In The Army

Had a little weekend excursion yesterday to a place called Songcheam (sp?) which has a large military base in the town... a large American military base... so besides the fact that the town was dominated by English speaking people it was full of very cute army guys (i should have taken my camera). The purpose of the trip was to grab a few items that we can't get around Daejeon due to the lack of demand from foreigners. This town was very touristy and totally catered to the foreigners.

I went with my friend Mike,who is ex-military so knew about the place from years ago and another new friend, Mark, who is from Alberta. It took us about two hours to get there via train and subway. First stop for me was to get an English cell phone because the one I got a few weeks ago is all in Korean and despite the fact that people kept telling me I would figure it out, I was not even close to figuring it out after having had it for two weeks. And i still can't understand how a phone that has english lessons programmed into it, hello and good-bye vocal greeting, doesn't have the capability to switch over to English language. ANyhow I have a new phone now and I know how to text and call and all that good stuff.

Next stop was for Mike and Mark which was at a dvd/game store where you could buy burned movies and games for 5 bucks a piece. Had a really good selection of new releases and I was tempted to buy some of the boxed sets for tv shows, but I can just as easily download them from here.

Had Subway for lunch....which was sooooooooooooooooooooo good. Almost was forgetting how good Americanized fast food can be but Subway reminded me.

Then there was a little shop that Mike calls the black market shop because it has all sorts of American products that you can't find in Korea. They didn't have anything too fantastic that I had been missing, but they had advil, listerine and colgate toothpaste which was great because Korean toothpaste doesn't have flouride and the stuff I ordered on ebay a while ago is MIA.

Went to a bar for drinks (surprise surprise) and it was full of military guys and 'juicy' girls. Juicy girls are hired by the bar, they are mainly Filapino or Korean, and their job is to get the guys to buy drinks for them, a common expression for them to say is, "You buy me drinky drinky?" Mike and Mark were pretty much left alone being that I was with them tho I think I got quite a few death stares from the girls being that I was on their territory.

After that we went to a country bar because Mike really wanted to go, and let's be honest, I wasn't exactly complaining at the thought of some country music. Stayed for a few drinks, listened to some music and then headed back to the subway station. Arrived back in Daejeon around ten, we all went back to our own places to drop off our stuff and get recharged, and then Trey (who had been in Japan doing a visa run), Mark and I met up for drinks (surprise surprise) at the foreigner's bar called the Brickhouse. The place was empty but it was a good time because we spent the night sitting at the bar talking to the owners, one who is from Windsor, one who is Korean and they shared some of their experiences and also gave us advice and info on other stuff we could be doing.

I was wiped by about 4 when The Brickhouse was closing and the plan was to head home but then Mark suggested goign to Watermelon Sugar which is a soju bar, and I almost went but then I figured I was tired, had a headache and did not want to spend the vast majority of today in bed, so I bailed on them, which shocked them because how could I possibly want to call it a night when it was so 'early.'

I think this is actually the biggest difference between the other foreigners and I. I like to be up at a half decent hour on weekends to do stuff or recharge for the upcoming week, and all the other teachers are happy to spend the days sleeping, waking up just in time to go out for another night on the town. I think my internal clock and I are going to have to have a serious talk if I keep pulling these all nighters and still want to spend my days doing stuff.

Anyhow today is low key, I have two french assignments due tomorrow, am in serious need of groceries, and have my first private tutor tomorrow morning at 9 so want to be prepared for that.

Hope you all had a good weekend!
Miss You!

Woo Hoo!

I am a computer genius! And this only took me 3 months to figure out!!!!!!!!!

Now They're Just Being Ridiculous!

I've had a posting that I've been putting off for awhile but after today's occurence I can hold back no longer.

I once read a wise man's msn name that said "Knowledge is knowing tomatoes are fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put them in fruit salad." Okay it was Brian's msn name so maybe wise man is stretching it a little, but I gotta give credit where credit is due.

My very first night in Korea, the owner, Brian (not wise man Brian) took me to dinner at a place called Vips that is buffet style and they had a chocolate fountain. I thought it was a little strange to see Brian eating a chocolate covered cherry tomato but he laughed about it to his wife so I thought maybe he had just done it to be stupid.

Then I saw tomato popsicles.

Another time I was given a glass of tomato juice - which i should point out I've never drank in my life, because I think it looks gross - sugary tomato juice was no better.

Today was Gina's (our secretary) birthday. Brian brought in a beautiful looking cake with glazed fruit on top, mangos, kiwis, mandarins...and cherry tomatoes....
the cake was okay, though i did pick the cherry tomatoes off, something about sugar glazed tomatoes just doesn't appeal to me...

It is a strange, strange little country.

You can't go out, it's a school night. You're grounded!

Korean liquor laws here are very easy to follow, being that they seem to have none. There is no last call, there is no over-serving, and there is definetly no such thing as just having one.

I didn't write much about my past weekend, and its not that I can't remember it, really its not, it is just that it is starting to sound more like a university student's lifestyle than a teacher's.

So you may remember a post from a few weeks ago when I was proclaiming that "I met people! Real live people!", it went on like that and I was very excited about the prospect of being able to expand my social circle. So far those people seem pretty cool but hanging out with them is definetly cutting into my sleeping time.

Friday night we went to a bar that had 2 for 1 drinks from 8-10...so at 9:50 you just go and buy enough drinks to last you for the rest of the night. After that we went to a different part of downtown because the bar we were at closed at 3...finally got home around 5 am on Friday morning.

Saturday night we started out at a place called Wa bar where you sit around a big table that has a deep cooler in it, filled with ice and beers and coolers from around the world..serve yourself...they just write down the things you take. After that we headed to J-Rock for all you could drink night. I was still recovering from 2 for 1 night so I can honestly say that I was pretty low key, though that didn't stop me from staying out until 6 in the morning.

Tuesday nights at the bar around the corner from my place is a bar called the Beer Hunter which has half priced drinks until midnight, which means that instead of paying 2 dollars for a pint of beer you are only paying 1. This is also the meet up night of the foreign teachers and a pretty good time. AND I found five dollars on the floor so I actually made 2 dollars by going out last night...really how can I afford not to drink? After the Beer Hunter a few of us went back to my friends place for some rounds of Jenga. Yes, Jenga. Don't ask, I dunno. Anyhow I suck at Jenga, but that didn't stop me from staying out until 5:30 this morning playing.

Four hours of sleep later I am ready for work and dreading dealing with those little monsters and today is the last day of normal schedule, starting tomorrow is intensives where i will be teaching 11 classes a day. Five hours of that day is going to be phonics classes and kindergartens...I may need to start drinking at work instead of after.

Phew!

I asked Lorne about the rumour today and it (thankfully!) is just a rumour.

You Didn't Hear it from me...

So rumour has it that a certain couple I know who got married after knowing each other for only one week are now expecting a child.

It's like I'm living in a soap opera...

I Live in a Shoebox

So I have been pretty happy with my place since getting here. It was bigger than I thought it would be. I have a separate kitchenette from my room, complete with a wash machine (though I still can't figure it out being that it is all in Korean and the cycle seems to vary from 20 minutes to 3 hours depending on its temperment). Last week my boss finally got me my table and chairs so my bed no longer doubles as my desk, eating area and sitting area. I have arranged the furniture a bit better so it feels somewhat homey, and I can clean the entire place, floors, bathroom, dishes, etc in under thirty minutes.

Yesterday I went to my friend's place who also has a single flat; however, his is a palace compared to mine. He has two massive rooms, a huge bathroom, air conditioning, and his crappy linoleum is at least a little more stylish than my crappy yellow stuff.

And any time we've gone out with people and they ask about my apartment I say it is pretty good and nice when in fact I have a 'ghetto' apartment and one of the ones that people pray not to get!

So I might die...

The start of next week is what every child waits for all year, every child except Korean children that is. Next week is the start of summer vacation. For me summer vacation always meant heading to Dorset for the summer and not thinking about school, these poor kids must dread summer vacation arriving.

Here the start of summer vacation for public schools also starts 'Summer Intensives,' for the private schools.

I don't know if I've ever actually gone into what a Korean kid's school life is like: 8 am til 1 pm is public school, 2 pm and onwards til 11 pm is Hagwon's or Academy's where they study English, science, math, music, martial arts, and whatever else their parents can cram into a 24 hour day.

So the Hagwon's and Academies offer summer intensives, where we teach twice as much and make our monthly sessions 20 classes intstead of 12, which means we see each kid every day.

Currently I teach about 5 or 6 classes a day. Next week I start teaching 11 classes a day. On the plus side I will teach about 50 extra classes next month which are considered over time pay in my contract....woo hoo....but 11 classes a day! If I don't kill myself there is a good chance I will kill one of my students, I have a couple potential victims already picked out (muh haha ha *evil laugh*)

So if I don't post a lot next month, or sound like a raving bitch in what I do post, consider this to be your forewarning.

Noah's Ark

Day 10 of rain. You would think that the rain would kill the humidity but instead it stops to rain for maybe half an hour and then the humidity is way up, then it rains, then it's humid, then it rains some more. I may soon be able to forgo walking to school and start swimming to school.

Well at least I amuse myself...

I am starting to realize just how much I sound like a teacher when as soon as I finish a class I want to run out and tell the other teachers about how the class was, who's improving, who drives me mental, and who was most likely dropped on their head as a child. Every once in awhile though I get an amusing story or two.

In one of my grammar classes today I was trying to explain articles and when to use a, when to use an, and when you don't use either. My examples for not using either was with city names so I gave various examples. I said you wouldn't say a Daejeon, you wouldn't say a Pusan (pronounced Busan), and you wouldn't say a Seoul. Well the minute I said a Seoul, I realized what that sounded like. Say it to yourself if you haven't gotten it yet. Fortunately most of the class is so far out of their league that they wouldn't have known the difference between my ramblings about articles from me standing in front of the class and swearing like a sailor. I on the other hand, thought it was the funniest thing I'd heard all day and I know that from this point on whenever I am trying to explain articles I am going to think of that example and have to resist the urge not to keep using it.

Mudfest

My very first night arriving in Daejeon, Lorne and David started talking about Mudfest and how great it is and how we were all going in July. I thought it was a little crazy to be excited by something called "Mudfest," so far in advance but nevertheless it gave me something to look forward to. Also, being that David is the manager of the school when he was making the yearly schedule he made this weekend a three day weekend to incorporate the maximum amount of time into Mudfest.

Friday night we headed out for Boryeong which is about two hours from here, we were staying at another Love Hotel, this one was much better than the last one though still pretty sketchy. I would give it a 1/2 star rating. It gets bonus points for being right on the ocean front.

Wow, there is so much to tell about Mudfest but I think if I were to write about all of it I would have severe carpel tunnel syndrome and you would probably never read this again. So I will try not to ramble as I sometimes do.


Exactly like sounds, Mudfest is just one big party of really muddy people. There were thousands of people there for it and the foreigners probably out numbered the Koreans 2 to 1. Along the beach there were dozens of tables and buckets of mud for painting yourself up. Of course, I started off as the martyr saying I was there to watch and take pictures, but a few hours into it I had run back to the hotel for my bathing suit and was soon painting my arms and legs with mud. We met up with about a dozen friends of Lorne's who were amazing people and so much fun to be around. The highlight of the actual Mudfest was the mudslide (not just a drink!) and it was about 30 feet tall with two lanes so that you race to the top of it and then race down, getting splattered by more mud at the bottom . There were also various mud wrestling pits and mud games to be played.

For dinner we went to a restaurant where you cook your own food, which are pretty popular in Korea... and typically the entire table orders the same food so that you share it all, but we were a large group and everyone had their own preferences so we divided into two: the seafood half and the pig fat half (I forget what it is really called but it is the fattiest part of the pig and people love it, I didn't try it). The seafood was amazing though, it was all live that they picked out of their aquariums and there were two big plates just full of shell fish. The clams were still alive and the shells would open and close until we threw them on the grill. (Where they died a hot, painful death) It was so good, I don't know what half of the stuff was but it was all from different type shells and was similar in taste and texture to mussels and scallops.

After dinner we walked back down to the festival for more drinks and the fireworks show. The fireworks were fantastic, the display went on for about half an hour and it was comparative, if not better, than the ones we saw for Australia Day at the Opera House.

There were about 4 couples in our group and then a bunch of singles and the singles were all sharing a room which is called a pension, which is supposed to be bigger than most rooms and more hostel style. Our room was the same size as the couple rooms, only no beds, just a lot of blankets, and twice the price as the couple rooms. I'm not quite sure how they justify that but I guess when people are fighting for rooms in the area they can get away with just about anything.

This morning we woke up to pouring rain, which isn't surprising as it has been like that for the past week, but blew my plans for lying out and sunning all day. Most of the group was also taking off today being that they have to work tomorrow. I decided to head out with them instead of staying the extra night because it would have ended up being Lorne and Mary Ann and David and his gf, which probably would have resulted in another Seoul-type adventure.

Before leaving though we went to the fish market, which was all live fish. We picked out a few fish, watched them kill the fish and then they prepared it sashimi style, and with the bones of the fish they made an awesome fish soup for after the sushi. So amazing. I wish Daejeon was nearer to the ocean for that type of stuff.

After that I headed to the bus stop and back to Daejeon, where it is STILL raining. Hopefully it lets up a little tomorrow for my day off so I can go out exploring a little!

Party time

Gone to Mud Fest.... be back Monday with pictures and stories!

How would you like that done? Ummmmm....fried?

I know I'm not a chef or anything (okay I kinda think I'm a chef...but that's just in my own little world), but somebody needs to tell these Koreans that there is more to cooking than just deep frying everything.

I know a few restaurants back in Canada have attemped a few different things deep fried, the deep fried mars bar, deep fried cheesecake, deep fried cheese...and we all know how bad it is but every once in a while we order it anyhow.

Here if it isn't deep fried you are probably eating it raw. The other night at the bar there was deep fried bacon, (you might wanna check your cholestrol just after reading that last line), and then today there was the tempura platter, which at home consist of sweet potato, shrimp, and other veggies or seafood. Here is a list of what was in the various pieces on this platter:

1. Tuna sandwich rolled in seaweed, tossed in tempura batter and deep fried
2. Octopus (okay that was acceptable)
3. Glass noodles, wrapped in seaweed tossed in tempura batter and deep fried
4. A piece of plain bread, tossed in tempura batter, deep fried and sprinkled with sugar
5. Pepper stuffed with tofu, tempura fried (okay that's borderline acceptable)

I guess maybe this would be a little easier to take in if I was living in a country that has high rates of obesity but Asians are tiny people! This is also a good time to point out that they aren't all super skinny most are pretty average, the only difference here is you don't see the extremely obese, but for the things that they eat on a regular basis they should be having hard attacks and shopping at the Big and Tall stores!

How to Frustrate Me

Spend three weeks on a grammar unit about imperatives, get the test and ask me what an imperative is!

And you thought I was kidding

Getting the "Korean" Experience

What to do with my weekends off now that I've been here for almost two months? You would think I would be taking the opportunity to explore the sites, climb a mountain,or maybe pick up some useful Korean dialect. And I will do all of that...eventually. For now I spend my days off doing things like seeking out the local Wal-mart and wandering around Costco. Which is sad and pathetic on two levels: 1) I could go to Wal-mart and Costco in Canada and 2) I consider going to Wal-mart and Costco to be a productive and enjoyable day out, not just running errands.

Wal-mart here is a little different, the grocery store section of it is huge and they sell really cheap liquor (they sell liquor! now Wal-mart really does have everything). The vitamin section is lacking as are all Korean stores and there doesn't appear to be a make up section, but other than that it is just like any other Wal-mart. Oh, it also plays Christmas music in the middle of July, not the first store I've heard doing that, which makes me wonder if they just don't understand the fact that the song is about xmas and should be limited to the month of December only.

This was actually my second trip to Costco and it is extremely similar to Costco at home. It's hard to buy a lot of stuff there though being that I am one person and don't have a need for 20kg of rice, but it is a good place for cereal and buying fish that I can cut up and freeze for later. I have also been looking for baking soda these past few weeks and haven't been able to find it anywhere and Costco had it. I have found a use for the first 200 grams or so, now I just need a use for the other 6.5 kilos and I'm set! (oh you think I'm kidding, but I'm not)

Ah Costco and Wal-mart, there's no place like home.

Comments

Just thought I would let you know that Beth discovered if you want to leave a comment without creating a user name all you need to do is check the 'other' option when you leave comments and you don't need to create an account or anything. (I know that 30 seconds it would have taken to create an actual user name was asking a little much...)

So if you are gonna leave a comment annonymously just remember that there are various groups of people who read this (i.e. my parents) so try and be tasteful!

And if you can't be tasteful you better be funny!

Cheers!

As promised

So in one of my recent postings I said that Korean hotels deserve a posting all of their own. Believe me, Koreans put the ho in hotel (sorry couldn't resist, I had a compliment on my Seoul-o pun so I figure I'll see how far I can push the cheesy humour).


Anyhow, enough of that.

So in Oz they had hostels, here they have 'love hotels'. Lorne and David said that they are usually pretty cheap and very clean and easy for a night or two when travelling. While Lorne was posing as the guard he sent Mary Ann and I off to find a love hotel.

We went into four that were all booked up and pretty much all had the same feeling to it, if you live near Whitby, think of the old Dynasty (the hotel, not my car), so finally we came to one with an open room and we took it. I should also note here that we had the option to rent the room by the hour or the night. (classy!)

The room had all the amenities one could ask for, toothbrushes upon check in, half used bottles of shampoo and conditioner, a vending machine in the corner filled with beer, dried squid and, of course, sex toys. (if that doesn't say love hotel what does?)

Well thankfully Lorne and Mary Ann acted the way they did and I managed to escape my night in such a palace and Lorne assures me that that is one of the worst ones he has ever seen, but I dunno, between the barber shop poles and love hotels these Koreans sure have a hidden side to them!

Happy Tuesday!

I met people today! Real live foreigners! Went out for drinks after work, which I almost bailed on, but decided to go for one at the last minute and the bar was full (3 tables!) of foreigners! Two of them have just arrived within the last week and last two hours and I got email addresses for both of them! So HAPPY!

Wondering...

Is it wrong to play your hardest at Scrabble when playing against kids who don't understand the language???

Welcome to Korea

Lorne dressed as a British guard for his weekend gig in Seoul


For more pictures go to:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=e9ujen3.74ep2qxv&Uy=-jofu82&Ux=0

Shoulda gone Seoul-o

Okay okay that was a cheesy cheesy title...whatever, start your own blog and show me that you can do better.

The big Seoul weekend was delayed by one night because our boss had planned an employee dinner, which was pretty much just chicken and beer and noribong (singing room), but it was a nice gesture and a fun night out.

We booked bus tickets for 7:40 am into Seoul. Now I have an alarm clock but I haven't used the alarm function on it yet so I wasn't quite sure if it was set being that I don't understand Korean instructions. So my plan of action was to rely on my inner clock to wake me up in time. My inner clock is actually very paranoid so I was up every half hour checking the time. Then the next thing I know it was 6:45 and I was supposed to be meeting Lorne and Mary Ann in half an hour, I jumped outta bed and into the shower in a panic, upon getting out of the shower I looked at the clock again and realized I read it wrong, it was actually 5:45. This was my first indication that the day was not gonna go as planned.

Lorne's purpose of the trip was that he had been called earlier in the week and asked if he would like to make 400 dollars for standing in a department store for two days dressed as a Royal Guard (yes there are pictures), so Mary Ann and I were gonna spend the days wandering around. And after my post last week you think I would have known better than to jump at the chance of a weekend trip with the two of them but I naively believed the weekend would be good.

After about half an hour of walking around Mary Ann started complaining that her feet hurt and she was tired and we should find a hotel for the night so that we could spend the afternoon napping (which of course was my purpose for visiting Seoul, to sleep the afternoon away in a hotel room). So we went in search of a hotel room for the night and I figured that was best cause I could leave her and do my own exploring. The hotel deserves a posting all to itself, so more on that later.

After stopping at a few subway stops and looking at areas we found a decently priced hotel that would suffice for one night. I wandered around the area by myself for awhile and then went back to meet Mary Ann so that we could go meet Lorne and head out for dinner and to meet up with some of Lorne's friend that he had taught with previously.

Mary Ann complained the whole way back to the mall that her feet hurt and it took all my power to suppress my thoughts on her choice of footwear and why her feet hurt. When we met up with Lorne he was equally grumpy and crabby like Mary Ann because he had spent seven hours standing in a very hot guard uniform, that was too small for him and having his picture taken numerous times.

We wound up at a Sizzler for dinner and Mary Ann was grumpy again cause she wanted to eat in some food court. The Sizzler actually wasn't bad and it was at least a little enjoyable. At dinner I told Lorne and Mary Ann I was gonna head back early today because I wanted some time to relax and not just wander around shopping all day, when really I just needed an escape route. Lorne tried to get Mary Ann to say she would leave with me, I guess he was looking for his escape route too. Anyhow we didn't meet up with Lorne's friends cause he was tired. *rolls her eyes*

We did however go to an English book store which was fantastic, there were plenty of foreigners and books and definetly the highlight of my day. Actually the whole area had a big city feel to it and the mall was huge, with an amusement park and everything, and that was great too.

Lorne wanted to see a movie rather than just head back to the hotel, but Mary Ann was tired *rolls her eyes again* so I made a quick decision and told them to go to the hotel and I was heading back to Daejeon rather than getting up and going in the morning. Lorne said he understood and I think he felt bad and at that point I didn't really care I just wanted to get away.

I got back to the bus station and learned that the last bus to Daejeon had left about half an hour before. I was weighing my options of wandering around Seoul for the night or heading back to the hotel when a cabby driver asked me where I was going, I muttered "I was going to Daejeon but I guess now I'm not." (that's right take it out on the cabby), he told me to wait for 2 minutes and he would be back. Two minutes later he appeared with two other people who were also trying to get to Daejeon, he said it would be thirty dollars, which was only ten more than the bus so I jumped at it.

By midnight I was back in my own place and happy to get some sleep.

Honestly the day wasn't all bad, I really really loved Seoul and can't wait to go back and explore some more just with different company next time or by myself. And it was nice to have today to relax and read and hang out before starting the work week again.