Weekly news report hot off the press!

Korean street meat consisting of hot dog on a stick coated

with french fries- probably all very low fat and healthy!!

Sue, Jenny, Ashley and Sarah


Ash and I sitting at the sweet little bar that's crazy cool!!

My Little Poplar class

Another week done. This week flewwwww by! Before I knew it, it was Friday- amazing!! School is starting to pick up and it's busy mixed with hectic. Report card time- a monthly thing here. Nothing too intense...I'm hoping the busyness will help time fly by here- yes I'm still sad for home. I just really miss everyone!!! I mean I love it here- work, the people, the places and things I'm doing but it's just not the same without my friends and family.

I had a few great surprises this week!! My week started off with the discovery of 89X online!! Monday morning I tuned in and got ready for work to some sweet music THEN the best surprise- Skyping unexpectedly with some family!!! My mom was calling me and I had just talked to her before I went to bed so I was wondering what was up...low and behold she was at my Aunt Lynda's and so were a few other people I love and miss! Awww...I loved it! So great to see everyone and such a surprise!!! It was so great! I will need that this year to keep me sane!! I also got to see little RJ at his Aunt Diana's this week- what a babe!!

Tuesday I got to school, nothing new. On my one break there was a giant box sitting on my desk- MAIL!!! My first package- ya ya, I know, I've only been here 3 weeks and I'm already getting packages from home. It was a box from my parents. Inside there was Kraft dinner, TOMATO SOUPPPPP, ketchup, birthday card, a towel, makeup and of course- the mouse of sorts. Thanks Mom and Dad!!! I love you sooo much and the Kraft dinner came in handy @ 430am Sunday when I got home...

Well this week was St. Patty's...boooo to that. I can say that mine was just like every other day. Not one thing special happened. I didn't consume green beer, dress in green, sticker myself up, wear crazy clothes with witty sayings- nothing. For those of you who partook in this wonderful day- I hope you thought of me! I'm sad I missed out on the festivities back home...

Friday there was a field trip at school! It was pretty sweet! We went to a play area in Ilsan and the kids went WILD. There were ball pits, mechanical rides, slides, tubes, a train, plus lots more! How no one got hurt I don't know. Kids were flying all over the place! They loved it...fun times!! When we got back to school it was lunch then the kids watched a movie in the afternoon. The parents sent treats in for the kids AND for Lina (my Korean teacher) and I. One thing about Korea- the parents are always sending in little gifts for the teachers. It seems like daily one of the teachers receives something from cakes, candies, juice, etc. For the most part it's food but I've heard stories of teachers getting other gifts as well!! So kind. (Bribery? Perhaps- but I'll take it!!!) ^^-

I finally got my ARC (Alien Registration Card). I will now get PAID!!! YAY!! For those of you who don't know, I only get paid once a month! Yikes! This is very unfortunate...I need to get paid SOON though because I'm down to my last little bit of money....oops!! I will also now be able to get a cell phone- not for calling home but for around here. I'm looking into paying a fee for Skype and apparently I've heard that I'm able to get a Canadian number so it will be a local number (519) for people to call me on their home phones or cells!!! Nice! As soon as I get this number up and running I will spread the word!! It will be nice to hear the voices of those I miss...

This weekend was fun!! Friday night after school I went for Shabu Shabu with Sean, Marie and Nick- fellow teachers. Shabu Shabu is the hot soup you cook at your table in a big pot and you put in these super super thin slices of meat to cook. It's delicious! You then toss in noodles, cook those, eat those AND then they come and throw in rice and cook that for you! It's very spicy and goooooood!! After that I went home and headed over to Merideth's place with Ashley (more teachers!) We headed out to Hongdae (spelling??)....this place I love. It all came back to me- I had been there the weekend before. I wasn't sure the name of the place that I went to last weekend, well it was Hongdae!! This place is packed with young people, streets are lined with stores and bars and restaurants. It's a neat little place! We ended up going to the bar I had been to the weekend before (the Alice and Wonderland like bar). I found it again!! We chilled there for a bit then headed to this other place Ta. One of Ashley's friends was doing this freestyle-ish show. Pretty cool! It ended up being a late night...which was unfortunate because we all had to be up EARLY for an all day workshop for school- ewww. It actually wasn't horrible- they had a great spread for lunch (the highlight)...I also experienced a few new things I had never before. Now this may sound odd to most people that I'm going to talk about this but I was very amazed! Toilets. Yes, toilets. OMG this huge convention centre where we had the workshop (which included all the other Poly schools in Korea- and there are LOTS) had the most high tech toilets I've ever seen. Clearly everything was in Korean but when I sat down IT WAS HEATED!! Haha...ahhhh! There was this like remote handle on the side and it had probably 15 buttons on it. I was scared to push any of them- I didn't really want to know what other features it had....yikes. There was also this thing mounted on the wall of the stall...I had no idea what it was but it looked like a speaker kind of with a button on it. Well later in the day my curiosity got the best of me and when I had gone to the bathroom no one was in there so I decided to push it....well it made this loud flushing like sound. I laughed out loud to myself....it was called the "Royal Etiquette". Apparently it's a sound that's supposed to drown out the sound of....you know "stuff". There is a volume button on it and everything!! Only Korea. I'm still laughing about it.

Well after getting home from the workshop I attempted a snooze because all of us were supposed to go out for mine and Ashley's birthday (which we were both born March 24th, 1984- odd). We ended up heading over to Ilsan- it was a blast!! So nice to have everyone from work together!! This bar was dirt cheap. Brian bought Ashley and I a bottle of tequila so we started dishing out shots- lovely. The Korean teachers surprised Ashley and I with a gift- earrings! It was so kind and thoughtful!! Definitely so so nice!!!!! After a couple hours and a couple more bottles of tequila we headed out to a dance spot. Just a fun fun night!! When I got home, as I previously said, that Kraft dinner came in handy!! I could have gotten delicious street meat- which in Korea consists of Hot Dogs on a stick coated in this deep fried french fries coating, or else you can also get these big rice noodles which kind of resemble gnocchi in size and taste which are coated in a spicy red sauce, or else perhaps some tempura vegetables and an assortment of other things...interesting. I have yet to stumble across the big pan of beetles which are sometimes on street corners for your pleasure. I'm sure at some point I will dabble in that after I've dabbled in cocktails.....Mmmm....bugs. Delish!