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Oh man, I hate it when I write at least a page and then my puter pops up with something that loses the whole thing!
kay, I'm composing on my gmail cuz it saves drafts quite frequently in case something happens. Grrrr!
So I was trying to describe my weekend trip. John and I decided to go exploring and went across town to see the temples there. After a long trek, we arrived to see a crowd of Koreans in full hiking gear as if they were going camping seriously for a week! There was a very modern store in the middle of nowhere that sold all the hiking gear you would ever need. Vendors appeared out of no where. Some selling silkworm larvae steamed or some other shell like bug that I'm sure you suck the guts out. Yummy Korean snacks. Ewww! The silkworm bugs are really quite neat looking...big fat, and striped like a bumblebee! They're yellowish brown and black too! Ha. Imagine that! The smell is putrid though.
There were people walking by with full backpacks, and we passed some music blaring from somewhere till we figgured out that it was people who had their music blaring from their walkmans on full mini speakers!!! What the....??!!! Apparently that's the accompanyment to going hiking. Some people had these bells with them that rang with them. Quite cute. A lot of them had retractable lightweight 'canes' or walking sticks with them. They were quite useful if they were really doing a steep climb. !! The 'climb' was a paved road wide enough for a full size buss to go through. Uhuh. In the middle of this was a museum that so so incredibly modern it was stunning. I've got pictures of that too. Wow. Apparently this location was where a famous artist and architect lived. His name was Uljin or something. I've got to look it up. He looked very traditional with a long goatee and stuff. His tomb was at the bottom of the hill, and this musseum was where he lived or soemthing. Very cool. Right across from it was a river with Japanese maples all red and orange. Quite beautiful really. And all the way up there were the coffee machines and vendors of anything that would sell. My gosh, there's no escape from the vendors!
And so we went downtown after and went to see a movie in a DVD room. Now, let me tell you Canada needs to get hooked up on this! You could make some Major cash doing this I think. Hmmm.. You go in and choose your movie to watch, then go and give it to the guy, and he brings you to your private room and gets it rolling on his wall of DVD players. You get a huge lounge sofa or chairs, and a projector and 8'x6' screen to watch your movie on! Surround sound, and apparently you can fix your chairs to vibrate with the sound! NICE! It only costs 5 bucks...the price of renting one in Canada! Or less... This is the way you watch movies! You could fit about 4 or 8 Korean people in there if you wanted. Ahem again.
So then we went to hang out with all the other foreigners at some 'western' place that played Eminem! What? again!!! This place always cracks me up somehow. I love the wierd mixtures of stuff. makes me feel more creative. Or gives me new ideas anyway. I think they think the epitome of 'Western' is western style! Imagine that. Maybe not..but that could be! That makes more sense to me!
So then last night I met this girl Karel from montreal who invited me to come with her to the sauna today (Sunday). So that's exactly what I did. John came along too. I walked an hour to get there...it was good on the exercise anyway. We went up to this building, went up the stairs, (everything seems to be up stairs in some building that you'd never know was there!) and went into this gorgeous lobby. All dark wood that I really have to figure out what it is. The smell is so fragrantly woody! After paying the woman at the reception and recieving your tshirt (pink for girls and blue for boys!) and shorts and towels, you go into the womens or mens side, and go into a small locker room. There were lockers that fit only shoes! You pick up your key from there, and then go into another room that has 'hallways' with the corresponding locker number and that is the regular larger size, and there's your locker complete with hanger for your jacket and a hanger bar in it. IT's all wood, and the floor that was a golden marble took my breath away! IT's so gorgeous there! Then you strip down...yes...naked! And go bring your shower stuff and go into a large bath room that is amazing to walk into. It's just like paintings of naked people all lounging and showering. Beautiful really. So there were standup showers againstthe back wall, and rows of sitting showers with handheld showers and women and their children and babies bathing away and lounging around. WOW. Big round hot tubs in the centre of the room, and cold pools in the back of the room with more showers. A sauna at the other corner of the room. A laying down area with grass mats below it. A room off to the side that had an open door so we could see 'massage' tables' with women giving major scrubdowns to other women laying there. It looked amazing. Now why hasnt the western culture taken this on? I dont know, but in my personal opinion, I think there should be places like this. Now I finally understand how the Asian women in public pools behave, because of this! Of course!
Man, talk about a run on paragraph!! Sorry, can't help it. Anyway, we had our shower, then got dressed into the shirt and shorts that actually fit me!- and went upstairs to the saunas. The wood stairs werwe amazing to start...and then we got to the room with the saunas were. BREATHTAKING!!!! The columns in the middle of the room (about 3 of them) were crowned with wood mouldings, and the columns themselves were covered in bright stones! Amethyst and jade and some other stones in black or white or purple or bright pink. WOW! THen the saunas themselves were like joined igloo shaped! They had a wooden door with a round window in it, round windows around the sides that you could see. There were three of them with different digital displays of how hot they were in progression. The first was 31 degrees, the second 49 or so, the third 65-70, and the last room that wasnt igloo shaped was 72 degrees. It was amazing. But then we havent even gone in yet! When you go in, the marble floor is the same gorgous yellow/beige color with white in it....then the walls were covered with all the same amethyst and jade adn white stones. They ceiling was a big amethyst star, and then other patterns. There were large circles about 4" to 10" across of slices of colored rock. IT looked like you were in a gem cave or igloo! I felt like I just went to heaven or something! IT reminded me of that cathedral in Baraka for those of you that have seen that movie. Oh, and in the 3 room that was 65-70 degrees I did a bit of yoga and wow!!! I really did it in a sweating hot room and it was amazing! I didnt think I could do it but I did!
So, after sweating away we went back to the showers (Karel and I) and showerd all up again, and then went to the hot tubs for a few minutes. By this time I was soooo hungry! So we went and got kimbap which is sushi rolls in Japanese. Yum. Complete with the standard small bowl of kimchi and yellow pickled radish. Oh, and Korean miso soup. Yum.
Back home for an hour. My foot is killing me. Now I'm watching Korean music awards. And they love their choreography dances and breakdancing that's for sure. ALL the guys are killin me in their funky hair and funky suits. EVERYONE wears suits! NICE! That's more like it! And they (the guys) arent afraid to look a bit what we might call feminine. It's great. One guy had a dark blue suit on with a light pink shirt under and a purple 'mock turtleneck' or silk scarf wrapped around his neck. WOW. SO cool! Oh man...and I just saw a 7' foot Korean on there! Wowzers...with blonde hair like mine! Ha haaaa! Amazing. Koreans are sometimes quite tall...around 6'. Interesting.
Kay, that's enough for now! Whew! Here goes another week!
--
"Travel is fatal to narrow mindedness...charitable view of men and things cannot
be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime"
-- Mark Twain
Seek freedom and become captive to your desires.
Seek discipline and find your liberty.
M net is the station for Music and videos here. I just saw a song that was on the turn table rap, and the guys were dressed up as chefs complete with aprons and chef hats, and a 'real' chef was making dough and chopping to the music! It was brilliant!
Oh, and the guys wear long earrings here...and it looks good!
And...they LOVE choreographed dancing. I could get into that...cuz I love doing it.
Enter lights stage anything...star search anyone? I can hardly wait to sing in a karaoke bar! That will be fun. Wait a minute! I'll have to sing in Korean?? ha! that would be funnier. Well I've sung in French and German and a fw other languages including Latin and Hebrew....oh yah, and English...so you never know!
Anyway...I just had to add that blurb.
Ha!
I just remembered that Thursday the 24 might not be the same for everyone. Is it the same day on the 24th here as it is there? Um...I think so. Ha..wierd thought.
So did i say that i love the bottled food here? Like ketchup and mayo and red pepper paste, and thousand island dressing....they're all in plastic bottles that are soft and easy to squeeze. They have a dispenser or hole in the top that is shaped like a star...so when you squeeze the mayo it comes out looking pretty! All of them have that so far! How cool is that?
I have to go and get some Korean mustard, which I must say is my favorite of mustards that I've tasted so far. There's regular type yellow mustard, and then there's a spicier version that I love. GOtta get me some! The ketchup doesnt have vinegar in it and I wish it did. But it's not bad at all...it's probably real tomatoes!
I cant' seem to spell right with this keyboard, I swear. It's wierd. Or maybe I'mjust being lazy. Probably the latter.
Man, I'm getting restless. I come home and sit here on the puter and watching TV. I gotta get out and do something. I'm losing weight anyway, but I really want to get more active. Taekwondo as sooon as I get paid for sure!!! I'm starting to eat cuz I'm bored, and that's not good.
I went to the post office today to try to mail a letter, and that is kindof interesting when you dont have your Korean book with you! I dont know where I put it. Help! But it went fine, considering. I need an envelope, a stamp, or some way to send it fast to Canada. The girl was pretty good, but at one point she said "help me" in English! Meaning that she needed help. Koreans are so cute (bashful) when they are shy because they dont know English and I think they get the feeling that they should. Poor things.
It's fun to empty the garbage here...well I guess u could call it interesting rather than fun. You have to buy bags at the grocery store, and everything is recycled by law. I bring my bag out to the telephone pole right outside my front door of the building..and that's it. Its picked up once a day! I like that idea. Your compost goes out there too...and everyone has a compost bucket. Not exactly sure how that works yet, but we'll see soon enough.
Today at school was interesting. There's a class where I teach the 2 youngest ones, and they're quite fun because there is just 2 of them and I pretty much just play with them and say words in english that they do or something similar like that. Brian and Abby. Abby just looks like a doll..she's so cute.
The crazy class from hell was another story today. I teach them everyday, and it just seems to go downhill. Today I just walked out of the class and said i was going to call their parents if they didnt smarten up. It's really qutie rediculous. There are 5 boys and one girl. I think a lot of it is because I have a nice girly voice, and they dont take me seriously for one, and that they either ignore or dont understand me when I ask them to sit down and listen. No, that not true because I kNOW they understand those two or three words. They just dont want to study and sit there.
They're the class that no one wants to teach, so I just am not sure what to do. One of the other Korean teachers came in and told them to sit and listen to me, and that helped for about 5 minutes. I think that they are bored and maybe think that this is too easy a little. But at the same time I think they can learn by using the language, if they'd only sit there and help me teach them! I need to find more games for them to do..and have/make the time to prepare them. I had a good one all ready to go today, but I couldn't get their attention enough to even do it! Grrrrr.....!!! What ended up happening finally was I asked them about games they liked, and that helped for about 3 minutes!
I asked to switch classes with John tomorrow to see if that helps because he's a man and his voice might convey the message better. So we'll see. I'd be curious to see if that makes a difference. Sad but true.
Oh, apparently it's going to be getting colder here in Korea. Probably in January. And I found out that I have anywhere from 2 days to a week off between Christmas and New Years. So we'll see.
Kay, I gotta go do some student reports for tomorrow. If any of you have any suggestions for keeping kids in line, let me know ASAP!!! Later people!!!
Well, I've been working on the msn space site. I'm not sure yet. i'll keep posting here and see how this goes. If I change for sure I'll let you know!
Later!
Ok this computer is so annoying. It's got some kind of spyware on it that keeps blank windows popping up, and it interfupted my blog, and now I lost it all. Man, as soon as I get paid it's gonna be fixed! Help!
Hey, I'm thinking of changing the location of my blog once again to MSN Spaces. I'm so dumb, cuz I forgot about it when I changed from Blogger. MSN has blog, a space for my pictures in the same page or site, and it has nice graphics! You know that's important to me! So let's try it I think. I don't like to move so many times because everyone might be getting annoyed at this by now...but it will work better I think. Let's try it. I can always come back here.
http://spaces.msn.com/members/bendycha/
lets see if this address works.
Days are going so fast this month. I can't believe how soon it's going to be December! And a month that I'll be here in Korea. It seems surreal still, and I wonder how long I'll feel like that.
Today I was honestly feeling a bit frustrated with my classes. I need to plan more, do more, control the class better somehow, learn the songs to keep the little kindys occupied better and so they dont get bored. And to learn the Korean words for 'sit down' and 'be quiet' and anything else that will do the trick. Learning the songs and the actions for it is what I need to do. I wouldnt mind a bit more direction in some things either. But all the teachers are busy with their own classes. So sink or swim. That's life. Wish it weren't sometimes. Whaddya do.
I need to get over this cold completely somehow, and get some sleep! So much excitement! You know what's funny, I'm beginning to really like the Korean pop/rap music. It's really not so bad! I've got a song ringing in my head right now...
Shopping is quite interesting here. Quite fun, really.
Well this is going to be short and sweet, except that I'm sooooo glad that I finally got a chat thing going called paltalk...I'm such an addict!
WOWZERS! What a long weekend! I cant believe all the places I've been and experienced within a matter of 4 days! I've travelled across ALL of South Korea, to every major city or even small town by train. Went to Japan!!! and stayed overnight. i wished I could stay for longer but it was sooo expensive, and I was broke. But I fully intend to go back in the spring time....that's my fantasy Japan....in the spring with cherry blossoms etc... and to see Mt. Fugi that way would be too perfect.
I dont even knowwhere to begin. If I started from the beginning....I think I'd get lost. So maybe I need to be backwards...but that would be confusing. Hmmmm. Well how's this. i'll just blurt out whatever I remember first. Here goes. Oh, and I should say that I won't get it all down in one entry, because I think that would most likely bore you all to tears! Or frustrate...or no one would actually read the whole thing! I wonder if anyone does...really. Hmmm...
Long story short, GwangJu to Busan Wed night, Thurs am Busan to Fukuoka, Japan!, get visa process started Thurs pm, Thurs night shopping with new friend Landa, Friday am go get visa, Friday pm wander in Japan and try to decide if I can stay longer!, Friday pm go back to Busan, lose my sketchbook on ferry, Stay in Busan overnight at hostel, meet cool German guy, leave Busan after getting my sketchbook...(it must have been APEC vibes), take train to Seoul Sat pm, arrive Sat night and meet Candice finally!, go window shopping downtown Seoul, go to Suwon, watch Batchelorette bee a goof, sleep, Sunday am, go get train ticket back home to GwangJu, go visit cool fortress wall 3000 years old that surrounds Suwon, so incredible that I get very 'verklempt' and give Candice a topic to discuss herself till I recover!, meet Taekwondo President of Korea in a coffee house, go catch train, meet a cool Korean guy and get to know him for the next 3 hours to Gwangju....and.....breathe....back home!!!!! WOW!
So, on Wed night, I was scheduled to leave GwangJu at midnight and arrive in Busan at 3:30 am. Before i left John, the other English teacher at my school I've been making friends with, invited me out to visit his friends Will and Liz and Kate. They're all Brits, and it's fun getting to know them. Took a taxi to the bus station, and the adventure begins. When I got on the bus, I noticed another 'foreigner' with her baby getting on. She looked a bit hippyish, and looked a bit older, and it made me happy to see an older woman (40's?) with a baby. Hopeful, perhaps. Ahem. So when we arrived in Busan, we ended up connecting, and discovered we were on the same trip to japan. We both hung out at the bus station all night, and attracted quite a crowd of Koreans because of the baby. It's amazing how small and cute things like babies or small animals break barriers! It turns out that this lady, Mary, (who was from France) and her husband had just adopted Andy who is Korean and Philipino. She was bringing Andy for a 'visa run' for him so he could stay in the country another month before they move to Saipan I believe the island is called. I'm glad we met, because the bus station would have been a bit shady- and it was regardless.
At 5:30 am the subway started, and we got the subway to the wharf, or close anyway. I'm so glad she was there, because she had doene the 'visa run' before and knew generally where to go. I was also glad that I could help her carry her bags...having a baby and all... We got to the international ferry terminal which was quite beautiful, and it was just sunrise by the time we were there. Oh, and before I forget, there was this AMAZING building there while it was still dark that I got a mini film of...wowzers I love this country for it's technology and attention to detail and aesthetics. The building's windows lit up and changed color like a light show! And it's sooo beautiful to see! Breathtaking actually!
So, Mary and I got to the terminal, had to wait an hour for the ticket booths to open. I was a bit worried because I was instructed to pick up my travel tickets and hotel package on the 4th floor of some building, and everyone I asked said that it was indeed the ferry terminal building, and it only had 3 floors! Great. It ended up being just fine, and I got the Kobee ferry and the ticket vendor had my package all there for me. Sweet- Relief actually. Mary was going on the Beetle ferry. I'm kindof glad because she was a lot of energy in a way. So through customs and immigration...I always seem to get into the wrong lineup for some reason!
So off we go....on a boat that turns out to be a HYDROPLANE boat/ferry that had posh seats like an bus or train or more like airplane, and the engine I noticed it said Boeing Jet Engine on the side of the boat! NIce! So here I was, speeding away on this hydroplane boat! How cool is that? Going away was great because it gave a good view of Busan. It's quite a nice city that is like North Shore extended in terms of buildings or the city built on the side of mountains and extended along the coast line. It's long because of this, and very hilly. I really like it here, and it's just like I thought it would be, or very close anyways.
i was so tired, and ended up sleeping a bit on the ferry. I'm not sure what to call it- a ferry or boat or plane! It felt like a plane in a way. Strange. So I slept...it was sunny when I left Busan, and rainy when we got out an hour. A few times I wondered if we were going to be picked up by the wind...but I always get paranoid about that stuff at one point in the trip. There's a lot of trust in travelling I realized. A lot. Trust in maps, in transportation, in the people that run it, the people that you meet, the people that advise you.... and then there's the people you shouldnt trust....whoever they are. I've felt very safe here in Korea, though. A lot of people willing to help you that come up out of nowhere.
I noticed about 5 foreigners on the ferry too...they're all going to do the same visa run that I am, I'm sure. This was proven to be right later on. It's funny how the world changes when you're a foreigner! And an obvious one. You zoom in on people that are whities just like you. Some strange acknowledgement there too. More on that to come, be sure of that.
Hooked up with a guy who was going to visa run too, so we could go find the visa consulate somehow, which helped in the long run. We took a bus to downtown Fukuoka, and then a subway to some part of town, and then walked and got 'lost' down some back alleys in GORGEOUS Japan! I cannot believe how amazing it is here! The first thing I really noticed was how clean the air was. And the cleanness of teh whole town and country it seems. It felt like coming home in a way. But oh so Japan, and oh so what I knew it was going to be. How exciting and utterly amazing to experience this, to see real Japan, the houses here, with the bonsai looking trees perfectly pruned, the roofs, pagoda style stuff....oh I get 'verklepmt' just thinking about it! I fell in love with Japan, and I NEED to go back and spend some time there. THe thing is, I'm not sure I would want to leaave! I had a really hard time leaving as soon as I did because I had no choice.
K, I gotta get me some sleep now...and I will have to finish this tomorrow.... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Hey everybodeee! I can't believe it...I just got back from JAPAN! You should see my passport stamps now! Woohoo!
There' s so much to say...most of it is in pictures...if they tell a thousand words. I just can't believe how much i LOVE japan. It's so beautiful, just like I thought it would be. The people are really amazing, friendly, beautiful, they ride their bikes everywhere..including umbrellas. I just have sooo much to say about it...bu tnot much time righ tnow. I'm in a PC room, which is an internet cafe with top notch computers of course.
I'm in Busan where the APEC is right now. That's cool. I got fully searched bags and all going through customs today because of it. Interesting.
The 'boat' to Japan was amazing. It took 3.5 hours, and it was a hydroplane kind of boat! It's powered by Boeing Jet engines...and it's so smooth to ride, and posh too. That was truly an experience.
The air in Japan reminds me of home. It's so fresh. The color of the ocean is just like those tapestries or fabric or paintings you see. I know exactly where they get that rich blue from with the capped waves. It's so surreal. I'm so sad to have had to leave. It's really quite expensive in japan. Well, for my budget anyway. The prices are comparative to Canada...maybe a little bit more. Hard to go from Korean ultra cheap budget to Japanese!
I can't be on here long. I have no budget right now!
I'm going to Seoul on a train tomorrow that only has standing room only...5 hours. That's gonna hurt. Hopefully I can bat my eyelashes at someone or somthing. No, all I have to really do is be seen with blonde hair it seems and you get enough attention! *rolling eyeballs* Or crash out on the floor. So we'l see. Then I can hang in Seoul for a night and day and come back to work. Whew!
Talk soon!
Yah, i've got a nasty cold. I'm monitoring it carefully because of my new situation, and I want to make sure it doesnt develop into anything else. All I know is that I've got the runny nose like a tap, and my glands in the throat are sore and swollen. John, the other ESL teacher kindly gave me some cold stuff like Neo Citran that is from England. Tastes exactly the same, but you have to add sugar yourself. AND it really is non-drowsy. Man, I always wanted Neo Citran that wasnt drowsy! As IF!
So some observations I have to spit out fast before I forget to write them down again. Dad, you'd love the practical things here like the men (and women once in a while?) wear knee length socks (that are brightly colored at times) over their pants as a standard thing! HA! I spose for riding motorcycles, or the one guy I saw was on a construction site, with his steel toe boots too. Heh.
The size of the vehicles are quite fun here...gorgeous black sedans with chrome accents on them, and I have never heard of the make before....to mini vans and odd shaped pickup trucks, and of course motorcycles. Some motorcycles have this shiny silver ducting around all the edges...another practical decorative thing....I see that it would be great to keep bumps and scrapes off. The motorcycles all have baskets in the back usually, unless they are the guys that ride for show. Then of course they are as aerodynamic as possible. Some are really quite cool looking.
Anyway...did I tell you about the other night when John invited me out with his friends? Well I'll recap if I didnt. I met them downtown, and took a taxi there by myself. The taxi went thru the red light district which was quite entertaining. Really pretty girls who weren't dressed as ho-ish or slutty at Americans, but really quite classy in a red-light kind of way. They all sit in parlours with glass on the front of the buildings waiting for customers. One salon I saw the girls all wearing bright red 'housecoats' or 'kimono' like dresses. Very beautiful, actually, with their skin and black hair. The more I'm here the more beautiful the Korean people are to me.
Oh man, I just got a call from school...I got my schedule wrong, and I gotta run.
Trip to Japan starts tonight! Woohoooo!
Hey guys, i've got on to Yahoo messenger if you want to chat there. I usually don't like yahoo messenger, but I've got it and it's got online calling...as in telephone calling via computer. I gotta get me some speakers and a mic and then I can use it.
My voice has gone wonky because of my cold...it's always fun when that happens. I don't feel so hot being sick though...I hope I'll be better for when I go to Japan.
Wierd that they had an earthquake last night, because when I went out with John and his friends Liz and Will last night, we were talking about the "tremors" here. Japan always gets them, and sometimes we get aftershocks. great. There's something to look forward to! Hmmmmm....I'll bet the buildings are safer here somehow...well I'd like to hope so anyway.
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