason, all over Asia, especially in cities, they love using neon signs for advertising. I think it's interesting and sometimes really really tacky. Most of the time I can't even read the signs so I have no clue what these stores sell.

Garbage in piles everywhere. Yes, at night there are huge piles of garbage all ready to be picked up. The most messed up things is that there never are any public garbage cans during the day. So if you buy a drink or a snack from the convenient store, you need to eat it there so you can throw your garbage out. It's uncommon to eat and walk.

I love vending machines, especially odd onces like this that sell telephone cards, coffee and cans. maybe they should change the word 'cans' to 'pop' or 'soda' but technically it's not a can. Unless they say 'can of pop or soda'.

Thai massage sign on the back of a truck. Now that is clever advertising.

Chonnam University - an interesting part of the town where there is a large student population. I like how there are a variety of restaurants, bars, clubs, cafes, and just some nice scenery. I enjoyed hanging out here and taking in the university life all over again, minus the studying.

I wicked photography skills of the flowers in bloom in Korea. Look at the bee work it for the camera!

The notorious holding of hands. Koreans love holding hands with friends. Men with men, woman with woman. However, boyfriends and girlfriends don't really hold hands because well that isn't acceptable. What is up with that? So homosexuality is frowned upon heavily but yet if you were to just walk off a plane as a tourist in Korea, you would think, man this is one big gay country. Even at the sauna, you see friends scrubbing each other down in the nude. So that is okay but true love between 2 people of the same sex isn't? By the way, girl in the middle of the hand holding, mini backs are so 90s.

These are the guard dogs at the gas station where my bus to my house stops at. These dogs look so sad and skinny. I feel bad for them. Apparently Koreans do eat dogs and many of my Korean teachers talk about eating 'dog stew' especially for men's stamina. hmm, I don't know but that ain't right.

Did someone says fridge sale? I have never seen so many different kinds of fridges in one store.

A glove making factory. Yup, I watched these machines turn out some gloves. It was interesting that no one was around and this shop was wide open. Weird. I could have stolen at the gloves in the middle of the day.

So this lady hangs out near the bus stop by the giant Homeplus grocery store in Gwangju. I think she sells various yogurt drinks. Yup, yogurt drinks are quite the trend here. You can get different yogurt drinks that supply you with different types of vitamin and effects (like prune yogurt drinks to clear out your colon). What boggles my mind is that when I worked at Second Cup coffee shop during university, a lot of Asian customers always wanted soy milk because they were lactose intolerant. Yet, in Korea, all coffee shops, including Starbucks serve homogenized milk. Even ice cream shops are super popular. Isn't that weird that Asian people aren't lactose intolerant in Asia but magically something happens when they move to Canada. Just a thought.

My little drunk farmer friend's tools for working in the field. I don't know the mans name, but I see him when I walk to the bus stop and he is always drunk and smelling like booze but he one of the nicest old men I have met. We do a lot of sign language/acting to get our ideas across to each other. One day I even gave him my green tea and he then took me to show me his house so we could drink it together. Hilarious! But honestly he one person I respect for his hard work in the fields at the age of 70.

These are some shots I took of the mountains that surround where I live.

Here is what a typical us stop looks like by where I work and live. Not really classy but it is functional for the 2 buses the come once an hour.

This is what a typical Korean farm looks like. A bit disorganized and messy to the naked eye.

So down where I live there are a handful of overpriced Korean restaurants. I have gone to 2 and they are pretty sad. The decor is bad and the food tries to look fancy with parsley bits and stuff, but it tastes bad! Some of the buildings have the oddest architecture, like this mushroom restaurants which well as you guess serves mushroom dishes. I can't eat Korean food anymore, it makes me nausea when I see it. Honestly, a lot of my coworkers don't like Korean food either.

So in one of the farmer's fields, they have a goat pen. It's cute and the goats look happy with their hay and water buckets. But right behind the goat pen is 9 dogs in tiny cages. As you can kinda see in this photo, behind the wire fence are the cages. Inside are 9 identical looking dogs. The sad thing is that I think the dogs are breed for eating. eeekkk. Under there cages are giant piles of poo which means that the dogs are pretty much living in those cages and they never get out. I don't know what to say. In North American standards, I guess most people would consider eating dogs a horrible and cruel thing to do. In Korea, it's food. But dogs are slowly becoming popular as pets here. But who knows how much longer dogs will be eaten before they eventually just become friends.

I think this tree is great. I like it because it looks like something out of a Tim Burton film.

Here is a close up of it! Scary!

The cute little tractor that one of the farmers own. It's interesting to see what simple lives the farmers live. But once you go to the city, young Koreans are covered from head to toe in name brands including ones that I haven't even heard of! haha

So this is a distance shot of JETI, the place where I worked. On the left side of the photo is the main campus with a variety of buildings. I work and live on that side of the campus. The building on the far right is the English building that is still being built. In my interview to Korea, they promised and said that is where I would be living and work. But unfortunately, that was a lie and the building will possibly be done in May.

Here is a close up shot of the campus. The white building on the left side, it is whre the international department is located (where supervisors life). I leave in a residency behind this building. It's sad to look outside my room and see my supervisors office. horrible. The other buildings are used from the management department and so on.

Here is a close up of the English building that is still being constructed. Thank goodness, I won't be living there because the apartment is like a shoebox, no joke. It's tiny.

Once again, in this photo the white building is where my supervisors work. Where my coworkers and I work is in the building red colored building behind the smoke stack. I don't know why there is a smoke stack because they never use it. But yes, I have climb three flights of stairs on giant hill to get to my office every morning.

Here is a shot of what one of the fancy restaurants near my work looks like from behind. It's pretty gross and really shabby. There is garbage everywhere and the building looks like it is falling apart. eeekkk. I have watched a few episodes of 'Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares' and this is a typical scary restaurant!

This is a photo taken near the Damyang Spa Lyndsey and I went too. It was a great treat to go to a fancy spa for only $6.00 Canadian! It was great! There is a lot of nice scenery out in the countryside I will admit.

Spring is in the air. I am a bit happy that I will not be here for the humid weather. That is killer. I have experienced it in Japan and in China in the summer. It's the type of humidity where you sweat in places you never knew you could sweat in. I like summer and sun, but Asian summers are too much for me!

The best way to say goodbye....

2008-03-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

So Lyndsey, Tim (a coworker), and I decided to have a sacred ceremony to burn a copy of our employment contract and our information booklet from Shane Finnie of Canadian Connections Recruitment Agency. May I add, that I do not recommend using Canadian Connections for coming to work in Korea. There were many things that Shane told us about our job in Korea that turned out to be false or didn't exist once we arrived in Korea. I don't want to say it was solely Canadian Connections fault, but they didn't provide us with correct information and mislead Lyndsey and I. Lesson learned, never use a recruiting agency for finding you a job.

So one brisk night, we decided that we needed to vent our feelings and emotions about working and living in Korea. So for each piece of paper we vented our feeling about all the bad and negative experiences we have had in Korea.

May I say, we did this in the dark so it was hard to see haha. But here I am looking mad and angry about Korea and all it's lies. Grrr....

Once we said how we felt and made our wishes and prayers for our futures, we lit the stack of lies. Burn baby burn!!!!!!!!!!!!

Burn Burn Burn! There were so many items breached in my contract, it makes me sick to think about it. I can't believe that a government run teacher's training institute, could be so corrupt! Oh man. Living and working in Korea has made me realize what a great life I have back in Canada with my family and friends. I am so thankful for who I am and I look forward to working for a 'professional' teacher's board back home.

Look how high those flames! I did know that lies, breached articles, and false information could make such big flames!

Afterwards, we decided to move on to something I like to do for fun, play with fireworks! I am happy that I introduced Tim to the world of Roman candles and how much fun they are. I wish him all the best! We had a great time watching these fire works go off in the pitch black sky. It was beautiful.

Oh gosh, I can't believe I still know her haha but we survived Korea together, thank God! Even tough there was LOTS of crying, eating cake, bitching over Starbucks, and watching Lyndsey eat cheeseburger "settos" from McDonalds, we survived. And now we are coming home!

Dog cafes and eco parks! What more could you want?

2008-02-25T19:31:00.000-08:00

Just so random moments that I had while living in South Korea. I'll try my best to fill you all in with details for these random moments.

This little guy is Max (my coworker Bill's son) who is really a cool kid. He is almost 5 years old and I liked hanging out with him. We would draw pictures in the staff room. It was sweet! Made me connect with my young side again haha but I am pretty much as a child sometimes! It's true!

This picture was taken on the bus to the city. Yes, the buses for some reason have weird decor like fake flowers. I don't know why. Does it make the bus pretty? I think just plain tacky!

So one night Lyndsey and I are coming back from town on the good old bus and this drunk man was just staring at us. He then started to mumble and well I just smiled and ignored. But Lyndsey turns to me and says, ' I think he speaking English' Weird eh? So it turns out he was totally speaking bits and pieces of English asking us where we are from and so on. I thought it was hilarious that he kept saying things about how pretty we were and Lyndsey and I were 'same same pretty' haha I told him he was pretty as well! It was funny. He was really friend and Lyndsey gave him a bowl of ramen from her shopping bag! I took a photo! It was fun!

This is the long road I walk down to the bus stop from my work. Yeah it's a long road with some farmers living beside it on the left. They are really nice people and are always working hard in their farming fields.

Now you know where I work haha so come and stalk me anytime! I am joking! But here is the sign that is in front of the institute. I like how around my work and house is nothing but nature and fresh air. But the problem is that it is pretty far from well life haha

I couldn't imagine a better twosome then with a cake and sandwich. Honestly, who comes up with the titles to a lot of these shops? Really!

So there is a giant eco park that is near where I live. It's pretty nice and I like it there. I think it is funny that they posted this sign in the eco park. Without seeing this sign I probably would have done at least 5 of these things while at the park haha

Here is the beautiful lake in all it's glory! I love how nice it looks!

I like my cheesy pose that I am doing by the lake. In Korea, you will see couples and friends honestly doing the cheesiest photo poses ever. Plus, they are usually deadly serious in the photos. No smiles. It's so odd to me that the photos must be perfect and really artificial. So I am imitating a couple who is beside me on the dock doing a very serious Korean couples pose. By the way, I am wearing Lyndsey's winter coat because I left mine in Bill's room while I was hanging out with Max. I make Lyndsey's coat look good.

Another scenic shot of the lake. It's really beautiful out in the country side. Lots of people come here to walk around and hang out. I think it is funny that most woman will wear high heels and skirt while walking around the eco park. I just don't understand how they do it, I really don't!

My epic shot of me enjoying the view at the eco park. I look like a goddess or so I tell myself everyday haha It must be all that kimchi that gives me a healthy glow because well that is one of Kimchi's many benefits!

So Lyndsey and I are walking back from the eco park and we see a trail of cars, the exact same make and model all parked in front of Soho restaurant. It was hilarious to see all these cars in a row. We were joking about maybe it is some kind of convention haha

By the way, Soho restaurant is something out of the Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. It is a cheesy decorated restaurant (sitting on old floral print sofas, white sheets draped everywhere, porcelain dollar store figurines, ect...) that serves really bad Western/Korean food. But people go there because it's next to the lake and looks pretty from the outside. Any who, I was there the other day because it was one of my supervisors last days at work. So the meal consisted of regular rounds of first soup and salad. The waiters had to lean over the couches to put the plates properly on the table. One young waiter had a few soup bowls on his tray and when he leaned over to put my soup on the table, he tipped the tray and a bunch of red vegetable soup landed on my bright green sweater! It was horrible. The manager scrubbed my sweater in the sink as I sat there freezing at the table. It sucked! The moral of the story: stay away from Soho's.

The long distance bus stops for washrooms and eating are sure interesting in Korea. Most rest stations provide restaurants, food vendors, sometimes knock off coffee shops, convenient stores and even prize machines to eat up your pocket change. I do enjoy watching people at rest stops haha that doesn't sound right at all! whoops but hopefully you know what I mean!

Here are some men hanging out smoking in front of the washrooms. Yes woman in Korea do not smoke in public. It is the oddest thing. I have never seen a woman smoke in Korea. It is not acceptable in societies eyes and only men are allowed to smoke in public. Trust me, most men do smoke in public!

Here is a food vendor at the bus stop who is selling some interesting bits of food. I wonder what the gruel is...

This is a caravan shop parked in the parking lot of the bus rest stop. This one is selling camping and hiking gear. If you go hiking in Korea, Koreans have specific outfits for hiking. I am not joking! Koreans for some reason have specific outfits for specific times. If you go play volleyball, which is one of the most popular sports in Korea, everyone will wear a track suit. If you go hiking, everyone will wear khaki pants, windbreaker type jacket, fishing type hat, a backpack with a water bottle and hiking pole along with hiking boots. One time I saw 20 people near my work walking in a line like ants all in their hiking gear towards one of the mountains around my work. It was insane! Koreans believe in fitting in and not being an individual.

Did you know middle school and high school girls can not wear make up, dye their hair or have piercing of any sort. If they do any of that, they are considered as a rebel and can get in trouble. It's insane. So most teens look identical with their matching hair cuts and uniforms. Sad to say, but you just have to see it to believe it!

In Seoul, Lyndsey and I stayed in Itaewon which is the foreigners part of town. Mainly it's where all the US soldiers hang out. There are a few good East Indian restaurants here. There is also an Indian and African community here. It's really odd at first because well it's Korea and there is honestly like ethnic diversity in the south where I live. This part of town is kinda sketchy at night and even has a hookers hill which is devoted to brothel like places. It's odd. Anyways, it was raining and Lyndsey and I needed a place to sleep. So we stumbled across a Korean hole in the wall hotel. So for 30 Canadian a night, this was my room. It was so sketchy with the hard as a rock pillows and weird marks all over the wall. Here is my washroom that did not even have a sink!

Here is a picture of my room. I had the worst sleep of my life in this room. The next day I thought I was going to fall over sick because I was running on no sleep.

In Seoul, I like to travel in style. I bought this giant 2L water for $1 Canadian. What a bargain compared to buying a 500 mL bottle for $0.50. You do the math! But it is a bit unsafe to drink the tape water here in Korea. So I am bottle water girl here. I also went to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I hope they hope them in Canada. They are awesome. I like the gingerbread latte. It's the coffee shop of celebrities like David Beckham. Ohh smashingly good!

TGI Friday's isn't that great as I make it out to be in this photo. But it is one of the few Western restaurants in Korea. Beggars can not be choosers. But the foods is overpriced in comparison to eating local food. Literally it's 2 to 3 times more expensive to eat Western food. So when I get home, oh man, watch out, I am going on an eating rampage!

I couldn't resist this little guy outside of a noodle restaurant. He is cute! The women who were making noodles in the little see through room on the edge of the restaurant where laughing at me!

Enough said...But this odd clothing store with a hilarious name sells clothes that remind of Ralph Lauren meets the Gap to go yachting. It was odd and to top it off the song that was constantly being played was 'tiny yellow polka dot bikini' non stop by singing children. Just horrible. I could not work there.

The dog and cat cafe. Yes, this friendly groomers shop (literally it's on one side of the cafe beside the washroom) is a popular little joint in Gwangju. For $5 Canadian dollars you can spend endless time playing with dogs and cats dressed up in costumes. Yes it is true! The worst thing is that you get a horrible tasting instant coffee in a travel mug to sip on while you are there. It was the worst coffee ever!

Here is an evil cat, I saw evil because he tried to bite me, looking outside the window and planning his root of escape. The treats in the background can be purchased as well to feed the animals here. Lyndsey and I were wondering if the dogs and cats were owned by the cafe or customers who send them there to get groomed. Little do the customers know, the owners are charging people to play with there animals. Hmmm, it was thought Lyndsey and I discussed.

Here is my little pink dog friend. It slept on me. It was super cute. I couldn't tell if it was a guy or a girl because of it's puffy fur and nor did I bother to look. I am super tired in this picture because Lyndsey and I took the bus back from Seoul that day at 3:30am in the morning. I woke up at 1pm and Lyndsey and I decided to go to the dog cafe!

The little dogs in the background playing away with some customers. I like how this cat was busy watching the TV and not interacting with the customers. It was hilarious!

This giant chow chow was so adorable. He had a little bow in his hair which made me sad because well he is a boy and why is he wearing a girls boy in his fur? I don't get it. But this dog was cute and I gave him a hug and in return he sneezed into my hair and tried to lick my ear. Naughty!

This is the puppy now awake and me pretending to eat it. I am joking, I am not! But I don't think it spoke English because we had a hard time communicating.

This dog well I feel sorry for it. Look at it's crazy hair do and to top it off they make him look like a French artist with a tiny hat. It's horrible. This dog hid the majority of the time. I wanted to rescue him and give him a proper hair cut!

Overall, the dog cafe was pretty interesting to play with random dogs and cats. I like how a lot of the animals were friendly. I didn't enjoy how my nose was itching from all the animal hair after. It smelt like giant animal in there considering there were like 20 animals in a room with the sun shining through massive windows. Yeah not so smart!

Otherwise, the adventures continue, I am enjoying them as they unravel.

Chinese New Year in Shanghai, China!

2008-02-11T04:34:00.000-08:00

This is a long entry and I am too tired to check the grammar of it. Please enjoy!

China - you gotta love it! When some people think of China, random images pop up in your mind like panda bears, rice, ginger beef (this does not exist in China!), and other such images. All I can say is that, in order to experience China you just have to go and see it yourself. Literally you need to use all your five senses to truly understand the beauty of the country. Don't get me wrong in that I believe China is the best country possible. There are somethings that I don't like such as men spitting on the sidewalk, the smell of cigarettes and the unhygienic street food. Being this is my second time to China, I just find more and more great things that amuse my curiosity about humanity.

Lyndsey and I caught a flight from Muan airport which is outside of the town of Mokpo. This airport is no joke of a lie, the quietest airport I have ever been too. The Saturday we flew, our flight was scheduled for noon. I thought as I got to the airport that it would be bustling with lots of international flights. I was wrong. There was only one flight, ours to Shanghai. Here is the real kicker, it was delayed because of the weather in China. So Lyndsey and I sat around from 9:30am till 2pm waiting for an announcement. Finally a lady from China Eastern Airline told us the flight was rescheduled to 8:00pm. We were tired and a bit mad because this airport had one restaurant (that served Korean food...eee....) and a convenient store that I ate some ramen at! So we hopped the local bus and went to Mokpo for some food. We ended up walking around for a bit and finally went to a BBQ restaurant. I was told I couldn't order BBQ cause it would just be for me and two people had to order. So Lyndsey had some Bibimbap (famous Korean rice dish were you mix a bunch of fermented vegetables with rice and hot pepper paste - I don't like it!) and then I ate some Japanese food before heading back to catch our flight.

Once we checked in and passed Korean customs we waited for our flight. Little did I know but this sign informed me of Muan's pride and joy of their town - the yellow soil onion. wow....

So Lyndsey and I arrived late in China and we had to take a jammed packed bus from the airport to People's Square (the center of Shanghai). It was interesting because we didn't have a travel guide. We printed off some random things from the internet and hoped for the best! When we arrived to People's Square it was dark and cold and near 11pm. We wandered down the street and say a hotel named '24 K Hotels' and decided to book it there. It was a really shitty hotel. I won't lie. We payed about $35 Canadian for a room with a stained floor, mystery marks on the wall, a head to toe brick covered bathroom. Yeah it sucked and it was super cold and I was shivering in bed and decided to ask the front desk for some blankets. They then said the central heating was broken. Thanks 24 K Hotel! I will recommend you in the future!

Here is a picture of the view from the hotel window! Nice! Some dead chickens and a fish. I am not a fan of the shops that literally sell smoked chicken legs, pig heads and all random pieces of animals. It's weird and to top it off they don't unrefrigerated meat in China for the most part. Only at the fancy supermarkets. People will go up and eat some meat on a stick that has been cooked on a sheet of metal that lies on top of a hollowed out can stove. Oh China!

Shanghai has a wicked subway system. I love subways! It is great just like the Japanese subway system. Clean and efficient. Plus in Shanghai it is really cheap. About $0.50 for a one way ticket to most places. Now that is a savings! The subway as you can see is always busy and booming. It is interesting how people push on to the trains. Even if a train is full, someone will try and cram themselves on to it. There were a few times where Lyndsey and I were very closely pressed up against a variety of strangers!

Shopping is huge in Shanghai. Considering it is spilling over with rich people with lots of disposable income! The Chinese dress super nice and love wearing name brand clothing. It is interesting that in Korea, there are many stores that honestly sell the same nameless brands of clothes. Korean clothes are usually made of this odd felt like material and polyester. They also love tacky sparkles, feathers, and all sorts of loud and gaudy accessories. The Chinese on the other hand, dress pretty Western and well really nice! I admire their sense of fashion!

The Bund - the area of Shanghai that is divided by a river. There is the old part of Shanghai on one side and the new part of Shanghai on the other. Lyndsey and I walked for hours because we didn't have a travel guide to tell us where to go. Eventually, we stumbled upon it in the cold! This place was pretty nice with some tall buildings. Not as many buildings as in Hong Kong upon the water front. You'll have to forgive how bad I look because I didn't get much sleep the first few nights and it was pretty cold walking around all day!

Here I am in front of the Pearl Tower. The fog in the air existed for about 4 days while we were there. It was odd and made the air cold! There is also a tacky tacky tourist tunnel from the old side of Shanghai to the new side of Shanghai. Basically you ride a cart through the tunnel while looking at different themed exhibits for $9 Canadian. We just couldn't do it! Even the pictures of the tunnel were cheesy with the strings of lights and bad elevator music playing the background!

The Bund view as the sun is setting and I am getting pretty cold! Shanghai is fairly clean and well kept. The stores are super impressive in that they have the most Western consumerism I have seen in Asia so far. Everything from 'Zara' to 'H&M' to 'Roxy Quicksilver' stores are everywhere. Shanghai is truly an international city!

McDonalds - it is taking over the world! I swear! Even in Asia, McDonalds is super cheap and the food choice of many young generations. Some of the older Korean teachers tell me that it is 'horrible' because it is making young Koreans fat! I don't think it's really McDonalds but lack of moving around after eating McDonalds!

Once again a super cheesy pose in front of the Pearl Tower statue! I like to pose! Shanghai is really a giant city and Lyndsey and I saw maybe 1/4 of it!

We stumbled across 'Hooters' while shopping at the Brand Name Mall. This mall was pretty fancy and had a great selection of food and stores. I couldn't believe there was Hooters in China. Apparently there is one is Seoul as well...Who would have known?

I don't know what exactly was happening here. This is in front of a TV station. So I imagine some famous stars and possibly young male stars were there. I say this because there were a lot of young ladies with bouquets of flowers and teddy bears. It was just cool to see a bunch of girls waiting for their chance a love!

Fido Dido, is that you?!? I thought this guy disappeared a long time ago from 7 ups marketing campaign in North America. But in China, he is still going strong and I actually saw that he has a luggage line as well. Hmm, well 'ladee da' that is fancy!

Anything beautiful shot of Nanjing road and all the people shopping their little hearts out. If you look at the left side of the picture, you will see Brad Pitt modeling some watches. Yup, Western celebs are everywhere in Asia selling you everything. I think it is interesting that a lot of fashion ads and well news print ads in general have Caucasian people modeling. In China, Lyndsey and I were goddesses, no joke! Men would take photos of us on their cellphones from a distance and even some people asked to take photos with us. It was odd. In Korea, Koreans just stare at you and don't talk to you. At least in China, they talk to you and take a photo of you! Lyndsey and I were mini celebrities for a week. I now know what Britney Spears is going through! haha Not!!!

Here is the video showing Nanjing Road in action!

Mao, you're dead and that is a good thing! Last time I was in China, there were soldiers around the Mao statues especially in Beijing. But in Shanghai, no soldiers anywhere and everyone was taking photos with Mao. What happened? I can honestly say that people in China appear to be pretty happy for the most part. Even in rural China, tourism is picking up and the locals are really nice! They love a good bargain! Speaking of bargaining, I taught Lyndsey how to bargain in China. In markets you can bargain for clothes all the way to some candy. All you need to do is start really low with your price as a foreigner because the Chinese will start with 4 times what the price of the object really is. From there, it is a fun game of a little give and take from both sides. Sometimes the Chinese will use a calculator to show you the price. Then you can also use the calculator too and have a fun time crunching numbers. I love bargaining and I have been told I am pretty good bargainers because I don't get ripped off by the sales people! Lyndsey also feel in the love with bargaining and eventually she even bargained on her own without my help!

Riding the subway. Clean, safe, and reliable. What more you want? Plus, the signs are in English too and the train announcements. It's sweet!

The delicious $10 meal at a restaurant in the market place. It was super delicious and great with a bottle of Chinese beer! I love Chinese food!

The original outdoor market was closed and turned into some apartments. However, it was moved to the Science and Technology Subway stop underground. This was a great place to buy knock off everything. I like how the Chinese people entice the foreigners into their stores by saying, 'hey pretty lady' or 'lookie, lookie, I give you a good price!' I really enjoy how they want your business! Lyndsey and I went to a jeans stall and tried on some jeans behind a curtain that went up to our shoulders only. So people walking outside of the booth could see use standing behind a curtain trying on jeans. I like how the lady running the booth would look over the curtain and see us standing in our underwear. Good times!

A Chinese New Year themed decor that is plastered on a mall. We also walked down the rich part of Shanghai, Nanjing Road East where there were a bunch of high end boutiques. Of course, I could afford none of it and only used the washroom in one of the rich malls. Oh man, hopefully one day I'll be able to go on a shopping spree in a fancy mall! But you see lots of people in Shanghai shopping away. Where is all the money coming from???

Jingan Temple - the oldest temple in Shanghai that is still alive and kicking! It was nice to see people praying, offering, and getting ready for some good vibs for the new year! It is interesting to see the modern buildings in the background of such a pretty temple! With this monument, people were throwing coins at it to make wishes. So Lyndsey and I were partaking in trying to get a coin to land inside one of the holes. Lyndsey got one in after 10 tries. I gave up after 5 tries haha

Here is a shot of the temple from the staircase within the temple! They are constructing and renovating which is so common to see in Shanghai. This city is booming so fast and there are giant construction cranes everywhere in Shanghai!

Behind Nanjing road, Lyndsey and I decided to take a side street. Behind there we found a wicked little market where we did some shopping with the locals. Honestly I love finding the non-tourist markets because even the locals are a bit surprised to see a foreigner there. I like to support them a bit more rather than the bigger stores. So after shopping, we continued walking in the cold and we stumbled across this piece of art. I thought this was just such an awesome picture! I hope you see the beauty in this picture like I do!

Here is a picture of the tiny side street market that we stumbled across. Some good deals and it was sure not the cleanest of places haha but I liked how the people were friendly!

A shot of my pick me up snack on a rainy day in Shanghai. I chose the Milk Tea for a dollar and the 5 piece chicken nuggets for a dollar. $2 goodness. Lyndsey opted for the happy meal. It's odd to say but McDonalds in China tastes the same as in Canada. McDonalds in Korea tastes slightly funky. The fries have a weird coating and after taste in Korea. Man, Koreans can not cook Western food what so ever!

A shot of Pudong - the new and fancy part of Shanghai. Lots of Western style building and stores. Sometimes it felt like I was just walking around Toronto because it didn't feel like China. It's odd in that you can't really smell or feel the pollution either. In Beijing, I could blow my nose and literally it would be black inside of the tissue. I don't know what they are doing in Shanghai, but the air felt alright!

Lyndsey and I also decided to get some Chinese full body massages because last time I came to China, Annee and I had a few of them and we loved it! So we stumbled across a massage parlour on Nanjing road and thought well it must be pretty touristy and popular because of it's location. So we went up stairs and gave it ago! It was one of the most painful experiences of my life! We had two men massage us which I am not use too. Their strength pounded the kinks out of our bodies. I never thought there would be so much pain in a massage! The worst massage move was when I was sit straight up while seated, the grabbed my arms, lifted them, and jammed his knee in my back and lifted me! It was so painful. Lyndsey and I laughed because the next day we both woke up with stiff muscles haha We also ate a DQ Blizzard after the massage, so that helped!

So Chinese New Years eve, a lot of things closed early for the night. Oh no, what to do! Lyndsey and I did know! We went to Pizza Hut by our hotel because really nothing was open haha So we enjoyed a nice dinner of pizza along with other Chinese families who were out celebrating. I thought I was hilarious to see Hungarian Goulash on the menu! Here is the video of me enjoying the Hungarian goulash. I did order it for $3 Canadian, and it was a little soup bowl. I do admit, it wasn't bad and reminded me more of a watery beef stew. However, this was the closet thing to Hungarian food in a long time!

A video of Chinese New Year's eve - fire works outside of Pizza Hut

The day after Chinese new year and literally the sideways were so full of people that a lot of us had to walk on the streets. It was cool to see how there were soooo many people. I can't even explain what a cool sight it was! Plus, everyone seemed to be a good mood too.

The view across the 8 lane road to the Bund. There are all the hundreds of people lining the boardwalk of the Bund. I didn't think so many people would be downtown. Literally it was hard to walk on the wide path way because there were vendors and people everywhere! We had a somewhat crazy woman come up to us. I saw 'crazy' because had crusted foam on the outside corners of her mouth. She was chatting with us and Lyndsey's purse was on the floor by her feet, I told her to pick it up cause petty theft is popular. The lady went away as Lyndsey picked up her bag.

Didn't believe me about all the people on the other side of the 8 lane road? Well here is the shot to prove so! Look at all the people! I am standing on a bench to take this shot! After I took this photo a Chinese guy asked to take a photo with us but I let Lyndsey take the photo with this guy. His mom looked pretty happy that her son was with a nice girl like Lyndsey!

A photo I took by turning my body away from the guy who was taking the photo with Lyndsey haha So many people!

This is me freezing my little butt off on the boat tour. It sucks that we didn't know that you had to pay extra by ordering a drink to sit down. So I stood for an hour on the boat tour at the front. My nose was running by I was loving the view!

Here is the view of what I saw from the front of the boat. It was beautiful! The water was not so beautiful with some bits of garbage and cloudy water haha

Here is a video clip of the Bund walkway during the daytime!

The Oriental Pearl tower in all it's glory!

The copious amounts of people lining the walkway of the Bund as seen from the boat. Shanghai has a variety of buildings that have different architecture. It's interesting because this city doesn't feel like China. Even though I am all the way in China, it felt like I could be back in Canada. haha I can't really explain this thought.

A close up of the people on the walkway. I like how there are numerous vendors in China selling you anything on the streets. You can buy some meat on a stick, a cheesy souvenir, or even a photo of you in front of the Pearl tower. Lyndsey and I bought these candy covered balls on a stick. I thought that they resembled tiny candied apples. So after bargaining for them, Lyndsey and unwrapped our candy coated surprise only to bite into some tiny crab apples. That where ar

The video literally showing all the hundreds of people enjoying Chinese New Year on the water front of the Bund:

Another shot of the Bund, the old side of Shanghai!

This is a shot of the new side of Shanghai called Pudong. As you can tell there are a number of new and fashionable buildings. Very trendy!

Who is that peeking from in between the apartment/office buildings??

Just beautiful!

This is the Shanghai South Railway station. It's huge and new and lots of people were there hopping a ride to various cities. There were many many shops selling a variety of last minute train snacks that are all not refrigerated and shrink wrapped such as: smoked chicken leg in a bag, fish skin soaked in spicy sauce, a hard boiled egg, pig skin, and other such meat products that make you wonder how people can eat these preservative filled meat products. I love meat, but I won't even eat it! I opted for a bag of peanuts and an orange Fanta.

Hangzhou - an awesome lake town outside of Shanghai. Lyndsey and I didn't' really know what to expect coming here. But it was great! This was a rich little resort town with Starbucks, some name brand shopping, and even a Porsche dealership. It was crazy!

We met a variety of Chinese people from all over China. It was great to chat with strangers in English. We even took a bunch of photos with random people. Everyone was super friendly, curious, and just wanting to speak English. In Korea, Lyndsey and I never really experience talking to Koreans outside of work. Usually they will claim they can't speak English.

This is me striking a pose by a little floating pagoda. There was still a bit of snow as you can see and it was kinda colder here than in Shanghai. Too bad you can't really see the hills behind the lake, it was nice! I enjoyed that sometimes Lyndsey and I would be taking a picture or just sitting on a bench and enjoying the view, and random Chinese men would take our photos. It still cracks me up!

The cheesy lake show that is coordinated with music. It reminds of of Las Vegas, I think it was the Belliago hotel that did the water show. haha But people sat around and watched it in the cold!

This town reminded me of Banff in a weird way. There was beautiful scenery, tons of tourists, and lots of nice stores and boutiques! I was a bit sad though because I bought a steamed bun, which are super famous near Shanghai, and I dribbled bun juicy all over my jacket and I smelt like a steamed bun!

This cute little couple was great! The old man kept looking at us and smiling. He then proceeded to speak Chinese non-stop while walking with us. His son then came over and asked where we were from and we said Canada. The old man then went on a rant about how much he loved Canada! Lyndsey then called them 'Mama' and 'Papa' and they loved it! We took a few photos and I gave the man my Calgary Stampede pin. He was super thankful and loved it! It moments like this that I fall in love with the world!

A beautiful temple opening!

A warrior of some sort! The sign was in Chinese and I can't read!

A picture of the beautiful architecture! That is one thing that I love about Asia and I keep getting drawn back too!

Probably one of my favorite pictures of China. I love this country!

Did somebody say "Hooters' again! haha I had no cash left on me at the time and only my VISA card so Lyndsey and I thought well we might as well hit up Hooters again! But his time in Hangzhou. We had a super nice waitress which was ironical also working there to improve her English. Man, these Hooters girls are smart!

The empty Hooters looks so lonely! I do commend these girls in that they are willing to take a job in a foreign shop to improve their speaking. Even going to English restaurants in Korea is painful because the staff do not speak much English. When I went to McDonalds in China, they were totally on the ball!

So we had to hop the train and go back to Shanghai. It was freezing at night and I decided to grab a piece of street corn (not literally but corn cooked by a old lady on the street). I was a bit sad because it was a bit dried out probably from being steamed all day! booo! While we waited for the train, we visited two tiny local supermarkets and picked up a few random things! This man has a common way to transport luggage by using an elongated stick to balance to loads of items on both ends! I can't imagine how heavy it is!

This is Fox Town, the giant shopping complex outside of our hotel. The Regal East Hotel built right into Shanghai indoor Stadium. It was a super nice fancy hotel for a pretty good price! This mall was also a discount mall which was cool. They had a nice little food court in the basement and a Watson's drugstore where we would go to buy random things from chocolates to face wash! Watson's is pretty much equivalent to Shoppers Drug Mart.

There is Shanghai Indoor Stadium. Our hotel is built into the lower portion of the building! It is super cool! There was a nice young fellow named Paul who worked as a doorman at the hotel. He was super nice and Lyndsey was chat with him every night. hehe I think she secretly liked him! But good for her, a lot of Chinese guys were really nice!

The last day trip we took was to Suzhou - the famous garden town and canal town outside of Shanghai. We had to go to the Shanghai North Railway station. This station was even more congested! It was the end of the week and everyone was heading back to their jobs because the holiday was over! Check out the line ups that Lyndsey and I also had to wait in to buy a ticket! The worst thing is that people were smoking and it was gross standing next to them. We watched this man smoke two cigs in a row and loving every moment of it! One that I can't stand in Asia is men hocking phlegm/spit balls on the streets. It is sooo gross! It drives me nuts!

Here I am waiting for our train to be called. All the other hundreds of people are waiting as well to go home!

I chuckle at the fact there is an 'air' sickness bag on a train. Oh China, you're English is getting better!

Suzhou - what a difference! So this town was more like traditional China with street children, motorized rickshaws, old box type buildings, and well everything is covered in a sheet of dirt. It's real and I like it too. I get frustrated when the locals are all shouting at you 'lady, lady, hotel!' and other slogans so they can have your business. What was more frustrating is that Lyndsey and I couldn't find the tourist office and we wandered for 30 minutes at the train station in circles. Finally we just decided to start walking. We didnt' know where and we were both frustrated. While walking we eventually saw a sign that said 'Tiger Hill 3.9KM' and decided to go there. The hard part was that we didn't know if we were walking the right way. I was cold and tired and grumpy. But we walked and got to see everyday life unfold. People selling fruit out of a truck, children playing, and old people watching the day unfold. I like seeing that! We also saw these older house boats that people lived on. They definitely looked a bit scary in that I thought they could sink at any time!

Just a street shot of life happening in Suzhou on a side street.

Finally we reached the canal and enjoyed the view of the houses lined up along the water! It was pretty nice!

Tiger Hill, we made it! We paid a few bucks to get in and started wandering around. The place was booming with tourists. Vendors were everywhere selling anything you could imagine for a few bucks.

I don't know what this is! But is looks pretty cool!

The tourist canal boats, they are a bit different than the boats people live in like in the picture above!

The quiet canals in Suzhou. I enjoyed the silence and scenery!

This would have to be my second favorite shot of China. This is of Tiger Hill's monument where goods and treasures were stored for safe keeping!

A shot of Suzhou from Tiger Hill. There are construction cranes in the background constructing more block type apartments for the growing Chinese population.

A close up of the tower and yes it is leaning and not Lyndsey's bad photo skills! I looks so small next to it!

A nice shot of the grounds of Tiger Hill. I wonder what it is like in the summer!!

I look so cold and tired in this photo and I was haha Just posing in front of a temple!

This sign is great!

Leaving the ground of Tiger Hill and heading back to Shanghai for my last night in China! So sad!

Little did we know that when we went to the train at 6pm, all the trains to Shanghai were sold out! Immediately we panicked because we left our luggage at the hotel. We were planning to spend the night in the airport because our flight left early the next day! I had never been stranded before and I freaked out! But the intelligence of the Chinese shone through again! there were mini van set up outside of the train station with people yelling 'Shanghai!'. We asked a random man and he wanted $50 Canadian. We said no way! We then asked another lady and she offered 10 bucks each. We agree because we didn't want to be stranded. So we took a mini van back for 2 hour driving with some other random people who were stranded in Suzhou. The funny thing is, that if this was Korea, we would totally be stranded because spontaneous thinking is not really used in Korea haha

Here is a video of us in the van!

Our little van to the plane was delayed because 5 Koreans missed the boarding call. The thing that bugged Lyndsey and I was that their friend didn't want to the whole plane to leave because they were late! Come on, grow up and don't miss your boarding call. I was frustrated because I slept at the airport for few horrible hours. Even when we got back to Shanghai from Suzhou, we missed the train to the airport and we were stranded again. So I bargained with a taxi drive and she drove us. A night of bargains. It was hard to leave China but I really enjoyed my trip there. I can't wait to see the rest of China in the future!

2 day field trip - Kolon sauna, 68 Koreans, historical tombs, and a freezing ocean!

2008-01-17T20:35:00.001-08:00

This workshop the supervisors decided to take all 64 Korean teachers, 8 Native English Instructors (including myself), and 4 staff members to the ancient city of Gyeongju. Gyeongju can be compared to the Kyoto in Japan full of temples, palaces, and other such historical sites. This trip was pretty interesting for the most part because I'll admit my knowledge about Korean is lacking but I sure did learn a lot. Many of the sites we visited we shocking just barren plots of land with a few stones here and there that kind of resemble walls. I know that Korea was invaded by a bunch of countries including Mongolia and Japan. However, I didn't know that literally most of the famous temples and palaces were burnt to the ground by these countries. So we visited a variety of sites were there were pictures representing what the place formal looked like. One of the temples was rebuilt in the 70s. It was really interesting. We went to a Buddha museum and I learnt about the various kinds of Buddhas. I'll admit, I didn't think there were so many. At one point our tour guide was describing how a woman (I forget her name) was visited by a spirit and told her she would become pregnant. I immediately turned to my coworker Ryan and we both said, 'hey that sounds a lot like the Blessed Virgin Holy Mary." Very interesting how Buddhism and Catholicism are very closely related to each other. Then the Korean teachers and a few of the Native English teachers had a debate about religion. It was interesting to hear there options about religion. Seokguram Grotto has one of the most famous Buddha statues in Korea. It is hidden under a giant hill so this is only a replica in the museum. At all the museum and sites, our tour guide kept saying, 'the original is in Seoul, please visit the National Museum'. Well at the Seoul National Museum is making a pretty penny!

At one of the palaces we went too there was a flock of crows circling above the site. I was bit scarred in that I was instantly reminded of Alfred Hitchcock's movie 'The Birds'. It was honestly a scene out a horror movie in which I waiting for the flock of birds either to attack or be a premonition of something bad to come haha Or maybe my wild imagination has got the best of me again!

Deareungwon Royal Burial Grounds are an area where the sacred tombs of royalty and their families were buried! If you honestly had no idea bout this area you would honestly think, wow there are a lot of hills in this area. Apparently the bigger the hill, the more prestigious the person was. There is an interesting correlation between the Egyptians pyramids and the Korean tombs in that each tomb was filled with treasures and valuable things. Believe it or not, it was incredible freezing on this day that literally I had some wind burn on my face.

In Korea and I have also noticed in Japan, people love photography. Most people have a camera on their phones, so they will just snap a picture on their phones. But for those people who are truly passionate about photography, they possess extremely large cameras and usual a tripod. I love it when these photographers take 5 minutes to set up their cameras just for one picture. I am more of a natural photographer in that I like to capture moments of life as it unfolds.

Cheesy restaurants are everywhere in Korea. In order to know you are eating at a Korean restaurant, you must have the following items: - long rows of tables that make you sit on the floor while eating - each table has 10-15 small dishes with a variety of fermented vegetables, roots, and plants. - A box with flat chopsticks and a tablespoons. Every Korean eats with a pair of chopsticks and a spoon. I have never seen any other country do this. Also if you are eating BBQ, then there is a pair of scissors at your table to cut your meat up. - a roll of toilet paper. Koreans don't really use napkins but instead there is always a roll of toilet paper at the table. - Everyone is drinking either Soju and/or Beer. Koreans don't drink water at a meal because it is bad for your digestion. However, it baffles my mind that liquor is okay to drink in large quantities during a meal. Mind boggling! - A communal eating area. If you are eating BBQ then there is one grill in the middle of the table. If your eating hot pot, there is one large boiling pot of soup in the middle. Koreans will always eat from the same dishes. If your a germaphobe, then I don't recommend you visiting Korea any time soon. So this photos is of the large paper mache display of making Kimchi. Oh Kimchi, it is Korea's number one pride and joy. I will eat some kinds of kimchi but the older the kimchi the more potent and smelly it is. When I first got to Korea, I noticed there was some interesting smells and I know I realize that it is of different types of Kimchi. haha it certainly doesn't smell like roses in Korea.

While I was on my way to the bathroom at the restaurant, I saw this by the bathroom. Some stuffed birds, mannequins wearing a Japanese kimono, and a stuffed sea turtle. I literally felt like I was possibly in a creepy antique shop with a bunch of random items. I didn't expect to see this in a restaurant. The restaurant also had a bunch wild birds in cages at the entrance. This place was bizarre with it's decor. If Gordon Ramsay was here he would flip out! It definitely was a kitchen nightmare!

We spent two nights at the Kolon hotel. Yes you literally say it like the word, 'colon'. So the teachers and I were joking about staying in a colon and other such jokes! haha The hotel had a wicked Western style breakfast buffet which made me go crazy. I forgot what it was like to eat a good variety of Western food! All the English teachers were going crazy!!! A few of the teachers (Lyndsey, Sloane, and Olivia) and I went to the Spa in hotel. It was relaxing to sit around and chat. A woman approached me in the spa and it turns out this little older lady was from Japan. She was on a vacation with a tour group. It was nice to chat about Japan and I gave her a chance to practice speaking English. She was so sweet and it made me miss Japan. After the Spa, the girls and I had hung out in my hotel room. We watch the channel 'onstyle' which is the best English channel on TV. I only get a chance to watch TV at hotels because I don't have cable where I live. My employers are too lazy to hook it up for us. grrr. So we watched some celebrity gossip, Oprah, and America top model. I am not a big fan of these shows, especially Oprah, but it is just nice to hear some English voices. haha It was such a girl night to sit around and gossip. It was great!

This is a famous monument that is placed on the Korean 10 Won coin. There are different layers in the statue that represent the different stages of Buddhism. It is pretty complex but really interesting.

A tradition of placing prayer stones on to each other to form a tower is popular. I made a little prayer and placed my tiny rock on to a pile. However, you are not allowed to knock over the tower or else it is bad luck!

Bulguksa Temple was burnt down when the Japanese invaded. The temple was rebuilt and it looks pretty good. There is such a strong hatred for the Japanese by the Korean still. One of the my Korean teachers made an extremely rude comment about the Japanese. I can understand there is still strong feelings because the Japanese never formally apologized for their invasion. Apparently many Korean women were raped and killed by the Japanese. I honestly didn't know there was such a strong resentment towards the Japanese still to this day!

This is the front of the temple from standing on the side of the temple. This was a popular site for photos and there were many people snapping away pictures. I just thought I would quickly grab a shot because it was very chilly out and I just wanted to go back to the bus!

There were a few guardian statues at the beginning of the temple to ward off bad spirits. I apparently made it through the gates without any problems! Thank heavens! After this, I was off to the bus. Just to let you know, one Korean tour buses they have a microphone and people actually sing on the buses. However, the Korean trainees had to do presentations about Korean culture throughout the whole trip. It was bad because a lot of trainees slept through the presentations. I was pretty bad too cause I would tune out and enjoy the scenery! It is crazy! Also there is a free coffee machine that dispense coffee by the cup at the front of the bus.

Our last stop of the two day trip was to the ocean to visit Underwater Tomb of King Munmu. I just fell in love with the lovely beach and thought to myself, man I wish it was summer. So the trainees and I all enjoyed the rolling in of the tides. It was still pretty cold out but I really enjoyed hearing and seeing the crashing waves. I enjoyed how there were old ladies selling dried squid. Koreans love squid. I will admit, I sure to eat a lot of squid (tiny ones to large ones) especially at my work in the cafeteria. My coworkers and I joke about how our institute must have a contract with a squid company!

Here I am looking cold and ever so Korean with my pose. I personally don't know where this pose came from because in Japan they do the same thing. So I am confused, who invented this pose first? The Japanese or the Koreans? haha This question would make the Koreans so mad!!!

Lastly, here is a video to enjoy of the ocean! The waves were great and there were some big ones too! I enjoyed how high the tide was and how the Korean teachers were afraid of getting wet haha

Western style New Years in Korea

2008-01-01T01:27:00.000-08:00

New Years. This year was an interesting one. Phil, Ryan, Victoria, Lyndsey and I hopped the good old 225 bus to Gwangju despite the fact it was snowing very hard. May I add that it has only snowed 2 days the whole time I have lived here. When there is snow on the road or anywhere, Koreans go crazy. They literally do not know what to do what so ever! It is pretty funny! Once we arrived downtown, we walked around trying to find a restaurant that everyone could agree on. I like how Gwangju literally only has 5 options: Korean Food, Japanese/Korean Food, Chinese/Korean Food, Italian/Korean and Western/Korean Food. Notice how Korean is attached to all the different types of food?? No matter what, Korean influence will be in any type of cuisine. At any restaurant ever, you will always get a side of Kimchi (different kinds) and a bowl of sweet pickles. Koreans believe that if you eat pickles with any meal it will cut down on the grease while eat. awwww okay?!?!? Plus, Kimchi is apparently good for treating every aliment known to man. The other day in the cafeteria, I did not take any kimchi and a Korean man said to me, 'Kimchi is good for you. You are a woman and Kimchi is good for your skin. It also prevents cancer'. Are you kidding me? That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. I then argued that there is more to the world than Kimchi to prevent cancer. ugh! Anyways, we had some Korean/Italian food which wasn't bad. I will admit that is the only thing Koreans can not mess up and make it taste bad. Western food here is pretty gross. For example, if you eat a fruit salad they will cover it in mayo. Yup, mayo. They love mayo while I do not!

After eating a massive 6 person set menu meal between the five of us for a very good price, we then went to Paris Baguette for some coffee. Paris Baguette, just like many Korean coffee shops, are rather inefficient. What I mean by this is that literally there is two people working and they will take one persons order in a line. Then they will leave to go and make it together and leave everyone waiting in line. This also happened at McDonald's when my coworker and I ate breakfast. My order was taken and then the lady went to go make it for 5 minutes and then after took my coworkers order. Would the logical thing not to take both orders at the same time and then go make it???? This is a candid shot of me enjoy my caramel latte. Yum Yum.

Here is the snow falling in the streets of Gwangju after we had a great conversation over some coffee. It was nice to chat and get to know eat other better. The oddest thing is that Koreans use umbrellas when the snow falls. It was super odd. Koreans are obsessed with appearance and will do anything to protect their perfect hair and makeup. It is interesting to see everyone always made up anywhere you go. The other day I got some passport photos done and I was a hat on my head. When I took off my hat, my hair was a bit disheveled. The photographer, pointed at the mirror with a bunch of beauty products surrounding it. I tried to adjust my hair the best I could and he just looked at me and shook his head in disgust.

The other crazy part of this story is they airbrushed my passport photo. They cleared up my skin, made my eyes, glossy and for some reason my nose is smaller. They love airbrushing photos so everyone looks perfect. Goodness gracious!

High heels for every season in Korea. I also noticed this phenomena in pretty much every Asian country I have been too. The really kicker is that high heels are sold in only 4 sizes: small, medium, large, and x-large. I barely fit into an extra large. So many women will buy shoes that are too big or too small for them and it looks silly! I have seen women wear high heels while hiking, walking in the snow, and really everywhere. Clothing is the same in Korea. Considering this country is rather homogeneous, they are able to have most clothing stores really carry one size. So if your larger or tall, well tough luck honey! Being a Western in Korea is difficult when it comes to clothing shopping. I even have a hard time fitting into Korean clothes! Lyndsey doesn't even try.

We ended up going to a German bar run by a Korean man who lived in German for a beer or two and some chatting. It was too cold to wonder the streets of Gwangju. Also prior to coming to this bar, we bought some fireworks in the downtown area. There was a street New Years party set up. Any who, I bought my fireworks and being the occasional stupid girl that I am, I turned to show Ryan and Phil my lit firework and at that instant a firework shot out to them standing about 10 meters away. It missed their heads by 3 feet but man it was pretty shocking. They started to laugh while two Korean men where yelling at me in Korean. I didn't think that would happen and then they grabbed the firework and pointed it into the sky. Ohhhhhh... whoops! After having a round at the German bar, we proceeded to the Speakeasy, the foreigner bar of Gwangju. There we counted down the evening, dance a bit, and had some not so bad times. I will admit the assortment of people in this place wasn't really my cup of tea.

My last point goes back to restaurants. When you go to a restaurant you usually get an extra bonus dish of food known as service. Usually I have noticed that service food is really odd in that it tries to be cutting edge in food technology. For example, this salad on the left in the picture was drizzle in corn, beans, sweet pickles, shrimp wound in fried noodle, and chicken bits sprinkled on top while drizzled with an odd dressing. It's pretty gross. The nachos in the right of this photos were something lyndsey and I were super excited about. These $11 nachos each were covered in a very sweet but spicy salsa, a slab of processed cheese, and I think there was some mayo. I was sooooo disappointed because all I wanted was some good old nachos. Conclusion, when it comes to eating Western food in Korea, don't even waste your breathe. It is totally not even worth it! Just wait till you get back to North America!

Christmas in Busan = fun!

2007-12-25T00:18:00.000-08:00

This post is well over due so there might be some spelling errors. Enjoy though!

For Christmas, Lyndsey and I decided to head to a place that we love - the beach! So thinking of sun and fun we decided to head to Busan or Pusan (Koreans confuse B and P's like there is no tomorrow). This bustling city is pretty darn cool in that it has all the cool stuff like Seoul but with beaches! The beaches are the biggest pleasant surprise that I have encountered in Korea, next to Jeju. Man I wish there were nice beaches in Canada haha Wishful thinking! This is Haeundae beach in Busan. It is one of the largest and most popular beaches. Around here is a bunch of great restaurants and coffee shops that allow you to enjoy the view of the ocean. We had some pretty good East Indian food here. Yum curry! The weather was brilliant so we just laid around and occasionally Lyndsey took off her shoes and went for a strut in the water. I thought it was too cold! brrr

We stayed in the love hotel district in the downtown area of Busan. This was unknown to use because we forgot the 'Lonely Planet' travel guide. After spending literally an hour wandering around and not finding a hotel, we then came across the love hotel district. Shockingly, this district is rather safe and contains really cheap hotels that are clean! However, I didn't enjoy the pictures of women sitting outside of some of the hotels. I am not a fan of that and we avoided those places...We eventually settled up on a 'tourist hotel' that was really fancy for a really cheap price! Here is a picture of the nightclubs conveniently located just down the street from our hotel. We didn't partake in any night clubs unfortunately.

One night we decided to go to a giant Korean Sauna that had a variety of pools. There were about 10 different pools from blueberry to 48c water. I personally enjoyed the rose pool on the top floor of the sauna outside on the roof. It was on the roof that we met two identical twins from Canada named Julie and Sarah. They both worked for a conversational English school and we had a good chat about Korea. Here is a shot of the hotel lobby where the giant sauna was located in. I really enjoy the beauty of Christmas in Korea!

We then decided after the sauna closed at 10pm to go hangout and head for a drink. They first took us to Sarah's apartment which was incredible. She had a giant two bedroom apartment all decked out in stainless steel appliances. I was a little jealous because she only works for a conversational school and gets a way better apartment then me haha Anyways, we then went to the university district of town full bars and restaurants. We went to 'the Crossroads' which had some foreigners in it. It was nice to chat and have a pint with these girls. Afterwards, we were pretty hungry and we wandered the streets looking for food because we missed the last subway. Subways in Asia also stop around midnight which sucks. So Sarah recommended this rotisserie chicken place. So we went in and grabbed the menu that looked like this:

However there was a man sitting near by who noticed how confused we were and helped us out. That was sweet and we ended up eat a roasted chicken stuffed with rice, sweet potato, and other such veggies. It was So we were super confused with the menu because as you can see there are pictures of poo piles and toilet paper. I laughed because I wondered what this meal would do to my stomach hahasooo delicious. After dining, Lyndsey and I decided to head back to our super sweet hotel were we watched celebrity gossip! Unfortunately we don't get any English news here so any news will do even if it is about Britney Spears.

We were wandering down the street in the University district and I had to stop and take a photo of this. Kenny Rogers, you have got to be kidding. Why would anyone want to do this! I would never name my business this! I have seen a few of these karaoke bars around Busan. Definitely must be a coastal thing.

Here is another scenic video of Haeundae beach. The beauty of the video literally speaks for itself!

Lyndsey and I found this weird little bumper cart area near the beach. There were these old run down cars that some kids were ridding around in. Being the big kid that I am, I said that we should go for a whirl. So we thought the ride was 50 cents and we put in the coin and we just sat there. I honestly thought we broke it cause well we are not tiny like Koreans. So this man came over and said a bunch of things I didn't understand and then I realized it was a dollar. So we put in another coin and here is how the adventure went:

Here is another beach at night near Haeundae beach. I forget the name. Aww that seems to be a common trend because some of the names are too difficult to remember. So we went here at night and bought and it pretty much had the same set up. However, it did have the famous bridge in Busan. It was beautiful! The video will show you:

So there was a man selling fire works and we decided lets do it. So with my great ability to count in Korean I was able to get us some fire works. The video is really good! I wish we could play with fire works in Canada.

We found this super run down amusement park that reminded me of the Calgary Stampede near the beach. This ride was the oddest ride I have ever scene. It literally was fun to watch for the first 2 minutes but literally this ride went on for 5 minutes and didn't stop. So Lyndsey and I left because I couldn't believe how horrible this ride was. If I was on it, I would be super super angry!

Seoul - everything you need and so much more!

2007-12-18T22:27:00.001-08:00

Seoul...hmm...what can I say...how about fun!!!! This city is a mega conglomerate of everything that you need. After waking up at 6:30am to catch the 7:00am bus to Gwangju, Lyndsey and I then hopped on to the express bus to Seoul for a nice 3 and half hour ride. Seoul has many different districts and areas to satisfy any one's taste. After trying to find our hostel up in Insadong and eventually failing, we came across a new guest house and decided to stay there. Insadong is a great place for antiques and artsy crafty type stuff. There were some interesting galleries and I got some free hot chocolate on the streets. Here is a shot of the street taken from Starbucks of Myeong-dong which is a giant shopping area filled with every store you can imagine from 'Gap' to 'Roots' to 'Uniqlo'. Everything you need can be bought here at regular store prices, haha, nothing special in terms of a saving money. There are restaurants like 'Tony Roma's' where Lyndsey and I ate ribs. yum yum!

So my coworkers and I met up for some lunch at Bennigans - a western type restaurant. I was excited because it was not Korean food haha but yeah the service was bad. Koreans have a habit of splitting meals. No joke! Once when I was at Mcdonalds I saw a family split a cheeseburger combo. It was the oddest thing. But at restaurants you'll see a giant group of people order only a few entrees and everyone will split them. No one ever gets there own meal. So at Bennigans there was confusion because everyone wanted there own meal. Even with drinks, my set lunch menu came with a drink. When they brought it out there was three straws in it to share with my coworkers. Good Lord! We all had a great laugh at this!

Korea is full of interesting named stores and restaurants. I enjoy how they have Konglish which is an English/Korean hybrid of various words. It cracks me up. But it's bad too. Koreans have a habit of making an 'e' sound at the end of English words. For example 'lunchie' or 'finishedie' it drives me nuts. If they keep speaking English wrong, things will never change!

Here is a shot of Seoul down by Insadong. I like how there are paths to walk by the water. It's super cool. Apparently there are bands and vendors in the summer along the river too. That would be neat to watch. Seoul is interesting in that it is dirtier than most big Japanese cities but cleaner than most big Chinese cities. haha I saw some men peeing on the street late at night and I realized that doesn't help the smell of Seoul. Once in a while, I would catch a weird drift of stink while wandering in Seoul.

In Seoul there is a foreigners district that has some restaurants and foreigner needs. I went to a wicked East Indian curry buffet and had some great Thai food lunch. I like that in Seoul there is a diversity of people just like Canada. It's nice that way. It can be frustrating where I live because some kids still point, stare, and say 'foreigner' in Korean. It's annoying because the parents don't really do anything. Occasionally some parents will notice what there kids is doing and discipline them. I like the friendly kids that will try and speak English with me. They are pretty sweet.

This is a famous shot taken down in Dongdaemun. This area is full of shopping goodness that is includes knock off items sold from street vendors. Here I bought some bootleg DVDs for next to nothing. This shopping area is especially busy during the evening and all throughout the evening till the next morning. You can get some delicious street food (possible get sick due to unrefrigerated meat) while buying a knock off handbag. It is sweet!

In Seoul there is a lot of delicious food that is hard to get where I live such as Indian, Thai, Vietnamese and so on. However, there are a few really gross things that I have seen in Seoul as well. Take this place for instances. You can get various pasta from fettuccine to shrimp pasta all in a waffle cone. That is disgusting ice cream/hot food.

Here is Van and Mary eating their hearts away at the Pizza Mall. It was so frustrating going to this 3 story restaurant. You order at the cash register and then they give you a number. So you must listen to loud speaker to hear your number. It was so busy in there and I had the number 27, 555 compared to Mary who had 355. There's a smart idea, 'let's give the foreigner a really really hard number'

Street food. What can I say. It's everywhere. These tiny kitchens on wheels are the health departments worst nightmare. Nothing is refrigerated from seafood to pork on a stick. Plus the workers of the shops are handling money and your food all at the same time. Well if your into cleansing your bowels then I totally recommend eating street food. I have eaten my fair share of it in China and have sometimes paid the consequences. haha

This is downtown Seoul by a famous set of statues. Nice eh? There is everything you need down here! I can't even begin to describe the endless amount of fun you can have getting lost in the maze of streets. Streets aren't really named here just main roads. So if you ask some one where something is, there is a good chance they'll have no clue. Everyone goes by landmarks here. It's crazy!

Crazy cartoon hats for winter are the trend with everyone. I am going to buy one I think because it's very Korean. Gotta love the Hello Kitty on my head!

Gotta a sweet tooth? Try buying bulk at the night market. Everything you need in a market can be bargained for. You can find numerous stands selling pretty much the same items! I am not a big fan of candy but Lyndsey could definitely tell you all about it! I prefer hitting up the bakeries which can be found everywhere. Cake!!!

This is a great! I love how designer knock offs are sold right next to some frozen fish. I think it would be horrible to have your scarf smell like fish haha But hey, if its cheap, then I'll take two!

These crazy little carts are pulled by men everywhere in the market. Transporting goods on carts and motorcycles is really scary to be honest. There have been a few times where I have almost been hit because they literally drive through the crowds. The driving here is insane. The worst I have seen next to China. No joke of a lie! Pedestrians have no rights what so ever. You have to wait till the traffic clears to cross. It's scary at times!

Christmas is getting popular here in Korea, I like how some stores are so tacky and loud! This
store in the market screams Christmas. Sometimes I think it's a bit to commercial for myself.

The overhead shot of the market live and in action! This place is full of winding streets that are lined with vendors selling everything. However, I did have a difficult time finding sunglasses. I imagine they are not in season. That makes me a bit annoyed because I have gone to some restaurants, for example, a Vietnamese restaurant wanting to eat 'Bun' (Cold noodles with veggies). However, they said I can't get it because it's winter. That drives me nuts. So if you have a craving, it must be seasonal!!!!!!

The sign says it all. The fashion is something not to be desired by the Western palate. Lyndsey and I laugh at the tacky fashion haha But I really enjoy Japanese Fashion and I am hoping to go back there soon to stock up on some clothes!

Elementary Goodbye Party! What a night!

2007-12-13T03:02:00.000-08:00

Well my first workshop has just recently come to an end. It was a good month of teaching elementary school teachers. Despite the language barrier at times, we sure had a blast! Elementary teachers sure are cheery that is for sure! So we had the official going away party the night before the closing ceremony. The party consisted of an awards portion which had a variety of awards such as 'best actor' for the skits and 'most improved trainee'. This shot I took is from the awards podium just like the celebrities do at the Oscars ahaha

Here is me opening my gift from my trainees. Bill and I got matching scarfs in the color of homeroom -green- it was great! This is a picture of my new haircut and color! My nose looks so big in this photo!

Here is me modeling the new scarf with my super Asian pose hehe I like how my supervisor is watching me and clapping. Everyone got super drunk that night. I bought a bottle of Vodka to my table to share with my trainees. A lot of the girls have never had Vodka before which was shocking. So I made them Vodka and berry juice drinks all night long. hehe After this night, I am laying off the alcohol for a while because I was super hungover the next day.

Here is my homeroom class for one last pose! They were a lot of fun at the going away party. We did a lot of dancing and singing. Lyndsey and I sang '2 become 1' by the Spice Girls haha It was so funny! I get nervous because when the foreigners sing, all the Korean trainees are so interested! They dance around us and clap to the beat!

The trainees were playing a drinking game with chopsticks and counting. I have never seen this before. So someone starts at the pointer (the person who is it) and together as a group you chant a Korean saying. Everyone will move their chopsticks to random people while chanting. Then when the chant is over, the person's (who is it) chopstick's where ever they are pointing at selects that person to drink. It is brutal. The person who just drank is the new person who is it! I hope that made sense! I didn't participate in this game because that is too much drinking for me!

Here is a photo of JS, Ryan, and I just being plain silly. Ryan always makes funny faces in all the photos. JS is very drunk here which is very common for Korean men. No jokes! It is pretty interesting because all Korean men I have come across love drinking alcohol. Always. At every meal, minus breakfast occasionally. I couldn't be bothered. I decided to stick with my Starbucks addiction because it is worth my money!

Here is So Young (the girl pointing), Bo Bae, Sarah, and Georgie doing some Korean rap. I just love the enthuasium. Koreans love rap and hip hop music. I think Korean rap is funny even though I have no idea what they are saying. I just dance to the beat.

Here is the final photo the following day after this crazy night of partying. I was in bed by 11pm because well I drank way too much. However, I did hear that many of the teachers partied until 4am. Yikes. I don' know how they do it. I really do not! Overall, it was a good experience teaching Korean elementary teachers. They were fun and eager to learn new methods and activities. That made me happy!

Jeju Island - 14 hours per a day of fun fun fun!

2007-12-09T04:21:00.000-08:00

The elementary teachers workshop had a three day trip to Jeju islands. I was shocked and I didn't know that every workshop would have a random trip with the trainees to a different location in Korea. I am not complaining because everything was paid for and I still got paid my regular salary! Super sweet. So here is the 3 day escapade filled with 14 hour days on a tour bus of fun! May I add that there was a microphone on the bus and each trainee had to give a speech about some aspect of Jeju. This was kinda annoying because there wasn't much peace and quiet on the bus! But I did win a bunch of cell phone charms from answering questions! Score!

We visited the largest crater on Jeju island which is apparently a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I have visited quite a few of these in my lifetime and I hope to visit more of them! Once we climbed the hill to the crater, we then did some crazy Korean poses and here is one of Bill and Lyndsey!

This is taken from Lyndsey's point of view and I think that she is loving it! haha

This is a poetic shot of me taken in the wheat field leading up to the crater. Lyndsey and I did some dramatic poses and laughed in between shots! It was grand!

We then went to a rock garden, yes I said a rock garden with a bunch of different rock formations. It was pretty funny to see all the Korean tourist whip out their giant cameras and snap some photos away! haha Lyndsey and I are trying to once again to a crazy Korean style dramatic pose but then Sunny and Well added some character to this pose haha

Alright, so two of the sites we visited were botanical gardens. One was indoors and one was outdoors. The outdoor one was kinda sad because it is winter and the plants are pretty much dead haha Any who, this is the indoor botanical garden that had a brilliant Christmas theme. I kinda missed Christmas and especially Christmas baking while I was here!

I love penguins and here I am pretending I am a penguin! I do admit that these guys are way cuter than me! I was tempted to steal one because they were so cute haha but I didn't!

There was a Native themed section in the Desert plants exhibit. I just though I would do a random pose and cause some trouble haha!

Here is a beautiful shot of Jeju island from a large looking post situated in the garden. It was amazing to know the water is right at my finger tips. Well metaphorically!

I am supposed to be doing a macho man pose but now that I look at the picture, it just looks like I am thrusting the garden haha Oh my! But a worker there yelled at me because I was standing on the sitting ledge. Whoops!

This tour bus was parked next door to our tour bus. Thank goodness I am not on that tour bus or I would scream. I thought my 14 hour days were bad!

Korean Saunas- Jim Jil Bang- (Sorry, I couldn't take any pictures) - So the first night in Jeju, Lyndsey, Victoria, Rina, Lucy, and I decided to treat ourselves to a traditional Korean Sauna. I was pretty ready to get naked and scrub down because I have done it numerous times in Japan. However, it was different to go with friends and my trainees because well I know them haha However, we all enjoyed the different bathing pools of various temperatures of water. I especially enjoyed this shallow sauna bed where you lie down and there are jets on the seat. Lyndsey and I literally lied around for 25 minutes! It felt great to have jets massaging our bodies! After the hot water pools, we headed upstairs to the next level of steam rooms. It was great to go in to various temperature rooms and cover our bodies in hot rocks. Oh, by this point the sauna gives you these ugly mustard yellow shorts and t-shirts to wear on this floor. There is also the option of watching TV, a snack shop,and pillows for lying around and relaxing. Man I love Korean saunas!
Here is YYOK asleep on the bus right behind Lyndsey and I. I think he passed out from drinking to much at lunch!

This man was on the boardwalk going towards the beach. I would date him but he didn't talk much. I am not a fan of the strong and silent type. Maybe he only speaks Korean!

Here I am enjoying the beach in my winter gear and sunglasses. It was nice to have some down time and collect some seashells! I miss the ocean a lot!

Here is a famous little beach that we visited. Lyndsey, Victoria, Tim and I were bad because we had to stay with the group but instead we ventured off onto the beach. We then took off our shoes and strolled in the water. It was brisk but nice!

Everyone sitting around digesting the food. Lots of soju is consumed at lunch and well pretty much every meal. I am not a fan of it at all. I think it smells like nail polish remover!

We ate alot of Shabu Shabu (Japanese hot pot) during our trip. Basically it is one pot of boiling liquid (this one was spicy) for four people. You get a bunch of interesting side dishes like small fish, different Kimchis, and pickled things. We had a big pot of seafood that consisted of odd sea creatures I have never had before. Some of them were even alive. So when the broth started to boil we sat around and watched our lunch die. I felt bad and while eating some the sea creatures, I told them I was sorry! The Koreans thought it was funny but I did feel a bit sad watching my lunch die. However, it was delicious!

Instant coffee machines are a must have in most restaurants. Just walk up to the machine and pick between 4 options: black, milk, cream (which is deathly sweet), or tea. Convenient and just a shot cup size. Nice!

You could take a romantic yacht tour of Jeju! Oh how wonderful, if only I had free time during the long jammed packed days and also a boyfriend!! Wishful thinking!

Here I am dancing on a pier beside the ocean after consuming a seafood lunch! There was a woman selling squid with her giant stereo blaring some loud traditional Korean pop music. I suddenly became inspired to dance. Then YYOK started dancing across from me on the pier. I like the randomness in my life hehe

Here is one of the many beaches in Jeju. This one had a mini harbor and was super cute. Lots of good seafood restaurants. I really like seafood and living in Jeju would be pretty sweet!

Some of the Korean teachers and I took a stroll after lunch to the beach. Just a natural picture of the gang walking. This was taken after I dance on the dock to some traditional Korean music while YYOK (the old Korean trainee) danced alongside. It was hilarious!

Here is a random shot of me with a waterfall at one of the botanical gardens we visited. Being that it is winter, I don't understand why we visited these botanical gardens. All the plants were pretty much dead or on their way into hibernation. Oh crazy tour!

We stopped for a delicious fresh seafood lunch by a beach (the name is unknown). Here is a giant cliff with some cool holes in it. I love being by the ocean and man I really wish that it was hot and summertime when we went!

We also looked at some rock formations in a few caves which I have seen before in China with Annee! However, I did think it was funny to see Christmas in a cave!

Here is a nice little garden that we stopped at. I was freezing and walked ahead of the group because I left my coat on the tour bus. Dang it! But I like the little rock people and I had to take a picture of them!

Rape flower, yes I said rape flower, is a famous flower in Jeju. So at the gift shops at every location we visited, rape flower products were sold. I thought this was funny to think that you smell like rape...Oh I am so bad!!!

Lyndsey, So Young (my homeroom trainee who is the number student in this session), and Bill posing with a traditional statue at the folk museum.

A random crazy shot showing how much fun we are having in Korea! I love my crazy photography skills!

At the Jeju folk village, Lyndsey and I took the sticks used in a traditional game and decided that we would pretend we were Harry Potter instead!

So the second night in Jeju, Lyndsey and I were feeling tired from spending 14 hours a day on the go constantly sightseeing and speaking English. The second night after lounging in our hotel room we decided that we would go on a walk and check out the town. So as we were walking down a main stretch of road I saw a canopy covered tunnel leading to a good old open air market. I love open air markets in Asia so I told Lyndsey we should check it out. We were walking and noticed a variety of shops were shutting down for the day but we continued to walk until we noticed some loud music in the distance and some Korean people dancing around. Lyndsey and I decided what the heck, lets go check it out! Little did we know but a bunch of fish market workers were having an after work party and they asked us to party with them! Here the older men and women of the fish market are dancing and drinking (beer and soju) while chomping on mandarins, chicken, and pork.

We had a blast with the ladies constantly feeding us alcohol and shouting 'one shot' which is the Korean term for a shot of alcohol. At one point I didn't want to drink my one shot, so one of the ladies grabbed it out of my hand and drank it! I was shocked!The ladies were hilarious with their circle dancing and slapping our bums. Korean people are very touchy feely I have noticed. But it was so much fun!

Here is one of the funny drunk men who were doing some traditional Korean dancing with us. We danced for one hour with them. When we left, the ladies filled my pockets, purse, and a giant bag with Jeju mandarins. I was so happy! Then two old ladies who were super drunk pointed to their cheeks so I kissed their cheeks haha and they were so happy! This experience made us so happy and definitely made me appreciate how kind strangers can be! These are the moments I appreciate!

Here a video of the dance party with the fish workers. Just imagine listening to this type music for an hour and dancing haha For some reason the songs were literally like 10 minutes each and there would only be a brief break inbetween to refuel on alcohol.

This is a traditional Korean house from long ago. I saw many of these at the folk museum. They were pretty cool.

This little guy is pretty lonely cause I ate all of his friends on Jeju! Oh so much pork was consumed during our trip. I recommended that if you don't like pork, especially bacon (they love to cook back bacon and wrap it up with lettuce and rice and put red pepper soybean sauce on it - I call it Korean tacos) then don't come to Korea!

Mrs. Heo, one of my supervisors (who is 50 believe it or not!), is modeling the traditional Korean toilet. I like how she really got into it! Literally!

Saint is modeling a traditional Jeju carrier. I like how he is drinking an ever so modern coffee at the same time!

One of my Korean homeroom students, Bo Bae, was telling me that she needed to stand behind me because her face is too fat. Yes, Korean people have an obsession with wanting narrow faces because they literally think there faces are too fat and round.

Left to right - Phil, Saint (one of the Korean teachers), Bill, and Mrs. Heo (one of my 4 supervisors). This is the mans shot originally but Mrs. Heo just couldn't resist a bunch of men posing with their jackets off!

Here is a couples shot of Lyndsey and I by a waterfall haha In Korea, doing serious couples shots with friends and lovers is very serious. I saw some of the trainees honestly making some hardcore 'Sears catalogue' type modeling at all the tourist spots. I, on the other hand, enjoy doing crazy poses!

Lyndsey and I enjoying a good swing at the Jeju historical village. Apparently this game is historical and apart of Jeju culture. In my opinion, swing sets are really in every culture ahaha I like how Rina (on my homeroom trainees) is coaching us on how to swing with our legs!

In the background you can see the famous church (well apart of the set) from the soap opera. Yeah, I don't really care about the soap opera at all, I just wanted to show you these nice scenic shots! hehe If only you could have seen all the tourist buses!

Another beautiful shot from the soap opera set! Jeju sure had some nice beaches but we didn't visit them because they were not on the schedule. Damn schedules! I thought about staying here forever but it was a little to windy for me!

This is my soap opera pose! Don't you love how dramatic I look in this shot! I am imagining my lover has left me for another and now I will throw myself into the ocean haha Oh Korean soap operas and their crazy plots!! hahaha

This is a famous peak, I forget the name of it, haha but it is used as a set for a famous Korean soap opera. Apparently it is popular to visit sets of soap operas in Korea. I couldn't be bothered to visit them personally but this one was nice considering the view! Definitely a tourist trap with all the vendors waiting to steal your money!

After working 3 days for 14 hours a day with non stop touring, this is how everyone felt. Victoria is demonstrating who everyone felt on the airplan. It was great to tour Jeju islands but at the same time we had a tight schedule of non stop sightseeing. Even the Korean teachers were tired. Man on man, it felt good to fly back to JETI. Plus, I just bought some Chanel lipgloss at the duty free shop! So I was pretty wired on the flight home!

Dunkin Doughnuts...A possible breakfast lifesaver. At the hotel, we were given a horrible 'Western breakfast' that consisted of: a cold hot dog cut diagonally to look attractive, 4 tatter tots, 2 slices of an orange, 2 dry pieces of toast and cold scramble eggs. It was pretty bad because everything was as cold as ice. So Lyndsey and I found a Dunkin' Doughnuts and bought muffins and mochas! Yum Yum!

Korean Clubbing and Pubbing

2007-12-02T02:21:00.000-08:00

Aww, what a crazy weekend that just passed in the magical land of South Korea. I have experienced two great days this weekend that were full of fun, shopping, Starbucks, and clubbing! Not to mention a lot of drinking. My goodness, I feel horrible right now. But don't worry, I had a pleasant day of relaxing, drinking water, eating crackers, and I was able to watch some TV (now I am finished the first season of 'Nip/tuck' and I watched the 'Corpse Bride' and 'Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man Treasure'!) So let me start with Friday night with just a few casual photos of the mayhem. Bill, Lyndsey, and I decided to head to Gwangju after working till 5pm. We caught a ride with one of my homeroom students Sarah. She is super cute like a little doll and I think she is a great Korean English teacher. Sarah and I always joke about finding husbands haha I decided to take her out for a cup of coffee and some gossiping haha Here is Bill and I on one side of the table at Starbucks. We were all chatting up a storm! It was fun to find out some little secrets about what the trainees do at night (hint hint partying)!

Here is the other side of the table where Lyndsey and Sarah were sitting. As always, the conversation was mainly focused on men both in a good and a bad way. Come on we are three single ladies vs one married man, who is going to win here! Plus, it was funny to get some advice from Bill. Not that wise, but funny!

After saying goodbye to Sarah (she went home for dinner), the crew and I went to good old TGI Friday's from some knock off Western cuisine! This time I decided to eat the giant burger! Hmm tons of beef on a bun is a good meal to me! Check out this giant pitcher of beer we order for $13 Canadian dollars! Sweet. Bill acting as our model!

Here is the after shot of the meal and the remainder of the beer. Now, I wonder who is behind the pitcher! hahaha I feel slightly silly because on Saturday little did I know that we would go out to eat at this restaurant again with Victory and Phil. I should just quit my job at JETI and work at TGI Fridays!!!

At Shinsegae (the giant fancy shopping mall attached to the bus terminal and E Mart) there was a giant Christmas display! This made me happy because I do enjoy Christmas the fun little things that go with Christmas! So here is a shot of this hilarious house decorated with bagels! Hmm, I thought about stealing one to eat!

This is my Sears model like pose by the giant gingerbread bagel house! There is Santa climbing in the background. I wonder what he will bring me for Christmas......maybe a really hot boyfriend! haha If not, some new clothes and a puppy dog would be awesome!

Saturday Night - After another delicious (somewhat) dinner at TGI Fridays with Victoria, Phil, Lyndsey and I.

So Phil decided to introduce us to a girl named Andrea who has lived in Korea for many years. She is a super funky girl with a wicked apartment and a tiny little German Greyhound. She had a nice big party with a bunch of foreign teachers. It was great to meet a variety of teachers from around Gwangju. I didn't take any photos during the house party because I was too busy talking and making some new acquaintances. Plus, there was another really cute dog there who I was playing with! hehehe So after partying up a storm, some of the girl decided that we should go to the foreigner's bar 'the Speakeasy' (not the strip club in Calgary). So about 15 of us headed over there and now is where the photos start!

There was a girl named Chamile there who was celebrating her birthday. She was pretty nice and gave us some mandarins! Sweet! Victoria and her were chatting up a storm about how to play the clarinet!

Lyndsey and Victoria are dancing up a storm and Lyndsey with the men! My goodness, I haven't seen her have this much fun ever in Korea till this night! She just was a dancing machine! What a bold lady!

Here is a scenic show of the stage area of the dance floor. You can see Lyndsey's head beside the Filipino guy who she danced with. That man had some crazy moves but he was definitely not my type at all!

Here is just a random shot of me. I do admit, I look pretty good for a gal who drank some Whiskey and beer. Ekkk! I definitely was reminded the next morning to stay away from Whiskey. Man I can't handle it!

Here is the dart game Lyndsey and I were having. As you can tell I have no clue how to check track of points haha Instead we just tossed around the darts for fun! I should be a model! Look how good I make darts look!

This is a close up of the dart action at the beginning of the game. Yes, I have no clue how to keep track of points in darts! whoops!

This is Matt, he is a friend of Phils (they play soccer together for fun). Matt is hilarious and is a fellow Canadian! He is a cool guy and we are all going to hangout together again! Plus he showed us the tattoo of a smiling face on his nipple haha

Another scenic shot of the 'speakeasy'! It is the foreigner's bar and lots of Koreans go there as well. I don't mind it all cause there is English music that I like!

Lyndsey looks pretty sweet and is taking one for the team here! Man we were all pretty sweaty and nasty by the end of the night! Thank goodness I have the camera haha so no one can see how nasty I look!

This guy, well I don't remember much about him. He had a fun accent and was with Chamile. He showed us how to do the scoring for darts later in the night! I honestly forget ever word he said! whoops!

Random Moments at Vanilla Night club (Sorry no photos but some great stories)

Here are some random point form things I have noticed at Korean nightclubs (specifically Vanilla nightclub the past two times I have gone there):

- Koreans love hip hop and hip hop clothes. Lots of people were wearing full on early 90s NY style clothes. Big baggy sweaters, the half turned NY Yankees hats, high top shoes, and so on! Definitely no sex appeal when everyone looks like they are from a Kris Kross music video!

- At 2:40am, around then, the DJ stopped the music and made an announcement. All the Korean club goers immediately sat on the floor and faced the stage. Then proceeded to watch a strip/dance off. The weirdest thing is that everyone sat literally on the floor. So weird!

- there are lockers at the club so just dropped off your personal items and do not worry what so ever!

- bottle of Corona beer is $7 Canadian! Yikes!

- Korean guys that will literally wear the same outfit. I saw 4 guys with identical outfits. They then proceeded to dance this crazy box step dance in perfect harmony with each other!

- Lots of robotic dancing! Many girls just standing around swaying from side to side! Unlike, the foreigners who dance like backup dancers from a Britney Spears/Justin Timberlake music video (hehe I am guilty)!!!!

Alright, I am off to go do more work because hey that is what Korea is all about!!!

Drama Skit After Pary

2007-11-26T15:43:00.000-08:00

Enjoy! I am tired but this needed to be posted for the hilarious clips of Karaoke! Please enjoy. Sorry if there are any grammar/spell errors, it was a long day at work!

Anyone who has ever preformed in a play would know that there is always a cast party after the show. All the Korean teachers decided to host an after party for everyone! It was super sweet of them and it gave everyone a night to relax and have some fun!

Just as any party in Korea there are always the basic party standards: 1.6L of beer, Soju (Korean hard alcohol), weird pizza, fried chicken, mandarins, Noriban (Korean Karaoke), bad dancing, and random moments! Here is the evening a nutshell:

Massages are super popular in Korea. My trainees will randomly come up behind me and start giving me a neck massage. I am not a fan of them because literally they are painful! Even the casual gesture of hitting someone arm in Western culture (like if a friend says an inappropriate comment and you just slightly hit there arm to let them know your there) is a full on hit! The love force here! haha Here is Lyndsey enjoying the massage train!

Georgie is rocking the noriban by singing a famous Korean boy band song. haha After this photo, I proceeded to be a back up dancer with the other ladies. He is quite the crowd pleaser!

Lyndsey is being Lyndsey haha Just joking. I should really be the one in the photo because I do love beer. But yes Lyndsey and I have had our moments of drinking alcohol. In Korea, it is rude for someone to pour themselves any type of drink. So if your thirsty, you could make some sort of verbal comment suggesting how thirsty you are. Then someone has to pour you the drink. Also, you can not refuse a drink if someone offers it to you. So the main lesson learnt here is drink slowly! Always drink slowly in Korea!

So I performed my first noriban song ever! Victoria and I performed 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. Lyndsey chickened out! Grrr, if you are reading, I'll get you my pretty! hahaha But it was actually really fun and I would totally do it again!

Here is good old YYOK shaking his money maker for Victoria. Oh man, by the end of the night, YYOK was no OK haha He was super drunk but he did some brilliant noriban. This man makes me laugh. His English is really bad, but I appreciate how he tries. That is when he is not sleeping in my class!

Here is a panoramic shot of the party in action. I have no clue why Victoria is in all my photos...hmmm....maybe she is stalking me!!!

Lyndsey is pointing at YYOK and for some reason is really red in the face. Hmm, maybe she is enjoying his nice dance moves! hehe There is Sunflower again. She is pretty annoying and is constantly making these annoying kids voices. She thinks that she is being super cute but really everyone is just super annoyed!

One of the highlights of the evening was watching YYOK sing a Korean song. Honestly, I wish I would have taped this whole song. He is so funny! I died of laughter! haha This is the best Karaoke I have ever seen in my life. If you can put more passion into your singing, please prove me wrong!

Here is Phil, the head teacher and possible future husband of Lyndsey, haha (I will play 'couples manager' and hopefully make them a couple) hehe Just Joking! Phil is great and I love joking with him all the time, it makes the time pass by! Here he is singing his heart and soul out!

Here is another classic Noriban moment. Georgie, one of the guys from my class, is singing a famous boy band song! He is such a cutie and he is always saying he wants to marry a Canadian girl haha Today my group and I were talking about beauty pageants and how I was in Miss Teen Calgary. My female teachers were saying how I was beautiful and joking about how Bill, my partner teacher, is beautiful too. However, Georgie said 'no Bill is not beautiful, I think Melissa is beautiful' aww he is a cutie! He is also a boy scout leader for his school haha Anyways, enjoy the clip!

This is a really brief clip that for some reason didn't upload right. But enjoy, it's about my homeroom class enjoying the singing!

This is a traditional Korean song that was performed by a lot of the older female Korean teachers. It was nice to have some traditional Noriban hits. I had a great time this evening and you can definitely tell by my reaction at the end of the clip! I'll be updating the blog this weekend to talk about Lyndsey and I experiencing Korean night life.

Korean Drama!

2007-11-24T22:08:00.002-08:00

Every homeroom had to perform a skit (a one act play) for one of the project. The teachers have been working hard over the past 2 weeks preparing for this one night event. My homeroom, the Shreks, have been practicing this play non-stop. I love how devoted they are to perfecting their English. My homeroom did a tradition Korean folktale. It was brilliant and honestly the best play! This is not just my opinion but many other teachers felt the same way! Hopefully the homeroom gets first place in the skit competition! I'll let you guys know when the results are in!

Here is my group looking eager to get a final dress rehearsal on the stage. We are just leaving the main teaching centre to head to the auditorium!

Before the performance - Inside of the auditorium, everyone is waiting patiently and eying the competition! I do admit, everyone has put in a lot of effort from making costumes to set pieces! Here is Mi Jeung - striking a pose for the camera!

This is Lyndsey's homeroom class, with some students missing. Here partner teacher is Phil, who I think she will marry, but Phil does not know this yet haha I'll play 'couples manager (Korean Matchmaker)' and hopefully make them a match! Otherwise, I love making fun of Phil and he loves making fun of me!

Here is my homeroom, with my partner teacher Bill! The reason why Bill has a badminton birdy on his nose is because he played the swallow in our play. I was the director for the group. I thought it would be better for Bill to play a giant swallow! What a sexy group of teachers!!

Here is classroom one and their Christmas themed played. This class for some reason is so dead whenever I teach them. They once told that they do not like to speak because they are 'calm'. I say bullshit! Glad Ryan (with the bandanna) whipped them into shape. I don't know much about Sandra, she is just weird!!!!

Here is classroom two with Tim (in the drag) and Victoria (pink wig). They are a funky bunch and the class is full of older but determined teachers!

Here is a picture of Tim, the oldest foreign teacher and he has a PhD, in drag for his play! Man, everyone was laughing so hard!! I will never forget him in drag, ever!!

This is YYOK, the 50's man who has the poorest English level of the group. He is pretty fun in that he can be the biggest craziest drunk I have ever seen. Yet, I don't appreciate him passing out in my class while I am teaching. This makes me a bit mad!!!!

Class one performing their Santa themed play. This made me happy because I enjoy Christmas and now I am definitely in the Christmas spirit!

Here is Lucy and So Young doing a chick fight on stage to win the heart of Nolbu (Georgie's Character). I enjoy the cat-fighting choreography I threw in there! Nice!

So Young strutting her stuff like the young vixen she is in the play and in real life haha She is seducing Nolbu and trying to win his heart!

This is Georgie's creation of cartoon like comedy! When So Young pops out on to stage as the tempting lady, Georgie popped this huge hearts on to his eyes! Nice thinking Georgie!

This is Sarah, who is playing the Genie in the play. She did a great job and is so cute! I just want to pick up her and put her in my pocket hehe

Left to Right is Bo Bae, Rina, and Sarah. In this scene the Genie has given a mansion, a large corporation and Visa without a limit to the couple. There over the top acting is brilliant!

Here is Bill playing the large swallow with a broken leg! Bill did a great job and the audience loved his character!

Rina is begging for money and food from the rich couple of Lucy and Georgie. Definitely some difficult moments trying to express various emotions, but they did an excellent job!

A panoramic shot of Bo Bae, Rina, Lucy, and Georgie. Gotta love our low maintenance set!

Here is the end scene of Lyndsey's play. The rest of the photos of Lyndsey's play and the other plays did not turn out at all! Mrs. Heo, one of the supervisors running this session, kept changing the lights so at one point one of the plays was in darkness hahaha

This is Bo Bae, one of my homeroom students striking a pose for the camera. She is a hard working trainee and she is a perfectionist! She is also single and looking for a husband! I was told that it is difficult for men to woman and vice versa. A lot of Korean youth are segregated in school so it is difficult to date. So by the time they graduate high school, they are so awkward when it comes to dating. That is why they have 'couple managers' usually older people who play matchmaker. Or you could go to a certain type of nightclub were the waiters set up random customers on dates in the club. But things are now changing with younger Korean generations.

This is Lucy and Georgie. Lucy has really good English and she enjoys traveling. She has a son who is just finishing up high school and is going to college.
Georgie is hilarious! His English level is lower but he is a such a sweetheart and is really keen to marry a Canadian girl! In one of journal entries for class, he wrote about how it is his dream to go to Whistler, BC and jump from a helicopter with a snowboard. Then he wants to snowboard down the mountains on his honeymoon! hahaha I thought it was too funny! First, he should look for a girlfriend!

This is So Young and Rina. So Young is a funky lady who is single and looking for a husband hahaphenomenal and I enjoy talking to her.
Rina is a spunky lady with two children and is now 5 months pregnant with twins. Honestly, Asian woman look so skinny when they are pregnant compared to Canadian ladies! Thats for sure!

Here are the hottest instructors at JETI. On the left you have the lovely Lyndsey who enjoys baseball and wearing lululemon. On the right you the beautiful and sexy Melissa. She enjoys shopping, drinking Starbucks, and downloading English TV and music.

This a group shot of my homeroom! Aren't we just a lovely bunch? hehe I really like my students in my class and I am very happy that they are in my homeroom! By the way, I am the gal in the pink wig!

Random moments from the elementary teacher's session!

2007-11-18T22:33:00.001-08:00

So the elementary teacher's workshop is in full swing! Even though it has only been 2 weeks of teaching this wacky group of 24 Korean teachers, I have had a blast! I decided that I would let you all in on some of my crazy but embarrassing moments that I have experienced while teaching in Korea!!

The Elementary Korean Teachers Welcome Party!

So the first night of the elementary teachers workshop, the International Department held a welcome party! This night was full of dried squid, beer, mandarins, and good times! The 24 Korean teacher were divided into 4 homerooms with 2 NET (Native English Teachers) per a homeroom. My partner is Bill and let me tell you, he is absolutely hilarious and we get along swell! If you are starting to get any ideas, please don't! He is married and has a 4 year old son!

In my homeroom, we decided to call ourselves the 'Shreks' because our color is green. Each homeroom has a color and we compete in a variety of activities for points. Koreans love competition!

My homeroom is full of some wicked teachers! In the photo below from left to right, we have Lucy, Rina (who is 5 months pregnant with twins, man she looks good), So Young, Sarah, Bo Bae, Georgie, Bill and me. In this photo we are presenting our cheer that we made for the cheer competition. It was a lot of fun! On our poster, the teachers wrote 'Shrek' and made the acronym:

S- Super sexy
H- Happy
R - Ready
E - Excellent
K - Korean Teachers

Here is another shot showing the beautiful poster they created! haha We look funny making little Shrek ears with our hands. Notice the big bottle of beer is in close proximity. Koreans love to drink!!

Left to Right, is So Young, Georgie (who is looking for a Canadian wife haha), Bill and I giving a little speech about our poster!

Here is Lyndsey's class which is also full of a variety of personalities! The woman in the red leather coat, Sunflower, drives us nuts! She is so animated and over the top. Oh gosh, sometimes I just want to strangle her, a little bit haha So their homeroom created is called 'Burning Love'! Yeah, I bug Lyndsey about how cheesy her students are on a daily basis! haha

Here is a close up of the 'Burning Love' poster. I told that class maybe they should see a doctor if the burning sensation does not disappear haha The girl in the pink hoodie, I forget her name!, is a bit annoying. One day she told me I didn't look nice. Grrr! I'll talk about how blunt Koreans are in a moment! Mi Jeong, the girl on the right side of the photo, is a sweetheart and loves learning English! You go girl!

Here is classroom one, the English Sunflowers, who are a quiet group of Korean teachers. They are honestly my least favorite class because they don't talk much at all. There is one man, YYOK, who is in his 50's and he is the biggest drunk I have ever seen. There will be more information about him and his crazy antics later!

Here is classroom two, the English bluejays or something like that. I don't remember haha but this group is pretty nice and I enjoy teaching them! Here they are performing a traditional Korean dance with Victoria!

Everyone is mingling and enjoying some good food and spirits! Nice!

Random Moments during the Teacher's session (in point form):

- Georgie, the Korean guy in my homeroom, always eats across the table or beside me at lunch and dinner. So one time when we were eating lunch, he went to say something and he accidentally spit a piece of rice on to my hand. I did notice this and was about to wipe it off when he suddenly grabbed my hand and picked off the piece of rice. 'Whoops' he said and smiled hahaha

- Koreans being blunt and honest to you all the time about your appearance. There have been mornings when I have woken up tired and every class I have taught has pointed out how tired I look!

- Old Korean men on the bus to town have random one sided conversations with me. One man kept talking to me even though I kept saying 'I don't know' in Korean. He then showed me a lemon he bought and kissed it in front of me! weird!

- YYOK falling asleep in my Drama class right in front of me! One time he drank 3 bottles of Soju (Korean alcohol) and then came to my class the next day super hung over! grrr

- My Korean female teachers couldn't believe my eyelashes are real! They were so amazed! When Lyndsey and I were buying make up downtown at 'Banali's' a super femanized man was helping us. He was so random and wonderful with his comments! He pointed to my eyes and said 'your eyes are like Beyonce! hahaha They he called Lyndsey Britney Spears because of her blonde hair and they danced while singing 'Give me, Give me more!!'

Ladies Day! Oh what a day!

2007-11-17T17:17:00.000-08:00

So the ladies (Lyndsey and Victoria) and I decided that after a long first week of teaching we should reward ourselves! So on Friday at 1:50pm we made our way downtown to Gwangju for some relaxing, shopping and good times! We went straight down to the downtown core where we definitely had some fun and caused some trouble! So here is how our adventure planned out on the evening of November 16, 2007:

Considering how tired everyone was, we decided to swing by Paris Baguette (a chain coffee shop and bakery) for some coffee and people watching. We sat up on the second floor and enjoyed some delicious mocha's and lattes! Sorry for the horrible photography, but I am working on it! The weather is still pretty nice here as you can tell from the sweaters and mini skirts in the photo! But at night, man does it get cold! If you look in the background, they just opened up a Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and it is insane walking by there!

In Korea, showing affection to your friends is very common! Common gestures include holding hands, linking arms, and placing your arms on each others shoulders while walking down the street. Couples, friends, and family will all walk down the streets showing their affection for the special in their lives. Lyndsey and Victoria demonstrate just how beautiful it is! hehe When I get a boyfriend, I'll be join the crowd of hand clinging couples in Gwangju!

Cellphone shops! Oh where to start when describing the craziness of how cell phones are marketed in Korea. Or should I say 'hand phones' because that is what Koreans call cell phones. No matter where you go in Gwangju, hand phone shops are everywhere just as Starbuck is on ever corner in Canada. Whether it is a scantily clad woman speaking into a microphone about the great deals to cute men luring you into the shops with a smile; the cell phone business in Korea is serious! However, here is one cellphone marketing scheme we all enjoyed: the giant dancing man! Now, I would gladly buy a phone from him!

For some reason this weekend, they have ripped up some parts of the downtown core and are reconstructing the roads. If you were honestly drunk, this would suck because the roads are very uneven due to construction. However, I was sober so I should not be complaining! I just had to take a picture of it! I could not believe the ladies wearing stilettos who didn't even seem to notice the sudden change in the road!

After eating a delicious dinner of sushi at a Japanese restaurant, we proceeded to find the store 'Missha Girl'. Missha Girl was a clothing store that Lyndsey and I found the weekend before but we didn't have enough time to look around. I wanted to return to buy a V-neck sweater for work. Anyways, Lyndsey and I couldn't remember where the store was because literally downtown resembles a maze of streets! So after asking a few school girls and having really no success, we walked for quite a while in the cold of night. While trying to find Missha girl, we ended up passing a store named 'Brown Girl'. I had to chuckle because well that is a bold name for store!

Finally, after walking around, we found Missha Girl and decided to go on a clothes shopping frenzy! The girls and I noticed after going to numerous shops that no matter what store you go to, the clothes are usually 80% the same! The only thing that changes is the price and the label inside of the clothes! Victoria explained how Koreans felt that everyone needs to look relatively the same. No one should stick out and not conform to the majority. This theory reminded me of Japan as well. The clothes in Korea are an odd mix of 80s meets oddness! haha I can't really describe it. The fashion reminds me more of China when I was there, rather than Japan. I like Japanese fashion way better! Anyways, we decided to find the ugliest things in the store and model them for each other! Don't you just love the sweater combo on Victoria and Lyndsey! I like how there is a mini sitting area with vending machines in case you get thirty while shopping!

Victoria and myself are making a universal symbol of love, Korean style with our arms! Gotta love the ugly clothes in the background! eeeeeee Don't you love the bling on our outfits! I will admit that I absolutely hate the fake diamonds, ruffles, bows, and flowers on clothes!!!!

After a long afternoon of shopping and giggling, Lyndsey and I decided to take the bus back to JETI. Victoria decided to stay over night while Lyndsey and I waited for the bus. Here a video that describes Gwangju Bus Terminal where I catch the bus to get back to JETI. I love this place because there is a giant mall attached to it! So I can enjoy some Starbucks while shopping for a Luis Vuitton bag after grabbing some groceries at E Mart (Korean Walmart)!!!

Wait for the video to load!

Video clips of my JETI adventure!

2007-11-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

I finally was able to upload these videos of my good times at JETI. This clip shows the staff volleyball game. The head supervisor of the international department, Hong Kong Kim, recommended that the foreign teachers come and tryout for the team. So I did go and try out with Lyndsey but we gave up half way through because the dumb men took over the court! Grrrr! In the end, I did not make the team nor did Lyndsey. However, that is a good thing because next weekend Phil and Ryan have to a weekend long volleyball tournament haha So the girls and I are having a ladies weekend in Gwangju!

The clip is from the welcoming partying a few nights ago for the foreign teachers at JETI. As you can see, Mr. Yang decided to pull out some of his classic noriban songs such as 'let me take you a holiday' - I have never heard of this song! - and other favorites like 'Gloria'. haha This man is pretty fun and he keep the party going strong all night long! Nice!

This is another clip from the welcome party showing key members of the international department getting their groove thing on! haha I love the strobe light/disco ball that came with the Noriban machine! It makes me chuckle! Honestly, these types of parties are a lot of fun and I really enjoy them! I can't wait to have more parties like this in the future filled with food, drinks, and good times!

From a Korean Middle School to downtown Gwangju

2007-11-10T05:23:00.000-08:00

Here are some more random photos from my adventure in Korea. I will provide some information about each photo so you are not sitting there and wondering 'what the heck'? haha So there are "1000 won shops" which are like a dollar store in Canada. I went there picked up a few random items for my apartment. No, I am not cheap, honestly, dollar stores are the trendy thing in Asia!

So I wanted a spoon and fork combo and I thought I picked the right one up based on the writing on the package. So can you guys tell me which one is the fork? One of my coworkers, Victoria or Victory (a 4 year old Korean boy named her and now so have I) gave me this beautiful box of candy for Peppero day (Korean Pocky literally created a holiday for itself so they could sell mass amount of their product! Now that is good marketing). The name says it all!!!

Here is another example of the Peppero day marketing! I was a little sad because inside there was only 4 sticks of Peppero!! I don't think that is love at all!

The only thing that I have seen for Christmas commercialism in Korea so far is at Starbucks. The other day when I was at Shinsegae (the bus terminal that has a Louis Vuitton store and other high end shopping...not what you imagine a bus terminal would have!) visiting my Starbucks haha notice how I said 'my Starbucks' because literally I go there on Saturdays and Sundays. Anyways, back to the point of the story, I was super excited that the Christmas drinks have arrived. They have Toffee nut Lattes (which I adore) and Peppermint Mochas! Yum Yum!

So here is a picture of my 5 dollar coffee in all it's glory!

In downtown Gwangju there is a network of underground shopping! The shopping mall underground contains literally hundreds of mall vendors selling miscellaneous goods. Here is what a typical cheap shoe store looks like. Don't worry not all stores are like this. These stores basically sell really cheap goods directly from China. Lots of knockoff merchandise! The problem is you need to find the right shoe size!

Speaking of knockoffs, check out the wall of handbags! This is every girls dream and yes soon enough I will become a victim of cheap imitation handbags haha I love them!

David Beckham is a hot commodity in Korea and he was everywhere in the downtown shopping centre. I just thought I would show my love for him with a big hug! haha While I was taking this photo, a group of elderly Koreans was sitting on a bench staring at me like I was crazy! If only I could take a photo of their reaction!

This is the downtown shopping center and picture of how one of the many corridors appears. Honestly you could get lost in their no problem!

A typical Korean classroom from what I am told. Yes, my coworkers and I visited a middle school after a hard night of Noriban and alcohol. It was pretty fun though! I enjoyed watching the Native English teacher teach the students alongside of a Korean teacher. It was super interesting!

After watching the English class in action, the principal invited us to eat lunch before the students did in the cafeteria! The lunch wasn't bad and yes there was 2 different types of kimchi. I will honestly have to write an entry just about all the different kinds of kimchi haha Anyways, after we ate lunch the students poured into the cafeteria to have their share of the food! I like how the boys were pushing each other while the girls on the other side of the cafeteria waited patiently!

The lunch ladies serve the girls their food! Notice how the girls are waiting and not pushing each other!

The boys made sure that they were in the photo! Aww the typical peace sign, how I love it!

These girls followed us to the entrance of the school were they continuously giggled at us. Yes, school girls giggle at everything from a simple 'hello' to even just looking at them and smiling! They honestly get kicks out of foreigners and they think it's the coolest thing to talk to foreigners.

Noriban - Korean Karaoke, my new love....

2007-11-09T06:21:00.000-08:00

The international department of JETI decided that they should 'dine and wine' us, yes not 'wine and dine' us on Thursday night. Oh what a great idea to get drunk the night before we go to visit a prestigious middle school haha Anyways, the following pictures show what a typical night of what Korean partying looks like. This night was filled with the following items:

Bill, my homeroom partner for the first session, banging away on his 'drums' hehe He is a great drummer, really! Tim playing away on the electronic autoharp, I believe that is what it is called!

Sorry for the crazy photo haha but I just thought I would physically show you how much I am enjoying the party!

The head supervisor, Mr Hong Kong Kim, of the International Department shows off his dance moves! You know it's a great party when the business men take off their suit jackets!

The staff dancing the night away in the crazy kitchen with the industrial sized bowl of rice on the table. Yes, I do eat rice twice a day, I can't eat it for breakfast! Too much rice.....

- Mr. Yang (one of my supervisors) who my coworkers and I get major laughs from. This guy is hilarious with his mullet and super crazy stories that really have no point to them!

- Mr. Hong Kong Kim making is his introduction speech that includes talking about coping mechanisms for the foreigners in Korea. He helped me realize that if I shop and drink Starbucks on the weekend, I will survive living in Korea!

- lots of food including Bulgogi (wicked tasting beef that you wrap in lettuce with other veggies like a taco)

- Tons of dancing with the Noriban machine providing the music. Some crazy 80s type dancing emerged that night!

- I like beer and drinking 1.6 L! Yes! It is the cheapest way to buy beer and if you are not finished 1.6 L in one sitting, you can always use the screw on lid to store it away. Oh Korea, what will you think of next!

- Mr. Yang, providing his excellent singing for the Noriban machine. He was just doing his job of making us new teachers feel welcomed at JETI!

Korean pizza with corn, sausage and a weird light pink tomato sauce...Otherwise, it tasted OK!

Who would have known where I live is famous!

2007-11-06T03:53:00.000-08:00

So we went on a staff excursion around JETI. Little did I know there was a bunch of temples, a famous garden, and a poetry museum around the Institute. We ended up going to the Gasa Poetry Museum, which is literally a 10 minute walk down the road. I found out that the famous Gasa poetry form was created in Damyang. Weird... But yeah I guess the beauty around here is quite inspiring! This picture is in front the museum

Here are the rest of the picture followed with a brief synopsis haha I am that nice!

Lyndsey is clearly over dressed for the nice day of weather! I like how Victoria and Phil are
mocking her!

Our English speaking tour guide is telling us about the famous mountains in the area. As you can tell they really can't compare to the Canadian rockies!

Ryan, Phil, and Lyndsey were amazed by the talented little boy playing the flute on the cow!

Inside the museum, our tour guide told us that we must stop and admire the artwork before moving on in the museum. We look like pros admiring the painting!

Here I am exercising in front of the museum! Must work off all the whole milk I drank....eeee.....

After the Gasa museum, we went over to Suwon, I think that is the correct name, haha, basically it's the famous garden where the poets lived and were truly inspired to write poetry. This beautiful garden is next to my work so I could hang out here and maybe be truly inspired to write!

Here is Victoria, Phil, and Sandra looking inspired in the pagoda!

These are scenic shots of the garden! Look how pretty it appears in Autumn. The weather is still pretty nice except at night, man it becomes chilly!

Alright now to go to work for a long day of unit planning for the elementary session! Yikes!

Welcome to the Rice Paddy!

2007-11-04T04:12:00.000-08:00

November 4, 2007

I have now been in South Korea for one week, well tomorrow it will be one week. I work outside of Gwangju (a large city that is pretty nice) near Damyang. I work at JETI (Jeollanamdo Educational Training Institute) which a teacher's training institute. It's different then a public school jobs because you do need a BEd or a Master's degree with teaching experience to work here. Basically I create lesson plans and eventually a curriculum on how to teach English as a Second Language. I work with 7 other foreign teachers from Canada and so far we have just been getting use to Korea. We have a campus type set up that allows for the Korean teachers to live here for one month and be fully immersed in English. We will teach teachers from elementary all the way up to high school. This should be interesting because I am only 23 and I have just received my teaching degree. I have heard some of the Korean teachers can be quite older so I hope they take me seriously!

The view from my room at JETI (mind the screen)

We have been given a 2 week orientation which is sweet! However this week we are beginning to prepare for the first month orientation for elementary school teachers! I have been hanging out in Gwangju this weekend. It is great to go the city because there is literally nothing near the institute except for rice paddies and a few tourist spots of temples and gardens. It's beautiful but I love the city and I need some luxury items like Starbucks!

Gwangju (Across from the Bus Terminal)

I personally like Gwangju in that it's a weird mix of China meets Japan. I have been to both China and Japan (Japan more extensively) but it is fun to be shocked but what I see. Today a few teachers and I went and explored a local market. It was great to see everything from big pig carcasses hanging from hooks to women descaling fish. I thought the market is brilliant for eating food that is fresh and not processed. Also I got a chance to interact with the locals. By the way my Korean is horrible considering I have been here short while. I can count to 10 and I know some basic greetings but I definitely need practice! Yikes!

The weirdest think I saw at the market was a bag full of bees and honeycomb being sold. Now these were not typical cute Canadian bees. These were scary bees that made me cringe cause they could do some damage!!!!