The smell from the raid is making me nauseous. I guess it could be the poison. We shouldn’t use it to kill our friends, but sometimes they are too high on the will to kill with a shoe.
The leaves are almost all changed and rapidly leaving the trees. The weather has been all over the place. Some mornings have 0 and some are still around the fifteen degrees. Yesterday, during our run, it was around 15, perfect for running.
I biked to Yangjae to meet a friend Wednesday. I haven’t been on Yangjae Cheon in the dark in a long time. Biking up to the Daechi towers, windows lit up, looks like a something from the future. Especially seeing them while emerging from under the bridge. It feels like a scene from a movie. It’s beautiful in a man made way.
I admitted to myself yesterday that we re-signed with SLP just so that I could live by the Yangjae Cheon. I love it and I use it a lot. I use it for running, biking, and just for walking. I don’t know where else there could be such a convenient and measured place to run with a padded sidewalk. The Cheon connects us to the river. Our bikes would be almost useless if we didn’t have the Chon. Yangjae Chon is one of the most beautiful places in Seoul. I think.
I think it was easier to blog in the first year because I felt like it was talking to someone. Now I just talk to Bryan and then I don’t have to write anything down. I’m going to try talking to bryan less often and see if I have a renewed desire to blog.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Writer's Block
Bryan bought me a Nintendo DS as part of my birthday present. It came with the new Super Mario Brothers. And so, I have relapsed into my past addiction. It’s super fun and not much harder than the original games but more clever. I love it! I am already at the bowser in world six. I think about it at school, I think about it when I am trying to sleep, and I think about it when I am running, which is a lot these days. I am currently training for a half marathon that takes place on December 4. Soon, I will be at twelve miles, about 20 kilometers, which will officially be the farthest I have ever run. I have been enjoying training a lot more this time, perhaps because I have been training with some co-workers. Although we don’t run together very often, we talk about our runs. The training schedule has been rather intense but I have liked the variety. Some days I have to get up at 5:30 AM to complete ten to thirteen km runs before going to school. I wake up before the sun and on clear mornings, I can actually see stars and even constellations like Orion’s Belt. I always thought that the constellations would be different on this side of the world. And seeing stars in Seoul is also a novelty to me. I guess we live pretty far from the bright lights big city. As I run, the sun starts to rise, slowly, over the high-rise apartment buildings at Daechi, which might have the highest rent in Seoul. As far away as everything feels, living in a wealthy suburb type area has it’s benefits. Like the cushy maintained running path. It actually extends far enough to completely train for this marathon. However, at about the six-kilometer mark, I officially leave Seoul and enter Gwanchan City. It no longer feels like city though. There is nothing around anymore and it gets more and more bleak the further I run. Running gives me lots of time to think about how I can beat the bowser in world six and how I might be able to get some of those impossible big coins and I can think about what I might talk about during the English part of the Language exchange Bryan and I have started attending on Monday and Wednesday evenings. In an effort to learn Korea for free, we have started taking lessons through a language exchange at a place called Culture Complex. We get one hour of free one on one lessons and then have to spend an hour, or two hours if we want, in what is basically a discussion group for Koreans who want to improve and practice their English. Because we are in Gangnam-gu most of the Koreans in the group are professionals who need to keep up or improve their English for their jobs. Which means, I participate in discussion with engineers, accounts, computer programmers, and folks who work in overseas sales for companies like LG and Samsung. No big deal. They need to ask me questions sometimes. I don’t feel adequate in answering them. Sometimes I sit there playing with my perky pink alien watch or clutching my water bottle with the hello kitty stickers and feel like such a pre-school teacher. I am ridiculous. Last year I felt like I was teaching English to be in Korea. This year I feel like I’m in Korea to teach English. Both have their pros and cons but mostly the lack of sunlight is getting me down. Last year, I didn’t start work until mid-afternoon, giving me lots of daylight. This year, on some days I am lucky if I have enough time to run down to the coffee shop next to our building to grab a coffee. The coffee shop is a project set up by a school for people with special needs. The kids who run it are really friendly and have been making an effort to learn English just for us English teachers who frequent the place. They greet us with an enthusiastic “Have a good day”. The coffee is also super cheap, making it a good deal for everybody. Unfortunately, we are moving buildings soon and the coffee shop will no longer be nearly as convenient. We’ll have to pay Paris Baguette prices and be tempted by delicious smelling baked goods. (Don’t fall for it! They never taste as good as they smell or look!)
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Clean It Up
The downstairs neighbour’s dog had puppies a few weeks ago; they are gone now. I assume they have either been sold to a puppy mill or have been tortured and eaten.
I bought a bike. I biked from Nowan Gu (Far north) to where I live in Gangnam Gu (far south.) It took me about two and half hours on the loveliest bike path on which I have ever ridden. I followed the man-made tributary from Nowan down to the Han on a perfectly maintained path that was nearly empty because it is a smoking hot Tuesday afternoon. At one point there was some confusion around an underpass, but I hit a dead end pretty quickly. Then crossing the river and finding the bike path on the other side was rather complex but I figured it out quite well and finally found myself back in Irwon-dong. Home Sweet Home. It was a lovely ride except for the sunscreen melting into my eyes and the murderously uncomfortable saddle, as the kids call them these days. I am so excited to be the owner of a bicycle in Korea. This is by far the best bike I have ever owned and incidentally this is the only bike for which I have actually paid money. I guess it’s worth it to have a bike that hasn’t been pulled out of a dumpster.
Sally is leaving next week and I am trying not to be sad.
Bryan and I are officially on vacation, so I’m not going to write about work, except to say that it’s hard but awesome.
I also got a hair cut. The boy stylist was adorable and had a black and white checkered holster for his scissors and combs. He still kept dropping everything. I think cutting my hair made him nervous. He did a very good job. Korean haircut 2.1 is officially successful.
And Inception. Awesome.
I still party too much, but there are about 39 posts from last year to which you can refer. It’s pretty much the same.
I bought a bike. I biked from Nowan Gu (Far north) to where I live in Gangnam Gu (far south.) It took me about two and half hours on the loveliest bike path on which I have ever ridden. I followed the man-made tributary from Nowan down to the Han on a perfectly maintained path that was nearly empty because it is a smoking hot Tuesday afternoon. At one point there was some confusion around an underpass, but I hit a dead end pretty quickly. Then crossing the river and finding the bike path on the other side was rather complex but I figured it out quite well and finally found myself back in Irwon-dong. Home Sweet Home. It was a lovely ride except for the sunscreen melting into my eyes and the murderously uncomfortable saddle, as the kids call them these days. I am so excited to be the owner of a bicycle in Korea. This is by far the best bike I have ever owned and incidentally this is the only bike for which I have actually paid money. I guess it’s worth it to have a bike that hasn’t been pulled out of a dumpster.
Sally is leaving next week and I am trying not to be sad.
Bryan and I are officially on vacation, so I’m not going to write about work, except to say that it’s hard but awesome.
I also got a hair cut. The boy stylist was adorable and had a black and white checkered holster for his scissors and combs. He still kept dropping everything. I think cutting my hair made him nervous. He did a very good job. Korean haircut 2.1 is officially successful.
And Inception. Awesome.
I still party too much, but there are about 39 posts from last year to which you can refer. It’s pretty much the same.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
대한민국! Corea, FIGHTING!
I can’t go running this morning because it is raining and thundering. I’m rather put out. It’s only raining lightly, which wouldn’t’ stop me (even though my hair might sizzle off) but the thunder makes me nervous. I don’t want to get hit by lightning, because in Seoul there are no large buildings or trees taller than me. I feel badly, I should go running, but I have already decided not against it and now I don’t have time. Tomorrow, I’ll run 10K. I need to get a gym membership ASAP, but we have yet to find a gym that has a membership fee of less than 70,000 won a month. That’s steep.
The path on which I run is really nice and cushioned. I run on a walking path beside a cannel or floodway (there are many in Seoul to keep the city from flooding during the monsoon season) . The path has three levels. The very bottom is the newest path, there is lots of traffic on this path, with all the bikers and rad inline skaters. However, this path is not cushioned at all.
The top path is cushioned but it is full of people walking to work and school. The middle path is where I run. It is just me and the ajumma and ajoshi who know about this path. Sometimes it is like an impressionist nightmare; I feel like am constantly climbing stairs without actually going up.
The middle path is interrupted by the bridges so I either have to go up or down to run past the bridges and sometimes it’s hard to find the middle path again and I get stuck running on the lame concrete instead of my cushy path. (It is raining harder now, I would have been bald by this time.) There are six bridges in the three and half kilometers that I run, which means I’m having to fight stairs and inclines twelve times. It’s like a cross country run.
Because I can’t run and I’m already up, I decided to work on this blog post that I started ages ago.
2:45 on Wednesday morning, (June23) our alarm summoned us from the land of nod. We donned all the red items we could find and made our way to COEX, the biggest shopping centre in Korea. As we rounded the last hill before the mall, we began to hear the cheers and music and finally we could see the red crowd that had gathered to watch Korea take on Nigeria.
I was shocked at the amount of people who were willing to give up sleep to watch the game. I was shocked that I was willing to give up sleep to watch the game. Bryan really wanted to go and I was worried it would be my only chance to really experience World Cup fever. Luckly, Korea tied (which is OK in soccer) and will advance to the next round, only the second time they have done so, the first being when the World Cup was in Korea in 2002. I get at least one more chance to witness this. Korea! Fighting!
It was pretty typical of any big sporting event. Seven or so big screens, dried squid, and people sitting on picnic mats in the middle of the street (which had been shut down) and police babies to make sure nothing got out of hand. There were trashy girls being trashy in patriotic fashion and drunken boys being drunken.
It was a lot of fun and really tense at the end when Nigeria was desperate and hit the post a few times. It was odd how intensely excited folks got over a draw, understandable, but odd. The final cheer when the game was called was better than cheer I have heard for a win.
Mostly, it gives me serious cread to have not only watched the game but to have walked to go COEX to do it. It was 100% worth it, even though Bryan and I had to wake up early the next morning, after a one hour nap, to get to the immigration office to apply for our alien registration cards.
We managed to get out to Hongdae on Saturday (June 23) evening, under the pretext of seeing King Kahn and the BBQ show. However, we found out the King Kahn had a fight with the BBQ show and they cancelled at the last minute. I was fine with this after seeing them in Winnipeg last December, they were pretty boring. We managed to get free cover in to Gorilla Bar, where you can buy seven shots of tequila for ten thousand won. And although this could usually lead to a long and debaucherous post, I’m sorry admit I was too jet lagged to handle more than one drink before Bryan and I decided to call it a night.
We hurried to the subway station and missed the last train but just a few minutes. We had no idea how expensive it would be to take a taxi from Hongdae to home and we didn’t know exactly where home was so it only took a moments deliberation before we agreed to spend the night at a LOVE MOTEL!
I think we got a little ripped off at the love motel, she charged us quite a bit, but the motel was on a main drag. She laughed at us, too. As if our tired foreign faces where amusing to her. But it was worth the money, I would have paid double for luxury of privacy and air con and being able to walk around naked after my shower. We turned on the air con and fell into bed. We both slept until 9:00 at least. It was so luxurious.
I'm trying a new thing this year, where my posts aren't long and boring.
The path on which I run is really nice and cushioned. I run on a walking path beside a cannel or floodway (there are many in Seoul to keep the city from flooding during the monsoon season) . The path has three levels. The very bottom is the newest path, there is lots of traffic on this path, with all the bikers and rad inline skaters. However, this path is not cushioned at all.
The top path is cushioned but it is full of people walking to work and school. The middle path is where I run. It is just me and the ajumma and ajoshi who know about this path. Sometimes it is like an impressionist nightmare; I feel like am constantly climbing stairs without actually going up.
The middle path is interrupted by the bridges so I either have to go up or down to run past the bridges and sometimes it’s hard to find the middle path again and I get stuck running on the lame concrete instead of my cushy path. (It is raining harder now, I would have been bald by this time.) There are six bridges in the three and half kilometers that I run, which means I’m having to fight stairs and inclines twelve times. It’s like a cross country run.
Because I can’t run and I’m already up, I decided to work on this blog post that I started ages ago.
2:45 on Wednesday morning, (June23) our alarm summoned us from the land of nod. We donned all the red items we could find and made our way to COEX, the biggest shopping centre in Korea. As we rounded the last hill before the mall, we began to hear the cheers and music and finally we could see the red crowd that had gathered to watch Korea take on Nigeria.
I was shocked at the amount of people who were willing to give up sleep to watch the game. I was shocked that I was willing to give up sleep to watch the game. Bryan really wanted to go and I was worried it would be my only chance to really experience World Cup fever. Luckly, Korea tied (which is OK in soccer) and will advance to the next round, only the second time they have done so, the first being when the World Cup was in Korea in 2002. I get at least one more chance to witness this. Korea! Fighting!
It was pretty typical of any big sporting event. Seven or so big screens, dried squid, and people sitting on picnic mats in the middle of the street (which had been shut down) and police babies to make sure nothing got out of hand. There were trashy girls being trashy in patriotic fashion and drunken boys being drunken.
It was a lot of fun and really tense at the end when Nigeria was desperate and hit the post a few times. It was odd how intensely excited folks got over a draw, understandable, but odd. The final cheer when the game was called was better than cheer I have heard for a win.
Mostly, it gives me serious cread to have not only watched the game but to have walked to go COEX to do it. It was 100% worth it, even though Bryan and I had to wake up early the next morning, after a one hour nap, to get to the immigration office to apply for our alien registration cards.
We managed to get out to Hongdae on Saturday (June 23) evening, under the pretext of seeing King Kahn and the BBQ show. However, we found out the King Kahn had a fight with the BBQ show and they cancelled at the last minute. I was fine with this after seeing them in Winnipeg last December, they were pretty boring. We managed to get free cover in to Gorilla Bar, where you can buy seven shots of tequila for ten thousand won. And although this could usually lead to a long and debaucherous post, I’m sorry admit I was too jet lagged to handle more than one drink before Bryan and I decided to call it a night.
We hurried to the subway station and missed the last train but just a few minutes. We had no idea how expensive it would be to take a taxi from Hongdae to home and we didn’t know exactly where home was so it only took a moments deliberation before we agreed to spend the night at a LOVE MOTEL!
I think we got a little ripped off at the love motel, she charged us quite a bit, but the motel was on a main drag. She laughed at us, too. As if our tired foreign faces where amusing to her. But it was worth the money, I would have paid double for luxury of privacy and air con and being able to walk around naked after my shower. We turned on the air con and fell into bed. We both slept until 9:00 at least. It was so luxurious.
I'm trying a new thing this year, where my posts aren't long and boring.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Dee in Korea 2.0
I think that the jet lag is waning; this morning I pooped as soon as I woke up. That is the first time this has happened since we arrived in Seoul.
Also, we got a cell phone, just a temporary pre-paid piece, but it will keep us more or less connected until we have our alien registration cards and can get good phones and contracts. And to those who are thinking of visiting us, we now have an extra cell phone to give to you when visit us. Perks, Perks!
I was prepared that this Korea adventure would be very different from the last. Last Korea adventure started smoothly: no late planes, no risky connections, all the bags arrived, there was a man holding a sign for me when I arrived.
This Korea adventure had a few more bumps. One very late plane: we waited over four hours in the Winnipeg airport on the boring side of US customs. Then we had to run through the Chicago airport to get our Korean Air flight to Seoul. After a fourteen flight, I was hauled into a little room at immigration because of the lost or stolen observation in my passport (Go die, Canada Post) and then one of our bags didn’t show up on the belt, just a board with Bryan’s name on it. As we exited the baggage area we found a sign with our name on it but no man. We waited awkwardly for a few minutes until a man came and quickly herded us and our arrived luggage towards the airport limousine (and by limousine, I mean a big grey-hound type bus) for which we had to buy the tickets. He told us to get off at the last stop.
A councilor from our school picked us up at the City Air Bus terminal and brought us to an apartment complex and told us that we would be staying with other teachers temporarily. We would be staying with different other teachers temporarily. We would not be staying together. I called bullshit and we are currently sharing one tiny room in a three-bedroom apartment. There is barely enough room for our luggage and Bryan has to sleep Korea style on the floor. (I have offered every night to sleep on the floor, but he insists that he is comfortable. He is so comfortable that I think maybe sleeping on the floor is better than sleeping on the bed and he is not doing me favour at all. Asshole)
In the next post I will talk about Korea Air and Love Motels and padded running paths.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Hello Sparkles and Flies
On the stairs in my apartment building, I often encounter condom wrappers that have failed to make it from their users apartment to the garbage. I wonder if one of my fellow tenants is just careless or bragging. I don't mind either way, the wrappers are often interesting. Today it was lavender and had a pretty flower in the logo.
Interested in checking out the Korean version of a flee market, Amber and I rode the subway out to the World Cup Stadium. home of the 2002 World Cup. I realized that I never actually been to a Canadian flee market and thus had no basis for comparison. It was very busy and over whelming and all the clothes were very tiny and all the books were in Korean expect for a few trashy romance novels. I did, however, buy a button that says "Buy Korea" and the charter has hearts for eyes and fire for hair.
There was also a man on stilts. I dislike men on stilts almost as much as I dislike clowns. Amber and I were waiting in the coffee line and not more than thirty seconds after I pointed out how much I hate men on stilts, the man on stilts came over to me and started taking in an a fake annoying high pitched voice. He was collecting donations for something. Fortunately, some kids distracted him and he didn't stick around too long, just long enough to cause me extreme discomfort and to poke fun at my nose ring. Amber gave him the change from our coffee after. I wanted to kick his stilts over.
After we finished at the flee market, we watched some B-Boys preform and then we hiked to the top of the mountainous hill beside the stadium to a festival of long grass that was happening. There were a lot of people and a lot of couple shirts and shoes and hats. Couple shirts I understand, they are cheap and cute. But couple shoes, especially if they are New Balance shoes, are kind of weird to me. That's a pretty big commitment, isn't it? One couple in particular that was matching head to toe couldn't have been more than fifteen years-old. Where do they get the money and is it OK to continue wearing the shoes after you break-up?
We wondered around in the grass for a while and took in the spectacular view Seoul and the World Cup park, potentially one of the most beautiful spots in Seoul, lush with trees and even some grass. I miss grass and I will have to continue missing for at least another six months or more, coming home just in time for winter.
I thought of this last weekend as I sat on the beach in Sokcho enjoying the warm sun and sound the ocean. I also thought about how soon I will be as far away from a coast as I could possibly be in Canada. I good reminder of how much I love the landscape of my prairies come unexpectedly today in the form of a random movie choice. After the hike up the mountainous hill, Amber and I decided to see a movie. There were only two English movies that were playing "Bella" and "One Week". I knew a bit about "Bella" and it was our first choice having never even heard of "One Week". However, the next showing of "Bella" was almost three hours away, so we impulsively bought tickets for "One Week". A purely Canadian film from start to finish. Tim Horton's, Canadian Tire, Joel Plasket cameo, Husky the Musky, Terry Fox, Arbroug and an all Canadian sound track (I guess). The main character goes on a motorcycle trip from Toronto to Vancouver. It was so weird to be sitting in a movie theater in Korea and watch an indie film that might not even make to Winnipeg theaters. I enjoyed watching the landscape of home, considerably more diverse than the Korean landscape, which is beautiful but similar throughout the country. There are a lot of references in the film that only a Canadian would understand. I guess all those things were just treats for Canadians though, Amber really enjoyed it and she is from North Carolina. I am not sure what the point of the movie was exactly, but I also enjoyed it beyond the reminders of the good things about home. Looking for information about this film and whether or not is currently playing in Winnipeg reminded me another good reason to go home, live music. I have been starving for good music, good live music, and good DJ's, DJ's who do more than just create playlists. DJ's that mix and remix. I am very excited about live music. Although, worried about bars closing so early. Here, we never get to FF until after one and we dance until five or six. It will be weird to have to leave at two, that seems so early to me now. I suppose that in general I will have to get used to a significantly different and poorer lifestyle. I am not trying to mentally prepare myself for this. I want to enjoy my last days in Korea as much as I possibly can.
The first weekend in October was the Korean version of thanksgiving, Chuseok (추석), except that Chuseok has more meaning that Canadian Thanksgiving (what are we really celebrating at Thanksgiving, what is the origin for us Canadians?) and is a very important holiday. It is so important that my boss gave me (and all the other teachers) a gigantic box of eight gigantic Asian pears, they almost the size of my head. I have been eating one day since chuseok and I am pretty sure that one pear easily exceeds the recommended fruit servings for one day. I cut it up in the morning and then eat some after every meal. Nothing says Happy Chuseok like Asian pears, except maybe Spam or shampoo. The month before Chuseok the grocery stores begin to stock the chuseok gift packs. Sometimes they are practical things like sets of toothbrushes and shampoo and soap, or sometimes they are fancy socks or Olive oil or spam or seaweed paper. The gift packs are nothing if not random. I am just glad I got the pears and not the spam. For Lunar New Year, I got a giant box of dried persimmons which I left out on my table while I went to Busan with my friends and upon my return I found them covered in mould. Nobody told me I needed to refrigerate them. It was such a waste.
The Friday before Chuseok was a holiday so Amber, Sally, Sarah, and I decided to take a trip. Originally we wanted to go to Busan. Our plan was to leave Thursday night right after work. However, we waited too long and all the train tickets were sold out, even standing room was taken. We had to amend our plan and settled for Sokcho (속초). It is also on the Ocean and is closer to Seoul. Sally and I bought the bus tickets the week before, we got that last four tickets on last bus out on Thursday night. As we all get out of work at 10:00 pm, it is a little bit rushed to get to the bus station near the Techno Mart. Sally and I actually get out a bit earlier and by 10:00 we were in cab on the expressway with lots of time to spare. We got to the bus station at 10:20. We were patiently waiting for Sarah and Amber, who we assumed were on their way to this bus station and would arrive shortly. At about 10:30, Sarah texted Sally, confirming the bus station. They were at the Express Bus terminal, south of the river and far far far from where we were. Trying not to panic, we told them where they actually needed to be and then beyond all hopes that they would arrive before our bus left at 11:05. Continual texts to update on their current location lead us to believe they would not arrive in time. Korea is punctual and we were trying to think of ways to stale the bus. The departure time was creeping closer and closer and I was losing hope. We decided that Sally and I should get on the bus and that they would come first thing in the morning, which worried me because Sarah had all the pension information. Sarah and Amber, at the mercy of the subway system, were two stops and one transfer away when our bus pulled up. Sally gave the ticket man her ticket and then I gave him mine, he noticed that I was holding two other tickets and said something to us that we couldn't understand. We tried to explain that our friends were late. He told us to wait and made us move over to the side while the bus filled up. This bus filled up and then pulled up, the bus behind it pulled up and then Sarah and Amber came running, shouting in joyous victory. We laughed and hugged and cheered and were generally very relieved. It must have been funny to witness. We put our luggage on the bus and all climbed on board, but not before the bus attendant rearranged our tickets so that we could sit together.
The other folks on the bus were generally of younger set and the hum of voices was becoming little loud when an Agassi at the front who was trying to sleep yelled at everybody to stop talking and go to sleep. To this sharp reprimand, we all listened and brought our conversations to a whisper or ceased talking altogether. This would never happen in Canada, somebody would inevitably tell the old man to fuck off. I am going to miss Korea. Today, I saw an old lady cross the street in spite of the red hand telling her not too and she didn't get a single honk.
We arrived in Sokcho at about 2:30 am and grabbed a cab to our ocean view room at our pension. literally, our window, a road, the ocean. We fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing into the breakers. In the morning, Sarah got up early and made a run to the E-Mart, only a short walk away, and bought the ingredients for a delicious breakfast feast which included real cheese. After this we made our way over the beach only a three minute walk and hung out for the remainder of the afternoon. The weather wasn't really beach weather, the wind was a little chilly and although the sun was warm, it was still only about twenty degrees Celsius. The water, however, was lovely, a little chilly at first, but once we got used to it, it was perfect and so clear. We could see to bottom clearly. I watched fish swim around near my feet and had to avoid a jelly-fish once. Not being the beach season at all, the beach was sparsely populated and most of the folk were foreigners like, escaping the city for this rare long weekend.
We got a early supper, late lunch of a seafood stew and Mul Hye, a cold spicy raw fish soup with lots of lettuce. It sounds a little disgusting but is one of the tasty dishes that I have had here. We ate a lot of it.
Friday, we walked around a bit, watched TV, played some damn dutch Blitz and then, after I lost a game of Kings Cup, had a late night dance party on the beach, each of us with our own MP3 players. Unfortunately, the mirth was cut short when Sally's MP3 player found its way into the ocean. Oops.
We went back to the pension and eventually went to sleep.
Saturday night we foraged for wood and built a perfect fire on the beach. We played mature game of Truth or Dare that included Amber singing Insomnia to the guards at the Military Base and made smores.
Sunday was by far the laziest day. Amber and I got up early to watch the sunrise, which was breathtaking lovely. We then slept late, after we finally got up we sat around watching TV most of the day and eventually made it outside for a supper of raw fish and more mul hye. We left Monday morning, bright and early and we home before 1:00, enough time to relax and even nap a little before heading to work. It was the perfect weekend, just hanging out and relaxing. We had no agenda and no goals all weekend. It was a lovely break.
A side note to the birthday blog: On the actually day of my birthday. Sarah and Amber came up to Ssangmun and the four of us (including Sally) went the bar on the first floor or Sally's building. It recently changed owners and was renovated. Space became Rockin. Amber and I waited in the bar and ordered a drink while Sally and Sarah prepared the cake. They brought it in a blaze of sparkling glory and the bar tenders/ owners played a birthday song for me. After the cake calmed down, the cute bar tender with the white glasses and custom darts carried in side pouch, built a flaming shot for me and set the table on fire Xena: Warrior Princess Style. It was awesome and I had to drink the still flaming shot with a straw. It was terrifying and delicious. I like my alcohol to be dangerous. Then, the cute bartender used a straw to make flower cell phone charm for me. This is the reason the bar tenders know my name. They don't get a lot of business so we are especially memorable.
Interested in checking out the Korean version of a flee market, Amber and I rode the subway out to the World Cup Stadium. home of the 2002 World Cup. I realized that I never actually been to a Canadian flee market and thus had no basis for comparison. It was very busy and over whelming and all the clothes were very tiny and all the books were in Korean expect for a few trashy romance novels. I did, however, buy a button that says "Buy Korea" and the charter has hearts for eyes and fire for hair.
There was also a man on stilts. I dislike men on stilts almost as much as I dislike clowns. Amber and I were waiting in the coffee line and not more than thirty seconds after I pointed out how much I hate men on stilts, the man on stilts came over to me and started taking in an a fake annoying high pitched voice. He was collecting donations for something. Fortunately, some kids distracted him and he didn't stick around too long, just long enough to cause me extreme discomfort and to poke fun at my nose ring. Amber gave him the change from our coffee after. I wanted to kick his stilts over.
After we finished at the flee market, we watched some B-Boys preform and then we hiked to the top of the mountainous hill beside the stadium to a festival of long grass that was happening. There were a lot of people and a lot of couple shirts and shoes and hats. Couple shirts I understand, they are cheap and cute. But couple shoes, especially if they are New Balance shoes, are kind of weird to me. That's a pretty big commitment, isn't it? One couple in particular that was matching head to toe couldn't have been more than fifteen years-old. Where do they get the money and is it OK to continue wearing the shoes after you break-up?
We wondered around in the grass for a while and took in the spectacular view Seoul and the World Cup park, potentially one of the most beautiful spots in Seoul, lush with trees and even some grass. I miss grass and I will have to continue missing for at least another six months or more, coming home just in time for winter.
I thought of this last weekend as I sat on the beach in Sokcho enjoying the warm sun and sound the ocean. I also thought about how soon I will be as far away from a coast as I could possibly be in Canada. I good reminder of how much I love the landscape of my prairies come unexpectedly today in the form of a random movie choice. After the hike up the mountainous hill, Amber and I decided to see a movie. There were only two English movies that were playing "Bella" and "One Week". I knew a bit about "Bella" and it was our first choice having never even heard of "One Week". However, the next showing of "Bella" was almost three hours away, so we impulsively bought tickets for "One Week". A purely Canadian film from start to finish. Tim Horton's, Canadian Tire, Joel Plasket cameo, Husky the Musky, Terry Fox, Arbroug and an all Canadian sound track (I guess). The main character goes on a motorcycle trip from Toronto to Vancouver. It was so weird to be sitting in a movie theater in Korea and watch an indie film that might not even make to Winnipeg theaters. I enjoyed watching the landscape of home, considerably more diverse than the Korean landscape, which is beautiful but similar throughout the country. There are a lot of references in the film that only a Canadian would understand. I guess all those things were just treats for Canadians though, Amber really enjoyed it and she is from North Carolina. I am not sure what the point of the movie was exactly, but I also enjoyed it beyond the reminders of the good things about home. Looking for information about this film and whether or not is currently playing in Winnipeg reminded me another good reason to go home, live music. I have been starving for good music, good live music, and good DJ's, DJ's who do more than just create playlists. DJ's that mix and remix. I am very excited about live music. Although, worried about bars closing so early. Here, we never get to FF until after one and we dance until five or six. It will be weird to have to leave at two, that seems so early to me now. I suppose that in general I will have to get used to a significantly different and poorer lifestyle. I am not trying to mentally prepare myself for this. I want to enjoy my last days in Korea as much as I possibly can.
The first weekend in October was the Korean version of thanksgiving, Chuseok (추석), except that Chuseok has more meaning that Canadian Thanksgiving (what are we really celebrating at Thanksgiving, what is the origin for us Canadians?) and is a very important holiday. It is so important that my boss gave me (and all the other teachers) a gigantic box of eight gigantic Asian pears, they almost the size of my head. I have been eating one day since chuseok and I am pretty sure that one pear easily exceeds the recommended fruit servings for one day. I cut it up in the morning and then eat some after every meal. Nothing says Happy Chuseok like Asian pears, except maybe Spam or shampoo. The month before Chuseok the grocery stores begin to stock the chuseok gift packs. Sometimes they are practical things like sets of toothbrushes and shampoo and soap, or sometimes they are fancy socks or Olive oil or spam or seaweed paper. The gift packs are nothing if not random. I am just glad I got the pears and not the spam. For Lunar New Year, I got a giant box of dried persimmons which I left out on my table while I went to Busan with my friends and upon my return I found them covered in mould. Nobody told me I needed to refrigerate them. It was such a waste.
The Friday before Chuseok was a holiday so Amber, Sally, Sarah, and I decided to take a trip. Originally we wanted to go to Busan. Our plan was to leave Thursday night right after work. However, we waited too long and all the train tickets were sold out, even standing room was taken. We had to amend our plan and settled for Sokcho (속초). It is also on the Ocean and is closer to Seoul. Sally and I bought the bus tickets the week before, we got that last four tickets on last bus out on Thursday night. As we all get out of work at 10:00 pm, it is a little bit rushed to get to the bus station near the Techno Mart. Sally and I actually get out a bit earlier and by 10:00 we were in cab on the expressway with lots of time to spare. We got to the bus station at 10:20. We were patiently waiting for Sarah and Amber, who we assumed were on their way to this bus station and would arrive shortly. At about 10:30, Sarah texted Sally, confirming the bus station. They were at the Express Bus terminal, south of the river and far far far from where we were. Trying not to panic, we told them where they actually needed to be and then beyond all hopes that they would arrive before our bus left at 11:05. Continual texts to update on their current location lead us to believe they would not arrive in time. Korea is punctual and we were trying to think of ways to stale the bus. The departure time was creeping closer and closer and I was losing hope. We decided that Sally and I should get on the bus and that they would come first thing in the morning, which worried me because Sarah had all the pension information. Sarah and Amber, at the mercy of the subway system, were two stops and one transfer away when our bus pulled up. Sally gave the ticket man her ticket and then I gave him mine, he noticed that I was holding two other tickets and said something to us that we couldn't understand. We tried to explain that our friends were late. He told us to wait and made us move over to the side while the bus filled up. This bus filled up and then pulled up, the bus behind it pulled up and then Sarah and Amber came running, shouting in joyous victory. We laughed and hugged and cheered and were generally very relieved. It must have been funny to witness. We put our luggage on the bus and all climbed on board, but not before the bus attendant rearranged our tickets so that we could sit together.
The other folks on the bus were generally of younger set and the hum of voices was becoming little loud when an Agassi at the front who was trying to sleep yelled at everybody to stop talking and go to sleep. To this sharp reprimand, we all listened and brought our conversations to a whisper or ceased talking altogether. This would never happen in Canada, somebody would inevitably tell the old man to fuck off. I am going to miss Korea. Today, I saw an old lady cross the street in spite of the red hand telling her not too and she didn't get a single honk.
We arrived in Sokcho at about 2:30 am and grabbed a cab to our ocean view room at our pension. literally, our window, a road, the ocean. We fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing into the breakers. In the morning, Sarah got up early and made a run to the E-Mart, only a short walk away, and bought the ingredients for a delicious breakfast feast which included real cheese. After this we made our way over the beach only a three minute walk and hung out for the remainder of the afternoon. The weather wasn't really beach weather, the wind was a little chilly and although the sun was warm, it was still only about twenty degrees Celsius. The water, however, was lovely, a little chilly at first, but once we got used to it, it was perfect and so clear. We could see to bottom clearly. I watched fish swim around near my feet and had to avoid a jelly-fish once. Not being the beach season at all, the beach was sparsely populated and most of the folk were foreigners like, escaping the city for this rare long weekend.
We got a early supper, late lunch of a seafood stew and Mul Hye, a cold spicy raw fish soup with lots of lettuce. It sounds a little disgusting but is one of the tasty dishes that I have had here. We ate a lot of it.
Friday, we walked around a bit, watched TV, played some damn dutch Blitz and then, after I lost a game of Kings Cup, had a late night dance party on the beach, each of us with our own MP3 players. Unfortunately, the mirth was cut short when Sally's MP3 player found its way into the ocean. Oops.
We went back to the pension and eventually went to sleep.
Saturday night we foraged for wood and built a perfect fire on the beach. We played mature game of Truth or Dare that included Amber singing Insomnia to the guards at the Military Base and made smores.
Sunday was by far the laziest day. Amber and I got up early to watch the sunrise, which was breathtaking lovely. We then slept late, after we finally got up we sat around watching TV most of the day and eventually made it outside for a supper of raw fish and more mul hye. We left Monday morning, bright and early and we home before 1:00, enough time to relax and even nap a little before heading to work. It was the perfect weekend, just hanging out and relaxing. We had no agenda and no goals all weekend. It was a lovely break.
A side note to the birthday blog: On the actually day of my birthday. Sarah and Amber came up to Ssangmun and the four of us (including Sally) went the bar on the first floor or Sally's building. It recently changed owners and was renovated. Space became Rockin. Amber and I waited in the bar and ordered a drink while Sally and Sarah prepared the cake. They brought it in a blaze of sparkling glory and the bar tenders/ owners played a birthday song for me. After the cake calmed down, the cute bar tender with the white glasses and custom darts carried in side pouch, built a flaming shot for me and set the table on fire Xena: Warrior Princess Style. It was awesome and I had to drink the still flaming shot with a straw. It was terrifying and delicious. I like my alcohol to be dangerous. Then, the cute bartender used a straw to make flower cell phone charm for me. This is the reason the bar tenders know my name. They don't get a lot of business so we are especially memorable.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
FIRE!
I'm back at the PC bang, but this time in the morning, there are far fewer people shooting and killing at ten in the morning than ten in the evening. It is so quiet and empty it is almost eerie. I was actually worried that the PC bang wouldn't be open this early in the morning. You might think that 10:00 am is not early, except in Korea. Not much is open at this time in the morning.
I was headed here last night, I had just said good night to Sally and I was planning to continue the epic update, but a moment after saying good night someone yells, "Hey foreigner!" assuming I am being the foreigner summoned, I turn around. Korean Young Jin and Nina from Nebraska want to be my friends. Young Jin made it sound as though Nina had only been in Korean for a month and needed friends. After talking to Nina for a moment, I discovered that she has been in Korea for three years and has lots of friends. She has only been in Ssangmun for month and Young Jin is apparently the one who needs friends. They invited me for a drink at Rockin, I thought a moment, feeling compelled to actually go the PC bang, I had a choice, I could write about adventures or I could have adventures. I chose to have adventures. At Rockin, where the bar tenders know my name (I swear I have only there three times including last night) we played a round of darts that I lost horribly and then Nina made Young Jin go home and grab his Go Stop cards and he taught us how to play Go Stop, much to his embarrassment, apparently that is just something you don't do at a bar. I thought it was fun. Go Stop is my kind game, matching patterns, I love patterns! I even won a round. We left shortly before midnight, Nina paid for the drinks and I forgot to thank her and I feel really bad about it. This is the type of thing that can only happen in Korea. I already miss Korea and I haven't even left yet.
After making new friends, I still intended to go to the PC bang (most are 24 hour establishments) but first I had to pee, then I had to wash my hands which was a reminder that my sink was still clogged. So, I grabbed a plastic bag and began to disassemble my bathroom sink. It only took a a few minutes to figure out how to access the hair trap in the sink. Ingeniously designed to be relatively easy to clean, it wasn't that difficult, but it was sick. Really sick. I'm pretty much awesome though, my sink drains again.
My birthday was last week, I keep getting older, it sucks. However, birthday parties do no suck, especially when I have the kind of friends that I have. My birthday was epic and expect the for year my mom and sister prepared a s scavenger hung and the year the Katie H and Nikki planned an impromptu surprise party due to a misunderstand, I have never been so celebrated in my life. (Maybe my sixteenth, but I'm pretty sure that most people weren't aware that it was a birthday party.) I attended the Korea wedding that I wrote about in my last blog, when I got home later that afternoon, I found a bright pink note on my door from Sally, telling me to meet Tina (a friend whose birthday was September 27) in Hongdae at exit 5 at 8:00. At first I was actually a little bummed, I hate travelling on the subway to Hongdae alone, it's depressing, but then I figured I needed to get Tina gift and therefore needed to go to every body's favourite bookstore Bandi & Luni's. Also, I needed to buy my plane book, I figured Muirkami would be interesting enough to block out the fact that I'm uncomfortable on an airplane. And, I wanted to look for a clutch that I had seen there once when I was with Bryan and therefore pretending that I wasn't interesting in such things, fearing his judgement. However, now I sincerely regret caring about his opinion of me because the canvas clutch with the picture of leopard print clutch on it as no where to be found. I wondered around the gift and stationary section like shoplifter trying to find it. It was a good thing I also needed a card, I was being watched pretty closely at this point. From Bandi & Luni's, I headed to Hongdae with time to spare so that I could wrap Tina's gift. I had to buy tape at a Buy the Way and a journal at Artbox, from which I could rip out and tape together sheets to use at wrapping paper. I sat in a coffee shop and drew a lot of attention with my makeshift wrapping job. Worried about being late, I sucked back my iced latte and hurriedly put the fit together and wrote out the card for Tina. At exactly 8:00, I went back to the subway station and discovered Sally in a neon green shirt and purple tights, not really her usual style. I was a little confused, where was everybody else? This was supposed to be party! As soon as Tina showed up, Sally handed me a card and took off. So the epic adventure began. The card was to inform Tina and I that we would forced to follow clues on a scavenger hunt throughout Hongdae. The first clue was "bean" and "credit card" it took me a while to figure this one out, Starbucks, I have a Starbucks Visa card, because it's free and easy. Tina lead us to Starbucks where found Amber dressed exclusively in neon colors and had her hair done like Sandra Park from 2NE1. It was awesome. She gave the second clue which lead us to Club Drug, where Sally had repositioned herself with the third clue which brought us to FF and found Lisa looking like a babe in neons and short skirts, the bar tenders and door guy from FF were all there and Lisa made them take pictures with her camera. We promised them we would come back for dancing later. Lisa's clue involved math and this took me a while, but eventually we found Dave in drag (almost) at seven eleven. He was in girl pants and tight t-shirt and awesome and T.O.P. sunglasses. His clue had us all parade down to the Luxury Noraebang to find Sarah as CL from 2NE1. There we paraded back past FF to the garlic chicken place that Bryan and I discovered accidentally.
Highlights from here on in include dalk Samgyupsal, the Big Bang gift back that Tina gave me, the choose-your-own-adventure that Sarah made for me, which included a situation in which I go to to a noraebang with Big Bang and we make the baby sing Super Junior songs, free cover and a free drink at FF because it was my birthday party, dancing all night long, street dukkpokki, and my favourite people in Korea. It was awesome. They dressed up like 2NE1 for me! That's love.
I was headed here last night, I had just said good night to Sally and I was planning to continue the epic update, but a moment after saying good night someone yells, "Hey foreigner!" assuming I am being the foreigner summoned, I turn around. Korean Young Jin and Nina from Nebraska want to be my friends. Young Jin made it sound as though Nina had only been in Korean for a month and needed friends. After talking to Nina for a moment, I discovered that she has been in Korea for three years and has lots of friends. She has only been in Ssangmun for month and Young Jin is apparently the one who needs friends. They invited me for a drink at Rockin, I thought a moment, feeling compelled to actually go the PC bang, I had a choice, I could write about adventures or I could have adventures. I chose to have adventures. At Rockin, where the bar tenders know my name (I swear I have only there three times including last night) we played a round of darts that I lost horribly and then Nina made Young Jin go home and grab his Go Stop cards and he taught us how to play Go Stop, much to his embarrassment, apparently that is just something you don't do at a bar. I thought it was fun. Go Stop is my kind game, matching patterns, I love patterns! I even won a round. We left shortly before midnight, Nina paid for the drinks and I forgot to thank her and I feel really bad about it. This is the type of thing that can only happen in Korea. I already miss Korea and I haven't even left yet.
After making new friends, I still intended to go to the PC bang (most are 24 hour establishments) but first I had to pee, then I had to wash my hands which was a reminder that my sink was still clogged. So, I grabbed a plastic bag and began to disassemble my bathroom sink. It only took a a few minutes to figure out how to access the hair trap in the sink. Ingeniously designed to be relatively easy to clean, it wasn't that difficult, but it was sick. Really sick. I'm pretty much awesome though, my sink drains again.
My birthday was last week, I keep getting older, it sucks. However, birthday parties do no suck, especially when I have the kind of friends that I have. My birthday was epic and expect the for year my mom and sister prepared a s scavenger hung and the year the Katie H and Nikki planned an impromptu surprise party due to a misunderstand, I have never been so celebrated in my life. (Maybe my sixteenth, but I'm pretty sure that most people weren't aware that it was a birthday party.) I attended the Korea wedding that I wrote about in my last blog, when I got home later that afternoon, I found a bright pink note on my door from Sally, telling me to meet Tina (a friend whose birthday was September 27) in Hongdae at exit 5 at 8:00. At first I was actually a little bummed, I hate travelling on the subway to Hongdae alone, it's depressing, but then I figured I needed to get Tina gift and therefore needed to go to every body's favourite bookstore Bandi & Luni's. Also, I needed to buy my plane book, I figured Muirkami would be interesting enough to block out the fact that I'm uncomfortable on an airplane. And, I wanted to look for a clutch that I had seen there once when I was with Bryan and therefore pretending that I wasn't interesting in such things, fearing his judgement. However, now I sincerely regret caring about his opinion of me because the canvas clutch with the picture of leopard print clutch on it as no where to be found. I wondered around the gift and stationary section like shoplifter trying to find it. It was a good thing I also needed a card, I was being watched pretty closely at this point. From Bandi & Luni's, I headed to Hongdae with time to spare so that I could wrap Tina's gift. I had to buy tape at a Buy the Way and a journal at Artbox, from which I could rip out and tape together sheets to use at wrapping paper. I sat in a coffee shop and drew a lot of attention with my makeshift wrapping job. Worried about being late, I sucked back my iced latte and hurriedly put the fit together and wrote out the card for Tina. At exactly 8:00, I went back to the subway station and discovered Sally in a neon green shirt and purple tights, not really her usual style. I was a little confused, where was everybody else? This was supposed to be party! As soon as Tina showed up, Sally handed me a card and took off. So the epic adventure began. The card was to inform Tina and I that we would forced to follow clues on a scavenger hunt throughout Hongdae. The first clue was "bean" and "credit card" it took me a while to figure this one out, Starbucks, I have a Starbucks Visa card, because it's free and easy. Tina lead us to Starbucks where found Amber dressed exclusively in neon colors and had her hair done like Sandra Park from 2NE1. It was awesome. She gave the second clue which lead us to Club Drug, where Sally had repositioned herself with the third clue which brought us to FF and found Lisa looking like a babe in neons and short skirts, the bar tenders and door guy from FF were all there and Lisa made them take pictures with her camera. We promised them we would come back for dancing later. Lisa's clue involved math and this took me a while, but eventually we found Dave in drag (almost) at seven eleven. He was in girl pants and tight t-shirt and awesome and T.O.P. sunglasses. His clue had us all parade down to the Luxury Noraebang to find Sarah as CL from 2NE1. There we paraded back past FF to the garlic chicken place that Bryan and I discovered accidentally.
Highlights from here on in include dalk Samgyupsal, the Big Bang gift back that Tina gave me, the choose-your-own-adventure that Sarah made for me, which included a situation in which I go to to a noraebang with Big Bang and we make the baby sing Super Junior songs, free cover and a free drink at FF because it was my birthday party, dancing all night long, street dukkpokki, and my favourite people in Korea. It was awesome. They dressed up like 2NE1 for me! That's love.
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