Catching up!!

Jessica and myself @ Everland

First ride of the day...a doozy!

My babes making stuff on the field trip!

A couple of my babes

Poplar classroom!

Well it's been awhile...in Korea time since I last wrote. Lots to say so please bear with me...

I've been sick for the last couple of weeks- I just can't kick whatever it is I have going on...but perhaps it's the beginning of allergies? Whatever the case, it's annoying. I've been carrying around a box of tissue at work with me, super attractive. The one good thing about Korea though is that getting meds is relatively easy. What they are on the other hand, no idea. I just take it and hope for the best! You go to the drug store (across the street from school- they don't sell any sort of medicine anyplace BUT a drug store), you tell the pharmacist what your symptoms are and she hands you a little pack of pills, then she proceeds to tell you to take 2 of this and 2 of this 3 times a day. Hmmm....I'm glad I just told her I had a runny nose- that's a lot of pill-age! I don't think they sell anything here that's really very strong, so all the pills throughout the day compensates for that. Well that's just my theory. Another theory is that they sell the meds individually, as oppose to all in one pill format like we're used to. Nyquil for example fights runny nose, fever, headache, sore throat...etc. Here I think it's kind of just individual...again, just a theory....

I had stayed in the last couple of weekends (not including this one..) and it was actually nice to be able to enjoy the whole day not feeling hung over or tired. I've been able to skype with people a lot, amazing. Last weekend the Friday we went on a field trip with the babes to a little farm/greenhouse place. It was fun- choatic obviously. At one point I had a missing child, great! No worries she was quickly discovered running about the many tomato plants in the green house (slightly embarassing not being able to keep track of my crazy kids, but that's Poplar classroom). We toured around the greenhouses, made these little bear head things out of moss with a little plant inside- cute! We had lunch there (prepacked sushi lunchable like things- super cool!) and then we just hung out and went back to school. Nice little adventure!

Saturday was a time for an adult field trip. Our school's director paid for all the staff to go to a place called Everland. It's a huge amusement park. It was so nice there!! I was super impressed with everything. Lines to rides were short, entry fee was reasonable- as was the food (all taken care of thanks to the director though!!), they had a really nice zoo, good rides and the highlight- the worlds steepest wooden rollar coaster! The drop was insanely good!! Such a good ride! I think that I may have scrambled my head a bit after that day. I know I'm technically not "old" but man, riding rollar coasters isn't like it used to be!! I had my first Korean fast food burger there and it was actually pretty delicious minus the sweet pickles. Yes, for anyone who knows me well, I'm slightly obsessed with pickles and they have NO DILL PICKLES IN KOREA!!! Tragic. Very tragic. There was a parade at this Everland place, interesting. I'd say about 95% of the people in the parade were white?! Hmmm....very European looking- bright blonde hair all dancers, both men and women. We were amused by this. It was just a really great place!

This past week it was monthly testing time again and report cards are due this coming week. I've been on top of things making last week very busy, but I'm almost done everything I need to be which is good! I'm wondering if next week some more bribery gifts will be rolling in for the teachers because of report card time? I'm sure...In a couple weeks it's Teacher's Day! I guess that's a really great day to get showered with gifts...should be interesting! I'm just hoping if I am to get things, it's not food. Not that I'm complaining about a gift, but please, I would rather just get nothing than sugary doughnuts, chocolates, candy, cakes, cookies, pastries, etc...

With staying in the last couple of weekends, I had hit up the "Buy the way" one night (like Macs) to get some pop. Well it was probably about 1030pm- prime time to see drunken Korean business men stumbling around the streets. It's actually pretty humorous. They all hang off each other, trip on nothing, act like drunken fools- which don't get me wrong, I've been there and done that BUT to see it from mid 40 upper class looking men wearing suits, it's a bit different. Koreans loveee to drink! Well can you blame them? A 2 litre bottle of soju is like $4. Ridiculous. Just ridiculous.

I went to the post office this week to mail some stuff....wow!! That was an experience. Not sure if anything I ever mail will get to the correct place. It's so unbelieveably unorganized- well maybe it's because I didn't understand them. They had no idea what I was saying either so there was a lot of charades being played that day. For the most part it was somewhat simple, but it was a long process to mail one flipping box. Slowly I'll be mailing out boxes but with it being such a process and only being able to get there on my 40 min prep period doesn't leave a lot of time...

There is a little stand on my walk to work that sells plants. My apartment doesn't get much light but it needs some sort of life to spruce it up here. I was thinking about getting some fish- still might (everyone knows how well I take care of animals...). Well I decided the one day that I was going to buy a plant. Well the lady was selling small plants that looked like basil so I pointed and she went off in Korea about something...no idea. I just shook my head, gave her the "I have no idea what you're saying" look and I handed her some cash. It ended up being 25 cents a plant so she gave me 4 (despite me trying to tell her I only wanted 2). Whatever. It was an interesting conversation. At one point I think she was trying to tell me it was basil (I'm not even 100% sure if that's what it is) but she started munching loudly- I think indicating that the plants were edible? Haha...or maybe she was saying they weren't? Ahhh gotta love it!

Well one night last week I was sitting in my apartment writing class comments when there was this LOUD OBNOXIOUS noise that started coming from my wall phone. There is a speaker system attached to the phone which allows me to see who is ringing my door bell when they come over (instead of a peep hole in the door). Well this loud noise scared the crap out of me. Immediately I started pacing my apartment furiously wondering what the f I was supposed to do!!! Ahh! I was scared! I peeked my head out the window- didn't smell smoke. I peeked my head out my door and the neighbour and me just looked at each other like what is going on?! I skype messaged a few fellow teachers and they didn't seem super concerned. Well after about 6 mins it went off. But HOLY! My heart was racing!! So I went back to work and then a voice came over the speaker and started explaining what had happened- or so I think. CLEARLY it was all in Korean. So I have no idea what they said. About an hour later, it went off again!! Ugh! Doesn't sound very annoying but man it startles you!! I'm happy to say that it didn't go off all night or in the middle of the night, but if it ever does, I might just have a heart attack.

I got my bills last week (the ones that I have to pay for my apartment). Not too shabby! Only a sweet 84 cents for my gas bill- what a joke! My other utilities though were exactly $100. Still- not having to pay rent and only having to worry about paying $100 a month is peanuts! It's a pretty good deal!!

Well the weather has been starting to get warmer slowly. The other day when I had come home on my break- UGH! It was so humid in my apartment I broke down and put on the airconditioning. I had to get the stickiness out of my place! I had laundry hanging that would have taken a year to dry under those muggy conditions! My air conditioner works and it's pretty good!!

So this past weekend I decided that it was time to venture out again for some excitement! It was my friend Nestor, from the University of Windsor, his birthday so I went to visit him out in Cheuncheon (something like that). It was about a 2 1/2 hour bus ride (traffic). It was great however I had gone out the night before and gotten home in the weeee hours of the morning so I had only slept for 3 hours. **(Which side note: thank you to those people who took my skype calls when I got home @ 5am and thought I should phone up everyone on my contact list from my Canadian cell phone- it was lovely for the people I did talk to and for those I didn't talk to, I hope you all enjoyed your voice mails!!!**)The bus was about 100 degrees and man was it killer bumpy (not to mention that I may have been rocking a slight hang over...didn't help the situation). Well when I first sat down I was next to a woman who proceeded to have a conversation with me in Korean. Umm....ok? I tried to explain I didn't understand, didn't speak Korean, it didn't matter. She did however share her little treats with me, it was kind. She wasn't on the bus for long and after that I had a nice peaceful ride (FINALLY they put on the air conditioning over an hour into the trip...ugh). When I got to Cheuncheon Nestor picked me up on his scooter!! It was fun to zip in and out of crazy Korean traffic on a scooter! Nothing like a particular motorcycle I love so much, but hey, I think riding a crotch rocket in Korea would be pretty intense- too intense. Nestor and I ended up spending a beautiful day at the park with a bunch of his friends. There was soju involved, frisbee, soccer, a little batting cages and sitting in the grass and relaxing! It was such a great way to spend my weekend!! I was with an old friend and the weather was perfect- it was amazing!! Not to mention I met a bunch of pretty solid people too! I just wish that it wasn't so far away or I'd be visiting there all the time. I must say though, the buses are like a greyhound but far roomier and it's only $10 each way- not bad at all! I will definitely be heading there more often now that I know how easy it is and how nice it is!! After hanging in the park all day we all went for dinner at an outdoor Korean BBQ place. It was cool- sitting outside, under this pavillion like thing on a picnic table bbqing up some sweet food- good times and delicious food! We headed back to Nestor's after to freshen up and meet up with one of his other friends. We hung out at his place for a bit then headed to a bar to play some darts and hang out. It was a great time!! I ended up meeting a nice Korean guy- it's a shame there was such a barrier with the language...he was hot AND kept telling me I smelled like chocolate...hahaha....After hourss of being out we thought it would be a good idea to go to a Noreabong (Kareoke place). I love it! Only complaint-- not a ton of English songs to choose from. By this time it was approx. 430am. Well after singing our hearts out I decided to go to the bathroom. In Korea most establishments don't have a bathroom- you have to use a public one somewhere around. Well to my surprise when I went out to use the bathroom- IT WAS DAYLIGHT!! Haha...I hadn't realized the time because most bars and places don't close or don't close until people leave (even if it is @ 7am!!) Yikes!! Well it was about time to leave at that point. We hit up a place to get food and then went on our way, back to Nestors. My good friends will know this about me- I'm not really a fan of spending the night at people's houses, so when we got back to Nestor's I grabbed my stuff and instead of sleeping I figured I might as well just keep going (cause it was daytime now anyway- what was the point of sleeping!?) and my new little Korean love drove me to the bus terminal. All in all, amazingggg weekend!! I got to enjoy the sunlight and outdoors, got to hang out with Nestor and meet some sweet new people, and put another adventure in the books! I can't say Sunday- today- was all the productive considering my total sleep hours this weekend was probably about 5 all together- but what better way to enjoy a Sunday watching "The Hangover" and enjoying some delicious Kraft Dinner....mmmm sounds good to me!!