sorrryyy!!! I'm back!

So it is has been way to long since my last update! I have been really busy, but that is no excuse! But anyways, here is the long awaited update!
I have decided to apply to go back to school for September. I spent September, October and November researching, picking schools and writing entrance essays!! Took a lot out of me, but I had a lot of help from friends here who edited my work for me! I am very out of practice in regards to writing essays!! I have so far applied to three schools in Ontario, and write eight different essays for these schools (I hear in April… eeps!) And I have also decided to apply back to MUN, and to a school in Alberta, but these applications are not due yet and I am still working on them. All these programs are for high school, mostly elementary, but high school as well just in case for MUN if I change my mind. Working here made me realize how much I love teaching young children. So that is my excuse for the lateness of my post…
So, since my last post I have done a few things, I will try to update in a chronological order with as much detail as I can.
One thing that first comes to my mind is my trip to Costco with my high school friend Heather! What a fun time! We had to take a train for a little under 2 hours, but it was well worth the wait! We even took luggage with us to help us bring our purchases back home! Heather took a video to document this experience! Take a look!! We apologize for the quality, and for some reason the last letter on the titles don’t work but enjoy!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh8DCirXgNE&eurl=http://yearofkimchi.blogspot.com/
Also, admits applying for school I found that I was getting really lazy… and fat haha. So, I decided I needed to do something about this laziness. I knew I would never go to the gym if I joined the gym unless I had a friend who took me along, I need motivation… so a Korean friend of mine was taking swimming lessons, and I used to swim, so I decided, why not! I joined the pool. However, let me tell you… I am SOOOO out of practice!! Like VERY out of practice. I went back to basics. I mean, I CAN swim, but my technique is rusty, and some things I was doing very wrong. My instructor is great and I am learning a lot and can feel myself getting much stronger. However, I better stop getting sick so I don’t have to miss so many classes! (I was on and off sick all of November and on many kinds of meds, and now have broncutis… ugh)
Anywho, back to my first experience swimming in Korea, with a Korean instructor. My instructor or rather, all the instructors at the pool speak no English, and I, no Korean really. I have now started to learn the body parts in Korean to help me. My friend Sarah is at the same pool, but in a different class, she tells me that the instructors were so nervous to teach me at first and even wanted to leave the pool when they saw me coming haha. But I am a good sport, and listen to body language really well... so we are becoming good friends... and when I miss a class; my instructor always tells me he misses me! They also teach by taking your body and moving it for you to teach how it’s done. Sarah tells me that they get nervous doing that since foreigners don’t usually like that, and he always stresses when he teaches me. Bless his heart! Haha But I am fine I tell her to tell him, and happy to be getting a nice work out. Even if everyone in the pool has to wear a swim cap and goggles!
There is an old couple in my class learning how to swim, and they make me smile every time I get to the pool. He always tries to say hello, even though that is probably the extent of his English other than asking me where I am from. Everyone was very excited to learn that I was Canadian!
Now to the change room. In Korea public bathing is huge. In the change room there is a sauna, shower stations, both sitting and standing and a bath. I have never been big on public nudity. I have played sports, and I could never change in front of my team mates and always hid in a stall. I decided that since I live a 5 min walk from the pool, I would change and run home and shower there. I went my locker and took my towel and wrapped it around my body as I tried to carefully take off my swim suit. The janitor working was very angry with me, she came by with her mop to mop up all the water my suit was dripping on the floor and told me to go to the showers... people go there right after the pool and shower, then walk naked to the lockers to get their towels. Now... here I am, nervous about public nudity, and a woman is standing in front of me motioning for me to take off my suit and just looking at me, as well as other women in the change room, I think they were just curious about a foreign body. I shook my head really fast and just said home, and hid more in my towel, all the women laughed at me and turned their heads… I was so nervous! I changed quickly and left!
After that I was in the hallway outside the change room putting on my shoes, you have to take them off in order to enter the change room. A few Ajuma’s (a respectful term for older woman) were walking past, got excited to see me, I guess they don’t see many foreigners in the pool area… and they kept telling me how beautiful I was. It was nice to hear that! Haha I could get used to that!
Another big thing that happened here was we had three new teachers come to ECC. One thing about teaching in Korea is that there is a huge turn over rate with teachers. You get close to people, and then before you know it (time passes very quickly here I find) they leave and you have to start all over again. Well, a very close friend of mine left my school, but decided to stay in Korea and lives close still (yay!), my desk neighbour left and another friend left… it was hard to see them all leave, but it is nice to meet new people too. I have been having a good time with my new co-workers. One is interested in all sorts of music, and even knows some Canadian bands I like, another one has a kitten, and I get to baby sit while she goes away for Christmas!!! Yayyy!!! Pictures will be posted of him!! And the last one I will blog about later in this entry!! (I have exciting news… so stay tuned!!)
Our new teachers had to go to Seoul to training, so while they were out training we had our Halloween party!! It was great fun! Halloween isn’t actually very big here in Korea, so seeing what the kids came up with for costumes was interesting. The kindergartens were more excited about dressing up than the others, but I guess that is the same everywhere in the world mostly maybe? Anywho, most of the girls in the kindergarten classes dressed up as princess, and the boys ranged from spider man, power rangers, wizards... capes with hats were big, I think mostly because costumes were hard to find. One of my Buttercups dressed up as a princess, but also wanted to wear bunny ears haha... she was a bunny princess!!
For the two days of Halloween we had, one day just for the kinder kids and another for the older students I dressed up as a grape. Everyone loved it... it isn’t common to see costumes like that here apparently... most are just your typical ones… I am still called Grape Teacher by some students! Here is a photo:


We went out on the town for Halloween as well... it was a really fun night... one of the best I have had in a while actually. We went to a bar in the Haeundae area, we were among the very select few of foreigners there. Some people wore costumes, so it was great fun. I dressed up as an 80’s aerobic instructor. Such great fun! I was in character all night too!! I brought a small hot pink weight with me and busted it out every now and again! I made friends with a Korean guy that night, he was so shy, but so cute! He made me laugh... he was such a tiny little boy, he wore little short shorts, a white t-shirt and suspendars and I think he might have had ears on at one point.. We danced together a lot, and then I bumped into him a few weeks later when I was shopping at American Apparel! Here is a photo of that night:

A good friend of mine had a birthday just a while back and we went to the PNU area. (Pusan National University) It is a really happening area, and we had a blast!! We started off the night just me and her meeting in Kyunsung University Area getting our nails done for her birthday, then I went home to get ready and her to her house where she received 100 ROSES from her rich friend… was a beautiful gift.. 100 roses! We then went to her house, I made her a party hat for the night and we went on the PNU pub crawl. It was a lovely experience because every bar we went to had live music!! Oh how I miss!!! IT was 15 000 won for the night and that gave you entry to 6 bars and a drink at every bar! Great deal I say! We brought along the new teachers to this event and we had a blast! One bar I went to reminded me of my Newfoundland friends because they played Death Cab for Cutie! I miss you Ashley Gilbert and I wish you could still sing to me… I miss that so much. That is one thing I hate about living alone… no roommates to sing to you, or no one to cook and eat with.
Speaking about Newfoundland I met up with some old friends from res days! A friend Pete lives in Seoul and came to Busan to visit. It was great! I showed him the beaches near my house, a market, and we went shark diving. Yep. I dove into a tank with 20 different sharks, some sea turtles, and other fish of various sizes. That is probably the most extreme thing I have ever done. I am the type of person who is afraid of everything... so this is a HUGE step for me... Not only the scary shark part, but scuba diving too!
So, in learning how to dive, and then actually getting into the tank with 20 sharks I learned that I have a new fear. I was more scared of the giant sea turtles than of the sharks. I think this fear resided with the fact that we had to hide most of these turtles in the holding tank while we got into the main tank because it was too hard to dive with the turtles, they don’t leave you alone. So I had it in my mind that they would bite me. We started our training, signing forms to ensure that if we were eaten we wouldn’t sue, then putting on scuba gear and getting a brief lesson on how to breathe underwater. This was done in the practice pool with baby sharks! They are used to humans by now, and very cute! They likes to rest by my feet actually haha.
As we got ready for our real dive the boys I was diving with, my friend Peter and my good friend Rick from work helped our instructor move the turtles into the holding tank we enter the main tank through. I wouldn’t touch them… I was too afraid. Our instructor told us that all the turtles should be moved, but one was ok, he would leave us alone… boyyy… was he wrong. This turtle was up in my face the whole time. I was screaming into my oxygen tank let me tell you haha! This turtle was half the size of me! I kept pushing him away… grabbing his shell and tossing him further into the tank! One point I accidently pushed the soft part of his body and convinced myself he then really had it out for me. I decided at that point I didn’t want to go into the tank and wanted out… but in the back of my mind my conscious was telling me… you baby, you paid 85 dollars to do this, and you can’t back out now. So I pushed myself to at least make it to the bottom, being scared to move since the turtle was in my face the whole time, even as I made my way to the bottom. I didn’t want to lose my nose to a turtle!
I got to the bottom safely, but I was still really nervous and cold!! I walked along the bottom for a minute in a half, saw two sharks with tons of teeth just meters away, and that stupid turtle again… I decided, baby or no baby, I am scared! Plus, I was menstruating, and even with all my research and asking my instructor if I could still swim and everything told me sharks were not interested in my blood, I still had that what if in my mind. I decided to go back to the top! Once I got to the top the instructor reminded me that we put the turtles in the holding tank and I couldn’t actually get out until my friends were done. So, he left me, holding onto a rope at the top of the tank alone. Hahaha. Let me tell you, classes with Dr. Lee Rainy really paid off, and I practiced my mediation skills for 20 min as I waited for my friends to come back up. At least the turtle didn’t come back until they were back and I made them keep him away! Haha
However, as scared as I was, and wimping out early, I am still happy I did this. I faced my fears and did something completely out of character!
The very next weekend I went to Seoul to visit some more res friends! It is great having people you know from home to random weekend visits! When I was in university I took part in the production of the Vagina Monologues every year since my second year. A woman that was in the show with me was Lacy. She is a great friend and a wonderful inspiring woman! It was so nice to visit her and her boyfriend. I took the bus to see her. The bus to Seoul was only 21 000 won opposed to a 50 000 won train which is a little but faster! I always opt for cheap travel!
Once we meet up, I venture the Seoul subway alone (10 lines I think). I had to travel about 30-40 min to where she was in the city. If you know me, then you know I have a TERRIBLE sense of direction, but I was excited to do this! I made friends with people at the station who spoke a little English and helped me find my way! We even exchanged numbers if they ever decided to visit Busan! I meet up with Lacy and her boyfriend Andrew for food, then got on the subway towards their home… as we ride they tell me they haven’t been to the sauna and bath house in a long time. I tell them that I know I can’t leave Korea without that experience, but I am so shy with nudity.
Well, being in Seoul, and there is no chance of running into any other friends, or (god forbid) any students, so I tough it, and I go! This experience was like nothing I have ever done before. We get to the spa, and pay 6000 won, and they give us gym shorts a t-shirt and a small towel. Lacy and I head to the female section and undress. I am in shock, but I proceed to do it… why not do something cultural and step out of my comfort zone! The bath area has like 10 different types of bathing stations. A sauna heated bath, a freezing cold bath, a normal like pool water bath, a crazy hot bath, a hot bath, a massage bath, sitting scrub stations, a stand up shower station, and a bath full of tea! I tried most, but not the freezing cold bath… I hate cold! It was funny to be there sometimes, the kids played in the baths like they were pools, and wanted to play with me haha.. at first Lacy and I were looked at since we were foreign, but after a while it felt Just as if we were clothed. At one point we were scrubbing and covered head to toe with soap and these two Ajuma’s came to where we were scrubbing and told us we had to leave since they had that spot before us… even though we had been there for 20 min exfoliating already! We move covered in soap and just shower it off and then sit in the warm bath for while and another Ajuma comes over asking if we want her to scrub our skin… they have those services, and some women come out with bruises they scrub the dead skin so well.
We decline… I think just getting to the bath house was a big enough step for me! We leave and proceed to put on the gym clothes they gave us. We go to the bottom of the spa, meet up with Lacy’s boyfriend, sit in a massage chair, lay in a sauna, sit in a cold room full of ice, and then think about getting Dr. Fish (but I hated it before, so I wasn’t going to go and have fish eat dead skin off my feet again since I have such ticklish feet!), or a manicure or even something to eat but look at the time and head back to their apartment and make food there.
We cooked chicken and avocado sandwiches with yellow pepper… mmmm… I love avocado, but it is soooo expensive here! I only buy it once and a while as a treat! We then get ready and go to this amazing Wine bar. The man who owns the bar has over 2000 cds, and tons and tons of other types of music… and then he plays every genre of music under the sun… was amazing. Also, if you had any question about music he knew exactly where to go to find the artist you were talking about, as well as others who fit in the same genre that you may like.
It was a great relaxing, chilled out weekend, the next morning we woke up and listened to DNTO on CBC via the internet and Andrew made us homemade pancakes!!! It was just like I was at home!!
Hmm… what else can I tell you about my life recently… ohhh… it snowed!!!! It hardly ever snows in Busan!! I had a student tell me that it didn’t snow at all last year, but a few weeks ago it snowed for like two hours! I was so excited that I skipped to work and even stopped and asked someone to take my photo! Here it is: (Don’t I look so happy??!)

For those of you who know me well you know I have the terrible habit of losing very important things on a regular basis… two of those things topping the list are my phone, my wallet and my keys. Two weeks ago I went out for dinner with my good friend Sarah, and her swimming instructor, and as you can remember from my blogging above, the instructors don’t speak English. However, ignoring the obvious translation problems we had a lot of fun. We went out for my favourite Korean meal, Korean BBQ, and the swim instructor was very surprised at my chopstick skills, and wanted to show me more Korean things. We drank soju, and we drank a lot of it… we even made Korean soju cocktails. There is the one I drink all the time… someck (Meckju being beer with soju)… then, we also used a Korean style beer glass, filled a soju shot (big shot glass!) with coke, and another with soju, we both of these in the beer glass and then fill the remainder of the glass with beer. It sounds awful, but was surprisingly good.
Ok… now to tell you about my habit of losing things. I put my phone in my coat pocket, must have been the alcohol that got me to do that, instead of my purse. We leave the bar at a decent hour since it was a Thursday, and head home… I put my cold hands in my jacket pocket and guess what… my phone and my keys were missing! We retrace our steps, but no luck. The worst of it was my computer was out getting fixed, so I had no internet access either. I was completely cut off from the outside world.
I get to work the next day, and Sarah tells me my phone was ringing, I think I forgot to mention that my phone was dead when I lost it… we couldn’t even call it to find it. In Korea if your phone is dead, the person calling you will not hear a ring, rather a voice telling you the battery is dead. Within a few days a lot of my friends are receiving text messages in Korean. A few Korean friends of mine try to help me out, and Elena gets a hold of the man who found my phone and we set up a time to meet and he gives me my phone! This man found my phone, found the proper charger, charged my phone, called my friends until he found a Korean friend (he doesn’t speak any English) and gave it back to me with everything still intact, all the money on my subway card which is a cell phone charm ps! Haha Only in Korea!
Christmas is fast approaching… I am a little sad that I can’t go home… but I am keeping myself busy. It is interesting with no family, or any snow for that matter, but I am happy. I have received some packages in the mail and I am getting excited to open them!! Only 4 more days!! On Christmas Eve I will be out with my good friend Bryony, then boxing day we are going skiing with my Korean friends… I have a feeling it will be fake snow, but we are travelling an hour or so outside of Busan, so it might be real!! This will be my first time skiing… I am a little nervous!! Then, on Saturday the 27th I am going to my high school friends house Heather and we are making a delicious meal and watching as many Christmas movies as we can until we fall asleep!! I am really excited!
Now to save the best for last!
I told you before that we had a new teacher and I would tell you about him last. We are planning a trip to China together!!! I have some time off the end of Jan, so I am going on a four day trip to China DURING CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! I am going to see the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square… and many other things!! I hope this works out well!!! Here is a link to the package deal! http://www.kangsantravel.com/goods/sch.asp I have wanted to go to China since Big Bird went to China on that Sesame Street Special when I was a kid!! I will keep you updated on that trip!

Well, sorry this has taken so long… I will try to be better from here on out… but I cannot promise that! And to my friends in Cambridge, I hope you are having a VERY Merry BURNSY Christmas!!! Wish I was there!!

cockroaches

So I am stuck awake in my apt with a little cockroach nowhere to be found. I was sitting on my sofa watching a little CSI after a long day of work... I look to my left and right under my drying rack where my laundry is handing is a little cockroach. Of course I freak, but don't really make a sound... don't want to scare the bug, unless I scare it to death that is.... I just want it dead. I try to get close, but get the willies, so grab for my phone and as I talk to my co-worker Rick, the bug takes off and I am left to find it. Rick tells me they are harmless and he will come to my rescue if I find it, but only then. I moved all sorts of furniture around, and no sign. I am stuck awake worried about this blasted bug. I hope he doesn't descide that a slumber party would be a great idea... I swear... if I find one in my bed, or a family of them in my apt, I am moving back to Canada.

So on the rest of my life that I wanted to update on. I went to the International Pusan Film Festival a while back. Ever since I heard about it I wanted to go. It was a driving factor on getting to me to move to Pusan (Busan) in the first place. A co-worker and I pick out a bunch of films and settle on four which titles sound appealing and the couple sentences described on the website spark our interest.
The first one we saw... I really don't know how I sat through the film, and I wish I could have those two hours back. It was the worst movie I ever saw, and strangest as well.. and not even cool artsy strange. I heard nothing but rave reviews about this festival, and I wish I would have picked my films more carefully... so many of my friends had great eexperiences with the festival. Another film we wanted to see was sold out, then another we accidently went to the wrong theater across town and didn't realize in time... then the last one we went to ended up being a bunch of little films put togother. Some we interesting in their own strange way, most were pretty ummm. bad. The best thing about this festival was at the end of our last film, it happened to be the end of the viewings at that theater, so the staff did a side step dance for us. There were about 15-20 workers dancing in the movie theater to music being played from a lap top that was being held up... so you could barely hear the music... it made me laugh. The man spoke a lot of Korean and then eventually turned to the small group of English speakers that were there and said in his broken English, we will now do a dance for you haha. It was cute... they also bowed to us as we left! It made the whole experience worth it. Now for future reference I am going to look up the directors name, rather than pick my films based on their titles.

Oh... some friends from home will get a kick out of this... Kristin Izsak and Jenny Devine to name a few haha... I was walking to work and guess band was playing on the speakers as I walked by this little coffee shop which always has some interesting English tune playing.... HANSON! Are they back with a vengance and I just don't know it because I am across the world? My friend told me that Britany has a new CD and one of her singles is pretty catchy... I think I need to update myself a little... but I think Hanson might be a little far fetched for new releases?

I got my hair cut for the second time in Korea. It only cost me 12 ooo won I think... maybe even 13 or 14... I don't remember... but man... that is so cheap! I spend a lot of my hair in Newfoundand... but I love my hairdresser and it is worth every penny! The guy who cut my hair here knew little to no English.... we communicated through signals mostly. My favourite part was when he teased me about my grey hair and even plucked one out as he laughed at me. Godddd it is getting bad... so bad that I had my hair straight for the first time in months and nicely pinned back... one of my kids said "Sherry Teacher... you Grandma?!" wonderful.

October has been another crazy month. We had a teacher leave early and we had to take over her classes. I teach so much... I am looking forward to November. Especially where I am finding it hard to catch up on sleep this month. I was pretty sick for a while and sleep is just never sound. I had a flu, and my fever stayed for two nights, so I went to the doctor. I really don't like going to the doctor, and here it is hard because I have to go with my boss, so she can translate for me.... well I decided that for this particular illness I wanted to go alone, since I didn't want my boss to be listening to all my bathroom problems. I went to the Doctor who I saw last time I was sick, and I remembered his English was good. Well.. he ended up calling my boss, have the number on file and I didn't even realize... so she knew everything anyways. Then, after that humiliating experience, the Doctor takes me to the nurse, who then takes me to this little room. She pulls a drape a little, but doens't bother to close the door... so anyone who came into the front desk of the clinic could see me. I had to pull my pants down a little and I was given a needle in the bum to take away some of the pain I had from my flu. I hate needles... and I had to get one in my bum. Not fun. haha

That is all I can think of that I wanted to say, other than I have this new class now, and they have to give me English diaries every Wednesday... some said they loved their new teacher, but one called me a witch. I guess that is what happens when I make them do their work.. and even when they are done their workwork book surprise them by getting them to open their student text books and underline all the nouns on the days reading hahah. I can be a hard one sometimes!!

Well... happy October... I can't wait till the end... we have our Halloween party, and a new month with less classes to look forward to!! :)

a new month, a new post

So this past weekend was wonderful!
My Friday was a great start. I went to this cute tiny little bar with my couchsurfing friends and saw an equally cute band play! (and when I say small bar, I mean small.. like for those of you who have ever been or seen my house in Cambridge, imagine my living room and dining room... it was smaller than that!) They were WONDERFUL though, and even the size of the bar didn't seem to cause any hostility with everyone shoulder to shoulder... everyone just danced! They had drums, a guitar, a saxophone.... I don't remember the rest... probably a bass. The mood at this bar was so good... everyone was dancing, and the music was upbeat... at one point they even sang the song "No Woman, No Cry..." These are the days that I wish I had a working camera and I could post a video... I promise soon! They even sang the song "What a Wonderful World!" The band was a Korean band too.. it was nice to hear them sing a few songs in English!
I made friends with this group of guys standing and dancing behind me, they were Korean and didn't know a lot of English, but had a bongo drum and liked to dance haha! It was fun! It was really interesting to see one of the guys with the drum have a large tattoo on his neck... that is a very visible area, and here in Korea it is really frowned against to get tattoo's, but mostly frowned upon by the older generations... young people are starting to get them and you see them more and more...
I didn't drink that night, but ended up making it a late night anyways... not always a good thing when you have to wake up super early to plan for sports day! I went to bed around 2am, and I had to be at sports day bright and cheer eyed for 9am. You better believe I was bright eyed regardless of my sleep! Sports day has been, hands down, my MOST favourite experience with my school. Hands down.
I will give you a little low down. We got there early to set up and we see a sound system set up with a MC... and it is at this elementary school with a cute little track.
All the teachers lined up along with four other YBM schools at different tables, and we were expected to run up and cheer loudly and greet our students. We all wore matching long sleeve blue golf shirts, because we were the blue team, then we had to give our students wrist sweat bands. Then, give them name tags for them and their family members. This was a whole family event... Mothers, Fathers, siblings, Grandparents!
Once everyone had arrived, we lined the students up breaking them up into their own schools, then their own classes. We had a cheering competition between all the schools... I accidentally cheered for the wrong team... yes... in front of all the teachers... oops. But in the end, my school totally won! Once we did that, we did a grand entrance and watched as a family ran around the track together holding a torch while corny very Olympic style music played! It was pretty entertaining! Once that happened all the teachers went to the front and all the parents stood behind the lines of kids, and we did our wiggy waggy dance. This was seriously humiliating! haha The dance was too funny... of course I danced it really silly to make my kids laugh... mostly because it was too hard to memorize for me! Then once the warm up dance happened we started our games.
I can't really remember the order of the games, but I will most some as I remember them.
We had your regular tug of war, and relay races, which we all won! :) My school was great! However, we also got the parents involved. Mostly the fathers. Here in Korea, and especially at my school since all my kindergarten kids are rich, they never see their family... so sports days happen at all their schools, even public ones, and the Fathers are always heavily involved.
They had one event where all the fathers sat in a circle with their backs facing inside the circle, and the mothers had to run to the opposing team and try to break up their arm grips to each other... it was too funny to see all these women pulling on these men even dragged them out by their feet!
We also had an event where we had to blow up enough balloons to fill a huge plastic bags... like 12 feet tall bag... so once the bag was able to stand upright because there were so many balloons inside, we had to pull them all out and the kids got to stand on them and break them... man they loved that! Imagine getting to pop all those balloons?
Another event had a HUGE blown up ball, I would say like 7 feet tall. Kids and their families had to push this ball around a pylon and back... it was funny to see these little kinder kids trying to help push this massive ball... my most hyperactive kid ended up pushing her ball almost all the way to other team rather then coming back... it was cute.
All the foreign teachers had to line up and do limbo... you would think I would have been good at this... not so much. I was among the worst. I thought yes... my height will help with something... nope.
Another event the fathers held up a cloth banner and all the kids were able to run across it.
The Grandparents had an event of their own, they played corny music, but that had also been happening all day with the MC, they had to run to a pylon and then do a silly dance and run back. It was so funny.
The funniest event was when the fathers lined up, and had to put on a skirt, take off their pants, do a flip on the ground, run around a pylon, back to the line, take off the skirt and put back on their pants and pass the skirt to the next father... it was really funny to see these grown men in skirts running around in their underwear! haha
We ended the day (which made me a little sad... man I am such a hippy sometimes) by handing out 2 helium balloons to each child.. they had to make a wish and send it off into the sky. The whole time I thought... what about the poor birds?! Not to mention the environment! Think... we have 7 classes of 10 students.. and there was another large size school there, and three small ones.

Well.. there is more I want to write... so I will continue this at a later date.. I must get to work!! I have to teach a class in 5 minutes!

Field Trip and Maskdance Festival.

So, just back from an amazing weekend in Andong. I HAD to blog right away so I wouldn't forget anything, or not get around to doing it.

Lets start off with my Tuesday night... this is where my story begins. I finish work on Tuesdays at 4:30, so I went home and did some house work, relaxed, then went to my friend Heather's house. Heather and I went to high school together, and she is one of the most amazing women I have ever met, and I always feel so energized after I hang out with her. Well... I get to her place around 8pm and we make supper (soooo yummy by the way, Kimchi, Tofu, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Pizza and Mandu... a FEAST!) Then we decide to fix my couchsurfing page that I never got around to updating... everyone knows how computer savy I am (NOT!) and the site confused me. Well, she is a pro and got it going! :) Then we put on a movie, the same escapes me now... but I loved it. It was about a cop in South Africa who robs banks during the apartheid. It was great!

Well, after being at her house I felt really good about life, being in Korea, and had good conversations too... Heather is really good for that! The rest of my work week flew because on Thursday we had a field trip... and it was a short day.. then Friday.. well Friday is Friday!

Now, let me tell you about my field trip and how amazing it is! We went to this farm and dug for sweet potatoes and picked peanuts that were already dug for us. The kids had so much fun. Each of them wanted to dig the biggest potato, but didn't know how to use a shovel.. haha I did most of the digging, and when we found bugs and worms in the ground they all squealed as I head it up and taunted them with them... I know.. I am so mature... haha but they secretly loved it.. haha I am sure. I had also never seen how peanuts grew before, so that was really interesting to see.
The kids laughed at me when I tried to say Korean things, and they tried to get me to say things and laughed when I said them very wrong. At lunch, just like any Field trip they all wanted me to try their lunches and what their parents made for them. They love when I try Korean food with them. I have actually started to eat lunch with them everyday... I like it because I can see the children really trying to use their English, I get to eat free Korean yummy food everyday, and the kids make me laugh. On the way home from the trip all the kids wanted to sit next to me and play games... so we played the ABC game.... but I changed it because they are getting too good at it... all the ABC game is, is each student says one letter until we get to end, if one says it wrong, we start all over again and the student who said it wrong is out until the next round. Well... this time they had to say the letter, but also a word that started with that letter. They are getting REALLY good at it.. and I think it is helping with their phonics.

Speaking of Phonics my class has always been pretty below the other classes with their English, but slowly they have been getting much better. They were recently tested along with the other classes, and did much better than everyone else suspected! :) I was proud!

Anywho... remembering back to Tuesday where I updated my couchsurfing account with Heather, I received an e-mail from the guy who organizes the Busan group here welcoming me to the group, we pass a few e-mails back and forth and he ends up telling me about this event on the weekend. (I get this e-mail on Friday night at work... the event is the next morning...) The event is for the Maskdance festival in Andong... Andgong is about 2 hours away from where I live, and also in the e-mail he tells me that we will be staying in a Traditional Korean Village. Of course I jump in on that adventure and get my friend Allison on board as well!

So, Friday is a goodbye party for my friends April and Michael. There is no way I missing that because my introduction to Korea has largely rested with them, and I wouldn't have felt so welcome without them. I met a lot of really fun people, and done and seen some great things because of them. This is how I started going to the Socrates meetings. They got me to join. Well... I went 20 min on the subway to their party to only stay for about an hour... but I am so happy I went. They will be missed.
The next day I wake up at 6am after getting home at 12:30am because I have to be across town for 7:30 to catch the 8am train... I have to meet people from couchsurfing who I have never met, but extremely excited. Allison I met up eagerly, go to the bank and then end up missing out transfer stop on the subway and it results in us being late for the bus, and missing it. Thank god for cell phone reception in Korea, because otherwise I wouldn't have found Pablo (my host!) We get to the festival late, can't find Pablo, because I am terrible with directions, but decide we want to look at a lot of these things on our own... (p.s: the bus ticket was only 15 dollars!) We have so much fun... we see masks from all over the world, eat an amazing lunch (chicken still on the bones, glass noodles, some veggies, and this spicy sauce all cooked in the same bowl... Apparently a very Andong dish), we paint a mask, watch kids on the stage practice their takewondoe (so cute!) and watch some cultural dances... around 5:45 we think it is probably a good time to call Pablo again so we can find out about where we are sleeping... I know I leave everything to last minute!
Once we call him he tells us we have to run to catch the 6pm bus since it is the last one to the village. We met a guy named Eric during one of the dances, he was couchsurfing himself in Korea aside from that group we came with and helps us find the bus... we didn't want to miss that since we had no idea where the village was we were sleeping at! haha We get on the bus, and realize... wow... we have no idea what these people look like who we are meeting. I get a phone call from Pablo asking where we are, and he happens to be sitting right across from me on the bus! haha Great turn of events!
The bus ends up taking 40 minutes to get to this village, but it was neat to look out at the window and really see Korea outside the city. I saw houses that looked more like shacks and rice fields EVERYWHERE!
We get to the Village and head straight to the house we have rented (we rented a house and two rooms from another since we came with about 22 people!) People actually live in this village, and they rent out their homes for people to come stay in... this home in particular cooked us supper! We had the same thing for dinner as we did for lunch... but that was perfect because it was soooo good! After dinner I really had to use the washroom, and it turned out to be a Korean style looking toilet (on the floor), but this one was an outhouse... (now.. some may not want to read this... so skip to the next paragraph... )but I would much rather use the outhouses at campgrounds I have used when camping growing up, or even the ones when camping with girl guides... this one was smelly... and mastering a Koren style toilet... haha difficult when you are a girl! Especially clumsy! Well, to make this experience worse... it was that time... yes ladies, that time. Imagine, an outhouse. A standing style outhouse. A smelly standing style outhouse. A dirty smelly standing style outhouse. A dirty smelly standing style outhouse with no toilet paper... A tampon. Enough said.

Once that experience was over we get ready to go to the river for fireworks, but before I go I bump into the couchsurfer I met in Toronto who introduced me to Korean food in Little Korea in Toronto! What a small world! So anyways... I went to the river, the river at night here was BEAUTIFUL! We could see stars!!!!!!!! I haven't seen stars in a long time. There were mountains everywhere, and you just felt like you were really in nature... the smells were beautiful... I really missed the smell of real fresh air. The mountain had some lights on it so you could see it, but it also had wires from one end of the mountain to the beach. From the wires they had attached slow burning fireworks... I don't really know how to explain slow burning fireworks other than they look like a very long burning sparkler... well these were pointed down towards the sand, and it seriously looked like it was raining fireworks. It was beautiful. There were hundreds of them tied to 5 or 6 wires. I had some friends take photos, but they really don't show you how it really looks.

After this experience of sitting on the beach and just watching this we head back to the rented house. It is only just before 9, but I am super tired. We thank everyone for a wonderful dinner and Pablo show us to where we are sleeping... we were sleeping in this little tiny room that you had to slide the doors open and duck in. I am 5 feet tall and I had to duck! Anyways.. we were provided with one blanket and one pillow each! :) And thankfully our floor was heated (that is house homes are heated in Korea). It was cold in the mountains and I wore a hoody for the first time since getting to Korea! I slept in this room and could even hear the crickets... It felt so nice to be in nature. However, since we were travelling with 22 couch surfers we had three others join our sleeping space throughout the night. It felt like I should have been watching television, but I was living haha.. One guy came in throughout the night to find his wife, she had come in an hour or so before him and he was pretty drunk... and was mad at her, and kept talking as if no one was in the room.. ahah she was so embarrassed, but it was harmless... mostly hearing, "Vicky, why aren't you talking to me... where were you, I looked everywhere, it was cold, Vicky talk to me... Why are you being so mean" for almost 30min haha. Then.... the snoring started. I never thought that a human being could make those noises before! haha Thank goodness I am a very sound sleeper and could fall back asleep after a while, but man.. if anyone knows how I sleep.. not much can wake me.. snoring may be one thing, but it has to be loud... this was unreal! She apologized for him in the morning because he was still sleeping, but I told her not to worry.. :) It all comes with this type of travel, and I have loads of patience!

In the morning we woke up early, used the outhouse, this one had toilet paper... thank goodness.. then adventured around the village... it was so beautiful in daylight, they even had a little information room in which we were told all about Queen Elizabeth's visit! Interesting eh?

We went back to the festival, made some more crafts, RAN to the bus, almost missed it again, and now I am home ready to start another work week! :)

Miss you all, and will post pictures from this amazing weekend as soon as I can. I have no Internet right now... my stealing wireless signal days are over and I am going to have to pay like the rest of the world...I am hoping to have the Internet by Tuesday... that might be wishful thinking!

My Sunday night

Hello readers!
It is a little late here, but I must tell you a little about my weekend before I go to sleep!!

first a little story before I get to my day today:
One of my close friends from home Kylie, her university roommate moved to Korea, so I met up with her to give her a nice welcome! It was nice to meet someone that knew someone I knew from home! I have Heather here, but the more the merrier! We had a great time swapping Kylie stories!! Oh Ky, I miss you!!

Now for today:
I was feeling a little lazy today, but forced myself to do my grocery shopping, then once I was home I was not in the mood at all to cook, so went with my friend Steph to find a cheap place to eat. We decided on this little Japanese place and we would get a cheap 4000won meal. Well... we had to pass by the jet ski repair place on our way there. We said hi to the owner who is really friendly and always talks to me whenever I see him, and has become friends with my friend Steph. He asks where we are going, so we tell him to get a quick bite to eat. He says he is hungry too, so we invite him along. He told us that he was closing his shop in 10 minutes, so to just wait. We wait and end up going with him and his friend. They point to their car and ask us to get in... we laugh since the place is down the road, but get in anyways.
Once in the car, they ask us if we like Swellfish. We think they are saying Shellfish and Steph tries to explain her allergy, but they say no, not shell but swell. We decide to go and check out the menu at least. We drive to Haeundae... which is not far, but the car we are driving in a nice BMW with leather seats and a tv in the front haha. I felt high class! At the restaurant we find out what swellfish is... haha it is actually BLOWFISH! Me, not being much of a fish person feel a little nervous, but agree to try it anyways since I am in Korea, and may never get the chance to do it again. We have three courses along with all of the side dishes... the side dishes are pickles, pickled radish in red pepper paste sauce, some sort of fish thing, sesame seed leaves mixed with red pepper paste sauce and a few others that I can't remember. The first course is a delicious salad with of course shrimp, so we pick that out for Steph, but it also has nice greens (how I love and missed!), peppers, tomatoes and blowfish... oh gosh was it ever good! Then we had fried blowfish dipped in a sweet red pepper paste sauce, then swellfish soup. The soup was pretty good.. however as we were eating it, Steph looks more carefully inside and sees a fish head, and even an eye ball. I have a pretty weak tummy and have to turn away... the men we are with laugh, and he takes it out for her and puts it away. I look inside of mine... and yep... I also have a fish head. Mine was mostly bone, and no eyes... lets hope it wasn't floating in my soup anywhere... oh gosh. Well, mine gets taken out too!! Thank goodness! I continue to eat my dinner since it was good, and try to forget about the head.
Once we are finished, we get back into the beautiful silver BMW and start to drive. The shop owner Mr. Gong asks if we want coffee... it is already pretty late, so I say no since I want to be able to sleep tonight... and I am not a huge coffee person either... he wants some still and asks if that is ok, and we agree. He runs into the coffee shop and gets his drink for himself and his friend, but also comes out with a peice of cake for Steph, since he missed her birthday, and two little stuffed animals for us. haha how cute!
While he is in the store, we try to talk to his friend who knows next to no English and and ask him if we can drive across the bridge where our beach is... he says yes of course and even opens the sun roof! We end up not driving to the bridge, but to the Marnia instead. Mr. Gong asks us if we want to see his boat. So we go and see it. He points to this pathetic looking thing and says, here it is... then laughs and points to a beauty and says that is actually it. We get inside of this 200 thousand dollar boat and they begin to get it ready for driving the sea. We are driving around and see the really rich area of Busan at night. Like the Trump towers, and the hotel and spa for the the VIP gift card his friend gave us to try to sauna! Mr. Gong's friend's friend owns it and so we got a card!! :) Anywho... Mr. Gong stops the boat to show us the jumping fish, it looks so nice at night, and we turn around and head back to the Marnia. As we are heading back a song by Elliot Smith comes on the radio... and it just makes the whole experience so great... and then it gets better.

Mr. Gong asks us if we have driving licences. I said I have one to drive a car at home, but haven't driven in years. He says thats ok, and gets up and lets us drive the boat!!! Steph goes first and he teaches us all about driving boats. After she is done we are closer to the Marnia and he tells me it is my turn. Guess what. I drove this 200 thousand dollar beauty of a boat into the Marnia. Of course I didn't dock it, or drive it close to the other boats... but I drove it through the rocky entrace way from the sea to the Marnia. Yes... Sherry Wyse drove a boat! haha woo! The whole time I just thought.. man I wish I had a camera to show my Uncle Jim!

It has been a while!

So I have been pretty terrible with updating my blog lately. I am very sorry! Especially after receiving lots of e-mails from friends and family asking for more! So, here is an update!!

I am going to start with the beginning of September… I have a new class. My summer intensives loved my class so much so they all signed up for regular monthly classes! They are a great class, so I am really happy. We also had two extra students join my class. I am pretty sure that these two new students were new to English school because they didn’t have an English name. When you take English lessons here, you are given a name. The teachers are usually left responsible for naming these students. I think that is a pretty important role, as most of these children will keep these names for the rest of their English speaking lives. A name is very important for someone and can really give someone personality. I had a girl student and a boy student. Since it was the beginning of September and I had just missed my friend Jennifer Devine’s wedding and I was a little homesick I named her Jenny. Jenny, you will be pleased to know she is a wonderful student and very smart and doing very well in my class! So, you have a little Korean girl named after you!! As for the boy I tried to name him Edmund after my Daddy, but he couldn’t really say it or spell it all that well and he didn’t like Eddie! Hahah So, thinking about all the men and boys in my family I picked a nice short name in which he could easily spell and remember and pronounce. So I have a student named after my cousin Ben! Ben, you will also be pleased to know he is at the top of the class as well, and loves his name. The Korean c-teacher named him Tim because the first day he was so shy and never told her I had given him a name. In the next class all the other students were calling him Tim, but he told me he liked Ben better!

I went to a baseball game here last week. It was great fun, probably the most excitement you can find in Korea. Seriously. These games are always packed! Once you get to the stadium, all the seats are first come first serve, so it can be madness. Our friend left earlier and saved seats as I ran home after work to change out of my dress clothes. After you are seated everyone makes pompoms out of newspaper, you fold the newspaper in half, and tear it in strips until you reach close the end, you leave some room for a handle and then you roll it. I am not joking when I tell you that everyone makes these. Also, I heard the most cheering I have ever heard in my life at this game, and I lived in rez! My favourite cheer is when you hear the stadium yell “Ma! Ma! Ma!” yep… they are chanting asshole. You can bring your own food and alcoholic beverages into the game, even glass bottles of soju, so everyone gets pretty boozy, which makes it funny when you see the old men dancing, like the man beside us, or when people get up on stage at half time or even as you are waiting for the game to start to sing karaoke! During the last inning everyone in the stand is handed an orange shopping bag. You are meant to blow up this bag and then tie it on your head. It is really funny to see a sea of orange heads! I think the main reason for this practice is because you are allowed to bring in your own food and drinks you can put your waste in these bags and leave it at the door as you are leaving. We didn’t bring our own things to the game, but bought a few beer. It really didn’t make much of a difference because it was still really cheap. One beer only cost me 2000won ($2). I couldn’t read the sign very well since it was all written in Korean, so I befriended the group beside me. During half time they went to get food, and even came back with enough for my group of friends as well. Koreans are so nice. They bought us fish that was molded into tubes that looked like thick noodles that was soaked into this spicy red sauce. It was actually pretty good. Another hit at the game is dried squid, or fried chicken. I have had dried spicy squid before, and it is actually pretty good!

This past weekend was a Korean holiday, which was really nice. I got Monday and Tuesday off of work, so this week I only had to work three days! The holiday was Chuseok, which is like a Korean Thanksgiving. From the amount of gifts I received from my kids you would have guessed it was Christmas! I got lotions, soaps, body wash, perfume, a picture frame. It was lovely! The perfume is very nice, it is a really nice brand I am told called Anna Sui. I like it because it smells nice and the top of the bottle is shaped like a peacock.
From what I have been told and what I have read Chuseok is a major holiday here and it is a time where all families gather together and give thanks to their ancestors for the bountiful harvest for that year. In the morning before they eat they make Songpyoen. This is a rice dessert filled with sesame seeds, red beans, chestnuts, pine needles… they are actually very tasty! We had a cooking class with our kindergarten classes where we made homemade songpyeon. It was so messy, and the kids had so much fun. We teachers in my group even made a bunch, and I was told I made them very well! Which is nice to hear because an old Korean saying says that the person who makes the most beautiful songpyeon will meet a good-looking spouse! Haha
The day before the holiday all my kindergarten classes were playing traditional Korean games to celebrate Chuseok at ECC. We played a jacks game, a game where you had to throw a stick into a long tube, a game that reminded me of hackie sack, and many others… we even got to eat songpyeon! All the kids also came to school wearing traditional Korean gowns… they looked soooo cute! I even got to wear one for a photo with each one of my students! My Camera is broken, so I don’t have any photos, but a friend of mine will send me hers soon! I will post them soon! However, Allie the drama queen and supermodel of the class who goes with her mother to the nail salon all the time to get her nails done told me I looked beautiful! Haha
For my long weekend I went to Seoul. It was really interesting there! Such a HUGE city. 10 million people live in Seoul, and they have 10 lines on the subway! It was madness at times! I took the cheapest bus to Seoul, which most people told me was crazy since it was the long weekend and a regular 5 hour trip would take 10! I decided to take my chances since the ticket was only 19000won, and the train was 50000won. I am glad that I chose the bus. It was actually very comfortable for me (I have short legs!) and it only took me 4-4.5 hours! The train takes 3.5! So I think I saved money there!!!

Once my friend and I got to Seoul we adventured onto the subway to the middle of Seoul, since I was on the East side. It took 30-40 min and I had to transfer subway lines like three times. But I did it!!! We got off the subway in Itaewon. This place is known as the “America of Seoul”. There are a lot of chains there that you would see in America, and the most foreign population I have seen in Korea yet. Walking down the street, I am not kidding you, I heard 5 different languages and about 20 different English accents! We ate Sushi for supper, then went to the corner store and bought a bottle of wine. This wine was only 5000won! We got ready for the night in our hotel, which had no bed! Oh… I had Korean style sleeping on the floor that night. Once we were ready and had a few glasses of wine we went to this cute jazz bar and listened to live jazz music. It was lovely! The music was great, and she even sang some English songs! When she finished her set, it was almost 2 in the morning, so we walked down to the heart of Itaewon and found the hill that many frequent called “Hooker Hill.” Now don’t get any ideas! We went to this bar called “Trance”… they had a Korean Drag show! What fun that was!! These drag queens were beautiful, and did a great job with their performances!! However, there was one woman who was a total train wreck, but hey, you can’t go to a drag show without at least one total train wreck right?!
The next night during my trip we stayed in Insadong (the spelling is probably wrong)… this is a very artsy place and you can buy lots of handmade goods, and that I did!! At one point during my shopping I saw a tiny little parade drive down the street. They were in these little orange motor bike type things with instruments attached all over. The first one had a keyboard, and the rest were various types of drums… I wish I had my camera! My camera is of course broken! The rest of my trip was pretty low key. I did a walk of the the old and new downtown areas of Seoul and saw a street that was made to look like a piano and a walk along the river… we also saw a Palace… I can’t wait to go back there! A friend I went to university lives there… well two friends! And I plan on going on another visit to spend time with them! Hopefully I will have a camera by then!
Well, I am sure there is tons more I could say…. But I am super tired and have a long day tomorrow! Someone I know came to work here in Korea, and after a week couldn’t handle it and left the country… her school was in dire need of help, so my co-worker Brad is covering all her morning shifts, which means I am covering one of his classes for the month!!! Ughhh… tragic turn of events!
Well goodnight all, and I promise to blog more often!

Market play and such

Hello hello

GUESSSSSS what! I am finished intensives! Today was my last day teaching intensives, and I went out with a bang! We had "Market Play" today. During my intensive month, my classes which were my extra classes I had to give my students these pretend dollar bills when they were good as rewards. Kind of like in the kindergarten class when someone does something that makes me happy I put a heart beside their name on the board. Anyway, we did this all month just for today. Each kid was sent a letter home with a list of things to bring to school... stationary items, fruit, veggies candy, drinks... anways. We made our own market! ANDDD I got to shop! haha Today at work I got paid to help my kids practice their shopping skills in English and I got some sweet treats from it too!! I got a few potatoes, carrots, a peach, a small green Korean pumpkin and some candies... it was awesome. My favourite moment today was when one of my little kids Jimmy (who is a girl, I don't know who named her Jimmy) got me to help her buy some treats. She is VERY shy, but she really wanted a cucumber. Bless her haha.. she is only 10. And that I think is Korean 10.

Another one of my intensive kids Sally had the same sort of thing it seems from her Piano Hogwan. She got some cool things here... pencils, pens, erasers, and she got these plastic rings. She gave me one as a best friend ring. It fit on my pinky ring finger haha. Thomas was really cute today too... of everything at the market today... he was most excited over his bananas!

While I am on the topic of school I will mention that because of intensives, some of my students took the morning class and transferred out of my afternoon class. One of my classes is now down to three students. They are all 8 year old boys. My last class with them I knew it was a class of boys because Bruce looked at me, said excuse me from the table we were sitting at and walked outside... I was shocked he did that in my class, he stood there for a minute then came back in. It was obvious what he did. He went outside to fart. At least he left the room to do so. haha oh kids.

Last weekend I went to Seomyeon with my friend Heather from high school and my friend Sakina after our Korean lesson. Sakina found this group which offers volunteer Korean lessons. These lessons only cost 3 dollar a month! And that is to cover the snacks! Right now I am learning the alphabet! I have some homework to do before I go to sleep from last week actually haha :) I love that I am a student again! This will be great.. I will be able to get around so much more easily and when/ if my family come to visit I will be able to ensure in Korean that there is no shell fish!
Anyways, in Seomyeon we went to a Vietnamese restaurant and then some window shopping, a few book stores, then to a cafe for gelato and Dr. Fish. What is Dr. Fish you ask?
Look at this youtube video Sakina found:
http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=H6IpcWRlp78
Now that you have seen that you can only imagine how I felt when I took part in that. My feet are extremely ticklish. I can't promise that if you touch my feet I won't kick you in the face... I am that ticklish. Pedicures and iffy. I went and had a bunch of tiny fish eat the dead skin off my feet. It was the weirdest feeling ever. For the most part I only barely had my heels in. I laughed too hard and made a scene.
The cafe which had these fish had a little library, served gelato, and with my gelato I got butter... why butter? They also served free bread for toast, jam and tea/coffee... it was a nice spot!

The following day I went to my beach just minutes away from my house and just read and loved life. The weather was nice, it wasn't as hot as it had been and had a nice breeze to it. My friend Steph met up with Sakina and I later in the afternoon and then we met up with some of the guys we know that work at the jet ski repair shop right by my house. Steph is friends with the owner. He drove over one of his jet skis and his employee took us out on it. It was my first time on a jet ski... and let me tell you... it is my last hahaha. Just imagine me... already nervous because I am not huge on deep sea water getting on a jet ski for the first time and I am nervous with machines that go really fast. The man who took me on the jet ski spoke very little English. Steph gave me a quick prep lesson on what to do to not fall off and we sped off. I held on to his life jacket and felt myself bobbing up and down a little too much. Not knowing what to say, I said... toooooo fast... I think he thought I said faster. My nerves were shot. So I yelled stop! haha He slowed down and I said... home please haha. He asked if I wanted to go again... haha no.

The man who owned the rapair shop and the jet ski also had one of those banana boat things that you would toe from the jet ski or a boat. Well I handed back my life jacket and said thank you for the ride... then he fastened it back on me while I said no that's ok.. and insisted that I try the boat... and he would go slow for me. Steph convinced me to oink (only in Korea)... so I decided to try it again after not liking the one I had been on in Mexico a few years back. She said it would be a great story. So I told him I would if he went slow... yes. I am a baby. He tricked me.. he went slow the first time, but the second time he sped up, then when we were docking he ensured he tipped the boat. You would think I would be mad, but it was great. I am glad that I was forced out of my element.

I started to feel a little homesick the other night so I forced myself to go for a walk. It was lovely to walk along the beach and think of home and feel happy where I was. It really is beautiful here and it helps to keep me focused. I just sat in the breeze for 30 to 40 min just day dreaming. It was wonderful. It was dark out and the bridge has colourful lights on it at night, it is a pretty sight. As I got up to walk home I bumped into my good friend Cheryl. I hadn't seen her in a few weeks since she was gone to Africa to visit a friend. She brought me back a key chain and a post card! :) I love getting post cards!

A friend from Canada moved to Busan yesterday. Her boss told her to tell me that she was at the Haeundae station at exit 4. So I went there. She has no phone yet or Internet access outside of school. I went to where I was told and waited for hour in a half. I didn't want to leave worried that she was lost in Korea... so I waited. While I waited I met this guy named Ian. We became instant friends and found out that he only lives 45 min away from me in Canada. Wild the people you meet across the world! :)
Well I finally get a call from my friend once Ian leaves for his bus and I am left to wait alone. She only has a minute before the phone cuts out since she is on a pay phone with a small coin, so I ask her what she sees. All she can make out before she is cut off was a building that said 2001. I walk up to a bunch of Korean women and ask if anyone speaks English, one of them did!! I told her I needed to find a building in this huge city which could be anywhere that said 2001! hha she knew what I was talking about and even left her group of friends to help me! Koreans are so nice like that! My friends boss had told her the wrong subway stop for some reason and I was two away. I managed to find her and we went and had a great first Korean meal! I even got to laugh at someone who was just learning chopsticks hahaha.. I have gotten a little better, so it was funny to see someone try it for the first time ever... especially where you hardly see forks here.

Also... side note as I end this entry... as I write this I am hearing Celine Dion blaring... hahah My Heart will Go On... I never hear English music really played around my apt, but today Celine is blaring!