Hello Canada

So I'm back. After a month or so of being MIA (Daejeon, Whitby, Dorset, Vegas, and Stratford), I am now settled, somewhat. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with this blog, it started off as a way to keep in touch while I was travelling, but now we all share the same country code. I, myself, don't really enjoy reading people's blogs about his/her daily life because it seems kind of conceited to think that your own life is interesting enough that people might want to read about it. So I dunno... maybe I'll keep it going for a bit, and if life gets too mundane I'll stop.

Anyhow for those I don't talk to on a regular basis, I've been back in Canada for almost three weeks now, I made it up to the cottage for Thanksgiving, donated a chunk of money to the roulette tables of Vegas, bought a Beetle Convertible, and have moved into a hotel in Stratford to start Chef School.

Today was orientation day, where I got to meet the other first year students. There are 45 other students, which is the biggest class the school has ever had, the age majority seems to be mid-twenties, so I'm not too far over the hill compared to the others, though there are a handful of students just out of highschool, who cannot drink during the oenology classes, which makes me feel ancient. For the most part today was a lot of waiting in lines for uniform fittings, bill paying, book collecting and so on. During the town tour, where we saw where all our classes would be held the guide asked if there were any questions about the course or about the town. I asked where the LCBO was. I think I may be known as "that" girl from now on. But I had had a stressful day yesterday, I took my key down to Volkswagen to get a second copy made and they informed me that I had to bring the car in and have it reprogrammed as a security feature, which is not cheap. I did not have the car with me, as I was out with Mom, so I had to go back to the house and get it. Upon getting to the house dad informed me that my front tire was flat. We (okay more Dad, than me) had to take the tire off the car and take it to a mechanic to have it looked at. Then I had to take the car back to the other dealership to get the car programmed. Then I had to pack the teeny tiny car with ALL my stuff, and drive to Stratford. THEN upon getting here the engine light on the car came on, so I deserved a drink! And I spent twenty minutes driving around looking for the store with no success, so it was a legitimate question!

Anyhow after today's festivities I went out to Zellars and Winners (shopping is limited around here) to find a comforter for my king size(!) bed, but all they had in stock was ugly. So tomorrow after going to Midas for the engine light problem, I'm heading to Kitchener, because I also need kitchen shoes, shoes for working in the dining room (as a door greeter, water pourer, or silverware polisher), and black clothing for the dining room services.

So for now, I'm in Stratford. Apparently the program is grueling and from what I saw today, I have no doubt, but if you want to take a weekend trip to come up/down and see me, I have a pull out couch, a kick-ass coffee maker, and a mini fridge in my room. (I'm not sure whether this is a step up or down from what I had in Korea?) Anyhow you're more than welcome, just give me warning to clean the place up a bit.

As for now, I'm going to enjoy my glass of wine!

Happy Chusok!

Finished up a nice long weekend yesterday due to the Chusok holiday. Didn't do much for it but had great weather, which was perfect being that we spent Saturday playing frisbee outdoors. I suck at frisbee so mainly I was just running up and down the field working defense, but it was a great crowd of people and good exercise. We had a bbq down at the river later in the night, which turned into drinking 'yuk-a-flux' which is watermelon with the insides scooped out, alcohol poured in, and then chopped fruit added back in. The exercise, fresh air, and yuk-a-flux wiped me out and when everyone was ready to head to the bar I was ready to head to bed. But I stuck it out for an hour before heading home.

Sunday we did a potluck Indian/Thai night and had some really, really good for. Butter chicken, green curry, spring rolls, mandu, and naan bread. I had spent a large portion of the day cooking so by the time it came to eat I wasn't that hungry but the flavours were great.

As of today, I've got exactly three weeks left which gives me a whole mix of emotions about, but for the most part I'm going to try and enjoy the remaining time and not think about the goodbyes. Two things that have me pumped about coming home are Thanksgiving (turkey, gravy, stuffing, and cottage!), and Vegas (gambling and sky diving!!) .

Anyhow I've got nothing of interest to say so hope you are all well. See you sooN!

Never Ever Drinking Again

Just starting to feel mobile today after Jeremy's goodbye party last night. We all met at eight to go out for a buffet dinner, and then while we were waiting for people to arrive we started playing 31. I won forty dollars but by the time we were finished two rounds of it it was nine thirty and some people had abandoned ship after waiting so long for us to finish playing. We headed over to TGIFs instead of the buffet and when we got there there was a wait and some people didn't want to stay, and said we could just eat at Santa's. I don't like Santa's food so I didn't eat and just drank instead. Only Friday is ladies night there so all the drinks are made as doubles, which ended up being a problem being that I was drinking on an empty stomach. Was supposed to play frisbee today but I thought it would be fairly difficult to play from a fetal position, curled up in my bed.

Starting to think about packing up around here and have given most of my things away, or at least have made a list of who wants what. I've got so much stuff to go through, and it makes me sad to think that I'm going to be leaving here for good, I haven't event started to think about the goodbyes yet, and that is going to be terrible when it's time.

In other news, coming up two weeks from now is the Poly conference, where all the teacher from all the Polys in Korea get together for completely useless seminars, and even worse, have to give up a Saturday for. Despite only having a week or two left at that point, I'm still expected to go, which is craziness. Not the way I want to spend one of my last Saturdays in Korea. However, at last week's staff meeting Jason asked if anyone was interested in picking up some extra cash to lead one of the writing seminars so Andrew and I volunteered. I really hate public speaking of all sorts, but we each get paid $300 for it, and being that we have to be there anyhow we might as well cash in on it, plus it's only three 60 minute seminars, which works out to be just under two dollars a minute. The next day in Seoul there is a big poker tournament at the casino for a $300 dollar entry, that Andrew had been planning on playing in, so now his entry is paid for and I can go and have a little fun at the roulette table. However, unlike last week, if I get up to $1300 I am going to cash out and leave like a sensible person would do, rather than dwindling it back down to nothing.

Anyhow it's about time I showered or did something with my day, otherwise I might curl back up into my ball and never ever get up.

Cheers!

Weekend

Actually managing to post twice in a week, good on me!

FINALLY have an end date at work, which is October 2nd, and I've said I want to leave the very next day, so Jason will be getting my flight sorted next week. Nice to know I managed to squeeze almost a full month's extra salary in, and will still make it home in time for Thanksgiving.

The semester at school ended today which means on Monday all of our classes will change. Because of my impending departure I don't actually have any of my own classes, except for my kindergartens, instead I will be spening the first week of September with a new teacher's class while she shadows me. Then for the following three weeks I will be covering for a teacher who is going home for a vacation. Shouldn't be too bad, but next week will suck because the new teacher's always get terrible schedules with low level classes, and no spare block for prep, which means I'll be teaching more next week.

This weekend is yet another going away, this time for Jeremy. He has been one of the fellow gamblers all year long, so he wants to head up to Seoul for one last try at the casino. The casino is quickly becoming my home away from home these days, but it's okay cause I've been winning. I promise the casino trips will stop...right after Vegas!

As for now, it's time to start getting ready for tonight's debauchery...have a good weekend!

Blah blah blah

Don't have much to say; had a relatively normal weekend, which involved too much good food, too many good drinks, and too little exercise.

Was my neighbor, Erin's, birthday so we celebrated that by going to Cin Cin's, an Italian restaurant, where our food bill was $150 or so and our wine bill was $350...which actually isn't as bad as it sounds because there were 12 of us, so that money went way further than it would have in Canada. After that we went to a bar called New York, that is set up with bed-like couches, which were super comfy, but after a bottle of red wine at the restaurant, really all it did was make me pretty sleepy. Managed to stay out until 3 or so, but ended up coming home about four hours earlier than everyone else!

Other than that there isn't too much excitement. This week is the last week of the semester and next week classes change over. I won't have my own classes due to my pending departure, but instead will be training a soon-to-be arriving teacher, and then covering for a teacher who is heading to Canada for a short vacation.

Tomorrow is open class for the parents and I will be teaching a kindergarten science class, which is like pulling teeth on the best of days. Today to prepare the class, I showed them exactly what we would be doing and went over the answers with them... so hopefully all goes smoothly, if not I can just tell them I'm leaving soon anyhow.

Anyhow gonna head out for a roller blade now cause I skipped the gym. Hope you had a nice weekend!

Japan

Promises to write more last week fell through due to laziness and time flying. Just got in from Japan tonight and too tired to sleep, which is gonna be great when I have to wake up early for work tomorrow.

Along with it being our weekend to go to Japan, it was also Joe's last weekend in Korea, so on Thursday night a bunch of us headed out to TGIFs for dinner after work. Their night carried on into the wee hours of the morning, I'm sure, but Andrew and I had to head out to Busan in order to catch our 8:30 ferry to Fukoka. The KTX train doesn't leave early enough in the mornings to arrive on time, so we had to head down the night before.

We considered grabbing a hotel for the night, but then realized we could just spend all night at the casino instead, which would be wayyyy more fun. So at around one o'clock in the morning we arrived in Busan to a torrential downpour and then headed over to the casino. On the train ride up I kept thinking I was going to play 19 and 23 until they hit, so I got some chips and started playing, the second number that came up was 23 and I won about $300. Two or three spins later and 19 hit. I was loving life. The night continued on like that and I was way up, but then I started to go down. I should have cashed out but figured we were there to spend the night and sitting around was no fun, so I cashed out what I had put in originally and figured that at the very least I would break even for the night. We continued playing right up until 7:30 in the morning and I walked out of the casino up $250, perfect for some spending money in Japan.

We headed over to the ferry terminal and got through customs with about 1 minute to spare before the jet-foil, super fast boat sped off. Immediately Andrew and I fell asleep. Now if you think we were tired from being up all night, I should give Andrew credit because he had been on a two week trip over in South America because he won a trip for a PokerStars tournament, so he was still recovering from his first trip.

At around one we arrived and both of us were looking a little rough around the edges from lack of sleep, so we found a somewhat cheap hotel, had a few hours sleep, and then got ready to go out exploring. One of the guidebooks recommended that Nagasu was the place to be for young salary earning men and women, and we figured that would be a great place to find some sushi and maybe meet a few other foreigners to hang out with. Turns out Nagasu was the red light district and Andrew and I agreed that we didn't want to eat dinner on "stripper street." Instead we headed to Canal City, which is a massive mall that the guidebook also hyped up. After exploring all the food options we sat down at a sushi train and had a few pieces of sushi, but it wasn't all that special so we decided to make that our appetizer and head somewhere else. We settled in at an oyster bar and ordered some wine and asked the server what he would recommend. He pointed to one on the menu and said he liked it because it was the biggest. We thought that sounded better than the creamy one he also suggested so we ordered two of them. They were like the size of a fist! It was a little daunting at first to eat it, but after Andrew ate his and said it was pretty good, I tried mine and actually thought it was the best oyster I've ever had. We also had an oyster pasta which was pretty good as well.

Next we decided we needed to find somewhere to drink for the night and were still amazed that we hadn't found any foreigners. From neighborhood to neighborhood we went and nothing seemed promising, finally we ended up at a 80s pop music bar that had a few Japanese people in it and we decided we would stay and have a drink. Andrew had rye and ginger, I had wine, and our bill ended up being $3200 yen...which is like $40! Ridiculous.

More wandering around and still nothing. Finally we stopped in at an internet place and looked a few places up online. We got to one foreign place and it was okay but we thought we would check out a place called Dark Room because it was toted as being Fukoka's best foreign spot. Turns out it was pretty awesome and we ended up staying until six in the morning.

Slept through Saturday morning and felt a little better than death upon waking up. We headed over to Canal City to do some shopping and eat some food. We decided on Wendy's, because Korea doesn't have Wendy's, and I thought it would ease my hangover a little. It was pretty delicious. I originally had wanted to shop around, but the mall was crowded and everything was expensive, and nothing really grabbed my attention. Instead we ended up walking all along the rivers and ended up back down at the harbour which was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

It was into evening by that time and we headed back to the hotel to change to go out for a nice Japanese dinner and then maybe go to a concert we had heard about the night before. Upon getting to the hotel, both of us sprawled onto our teeny tiny beds for a short minute, and before we knew it we had been asleep for an hour! I showered and got ready and came out and Andrew was still sleeping. I figured he was probably exhausted and let him sleep a bit longer. Then he woke up and said he had to get ready, but fell asleep again about 30 seconds later. This went on all night and in the end we didn't go anywhere and I watched the Olympics on TV. It was a little disapointing for us because we had wanted to go out, but in the end I think he probably really needed the sleep, and the boat back this morning was so rocky that I was relieved I didn't have a hangover to contend with.

Anyhow we arrived back in Busan around four, headed to the beach area because there's a great Indian restaurant there and managed to make it to the train station with just minutes to spare for our train.

Overall it was a great weekend. Fukoka didn't have a ton of stuff for us to do, but we traveled well together and it was nice to get to see another country before my time here expires. Sadly/happily next time I go through customs will be on my way home to Canada!

All Nighter

Made a trip up to the casino yesterday with Thomas and Jeremy. We had been trying to organize a day trip up for the last few weeks but vacation time got in the way of it. We found out before going that there was a closer, but smaller casino, right near Seoul Station, so we decided we would check it out, instead of the one we've been to before that's way out of the way.

As per usual, I found a roulette table and plunked myself down at it. I bought fifty dollars worth of chips and started betting on random numbers. Not too long into it I hit my first number (which is worth about $85 if you have one chip on it), and then I hit a second number right after that! My lucky streak was on! A couple hours into it I was up about a thousand dollars, and the three of us decided to take advantage of the free restaurant that the casino provides, in order to soak up some of the free alcohol that we had been consuming.

For the first rational time in my life, I took the six - one hundred dollar tokens outta my pocket and cashed them in, and figured I would just play with the stack of chips that I had left back at the table. I'm not sure if you know this about Korea, but the highest bill they have is $10, so I had quite the wad of cash in my purse.

Anyhow, after some food we headed back to the table and my luck started to wear out. I sat at the same table until I had dwindled my stack down to a hundred and then I decided it was time for some black jack, but the low minimum tables were full. Instead, I started playing a game called Casino War, which is pretty much beat the dealer. I won and lost a few hands there but didn't really like it because it went way too fast and there was no thrill in it. Back to roulette. Still couldn't get my lucky streak back and by this time I was down to what I had cashed out earlier. Thomas was in the hole, and ready to move on with his friend who had arrived. So Jeremy and I headed back to Seoul Station, and despite having lost almost half my winnings, I was still pretty happy about what I did have. Turns out we missed the last train by about ten minutes and were stuck in Seoul for the night. Back to the casino.

We managed to play for another five hours, eat some more food, and drink some more drinks, in which time I managed to make back what I had lost earlier and cashed out at just over $900! Which is awesome because when we were on our way up that day I had said to Jeremy that the most I had ever won was around three hundred. Also, next weekend I go to Japan, which is super expensive so now I have a bit of mad money to play with, and I have some savings for Vegas in a month or two!!!!!!!!

Anyhow we managed to board the first train this morning at 5:25 and were back in Daejeon around 6:30. I slept for a few hours but now I'm raring to go today. Not sure what I'm going to do, because it is 35 degrees outside and even with the air conditioning pumping inside I feel like I might be melting.

For a change, I actually have lots of different things to write about so I might post a few times before heading to Japan on Thursday. Enjoy your weekend!