Success!!! Go me!!!

HELLOOOOO!!! This is a picture!! And it's on my blog!!! I'm a genius!! It only took me a month!! This is Bridget (sans pants!! hahahahaha) holding the cake she made me as a going away present!! Okay, this is just the beginning mom!! All of my post are gonna have pictures now!!

And it only took me a month.

Another interesting Korean fact:

Some random pictures of Naju, my hometown and the nearby mountains.

Apparently Naju, my hometown, is very famous for many people worldwide because once a statue of Mary cried tears of blood! Cool! So I guess Naju is on a lot of pilgrimmage routes in the bustling South South Korea area. There are a lot of missionaries in Korea as well, which I find kind of strange. I once stepped into the elevator at my apartment and there was a waygook, waiting in the elevator! She had a name tag which identified her as "Sister Gilbert" and told me she was a missionary. There are so many protestant and catholic churches around South Korea now. It seems kind of strange...

Another interesting fact: Aloe juice is delicious! When I first heard that people here drank aloe juic I was really confused (and a little repulsed), but it's actually quickly become my favourite juice here. It's kind of a snot green colour and has chunks of aloe in it. Mmmmmmmm!

All drugged up and feeling better!

I got to tour Naju hospital, which was a treat. I think the doctor told me I'd just had an allergic reaction; to what? I have no idea. So a nurse injected some wonderful drugs into a vein and all is pretty much back to normal. I was also given a prescription for five types of pills which are quite mysterious, but no worries!!

Kill Me!!!

It seems that my luck is not so good in Korea! I seem to have had an allergic reaction to something and now have an itchy, all-over-body rash. Delightful! Don't worry mom, I'm just annoyed, I won't die. I think I just have to get everything possible before I can feel normal here (a sort of initiation?). It's monday morning and I'm just sitting waiting for my classes to start. So far I like the teaching-- the kids are really cute!!-- but its a lot of repetition!

okay, now my co-teachers are demanding I go to the hospital. More later!

Ahnnyong Haseyo!

Hello how are you?

Right now I'm in Gwang-ju staying at my co-teacher's house for a couple of days. We went to Biennale, which is a huge arts festival held every two years in Gwang-ju (near the Prince Hotel where I did my orientation with Canadian Connection). At Biennale there is a massive gallery there with multiple levels containing contemporary art from all over the world. It was really interesting and I got some awesome pictures! One of my favourite pieces was the rice stacked to look like rows in a field, then there was a red lazor line in each row. I swear I've seen the piece in my contemporary art history class back in Canada! Very cool!

Interesting/weird things about Korea (this is an ongoing list that I will add to all year:

- when people go for a walk on a mountain they HAVE to have a walking outfit, or they're doing it wrong. When Mrs. Yoon (my co-teachers wife) found out I like to hike, she insisted on buying me one of those track suits that EVERYONE here wears. Trying it on was one of the most unbearable ordeals I have ever had to survive. Just getting my size was hard enough (I'm a behemoth in South Korea), but I had to try on a few different shades of pink and everyone felt the need to touch me in inappropriate places to make sure it was the right fit! About five people touched my bum!

- people do indeed have siestas here. It's hilarious. People can sleep anywhere, in any place, any position! After leaving a norybong one night (a karaoke bar) at about three am there was a man slumped over the hood of a car. His feet were on the ground, he was just bent over the hood sleeping. I wish I'd gotten a picture.

- money is incredibly important. My co-teacher is always telling me what everything costs, what my pink-walking-jumpsuit cost, my cell phone that I'm borrowing (1 million won!!! EEEEKKK! That's more than one thousand dollars canadian!!! I shit you not! It has a camera, mp3 player etc etc. Status= possessions here. If you want to be important, spend lots of money!!!

- There are a ridiculous amount of apartment buildings. Think to yourself "Hmmm... I'm going to picture how many there are"... are you picturing it?.... You're wrong, whatever you're thinking, there are WAY more. Like, a lot more. And then some. I know you're thinking that I'm being dramatic, but where else can everyone be packed? Korea is the size of Southwesten Ontario (yep, that little tiny tip near the lakes) and there are about 50 million people in South Korea.

- interesting dish of the week: kids here LOVE silkworm larvae and little tiny snails. Today we stopped off to snack on little boiled snails which are sucked straight out of the shell. When I couldn't suck mine out and gave up, I was quite okay with that!!! Of all the sea creatures, I think snails creep me out the most. Give me raw squid any day!!

- to call emergency: 119

- to call information: 114

Okay, that's enough of that for the moment. Gotta go!

Mom! Quit worrying!!

Seriously! Stop it!! Try!!
(Love ya mum!)

And so it begins!

Yes, I am officially sick. You can call this an unofficial blog entry because its not about me going anywhere and seeing anything even remotely interesting! It's just me bitching about getting sick! Fun!

This morning I woke up at 4am to some very severe stomach cramps. So there I sat on the floor of the bathroom, ready to puke (or do something else (is this story already too gross?). I was freezing and shivering and yet the sweat was just dripping off of me, so I decided to take a shower, but I could only get cold water at that time of night (my shower only gets hot water after 7pm and in the morning). So I kind of just stuck my head under the cold water for a while.

It didn't take me long to rmember that the rice I had eaten for dinner had been boiled in the dreaded tap water. At the time I didn't think about it much; after I'd gotten the water I thought "Hmmmm... maybe I should use bottled water" then cleverly decided "nah, it'll be fine! I'm tough!". Ha!! (Interesting sidenote: my co-teacher informed me that the mayor has told the people of Naju that the drinking water is perfectly safe, but the residents choose not to believe. It is also interesting to note that the Mayor of Naju, and many other town officials don't even live in Naju!! They all commute from the nearby Gwang-ju!! Bunch of jerks).

On the upside, when I'm sick I have really weird dreams! I'm not sure how I got there, but I was with this group of tourists on safari somewhere in Africa (or some such country I've never seen), but there were all these horrific, ugly but very cool monsters that were pursuing us, along with the natives of the land who consisted of gangs of homeless, zombie-like creatures (who also wanted us dead). So myself and the safari goers ran around in fear for most of the dream as we were chased by these creatures. It was actually kind of gory! The beasts were eating other beasts; it was kind of like those cartoons you see where a small fish gets eaten by a bigger fish and that fish is eaten by an even bigger one and so on. Eventually we found escape by climbing over the roof of a ridiculously big church??? I'm really not sure why we couldn't just go around. Then we were all saved by a bunch of cabbies that ended up being bad guys as well that liked to scare us by driving really badly. This was directly preceeded by my alarm clock going of, so it's hard to say where it could have gone from there.

I think I can interpret this dream pretty well. I've just moved to a new place by myself which can be scary, much like going on a zombie-filled safari! And the church is a reference to the churches here, which are really creepy! At night, the crosses which look pretty ordinary and western during the day are lit with bright red neon at night. There's one right beside my building and at night when I look outside I feel like I'm in a vampire movie!! As for the taxi drivers, that one is obvious! Taxi drivers are COMPLETELY INSANE here. I can't even describe to you how bad the driving is! The constant honking is the least of my problems as the taxi driver chats on his cell phone and careens through narrow streets, passing and speeding. All the cab drivers I've met here are very nice though! Cabs are really cheap and the drivers always want to try out their english, which usually consists of "Hello!" and "Okay, bye!!". I was sharing a cab with Alex when I went to Mokpo and Alex sat up front. First the driver touched his head, making fun of his hair. Then rubbed his arm, looking at his arm hair. Westerners are too hairy apparently!!!

So yeah, sorry about the randomness of this entry! Anyone reading can feel free to leave comments! What do YOU think this dream meant??

Seen it all...

So, I've been all over the Jeolla Province. I've been to Gwang-ju (North), Mokpo (S. West), Yoesu (S. East-ish), Wando (South) and of course Naju (Central) and other cities in between. All in all, it's very pretty-- lots of rice fields and mountains.

Went to Mokpo for the weekend to visit Alex and Kristen (and many other various Mokpoers). Taking the bus was interesting to say the least. When I eventually found the Naju bus station (with some help from people walking by) I bought my ticket by saying "Mokpo" about five times and pointing to my wrist and making a writing motion to get the ticket lady to tell me what time the bus was leaving. After being really annoying for a while, I eventually had about five guys working there on my team: the "Cathy needs to get on the bus to Mokpo team". So when my bus finally came, I was told to get on. Alex's house is really nice; it's big (four bedrooms!), lots of space, but he lives on school grounds. Right off his doorstep is a mountain that has a beautiful view of the entire city and nearby islands, the ocean etc. On Saturday night we went out for dinner and met this random British dude who was travelling around Korea gathering information for a travel guide that he's writing. Very interesting! So we all went to a cafe and talked for a while, exchanging Korea stories. After that Kristen, Alex and myself did a "apartment crawl" with all the nearby Mokpoers. By that time I was feeling kind of sick with my first Korean cold, so I kind of just sat around and listened to a lot of people talk, which I didn't mind. The western-style alcoholic drinks were flowing, but I was feeling like death, so I did not partake (sadly). Meeting all the other teachers made me realize that there are a lot of interesting places to go! One girl was talking about travelling in Cambodia, another Belize; it all made me feel like a small-town redneck!

We finally made it back to Alex's, and I took the bus home the next morning. It was a lot easier on the way back, and I met a couple of Americans who also happen to live in Naju! They're with a company named "Fullbright", and tyey're company is very similar to Canadian Connection, except that they have to live with their Korean co-teachers family. That would suck! I really like having my own space to come to after work!

Hmmm.. not much more to report. I ate silkworm larvae for the first time. Interesting....

Wando-ful!

Went to Wando over the weekend. It was a lot of fun, except for the monster burn I came back to Naju with. As sad as this is, it was the first time I actually swam in the ocean. The water was so freaking salty! After dark we all went for a swim and there was a crazy amount of phosphorescence (sorry about the spelling!); which are a kind of plankton that glow in the water. Everytime I waved my arms in the water it was like sparkles under the surface (very cool!). There were about 20 of us waygooks (the Korean word for foreigners) that showed up, some slept on the beach, a couple wimps went to hotels, and myself and several others slept in a bagoda (basically a big gazebo). We had a big mosquito net, but I was still bitten quite often. Everytime I'm bitten here, it swells up and itches like nothing I have ever felt before. Korean mosquitos are EVIL! We had a huge bonfire on the beach which ended up feeling really surreal. I was constantly waiting for some kind of park patrol to stop by and put out the fire, or tell us to get off public property: but no one came. I was astounded! At one point a cop car drove by, but they didn't even stop. We were a pretty peaceful crowd though; no one had too much soju!

Wando, and the other island we went to (shingae??) was absolutely beautiful! Mountains as far as the eye can see!!

Later!

Hmm... just sitting

Hello there!

Right now I'm sitting in my new office killing time!! My classes don't start for another week, but they want me to come in anyway to meet people.

My English Town (ET) is pretty sweet! It's a newly constructed building near the childrens playground at Naju Elementary School. I have an office which I share with three Korean english teachers, all of whom speak english pretty well. The rest of the building is kind of a mini "America town"; there's a pharmacy, clinic, department store (Macy's), post office, immigration, and an "American Airline" waiting room. It's really cute! All of the kids get to go from one room to another, practicing english. There is text in english all over the walls (most of it not making a lot of sense), and in the main foyer an actual car for the kids to play in! It's kind of surreal.

Alright... where did I leave off last time... During orientation we went to Boesong Temple, which was beautiful. It was surrounded by mountains, and a stream ran through it. It was a running Buddhist Temple, but I only saw one monk. I really wanted to take a picture of him, but I figured it might be kind of rude! There were a bunch of temples, thousands of little Buddha sculptures, and a couple of huge ones as well! After seeing the temple, we all went for a hike on a huge mountain nearby. Everything is so humid and moist that as you step into the forest, you feel like you could be in an African rainforest. At one point I was walking alongside a river and saw about ten snakes, just hanging out, going for a swim. I tried taking pictures, but I'm not sure how well they came out.

Alex and I went for a walk on a mountain near Gwang-ju Prince Hotel. At one point we came across a man walking alone and said hello with our bad foreign accents. After that, he kept on trying to tell us which way we had to go along the path (although he obviously couldn't have known where we were going!). So we just followed him around for a while until he sort of waved us off. Eventually we found a huge ampitheatre, and decided to do a little performing. There were only a couple of people walking around, so I'm sure they didn't mind us singing songs from "The Sound Of Music". These are a few of my favourite things....

So here I am in Naju right now. My Apartment is called Sangwol Joo-Gong. I have a really nice view of nearby mountains and the entire city below. One of my supervisors cleaned my house and bought all new things for the apartment before I got there, which was really nice!

Alright, I'll be writing again soon I'm sure!