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.

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'm Pomme

A couple of weeks ago, somebody spilled water on my keyboard (I can't imagine who the irresponsible person could possibly be, sitting in bed, with a glass of water and laptop, outrageous) and apparently water causes the "r", "f" "4", and "volume down" keys to cease operation. This is especially annoying because I can't write about the F4. I have since learned that r's and l's are especially important in my life because all of my passwords contain one or the other, meaning I cannot sign into to blogger to access this blog. Fortunately, I'm perma-signed into Facebook, otherwise my life would be over. And so, I find myself once again sitting in a PCroom, among noisy boys shooting things and strategising at computers that don't have spell check. Although, I just discovered that if let the cursor hover over a work long enough, I am given the Korean spelling and English pronunciation, unless the word is spelled wrong. I suppose one of the upsides of the PC room is the "service" free green tea (!) and Korean keyboards (아싸!). I am not really too bummed about the the destruction of my laptop, this is the perfect excuse to buy a new one (macbook macbook macbook!). Mac's are just too good, they never fall apart unless you spill water on them. My iBook G4 is an archaic four (4!) years old. I have been avoiding sending messages or typing on my laptop since the someone wrecked my laptap, either I have to replace the r's and l's with x's, which is awkward to read, or I have to copy and paste the r's and l's, which is rather time consuming. This accident, coupled with a few lazy lazy weeks is the main reason for not posting here in over a month.
Now I shall try to make up for it by updating everything from the past month or more. I sit here in the PC bang, surrounded by notebooks and loose sheets of paper containing all the items I want to write about and you, dear readers, shall eventually get it all, but I'll try to be nice and divide the posts. Also, there is a good chance that I'll have to pee soon, at which point, I'll feel to awkward about leaving my computer and will just pay and leave. Let's begin.

In the past month, I have accomplished a number of things that were on my list of things that I needed or wanted to do before I left Korea and a few things that were necessary before I die.

1) See Big Bang perform live. The Asia is One Asia Song Festival was in Seoul in the middle of September at the World Cup Stadium. Not only did I get to see Big Bang, I also got to see 2NE1, Super Junior, and Girls Generation, along with performers from Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Ukraine (random, I know). Each group or performer only got to do two songs, with the exception of Super Junior who did Sorry Sorry as the encore. Big Bang was the last group to perform but had to leave immediately because G-Dragon was performing right after the Global Gathering. The Global gathering actually would have been my preferred place to be but the tickets for the two day event were 180,000 ₩ while the Asia Song Festival was free. The stadium was packed with adolescent folk, screaming their love for the various bands. Each of the Korean groups had their own fan club. Fan Clubs here are officially business. These kids are card carrying members of these clubs and the perks are apparently fantastic, including preferred seating and glow sticks. I am considering joining Big Bang's fan club, but I can't read Korean, a problem, I assume. They sang a song I didn't know and Lies. I was really hoping for Haru Haru but I guess it was good anyway. I would have also liked to see G-Dragon sing Heart breaker but beggars can't be choosers and I am just thankful that I got to see Big Bang in person. It was awesome.

2) Drink and hang out at a convenience store. I drank beer and ate snacks with my friends on the plastic furniture outside a Family Mart. Most convenience stores have plastic patio furniture set up outside and it is common for people to hang out and drink at these makeshift self serve hofs. It has been a dream almost since I got here to do this. Sarah, Sally, and I hung out for a while eating chips and drinking crappy beer until we were finally sufficiently creeped out by the old drunk dude sitting at the table next to us who kept looking at us and talking to himself. At one point he even took some of our chips. The cashier tried to cash him away and tell him to leave us alone but he was persistent. It was getting late anyway. Although, my original dream was to order pizza and then eat it at the convenience store while drinking beer, I will settle for this. It was still a lot of fun.

3) Attend a Korean wedding. I have heard a lot about them and I really wanted to experience one for myself. In the middle of September, I attended the wedding of two Friends, but it wasn't exactly a Korean wedding as only one half of the couple was Korean. Amber invited me to the wedding of her former co-worker. I gladly agreed to attend. I had heard the wedding is merely for show and really all about the pictures. I thought it was an exaggeration, I was though wrong. There were two or three photographers and a videographer, all of which were on stage with the couple and the officiator. They had no qualms about moving things around and even going so far as to reposition the bride and groom as needed. It was a Christian wedding and they didn't even stop for the prayers. The ceremony was relatively short, although there was a small sermon, which I couldn't understand for obvious reasons. After the ceremony, we went to the dining hall. (I should back up... weddings in Korea are almost all held at Wedding Halls, huge buildings dedicated to weddings. There are usually a number of floors so there are multiple weddings being held simultaneously and the reception is just a buffet of which more than one wedding party might be partaking. ) The food was awesome and there was a huge variety. This was my second favourite part. My favourite part was being introduced to Amber's co-workers as Justin Timberlake's girlfriend, as this is how they remember Bryan (and apparently still talk about him). I was so proud.

3) See middle school students get flirty. I have sub categories here.

a) I caught a sweet and generally well-behaved middle school boy texting in class. I was going to let it go, but then he got a bit rowdy and eventually I had to demand the hand phone. With great reluctance, he eventually handed it over. At the end of class, I gave it back to him with a smile. I really like him. Later, as I was leaving the school, the boy chased me down, very worked up. He shoved the cell phone in my face, showing me text, full of exclamation marks. It was in Korean. “My girlfriend!” He yelled. “You...my hand phone.... she....soooo angry.” A look of horror on his face. It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. This skinny middle school boy with his geeky glasses and his sweet smile; he has a girlfriend. I immediately had a mental image of them together and I could picture them holding hands and maybe singing to each other at noraebang. I bet he is a really good boyfriend.

b) In a different class that has a few more outgoing students, I was a witness to some middle school flirting. It wasn't much, but at least the boys and girls were talking to each other. It was fun class in which little was accomplished. It was heartwarming. It was the last class before the middle school students got a break for testing and it was the last time I will probably see a lot of those students, many of whom were my favourite middle school kids. It was nice to see them come out of there shells for a moment. I freaked them out by reading Korean. We laughed a lot. They thought I was sad. I was. They noticed. I love them right now. I will probably hate them tomorrow. The sexy sullen boy wasn't in class that day, which is probably why the girls were more comfortable.

4) I went on a trip on which, every meal consumed outside the pension involved seafood. Literally every meal. And there was a variety. Stewed fish, raw fish, broiled fish, claims, prawns, crabs, squid, stuffed squid, everything. Stand-out being a dish that sounds kind of sick but is mazing. A cold spicy soup with raw fish and lettuce. Muel-Hae. It was freaking delicious.

5) Attending a day long competition between two of the biggest and best universities Korea. Maybe this wasn't actually on the list of things I need to do before I leave Korea, but it should have been. I went with Sarah to witness Yonsai University compete against Korea National University in various sports. Apparently, these schools have a big rivalry and one day a year all their sports teams compete in all events. I happened to witness Rugby and Soccer. Although, the stadium was rather full during the rugby game, I'm pretty sure that only a handful of people were actually watching the rugby game. Most spectators were focused on dancing harder and shouting louder than the other fans. The cheerleaders never stopped, not even during play, which was fine because their stages blocked the view of field anyway. There were also lives bands and canned music and dancers, lots and lots of dancers. It was intense and deafening. It was awesome. We left during the soccer game to avoid being rained on, which were anyway in the dash from the Stadium to the subway station.

And it various unrelated matters...

I have have a younger elementary student, who has taken to giving me whatever loose change he happens to have in his pocket, so far I think it adds up to about 550₩. If this keeps up, I’ll be rich soon. He is also generous with his gum, g-u-m, gum. I have him in a regular class and he is also a regular out the extracurricular speaking class I have twice a week. He is in a much lower level then the other two boys that regularly come, making it difficult to play a lot of games, as he has a super unfair disadvantage. He is kind of a brat, but not a mean-spirited one. He is kind of frail looking and doesn’t like to wear shoes. He takes them off as soon as he gets to class and walks around on the dirty Kang Tae Woo floors in his socks. I bet his mom gets so mad at him. He is extremely likable and cute. She probably can’t stay mad at him, just like my mom could never stay mad at my brother. Asshole. Sometimes he is the only student in the speaking class and we play hang man for fifty minutes and then I him give candy.

I was really looking forward to 09/09/09 and I totally missed it. I love when things are all the same. I remember 06/06/06 everybody thought the world might end and that scary movie was released.

Although most Koreans would claim that their daily kimchi consumption protects them from Swine Flu (or whatever we are supposed to be calling it now, H1N1? not nearly as catchy as Swine Flu, damn pigs!), most Koreans are terrified of contracting this illness that kills fewer people than regular flu strains. This has caused a huge spike in the sale of hand sanitizer and led to the addition of soap in the bathroom at my hagwon. Prior to fear of the flu, it was difficult to find hand sanitizer, I was keeping my eyes open for it due to the lack of soap in the bathroom at the academy. A few weeks ago, it started popping up everywhere and suddenly, I find myself being forced to use the hand sanitiser a lot more frequently than I would like (here is where I rant about not allowing our bodies to become naturally immune to diseases, eventually making us a weak society of constantly sick people), like at the University game I went to, we all received a squirt of hand sanitiser before we were allowed to enter the stadium. At the gym, bottles have appeared on every desk and at every entrance. I found fancy sanitisers in the beauty shops, it doesn’t smell quite so bad, so it is probably less effective. When the students enter the hagwon, a T.A. checks their temperature with a ear thermometer and makes gives them a squirt of hand sanitizer. I guess an epidemic here could be particular damaging because the kids have so much contact with each other. They see some kids at school and then see different kids from different schools at hagwon. But they eat a lot kimchi and so they have nothing to worry about, I eat it, too.

I have been here in the PC bang for almost two hours emailing and blogging. This is a lot of work.
I will hopefully hit one up tomorrow morning before I go grocery shopping (I'm out of raisins) and continue the up dating for those of you who still read this. My typing muscles are sore.

Detailed Information on a Bill

Recently, while pretending to teach English speaking skills to middle school students, I have taken to posing questions to the entire class and then seeing how long it takes for someone besides me to break the silence. Unfortunately, I have the attention span of a gold fish and I am not able to actually time the silences. However, once I waited five minutes, because I looked at the clock at the clock shortly after I asked the question and the started writing what was the first draft this particular blog entry. This question had been posed to an individual student, Seok Min, whom I specifically picked because I actually though he come back with something and I had already picked on Jae Hoon too much. Sometimes, while I am waiting the middle school students to answer questions, I totally zone out, I start daydreaming or planning my evening or thinking about Big Bang, or I fantasize about being able to sing the Korean version of Insomnia at noraebang. (It’s never going to happen because Whee Sung can barely do it, the rapping part is too fast, but I can dream.) I suddenly surface and realize that I have been standing in front of a room of teenagers, some of who are staring oddly at me, but most of whom have taken this opportunity to start a text message conversation with friends stuck at a different hagwon. In Seok Min’s defense, the question did have something to with beauty contests being sexist. (I don’t write the books, I just teach the books.)
In the middleish of July, the Korean government made a step forward in the right direction concerning the over education of the children and decreed that no child is allowed to be at school past 10:00 pm. Good for the kids, good for me, bad for every single hagwon, especially the less important ones like piano hagwons. They only time that many children have in their schedule for something like piano lessons is when English, math, and science hagwon has finished. I don’t care what adults get fucked over because of this law, I fully support it. In fact, if the government decided tomorrow (or Monday rather) that all hagwons should be closed and made illegal, I would happily pack my bags and go home. I think this education is sick and the generation of children who have been raised in this environment (to which I willing and knowing contribute in order to make money and have “adventures”) are going to be fucked up. But I digress. This law means that I get out of school a full twenty minutes earlier. Now the last class ends at 9:40, of course I have been at school earlier to make up for it, but I would rather be out at 9:40. However, this twenty-minute shift has completely screwed up the schedule. It has taken a full week to get used to it, figuring out what time classes start and end and when is the best time to use the washroom without having to wait in line. I feel depressed that twenty minutes could affect me so. I think I am getting old.
Back to middle school students and how much I hate them and love them all at the same time. I spend most of my energy (and anger*) on the more responsive and less well behaved elementary students and don't the energy to get angry at them, so when they misbehave I usually laugh. Actually, the middle school students are not better behaved, just quieter and sneakier. They get so annoyed when I wake them from their oh so necessary mid-class naps, shooting me dirty looks and angry sighs (how dare she try to make me learn? the bitch!). They also don’t appreciate when I tell them to put away their MP3 players or cell phones as if I should allow texting in class (and basically I do, if they would try to hide it better, I wouldn’t bother calling them out). After I told John (I use his English because I can’t pronounce his Korean name) five or six times to put his way and then he used it again, I flipped out a little, what could be so important? What are you , 15? No, teacher, 16. OK, sixteen-year-olds do have important things to do. Yes, very important, teacher. I told him that if I saw it again, I would take it way. There were only five minutes left in class. At least he was trying to hide. Kroos (he picked it himself, I think it is his rapper name) wasn’t trying to hide, but at least he only needed to be told three or four times. Yun Young was passed out the entire class. I’m an ineffective teacher.

*We are one week into a new semester. I decided that this semester, until I leave, I am going to be happy teacher not angry teacher. I am trying to patient and fun with even the most heinous of elementary classes. I almost lost it one class, but managed to pull through with only raising my voice a little bit. I am not going to let the little douche bags get me down.

Her Florid, Indecent Mouth!

First, I would to apologize to Big Bang*. Drunken Tiger could never replace you in my heart. You are much better looking and your music is much catchier. I didn’t mean I what I said in the last post, I was just trying to be extreme. Please forgive me. Also, I really like when G-Dragon wears his longish hair in the top knot; it’s my favourite hair style on Korean guys.

Pretty much all of my students cheat while taking their vocabulary quizzes at the beginning of class. I let them unless they are being stupid obvious. Then I have to tell them to books away or take away the nifty little cheat sheets they have created. When I first arrived in Korea, I was amazed when some students would point at a cheating student and say “cunning”. Such a sophisticated word for such low level students. Later I discovered that actually they are using the Korean word for cheating or copying. I was considerably less impressed.

And I have some very sad news to report. Tasha, my best teacher friend at Kang Tae Woo is leaving. Her and her husband are moving outside of Seoul, so it would be too for for her to travel to work there anymore. Friday was her last day. After work on Friday, our boss took all the teacher out for dinner, partially as a goodbye for Tasha and partly as a celebration for the end of intensive (back to regular afternoon even schedule next week, and once again Sally has fewer classes and a better schedule than me). Gone are the days of soju and samgupsal; he took us to a restaurant in HomePlus, Ashley Grill and Salad. It was a salad buffet. A salad buffet people, it wasn’t even delicious. Although there was tiny little pieces of cheese cake. We didn’t even get alcohol, not so much as bottle of wine to share between the eight of us. It was really lame. He just wanted something fast and cheap. He’s married now and has a kid on the way. He is much less fun than before. I want raw fish or samgupsal for my last day. I bet I only get a lunch at someplace lame. Anyway, Tasha is gone and school is not going be as fun because I won’t be able to talk with Tasha. She was funny and told me intimate details of her life. I am going to miss her a lot. She is one of the more interesting people that I have met in my life. She was also the most excited about this...

Something every exciting happened a few weeks ago and I totally forgot to mention the occurrence. Don’t too jealous or excited but I saw Rain. Bi. It was awesome. Bryan and I were hanging out near Seoul City Hall, just walking and talking, nothing special. Up ahead we noticed a large gathering of people. There are often street performers in this area so we decided to check it out. As we got closer, I noticed how oddly quiet everybody was and how there seemed to be not much going on. Then I noticed the big lights and assumed photo shoot. I was curious to see who it was, but didn’t expect that it would be someone I know. I stood on my tiptoes trying to see around the people in front of me and just as I was losing my balance and had to come down, I caught a glimpse of Rain! I exactly told Bryan and then I pushed in a bit to get a better view. He was doing either a photo shoot or filming for a CF (what commercials are called in Korea). We only caught the end of the event. When it was finished, he waved and bowed at me then took off real fast bodyguards close behind. The whole thing was cleaned up almost immediately and except for the wet pavement (some sort of effect I assume) one would never have known that Rain had been there. I texted everybody I knew would care (including Tasha) and quickly received a bunch of jealous responses.

A couple weeks ago I discovered that the coffee shop from First Shop of Coffee Prince exists and is in Hongdae. Next week I’m going try and get Sarah to come with me to find it. She likes K Drama’s almost as much as I do and is therefore the most fun person to take a long. I’ll make it a facebook event and invite her. I hope it’s like the drama and only handsome boys work there.

*This a the Japanese version of the song. I have not been able to find the Korean version.

I Am Your Star Captian

My love for the boy bands of K Pop may have just been replace with the hip hop/ rap “artists” of K pop. Drunken Tiger eats children like Big Bang for breakfast. He’s not even good looking, but he can cuss up a storm and the chains; Chains are badass. He's so sexy. Also, my boss really likes Drunken Tiger. I wish I could post a picture of my boss so that you would all know how super this is. He’s a small man who smiles a lot.

Last Friday I was invited to some real hot yoga with some friends at a jjimjilbang. I met them at their hagwon, only about 20 minutes from me. We walked into the market area and then turned into what seemed liked a random building in the market, the jjimjilbang. This being only my second jjimjilbang experience, I was a little apprehensive. After paying my 7000₩ and collecting my clothes and towel we walked into roomful of naked women. Quickly changing into the jjimjilbang clothes, I was warned to remove my regular bra (I brought my sports bra) and underwear (commando!) because the sweat was going to intense (and it was). We climbed the stairs out of the lady area and into the common area. I was once again amazed at the calm atmosphere of the common area. The lights are kept low. There are many people sleep or quietly chatting with friends. A number of people were watching Boys Over Flowers reruns on the big TV. There a few people in the massage beds and on the massage chairs. It all just looks so comfortable and relaxing. All the women are in pink, all the men are in blue and all the children are in red. It is like utopia. This jjimjilbang also had two restaurants in the common room, giving you more than just ramyeon and hard-boiled eggs to snack on.

We started we in the sauna that was 70°c. I got a little light headed as soon as I walked in the scorching heat and I started sweating immediately. We stared with a few way poses and stretches. It quickly go to be too much for me, so of you may know that don’t handle intense heat to well. I’m so weak. I managed to make it the first break without being too passy-outy, we got some water and relaxed than went back in. I had to get out a little bit before the second break. Then we hung out in the cold room for bit and went to the 50°c sauna, a few more poses and break. Then we went to the salt sauna and hug out in the salt. We lay down in the in the sat rocks. Apparently they are supposed to draw out the seat even more, which was good because I wasn’t totally drenched in sweat already. I have never actually been sweater or smellier in my life. There was not a single dry spot on my clothes. The sweat was dripping for face and even my arms were all beaded with sweat. It was kind of cool. WE back to the 50° sauna and finished up our yoga. The whole process took about two hours. After the yoga part was over, I had to prepare myself for the naked part.

Back in the change room, I purchased the necessary shampoo, conditioner, and soap (there were many choices for each) and bravely descended the stairs in to the shower room. I took a deep breath and I walked into the shower room and was confronted with many a naked ajumma. I suddenly felt considerably less intimidated. I chose a spot to remove my clothes and timidly started pulling them off. Once the clothes actually came off, it wasn’t so bad. Everybody was naked and I was with a group of foreign folk so I wasn’t a freak show alone. I found a shower spot and stared to shower. No problem, expect when I almost bumped into two girls trying to share shampoo. No touching well naked! After showering, I spent some time in a hot tub with some very strategically placed jets and then in the bigger cold pool. It was lovely to be naked and fully immersed in cool water. I imagine that it would much like skinny-dipping but without the risk. I guess not as fun, but still pretty good. I have never been skinny-dipping.

Finally, it was time to scram. Amber and I had to meet Sally in Hyehwa to see public enemies. Because I’m a bad friend, we were already two hours later than expected. We left at a good time though, because plenty of attractive young folk were coming pouring inside. Jjimjilbang are a popular safe place for the youngish of Korea to hang out with friends of both sexes. They will often stay for night or late into the night, along with the drunken businesses people* who have missed the subway home.

I liked Public Enemies, but it was kind of bummer. I don’t like when movies make me all sad.

A small gym update because I work out everyday now. No jokes. In two weeks I have only missed three days, which includes two Sundays and the Friday that I did hot yoga at the jjimjilbang. We picked a good gym because it is never busy, which is especially good because if there are ten people in there if feels really crowded. It’s a small gym. There is one older man that walks on the treadmill in sandals. A younger guy who walks alone for a long time but very quickly on the treadmill. There a couple of young guys that don’t some to do much except sit and chat with each other. They occasionally take breaks to pretend to lift some weights. There are a couple of older ladies that could kick my butt with both hands tied behind their backs. They wear gloves when they use the weight machines, not to be sanitary, but to be tough. They scare me. There is only sweaty body builder who likes to look at himself in the mirros during and between lifing sessions. He also grunts a lot. There is one younger girl who seems to have never learned that she should wear a bra while working. Sports bra, regular bra, any bra. She also likes to be naked in the change room to show off her hot body to Sally and I.

Last Saturday, Song Min’s (the trainer) family visited. He doesn’t look very old but he is already married and has two adorable little children. The younger one is pretty much brand new, and the older one, a little boy, is literally just a tiny Song Min. They were trying to play squash for a while. It was cute. Yesterday, Song Min was wearing really tiny shorts. They kind of made me uncomfortable but I just couldn’t look away. He showed us the bicep curl machine. Today I could barely lift my arms above my head. I’m so weak.

*I have had to teach many a unit about “jobs”. I try to make an effort to teach politically correct and non-gender specific titles to the children. However, the books don’t like to help on this one. I end up teaching waitress, waiter, businessman, stewardess, etc. What I want to teach is server, flight attendant, businessperson, etc. It is frustrating to teach them bad stuff, but it would also be very confusing for them if I deviate too much from the book. Also, I try hard, when playing “the action game”, to make sure that boys have to be nurses sometimes, too. They always fight me, but I always make them do it or sit down.

More about teaching... recently I have been coming down really hard on kids for speaking too much Korean in class (mostly because they make jokes about me that I can't understand) and I have made many rules about no Korean in class. Every time I yell at them for speaking Korean I have this horrible sensation of guilt and I all I think about is residential schools and how am participaiting in the destruction of Korean culture. I am basically a really bad teacher and a bad person, but I have been making it up to them in the past week by playing a lot of games. I am trying to be chill teacher not angry teacher. I find this to be exceedingly difficult.

I look Once More, Just Around the River Bend

IA about a week ago, the manger of my school came up to me while I was sitting at my desk. He picked up my calendar and pointed to August 16. Do you want to go rafting on this day? He asked. All of Kang Tae Woo campus’ can go on this day, no money. Unable to provide me with any further information, he still needed an immediate answer. Sure! I said, a little bewildered.
And so, bright and early Sunday morning, 6:00 to be exact, I crawled out of bed and reluctantly started to get ready for the day ahead. Unfortunately, the night before, I went to Hongdae, just for supper, but got a little carried away in conversation and wasn’t able to get on the last subway that actually got me home. I had to get off about seven stops away. I ended up walking to next subway stop and then waiting about 15 minutes or longer before I finally got a taxi to take me home. I didn’t get home until after 1:00AM, making the early rising rather difficult.
Uncertain of exactly what to wear or bring, I packed bag. I had no idea what to expect. I met Crystal, one of the Korean teachers in front of the school. We were the only two from our campus that could be convinced to go. We had to take a cab over to the Junggye campus to catch the bus and meet up with people from the other campuses. The bus was supposed to leave at 7:20, but due to someone’s birthday party the night before, a bunch of people showed up really late and we didn’t actually leave until 7:40. We made one stop to pick up the folks who live down in Gangnam, including Kang Tae Woo, and then headed east, I think, out of the city.
The bus ride was about four hours long with one rest stop. We arrived at the river; I think it was the Donggang River. As we crossed the bridge we saw scores of folks in PFDs (because they are different from life jackets) hanging out on the river bank, some were being forced to do jumping jacks before they could get in the boat.
Once we arrived at the head quarters, were all giving our own PFD and a helmet, to protect us from all the super dangerous rapids we were about to encounter. After we got back on the bus, Kang Tae Woo brought his daughter over to Crystal and quickly said something to her in Korean and pushed his daughter forward and pressed a hair tie into Crystal’s hand. He wanted her to tie up his daughter’s hair because he didn’t know how. After we finished rafting and showering, I saw him ask a different girl to tie it again. Three handsome young boys joined us on the bus and we rode out to the starting point. We were given some instructions in Korea. Crystal vaguely translated it to be something about being safe. OK.
At the starting point we were divided into groups of 10, 10, and 9. Despite a solid effort on my part, I was once again grouped with the super annoying guy from the Girum campus (FUCK!) and I was in a raft with Mr. Kang Tae Woo and his two children and I was separated from Crystal. Furthermore, all the cool kids ended up in one raft with the really cute guide (they were all pretty cute, but he was cutest. The guides made us do stretches and jumping jacks before we were allowed to get on the raft.
The guides were awesome. Tanned and muscled from paddling all day in the sun, funny and entertaining, not just making sure we get from point A to point B without drowning, but making sure we laugh while we do it. Also, they had really nice legs. It was funny watching them flirt with cute Korean girls, tossing them around and what not. I wish I were small enough to be tossed around in the name of good fun. We didn’t really experience any sort of deadly rapids, but we did get pushed in the water a few times and we did stop once to play games on the rafts, like that game I used to play on Nintendo, Snoopy Olympics, where Snoopy and French Snoopy battle on the boat to see who can push the other off. Just like that, expect with annoying white guys and handsome Korean guys.
The actual rafting only took about two hours and the break was about half an hour long. The scenery was beautiful; there were mountains all around and big cliffs on one side of the river. The trees were full and green. It was almost breathtaking. Apparently this area is one of the most beautiful areas in Korea.
After the rafting, we had an opportunity to take a shower. I was prepared to do so, physically (I had brought soap and shampoo) and mentally (ready for public nudity) but then I walked in the shower room and realized I was not prepared for the sheer number of naked women. I think I can now handle the naked part but I am not ready for the naked in small places and touching part. I decided to forgo the shower this time.
After the showering and changing, of which I did neither, we again boarded the bus for lunch. Once again, despite a solid effort on my part to avoid him, I ended sitting across from the annoying guy from Girum. Aeeessh!!! Besides being loud and saying embarrassing things and doing embarrassing things, he has a bad mealtime habit of being vocally vegetarian. We get dude; you don’t eat meat. What does he expect during communal meals? This is Korea; everything has meat. Why must he act surprised every time that there is only meat? And then he was complaining about lack of beer choices, he only drinks Cass because it’s delicious and not Hite because it is like horse urine. First, I would not call Cass delicious by any stretch, although better than Hite, I agree. Second, Hite is only marginally worse than Cass and everybody I know still drinks it if there is nothing else and doesn’t really complain too much. Finally, he’s an ass and can do no right in my opinion. Fortunately, he was lured to another table by grilled kimchi halfway through the meal. At which point, I quickly invited someone else over to fill his spot. A guy who has been here for three months and has only had traditionally Korean food once! Dude is missing out. Seriously,
We had a number of choices for the meal, a couple of tables had samgupsal and some other grilling meats and there was also a chicken and potato soup option. I didn’t realize that we had options and choose the chicken and potato soup unwittingly. Good choice though, much healthier than the samgupsal and still quite delicious. Also, the side dishes were awesome and we were eating under a trellis with real grape bunches hanging down off the vine and we ate some of the grapes, still a little sour but good.
Finally we boarded the bus and began the five hour bus ride home, Sunday night traffic into Seoul is real bad and it always takes longer than getting out. I was a little exhausted girl before I was finally able to shower and climb into my bed.

The First Five Times

I promised myself that after Bryan abandoned me, I would get a gym membership. I am now a proud member the Myung Sung Sports club. Thursday after work, Sally and I descended into the depths of our building to check out the health club. A few months ago I learned that there was a pool and gym and golf in the basement of the school building. I was shocked to think that a pool could just be down there. Thursday, while checking out the gym I finally saw this huge pool. The pillars of the building actually take up a lane of the pool. I wonder if this is a good idea. I digress. We found the gym area of the health club and the receptionist gave us a pamphlet outlining services and fees. We took the pamphlet back up the teachers room and had one of the Korean teachers translate. For the rather steep fee of 70,000₩*, we learned we could get access to the gym and to the sauna, but not the pool or golfing. As someone who can only just barely stay afloat and who hates golf, this is OK, but Sally was bummed about the pool; she is a swimmer.

We decided to look around a little bit more before we settled for this place. A few blocks away on the fourth floor of building which also has a a convince store, a pharmacy, a glasses store, and Korean traditional doctor and a couple of restaurants and an apartment building, we found a another gym. We took the elevator to the fourth floor and stepped into a remix of the Boys Before Flowers theme song** and gym full of extremely fit men. It was three in the afternoon. Is that weird to anyone else. Eventually we figured out that also for 70,000₩ we could work here and this one didn’t appear to have a sauna and was way busier than the basement gym. We choose convenience and didn’t bother to look anymore. Basement gym it is.

Friday after work, we once again descended into the depths and paid for a one month membership at the Myung Sung Sports Club. The receptionist gave us keys and showed us to the change rooms. After we changed, we tentatively entered the gym. It was pretty empty, only a few guys who look like they work out to much and one lady I wouldn’t want to fight. Sally stared with the treadmill and I tried out a bike first. The bike wouldn’t turn on so I moved over to the step machine. This action immediately brought the trainer out who wanted to show me how to use it. Unfortunately, the trainer doesn’t speak any English. He started pointing at the buttons on the stepper telling me what they were for, like Enter and Quickstart. Sir, I can read English. This drew the attention of one very short, muscular, and sweaty body builder (who had his shorts rolled up so he check out his leg muscles while he worked). They assumed (incorrectly) that I didn’t know who to work the machine that was in English. The body builder made me prove to him that I could do it. He said show me, so I showed him and they finally left me alone. I was sweating and I had even started my work out. Nobody bothered Sally on the treadmill.

After about four minuets on the step machine I was bored and wanted to switch but I was too embarrassed so I stuck it out for 21 more minutes. I guess embarrassment and shame is one way to stay motivated. After I found Sally and I some towels at the front desk, we decided that it was enough for day one.

We left the gym and the trainer said hi to us as we exited. I think that is the only English he knows.

We are going back today and we are going to get him to show us the weight machines. Ask before he awkwardly intervenes. We will have him demonstrate and then maybe he’ll leave us alone.

Sally compared starting at this gym to starting a new job. It is going to be hellish and awkward until we get used to going there and they get used to having us there. Eventually, it won’t matter anymore and we’ll become comfortable. I hope that happens sooner rather than later.

*I just made a shortcut key for ₩, control+4. Now I don’t have type won. Only, I’m not sure if it supposed to come before or after the number.

**The link is the original version not the remixed version I heard at the gym

Marry Me John, I'll be so Good to You.

I noticed a building in my neighbourhood that contains four “special establishments” and a church. Korea continues to rock my socks.

I discovered recently that my students are not calling me a whore, “hor” is merely an expression of surprise. It shouldn’t surprise me that the non-word vocalizations should be different in Korean than they are in English, but it kind of does. I have had to learn a whole new vocabulary of vocalizations. “Yah” instead of “hey” to get someone’s attention or to yell at your little brother when he hits you. “Aieesh!!!” to express anger. “Azzah!!” to express happiness or excitement. I died in Super Mario, “Aieesh!!” I finished the game, “Azzah!!” I have also had to learn that I can’t use others, sssshhhh means nothing to my students.

A few times I have become very upset with students because of something I misunderstood. Do-Ick used to yell “Same Same” every time he wanted my attention and would continue to yell until I yelled back, “Wait!” One day I lost it on him, tearing my hair out, “that is not my name!!!” Same is a short version of teacher. Sorry Do-Ick, but only a little sorry, you should learn patience, you’re not the only student. Another time, playing the picture game Seok-Ho would yell “Circle Circle Circle” for everything that was being drawn. “Seok-Ho, if you yell circle one more time you are not allowed to play anymore!” Actually he was yelling his name, Circle sounds like Seok-Ho with a Korean accent. I felt real bad about that. Aieesh.

Since Bryan left and I have to find ways to entertain myself during the evenings. I have been taking walks along the canal path with about a thousand others. The path has two separate lanes: one for bikes and one for feet. I see families out for a walk, I see young girls holding hands and giggling. I see couples trying to play badminton on the courts beside the path. I see dads chase their young children on the track. I see guys trying to show their ladies how many pushups they can do. I see ajummas and ajoshis on the public workout equipment. I see people walking their dogs and I see people carrying their dogs. There are running clubs and walking clubs and biking clubs. At a few places are there fit young women running dance and aerobic classes for the ajummas. Tuesday, they were line dancing. Wednesday, it looked like interpretive dancing. My head was full of anticipation to see what Thursday would bring. Alas, the ominous clouds cut my walk short. I didn’t want to get caught in the rain. It might make me go bald.

Just like before Bryan was here, I don’t know what to with my time. Early in the eveing I am sleepy and look forward to going to bed, but then bed time roles around, or at least the time that I deem appropriately late enough to considered a grown up bed time and suddenly I’m wide awake and hungry. I can’t concentrate on a book and I don’t want to blog, I am too lazy to try studying Korean. I bought the book that the Seoul National University uses to teach Korean. I hope that I can make good use of it and that I will find it useful. There seems to be a lot of Korean in the book, especially considering that it is a book for beginners, but then I remind myself, that this is Korea after all and a lot is expected from students. Of course the university program is going to difficult. I want to know a lot more Korean for round two when Bryan and I come back for a year or two.

I was not looking forward to Bryan leaving. Luckily, I had a few days of vacation just before the day of extreme sadness and sorrow. Unfortunately, so did the pretty much the rest of Korea. It was ok, though, the rest of Korea didn’t interfere with our plans too much. Bryan and I decided to travel down to Busan for our last weekend together in Korea. We left after I was done work on Thursday afternoon. We took the 5:30 KTX to Busan and arrived at 8:30. We checked into the same hotel that we stayed in the first weekend, conveniently blocking out the bed bugs from the previous visit. I am please to report that we enjoyed a bedbug free Busan this time around. After we settled in and sat in front of the aircon for a while, we took the subway to the Haiundai Beach. We walked to the beach from the subway, marveling at how different it was during this nationalish holiday. The beach had basically turned into a night club. The sheer number of beautiful young boys and girls was a little over whelming. It seemed like everybody was out to get some. The skirts were short and the vests were ironed and all were a little drunk. And yes, we saw girls navigating the sandy beach in minis and high heels, the highlite of Bryan’s trip to Korea. I’m not sure what to make of it.

We walked around the beach area trying to find a restaurant that still looked a little hopping, most people had already moved to drinking on the beach by this time. All I wanted was some raw fish. The place we had been too the last time we were in Busan was already closing up and so were all the surrounding places. We finally had to go directly to the beach to find what we wanted. The ajummas and the ajoshis were all beckoning us from their patio’s and we finally had just to go with who was the loudest and most abrasive. The ajumma brought the menu to our table, assuming we wanted Fish BBQ, she first pointed to that. We told her we wanted raw and she pointed at the raw, the cheapest of which was 70,000 won. Bryan and looked at each other in a moment of panic, as much as I hate leaving a restaurant once we are sitting, that is a lot of money to pay for one meal. She saw our look of horror and immediately knocked 20,000 won of the menu price. It was still a little rich for our blood, but we decided to take it. Hungry and desperate.

The ajumma had seated closest to the beach, perhaps as advertising that her restaurant was foreigner friendly. However, it was also the closest to the three drunk guys with a number of empty soju bottles on their table. As we sat down, they eyed us. They paid close attention to what we ordered and our soju and our beer. They were very interested. It was inevitable. Bryan is just to good looking for his own good.
The ajumma who called us into the restaurant didn’t trust that we would know what to do with the food that we ordered and hovered to close for comfort. Nobody could leave us alone. Everybody was in our business.

After the plate of raw fish came out and we had eaten a bit and the broiled fish that comes as a side dish came out, and we hacked into it to get at the little bit of meat available, after we had only had less than one bottle of soju and one beer between the two of us, one of the three men suddenly decided that he was drunk enough to strike up a conversation with us. It started as they usually do, “Where are you from?” and then he told Bryan that he was very handsome and asked if we were a couple. Again, if this had happened in Canada, one would assume that this man was hitting on Bryan, but in Korea, it just means that he wants to be friends or that he thinks Bryan is interesting. It doesn’t have anything to do with sex. He told me that I was beautiful too, just for good measure. Two hours, more soju, and a lot of hand holding later, we had discovered that they were architects that had working on buildings in exotic places like Dubai. Two were 30ish and one was 37. One gave Bryan his card. He liked Bryan a lot and he wanted to me give him English lessons. He was really really drunk. The older one disappeared at some point in the night. Nobody but Bryan and I seemed concerned. The embarrassed friend who was slightly less drunk had to act as an interrupter. He was so embarrassed about his friend. He kept rubbing his hands on his face just like a rabbit does and apologizing. It was really cute. Eventually he convinced his drunker friend to leave. It was 2:30 AM and they had to work at 8:00.

Bryan and I walked around a bit more, then decided to buy a picnic mat and joined the youth on the beach. We sat with a bottle of whisky and watched the drunken antics of those around us before we caught a cab back to the hotel, donating our 3000 won picnic mat to two matless girls. It was a lovely night.

The next day we did more shopping, finished up Bryan’s souvenir shopping and sock shopping. He bought a lot of socks. I purchased the ugliest most awesome New Balance shoes. I have no more excuses to not work out. Except the whole being horribly afraid of trying to find a gym and actually go there regularly. (I do not look forward to all the staring that is going to happen, but Sally and I bought a gym membership, more blogging to come.) We went back to the beach in the eveing for more raw fish. This time we went back to a place we knew and had a much better and way cheaper meal than the night before. Although, slightly less entertaining, only slightly though, we witnessed a drunk woman who lost her shoes at restaurant rag on the ajumma in charge, who didn’t seem to give a damn, while the embarrassed offspring and husband hovered in the corner.

We didn’t know what to do during our second last night together in Korea and just bought some junk food and hung out at the hotel. Saturday morning, after we checked out of the hotel, we dropped our bags off at Busan Station and then we wondered around a bit more. Taking it all in.

We returned to Seoul on the 3:00 KTX getting home in time to finish Bryan’s packing before we headed out to meet friends for Bryan’s last night in Korea. I had to make an effort to not cry into my dalkgalbi. Then more of an effort not to cry into my beer at the hof that followed. We eventually ended up at FF because we always do. We danced a lot. Out on the street, getting some air, Bryan and I ended up talking to another Canadian couple from Toronto. The boy was leaving in a couple of weeks to attend Berkeley and the girl was staying another year. The boy told me that he was glad to be leaving because he doesn’t like Korea very much. He was otherwise nice, but I say good riddance, if you cannot appreciate Korea, then you do not deserve to be here. I wish him luck though, I really do.

Sunday morning came all too soon and it was time to get to the airport. We stopped for one last coffee at Gloria Jeans Coffee and then got on the airport Shuttle. We rode in almost silence for two hours and arrived at the airport too quickly. The wait for the check-in wasn’t too bad. We met a nice couple from Seattle that had been visiting their English teacher son. At the check in the lady told Bryan that he had to go through security almost right away. I did my best to not weep; I didn’t want him to weep either. We had our final hug over the gate and then he was gone. As soon as he walked through security I darted in the nearest bathroom and cried hard for about ten minuets. I gathered myself and got on the bus for home. My apartment, not ours anymore. It’s lonely without him.

The past three months have been the perhaps the best in my life. I have had so much fun with Bryan here. Almost everyday was an adventure. I cannot wait until we come back to Korea together.

Electronically Tested Latex Prophylactic

A couple weekends ago, the friendlies, B.A. Bryan, and I headed out to Boryoung for the annual Mud Fest. Bryan and I woke up at 6:45 on Saturday morning. It’s not always easy to get Bryan out of bed and I had to use my teacher voice to accomplice the task. We packed everything the night before so all we needed to do was eat and leave. However, we did have to make a stop at Sally’s apartment to fed and water the damn cat, keeping him alive for another weekend. Fingers crossed.
We had made the decision a few months ago to sign up for a package deal. The package included buses, accommodations, and a free T-shirt (especially a free T-shirt). It seemed like a cheap and easy option. Our bus was supposed to leave at 9:30, on the dot, with out without us. We arrived at the bus location at 9:00, grabbed a Danish and coffee at Tour Les Jour and then boarded a bus. At about 10:00, we rolled out. Sitting on the bus waiting to leave, we noticed a lot of folk, foreign folk, starting their weekend. A lot of beer, a lot of soju, and a lot of harder stuff. I know there is nothing that I like better than Jim Bean at 9:45 in the morning.
A few people on our bus were already a little trashed by the time we arrived at the first rest stop. As we all got back on the bus, one fellow, decided to make the bus more entertaining and tried to get us all to sing. A few of his drunk friends obliged. Bus time noraebang.
The second half of the bus trip was louder and much more obnoxious than the first half. Also, we watched Mad Max, a film I have never seen. It was odd and parts were disturbing and Mel Gibson was really young and handsome.
Because people were drinking so much, some folk insisted that we hit a second rest stop. A second rest stop in addition to getting caught in the mass evacuation from Seoul that occurs every weekend, we didn’t arrive in Boryoung until about 3:00, two hours later than expected.
We were dropped off and then had to walk down a street, past the elephant rides where a person from Asknow, the organizers, was waiting and then we back tracked as she lead us to our Minbak, adding one more accommodation to the list of places I have stayed at during my time here. A minbak is apparently one of the cheapest options. Like the pension I stayed in at Sokcho, a Minbak has many giant rooms with no beds, only floor mats and blankets. However, unlike a pension, you pay to sleep and you never know who might be sleeping on the floor beside you. Also, there is no kitchen the room, but there was a kitchen in the main area. I guess it is kind of like a hostel without beds.
When Bryan and I arrived, we had to find our friends who had come on a different bus and arrived about two hours before we did. We changed into our beach wear that could get muddied and headed out ito the slight rain. A bottle of Chang-ha (a sojuesk, but more winey type beverage) later, we were rolling around in a pit of mud.
Ok, so mud festival was not really that muddy. There were two mudslides, but one closed before I could ride it. There was a wresting pit and then two other pits and none of these really had all that much mud. Also, there was a mud jail, where people threw mud at the inmates. We waited in line for the one mudslide for a about two hours, being a big group, we all took turns leaving to get alcohol or get muddy. After we finally got on the slide, a large inflatable slide, one has to climb up and then gets to hold the hand of cute Korean guy at the top before he pushes you down the other side. It was a lot of fun. We then went to the ocean to rinse of the mud. The day was rainy and kind of cold but the ocean was actually very nice and pleasant. I like swimming in the ocean. It’s psaltie.
It started raining harder and harder and eventually we realized we were experiencing the first part of monsoon season. We went back to the minbak to find dryer clothes and showers a bit. We cleaned up and began the serious task of finding a place to eat. Once again, I was beside the ocean, surrounded by numerous plastic restaurants filled with fresh raw fish and once again, I was with friends who hate that sort of thing and once again we had samgupsal. I like samgupsal, I like it a lot, but raw fish is not nearly as common and I feel that the closer to the ocean you get, the better the fish gets. It was interesting to note that the samgupsal and other meat places were packed with foreigners while the plastic stales with the sea food were predominantly Koreans. There was only one table of Koreans in the Samgupsal place we finally settled on. The grills were leaf shaped and the stew was more seafoody than normal.
After the meal, we left the restaurant (and I forgot Bryan’s umbrella in the restaurant, never to be seen again) and headed again to the beach to wait for the fireworks. The rain had slowed to barely a spit and we hung out. Dave and Bryan went on a quest for more alcohol and while they were gone, the rain picked up again and the rest of sought shelter. During our search, the fireworks started so we endured the rain, huddled under useless umbrellas. They were very decent fireworks, big and long and colourful. I love fireworks. I like the smell and the noise they make. I still feel like a child when ever I get to see them.
After the fireworks, it started raining harder and harder and the wind picked up. We had to find a place to hang out for the remainder of the evening. Everyplace we tried was packed to the gills, everybody had the same idea as us. We weren’t allowed to eat or drink in the minbaks so we had to find a place. Eventually we gave up on bars and hofs and picked one the plastic restaurants and drank their more expensive beer. We followed this up with noraebang. The noraebang place was pretty busy so we didn’t get any service even though we stayed for two hours. I fell asleep sometime during the last hour, I was a tired little bear.
This pretty much closed the night. After noraebang, I went straight to the minbak to really sleep while the others sought fried chicken. However, most places were closed already so they followed me shortly. We set up our beds and kind of crawled in, the room was almost dripping it was so humid.
During the night I was woken by the rain coming in through the window and discovered a puddle was forming around my bags and Sarah. I moved the bags. Sarah was soundly sleeping I fell back asleep and was then woken by the dire need to poop. And poop I did, many times that morning. Apparently, the samgupsal from the previous evening didn’t want to remain in my body. I felt horrible, I think I may have had a small case of food poisoning. I felt hung over with the fun of getting drunk enough to be hung over. When Sarah woke and swam out of the puddle, we braved the monsoon to find the nearest convenience store, at which I bought a lot of water and some ramyeon. Something about instant noodles that is comforting.
We assumed we had to get out of the minbak by 12:00 at the latest, but the monsoon occurring outside our front door, did not inspire us to hurry. Our buses were leaving at 3:00, so we had to find a dry place to hunker down for the afternoon. Pelicana chicken glowed like a small piece of fried heaven and it had only just opened so there were still some tables left for the eight of us. I was the first to walk in and I hesitated at the door, seeing the owner sleeping in the booth. Poor little lamb, he had a rough weekend. He hoped up when we entered and sat us two tables. We hung out for a couple hours, eating chicken and cabbage salad while answering Mike’s “would you rather questions”. I would defiantly rather have x-ray vision over night vision, but if I found the last dinosaur I would let it be rather than kill it and eat it. And if I had to choose a member of Big Bang with which to have a one night stand, I would pick Tae Yang, he has the best body. If I had to pick a member to marry tomorrow, I would pick Dae Sung because he is the most ugly and therefore probably the nicest.
Eventually, the time to leave came and we once again braved the monsoon and bean what turned into a mass exodus of foreigners leaving Boryoung. The company that organized our trip was organized for 1300 others. As we were walking, a very very drunk guy (maybe even blitzed), still clutching his soju bottle came up to Bryan and asked if he were going to Seoul. He was rather upset about the fact that everybody he talked to was not going to Seoul. He was very surprised to have learned that not everybody lives in Seoul. He followed us for a bit, but eventually we lost him. He was too drunk to walk in the straight line and we were in a hurry. As the buses were pulling out of the town, we saw the fellow, stumble on to the street, still holding the soju, trying to stop the bus. He failed. I would love to meet up with in the future, just to find out how he got home. I bet he didn’t get to work on Monday.
Our bus ride was fairly uneventful, but one of our friends on a different bus reported at being puked on by a fellow traveler.
So my weekend was good, despite the monsoon and the pooping. However, some people did not not get to have a very good weekend. Monday afternoon, I received an email from Asknow concernring the trip and the complaints. It was very long email but here some gem like excerpts:

Our biggest mistake was assuming that people in general would behave themselves and be civil to each other. What we didn't anticipate was that people would sneak into rooms, take each other's blankets and pillows, threaten each other and engage in other destructive behavior such as causing damage to rooms etc...

I hate to say it, but after what I've seen and having been in Korea for 10 years, I know that if we organized this event for Koreans, we would never have seen this type of behavior. I am embarrassed to be a foreigner a lot of times when I'm in this country, and never more than I was this weekend in Boryeong

They were a large group and were very friendly during the whole preparation and were excited for the trip. Now, I am pretty sure they hate us because some assholes went into their room, took their bedding, were drunk and obnoxious, and even decided to go and have sex in someone else's room.

That reminds me, one of the places I stopped by to check up on after actually chased me out. The guy literally came out from behind the counter and in Korean pretty much said "get the fuck out of here." I guess we didn't make a good impression there.

I guess the weekend didn’t go so well for everybody. I feel bad knowing that so many people are such douche bags that make all of us look bad.

I still had a good weekend. I really did. I would even go back to Mudfestival if given another chance.

Happy Picnic

We can not hold any lie to the trembling which is as terrible as to intimidate you.

Busan...Pusan...it doesn’t matter?

June 13-15, 2009.

For the soul purpose of eating raw fish and other seafood, Bryan and I hopped onto the KTX and zoomed across the country to Busan. We left bright and early on Saturday morning and arrived three hours later because Korea is awesome (make up your rant about how it sucks that we have no bullet trains in Canada).
We arrived in Busan with no goals besides the aforementioned and no place to stay. We debated between staying in Haeundae, near the beach, or in Nampo-Dong, hear the Jalgachi fish market. The likelihood of the freshest and most delicious raw fish seemed higher near the market so we got on the Busan subway and went to Nampo-Dong. We walked into a hotel right beside the fish market exchanged 50,000 won for a room key, no questions, no credit cards, nothing. The room was nice enough: a bed, a TV, a shower, and mostly clean*.
We dropped off our bags and went to search for lunch. Having just arrived we played it safe and found all you can eat sushi for 9000 won. It was not nearly the best sushi I have ever eaten but for 9000 won, it is Ok, but not nearly the raw fish for which I came.
After lunch we shopped, Nampo-Dong being the best shopping district in the city. Bryan bought some close and I bought some Dalki products including a rad lunch box and a note book with a Dalki Canada flag. We also bought seven pairs of novelty socks. We may or may not have also purchased couple shirts. Don’t worry about it.
After were done spending our money on useless but adorable things, we got on the subway and went to Haeundae, the beach. The weather was nice, but not really beachy. It was very pleasant to just walk along the beach fully clothed and totally comfortable. We explored the area a bit and decided it was time for raw raw fish. (So yes, we did actually get our raw fish at Haeundae, but our choice of Nampo-Dong was still better, just wait.)
We wondered around a bit and found ourselves in the Haeundae Market, a street of fish vendors and restaurants. We walked the length of the street and back again. The many choices were equally intimidating so eventually we just to had plunge in, fortunately we plunged into one with English on the menu (assorted raw fish, we’ll take it).
36,000 won got us two bottles of soju, an assortment of side dishes, sandy shells to suck out, squid, dipping sauces, soup, one cooked fish (whole), and a huge platter of a raw fish. Moment before it was brought to our table it had been live fish, swimming contentedly in a fish tank outside the restaurant. I experienced a small piece of heaven that eveing. (I don’t doubt the soju may share some of the responsibility for that.)
We missed the last subway back to Nampo-Dong, so knowing we would have to taxi it back we decided to make the most of it and headed back to the beach. We walked the beach end to end. At one end we bought a giant Asahi beer and sat in the sand close to the water and watched the waves role in and drunk people stumbled about. The beach was populated with other couples and bigger groups all doing the same things. Eventually we walked a bit more and hit up a hof before flagging down a taxi. Fortuitously, I had thought to take a business card from the hotel, I just gave the card to the taxi driver and he brought us home.
The next morning we had Crispy Cream coffee and donuts (my first real crispy cream donut) for breakfast and then went up to Busan town and Bryan bought some shoes, not at Busan tower but near by. Busan tower is not really that impressive to look at, but it is still a tower and on the top of the hill so the view is amazing. Most of the city can be viewed from this tower and it has a really good view of the fish Market, which is actually a really nice modern building, designed similar to Incheon Airport and Seoul Station. Lots of windows and open spaces and seems rather streamed lined.
Later in the day we finally got to the fish market, brightly lit and many happy colours. We wondered a round a bit, but going to the fish market just to see and watch feels a little funny. Having no intention of buying a live fish, we are basically going sightseeing in an office. It just doesn’t seem cool. However, the ocean is right beside the fish market and it is kind of nice and relaxing area to hang out. There were lots of people chowing down on fresh fish that they just purchased on the second floor of the fish market where there are many restaurants. We continued to wander around by the ocean, which lead us to the fish market continued. We wondered past ajumma’s selling dead fish and then came to the restaurant area of the outdoor market. Real and plastic restaurants, delicious smells of stewed and fried fish wafting through the air, we were tempted but tentative.
Suddenly Bryan grabbed my arm. An ajumma had stopped him and gave him her pitch. She tried to explain what we could eat and kept saying 60, 60. I said to Bryan, I think the meal will be 60,000 won. He didn’t care and we sat down.
They brought us a stew, side dishes, and then four different large fried fish, whole. We dug into what was one of the best meals of my life. We had to pick and pull the fish apart. Separating the meat from the bones. Each fish was different, so after figuring out one fish we had to start again with the next fish. I was relived to see that ajossi’s sitting next to us had an equally massacred looking plate of leftovers when they were finished. I guess we did ok.
After the meal, we walked up to pay, uncertain how much this feast would set us back. Perhaps we could wash dishes to settle the bill. Man Oh Ship won. He ajossi at the front said. Man oh Ship won. I was trying to translate in my head, isn’t that only....
Bryan handed the man his credit card. Man Oh Ship won. 15,000 won. Fifteen dollars, that included a restaurant bottle of beer** for 3000 won. The ajumma meant 6000 won each. I love Korea.
After the fish fry, we headed back to the beach. This time we followed a boardwalk that goes around the Westen Chosin, a fancy pants hotel on the beach. There are many romantic places for couples to kiss and there is a neat mermaid statue. The path takes you along the coast to some sort of Modern Art Museum, perhaps. It was closed. As we passed the museum, I started to notice that Bryan and I were waling against the generally flow of traffic. We were the only people walking in that direction. Nothing came of it but it was very strange.
Eventually, the path curved back to the beach, I guess we were on a small peninsula. I decided there was one more thing we had to do to make our trip to Busan complete. Saturday evening we had wondered through the pojangmacha, a large area of plastic restaurants serving up assorted raw sea creatures. We wondered through the restaurant, eerily empty, I guess the peak season is in July and August. One, blearily eyed ajumma was able to tear herself away from her TV Drama long enough to give us a smile and an invitation. We stood in front of her tanks, slightly bewildered and finally ordered the small octopus. She gave us a seat and proceeded to fish one live octopus out of her tank. She chopped it up into bit sized bits and set it down in front of us, still wiggling. Using our disposable wooden chopsticks, we pried the octopus off the platter, dipped it in sauce, and put in our mouths, chewing really fast to keep it from sticking to our tongues. The suction cups still worked. The ajumma serving us seemed to appreciate our fearlessness and rewarded us with service**. She fished out an unidentified sea creature**, small and spiky. She cut it in half and spoon-fed us each one bite of the mushy salty insides. It was not delicious. San Nak Ji, the small octopus is not really that tasty either, it is not bad or gross, just kind of lacking in flavour. I guess it is exciting because it is kind of dangerous. Apparently a few people die every year because they don’t chew enough and the suction cups stick to their throats. I suppose that is what happens when you mix soju with San Nak Ji.
This basically brings our Busan adventure to a close. We left the next morning, just enough time to get home, change, and go to our jobs.

*There may or may not have been bed bugs, as small itchy bumps appeared on our skin.
**Restaurant bottles of beer are bigger than regular bottles. They are meant to be shared.
*** When you get free stuff, it is called service. Because we are foreign, we get lots of service. It is one of the few times I don’t hate standing out.
**** I looked it up, she feed us a sea chestnut, which on the menu was 30,000 won. Bryan thinks she may have been a little drunk. Speaking of drunken ajummas, Bryan and I went to a hof late one night a few weeks ago and we were served by two, rather tight ladies. They were so drunk they could barely function. It was hilarious

Love is... Your Smell...

Love is... Your Smell...
Mom says that "you are better
handsome then Bred Pitt" even
papa smelled of sweat.

Copied from my journal...

May 31, 2009 Sokcho Beach 7:45 AM

I woke up at 6:00 and took a long shower. The smell in the pension* is unpleasant, I needed to leave. I headed to the beach and read on a rock close to the wear we had the fire last night, hear the Army base, where we heard training gunfire. A coupe of guards on duty watched us from the top of the hill, behind the barbed wire, but probably though we were just dumb for building a beach fire with a storm coming, lightening flashing in the sky, the low rumble of thunder and number of Mississippis decreasing between. Mike and Dave got the fire big and hot using driftwood. We had just enough time to drink a bottle of wine, three bottles of beer, a can of makolli**, a few smores (with real north American graham crackers and marshmallows) and set off a few sad roman candles before the rain became to insistent that we seek the shelter of the pension. Some waited a little too long and found themselves quite wet when they finally gave into the storm. We spend the rest of the night playing drinking games*** and Scene It, both of which I lost, leaving me drunk and cranky. I fell asleep first.
Sally wanted to go swimming at some and point, late in the night and Bryan must have gone with her because he climbed into bed actually wanting to cuddle, his skin was cold. Think Sarah went as well. I did not cuddle with her.
The owners of our pension, occupying the two rooms on the main floor, must dislike us. We had to have been loud. Yesterday they wanted extra money, claiming that we only paid for seven people instead of for nine people. Sarah called her Korean friend, who then sorted things out. It is good to have connections.
Being in the Korea, land of late nights, I didn’t expect the beach to be very busy, but I am surprised at the number of people. When I first arrived there was a family, they looked like they were playing in the waves, after watching them for a while, I realized they were collecting seaweed. They looked like they were having fun.
Yesterday morning was far from this sunny calm day. They wind was strong and the sky was grey. Sarah and I were the first two u. We arrived late the night before probably didn’t get to bed until three or later. The clock said 12:00 ish when I woke up in the morning. I was shocked I had slept so late, Sarah and I went out in search of breakfast food; during the excursion Sarah informed me that it was in fact only about 9:15. The clock was wrong.
We found eggs and mild. Once people were actually up, we left on excursion number two: Dave, Sally, Mike, and I. As we left the pension, the man owner asked “Odi gueseyo?” (Where are you going?). “Food”. “Menu?” he asked. “Supermarket?” We replied. He grabbed his keys and led us to his car, a Chairman. He drove us to E-Mart. We collected 112,000 won worth of food and booze. I also bought a new shirtdress. E-Mart is quickly becoming my favourite place to shop. It is like Target or Zellers but in Korea so obviously better. I already have three shirtdresses, on regular dress, a skirt, and one shirt (Kiss me or Bite me Honey). About a week ago, I discovered that they have clothes that fit me.
We took a taxi back to the pension and made pancakes, bacon, and eggs. In waves, we only had one grill. Sarah brought Starbucks coffee. We spend the afternoon on the beach. Sarah, Amber, Mike and Dave went swimming, sort of. The rest of us, less adventurous, decided to stay warm and dry. We ate samgupsal for supper I hope that I can eat seafood today. I want raw fish damnit.

May 31, 2009 Sokcho Beach 4:35 PM

Feeling anxious about time lines and checkouts, I head back to the pension to see if anybody (Sarah) was up yet. Nobody was. I didn’t know if the checkout was at 10:00 or 11:00. I didn’t know if I should be waking people up or not. I waited until Sarah got up and then I started doing the dished and started coffee. Sarah made eggs while I cut up the watermelon. It was my bad idea to buy a whole melon instead of a half melon. They are smaller than at home, typically, and I figured the nine of us would have no problem. (Problem. Later we had to improvise a way to carry the rest of the watermelon to the beach. I ended up cutting off the tops of two juice bottles and filling them with mater melon piece. It worked all right.) Slowly, everybody stared getting up from their floor beds. After breakfast, we did our best to pack everything and clean up, more or less. The amount of garbage we generated was amazing. Also the amount of alcohol consumed. After cleaning and sweeping copious amounts of sand out the pension, we headed to the beach. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. The sun was warm but the wind was chilly.
After beachy shenanigans, I finally got my seafood wish fulfilled. Seafood Stew: claims, crabs, octopus, all sorts of shellfish in a tasty but not too spicy broth, along with an assortment of veggies. It was not raw fish, but I am ok with that. Next beach adventure will include raw fish, a lot of raw fish. We are waiting our bus to take us back to Seoul. So good-bye east coast.

Back in Seoul...

Tired and sunburned dispite the not warm weather. I always forget that even if the sun is not hot, it will still burn me. This weekend was for Amber’s birthday. It was mostly a surprise for her. She knew something was happening but she didn’t know where or who was involved. It was a super fun weekend for everybody.

*A pension is just a big hotel room that is big and has a kitchen. Sometimes a pension is a separate building, like a little cottage. This pension was right on the beach and very nice. Everything is Korean style, so they give enough blankets and floor mats for everybody to sleep on the floor.

**Makolli is a carbonated rice wine. Very popular in Korea.

***King’s Cup, which is actually kind of fun. However, I got the kings cup at the end, which was, by then, a mixture of beer, wine, and makolli. I refused to drink it until someone brought me a bottle water to chase it down.

Bloodletting on the Cloven Hoof

This was supposed to be published a while ago, but I got really lazy, sorry. This is an account of the first week or so of Bryan being in Korea. I started it a while ago.

I have been considering for months how to feed Bryan when he first he arrived. I wanted to give him a taste of everything that is delicious in Korea. There is so much good food that it is difficult to get him to eat everything right away. I think I did pretty good though. We have visited all the tiny kimbap restaurants in the area (because mine closed down). We have been to Kimbap Villages and Kimbap Houses and Kimbap Palaces. I also managed to get him some mandu guk, dukkoboggi, sampugsal, hangover stew, mystery seafood, kimchi pajoen (pancakes), and a few other bar snacks. We have sampled Korean versions of pizza and fried chicken as well. And I even cook him a couple of fancy ramyeon meals. I think food the best part of traveling. I am glad that eating in Korea is cheap.
We spend the first week walking around Ssungmun. We didn’t get on a subway until Wednesday, when we visited Sarah for our weekly Wednesday night hangouts. Bryan fell asleep on Sarah’s bed, the jet lag was still affecting him. We also got him on the claw machine, he didn’t win. If he wants to be a good Korean boyfriend, he is going to have to figure out the claw machine. But he has done a good job of carrying my purse at times, so he is almost there. I just have to get him in tighter pants and maybe grow out his hair so that he can get a fashion cut by a “designer” in tight pants and wielding scissors in pink leopard patterned utility belts.
Since Bryan has been here, we have become regulars at the Train hof near our apartment, the one that serves giant towers of beer, 3000 cc’s. “He’s 3000 cc’s of beer, Stat!” They also serve hard boiled eggs as a bar snack and make a mean kimchi pajeon. After a night out on the town, Bryan and sI stopped there for another drink (it was already after 2:00) and while we were there we meet a nice couple who sat with us for drink or two. We drank with them in the Train hof for awhile (referred to us as the Train hof because it is trained themed) and communicated as best we could. For some reason, talking with Koreans who speak very little English becomes much easier when everybody is very drunk. Eventually, the servers told us they wanted to close and asked us to leave. This is where Bryan’s memory ended. We left the train hof and walked down the street to a different bar that was still open. We orderd a piture of beer and then Bryan went to the bathroom and I assumed the boy did too. I sat with the girl (Sunny) and we chatted about her for awhile, when I realized that Bryan had been for long time.
The next afternoon we woke up and the bastard didn’t even have a hang over, and I, who looked after him all night, including sleeping on the floor beside the bathroon for a while, wanted to die a little bit. After moping around and trying to not vomit, I finally recovered enough to feel as though I could keep some eats down. We headed out and walked around for a while to find, because it was appropriate, hangover soup. Hae Jang Guk (해상극) is pork bone soup. It is served with with three bowls, one for the meat you pcik of the bone, one for the delicious mustard like sauce with which it is served and one for the bones. The broth is really delicious as well, with a few spices that I couldn’t identity. Before we left the house, we did some internet research to find out exactly how to order and eat the soup. I had only heard of it and didn’t even know the exact name.
Going into an unfamiliar restaurant for the first time to try out new food for the first time is one the most intimidating things to me. We walked around for a long time before I had the courage to finally step inside a restaurant. The server came over with the menu, which is really just a piece of paper and you check the thing you want. Obviously it is all I Korean and even though I knew what to look for, it still took awhile to find the exact combination of characters. The snowman followed the by the h, finally stood out. Then once the food is finally served there is always that impression that I am eating it incorrectly. The servers here are likely to quickly see how you doing it wrong and correct you as best they can with their Korean and your English. It can be a little embarrassing, as if you don’t know how to eat.
Bryan and I tired to figure out if there were any popular foods in Canada that you would need to learn to eat correctly. We decided that the hardest part for a person unfamiliar with North American cuisine would be all the options. In Korean there are almost never options, you order and that is what you get. In Canada, you have to specify all sorts (scrambled, rye, bacon) there are almost always follow up questions with endless options. Everything else seems straight forward, but then I would suppose to Koreans, all the food they eat would seem straight forward too.