Fear and Aimlessness in Korea

Been feeling a little depressed the last couple of days since I found out I didn't get into Grad school. Now what the hell am I going to do with myself? I guess I'm just going to have to spend all the money I've saved working in Korea on crazy useless stuff (mom's cringing right now). Maybe a trip to Australia and some backpacking around Europe? Or I guess I could just pay off my student loans in one big lump fee (hahahahaha... yeah... I'm not going to do that. It would make too much sense).

This is what I think I'll do:

- finish my contract in Korea, go back to Canada, visit friends and family, overstay my welcome (don't worry mom and dad, I won't stay too long!! Or just long enough for you to remember what a pain in the ass I am).

- Buy myself a reliable car (dad, I'll need your help!).

- Drive around Canada looking for jobs along the way; maybe eventually settle in BC for a while. It seems wrong that I've been on the other side of the world but as for Canada, I've barely been out of Ontario! I'm thinking of just camping out or sleeping in my car (is that illegal in Canada or just frowned upon?) the entire way since hotels in Canada are INSANE expensive.

So who wants to come with me on a road trip??? You'll need lots of time, and have to be okay with getting REALLY lost.

Things I've Got a Mad Hankering For

Living in Korea for a year is great, but there are certain things that just can't be found or substituted over here!!

- First of all: family, friends and whatnot (so that I don't seem obsessed with food)
- sour cream
- skim milk (I never thought I'd say this... but milk in Korea is REALLY thick).
- Cheese (this is a big one)
- Pickles, olives- Poutine!!!
- Wendy's
- The varieties of food that can be found in Canada: Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, etc etc.
- making my own soft shell tacos
- meat (the availability of steaks, hamburger, etc)
- caesar salads
- chicken fajjitas, antijitos
- lasagna
- pink lemonade
- shower curtains
- bedsheets
- bread and assorted bread products.
- Tim Horton's Ice Caps
- Golden Mango (specifically the Chicken Pad Thai)
- Swiss Chalet
- The City of Waterloo (Kitchener even!)
- Princess Cinemas
- The old shed beside 69 Peppler, the roof, the garden we made in the backyard.
- Phil's (I know this is sick)
- Big burly men with facial hair who don't give a shit about fashion.
- Shopping in stores where I fit into things.
- Being able to buy a pair of shoes.
- Listening in to strangers conversations and UNDERSTANDING what is being said.
- Being able to go see a movie in theatres.
- Drinking country tap water.
- The beach at my parents shack (Bruce Trail side with the cliffs and ridiculously clear blue water).
- pets. I miss having animals around all the time!
- People always understanding my sarcasm.
- clean air (There's an LG factory beside my apartment complex).
- a backyard
- English and French written on all products.
- Being able to have conversations with shop owners, waitstaff, etc. etc.
- Being so busy that I don't have time to write lists like this!



I'll add more later...

Head and Shoulders

One of My co-teacher's found this online so we are now using it to teach the kids "Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes". Love it!!

Have I Mentioned That My Students Are Ridiculously Cute??

Oh Naju Hospital; We Meet Again!!

So I'm in Yongsanpo (the ass-crack of Naju) on my way to MBM (my favourite store EVER) and I was supposed to be meeting up with some people, but I was early so I figured I'd do a little shopping-- BAD MOVE. So I'm walking along, not a care in the world and other such cliches, totally zoned out as usual, contemplating something inane I'm sure. And what do I do? I trip on NOTHING and fall down. As I fell, I put out my hands to break my fall and ended up bending back my middle finger to an alarming degree. It hurt like a bastard, and my first thought, of course, was: my co-teachers are going to make me go to a hospital! Dammit!

Funny sidenote: there was a middle school girl walking behind me at the time, and when I fell, she rushed over and said "Are you okay, do you need any help?" and my reply as I sat on the sidewalk: "Wow, your English is good. No, I'll be okay."

So, yeah, my hand is all swollen and uselles today, so my super-nice co-teacher Mrs. Lee made me go to the hospital and get an x-ray, but nothing's broken, just a SPRAINED MIDDLE FINGER. I know dad's gonna love that one!! I'll never give anyone the finger again. Bad karma.

So... Uhhh... What's up with you??

I am so freaking bored!! Seriously. Everyone that reads this, leave me a comment of the funniest thing that's happened to you recently. Seriously! Entertain me! Mom! I know you'll read this eventually! Grandma! Uncle Richard! Siblings! Friends! Strangers!

This entry is all about how I suck at looking busy. After hanging around on facebook for a while, looking at every one's blogs, and checking my e-mail, I haven't a clue what to do with myself. Oh yeah, and that teaching stuff that I do intermittently throughout the day.

This is the Last One, I Swear!

The class was predictably adorable, as per usual. I'm going to bring in my camera sometimes soon to get shots as the kids do their dialogue. I have them wear a labcoat and stethoscope etc. when they pretend to be the doctor. I'll let you judge the cuteness for yourself.

No news beyond the fact that my tiny cold I've been nursing decided to be a total bitch today. That's right cold, I called you a bitch (sorry mom, grandma). By the time the daily quiz rolled around I just wanted to go home and stuff some kleenex up my nose for a while, so I may have been less entertaining than usual. Singing "If You're Happy And You Know It" sucks when you're sick!!!

Save Me, Big Burly Canadian Man!!!

So this past weekend was St. Patricks day, and I have to admit that I did absolutely NOTHING, even though I've been informed that I'm 1/4 Irish (my mom's maiden name is Kelly after all), so I should have been out partying. I have a newly aquired cold that kept me company over the weekend instead. So I caught up on all of the "America's Next Top Model" happenings-- very important-- and I took some time to continue to explore the mountains near my apartment. I have my favourite mountain that I usually climb, but yesterday I decided to check out another, much less popular trail. At the very top (around 800m-900m I think), there was a random helicopter pad. No buildings, temples, outhouses, or anything, just a little concrete area with a big white circle and an "H". My first thought: Do a lot of people injure themselves on this mountain?? The trail wasn't very well kept and incredibly steep! My second: hahahahahaha... well this one's a longer thought I guess. Way back when, after I'd just arrived in Korea I had decided to register at the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, so if there was any political/military strife I could enlist their help to get me the hell out of the country. Then Marcia (my sister, who has quite the imagination) was making up all sorts of stories about a big burly Canadian Embassy man rescuing me from my apartment (about to be bombed perhaps??) and us hiding in the mountains near my house. So when I saw the helicopter pad, I started having all these thoughts about military conspiracies, hiding out on the mountains, and top secret meetings at the tops of big hills.

While out to dinner with some friends (we were in Hiroshima, so our thoughts had strayed to bombings I guess) we were talking about getting airlifted out of Korea, and some random people at the next table told us that they had a friend who had to be airlifted out of a country (ummm... Lebanon maybe??) by her embassy (not sure where she was from) and it cost her over $8000!!!
Doesn't that suck??

People Living in Korea

This'll only work on computers that support Korean characters, but here's my schools Enlgish Town Website and how to get there if any are interested:

http://www.naju.es.kr

scroll down, and on the left it will say "영어 타운". Click on that and it'll take you to another page with a list of classes and days (usually labelled "나주 초 등 학 교..."). Click on any of the recent entries and there will be the pictures of the students.

I'm sorry, is this too much work?? Coming soon: MP3 dialoques featuring Max and myself. EEEEK!!

I'm Sorry... I Try to Entertain

Yeah, I'm beginning to feel like I'm just writing blogs to myself here. There's no way anyone can find these all that interesting, but here they are!! I just like this one because the little boy behind me is doing the "bunny ears" behind my head.



Then I caught him, so he's switched to the girl beside him. This class was really cute (of course). All of my students are just really cute. It's like there's a rule. If you're a loyal reader you may remember a story about a boy who HATED me in one of my classes after I made him stand facing the wall. He was in again today, and after a few almost comical glares at me (with me smiling in return) he was actually really good in my corner!! He did the dialogue and everything!! And then he wanted me to sign his book!! I was so surprised, and somewhat suspicious... he does realize that I can't give him a grade right? I'm sure he'll still glare when he see's me around the school though. He's really cute too, by the way.

Not So Relevant

This one isn't exactly about Korea; it's a picture from a site Sarah thought I would laugh at, and she was right! I'm not exactly sure why nihilism fascinates me so...

In other (absence of) news, English Town is much the same as usual. Had a really cute class in today that had some of my old students for my extra class last semester, so they were really good. One of the boys even wanted to make up his own dialogue for the doctor's office (probably because the one in the book is so shitty), so he said he had a headache from playing too many computer games. So cute!! I had a very monkey moment today. Let me explain: when I was in Thailand I went and saw a monkey show. Long story short it was really depressing and I find monkey's far too human-like. At one point during the performance the monkey just started staring vacantly into the distance as his trainer tried to make him pay attention. I found myself doing that a few times today. A group of about nine kids surrounded me as I went over the "doctors office dialogue" in my corner. My mouth kept moving, going over the phrases and waiting for the students to repeat, but my brain was GONE, onto something entirely different. I zone out a little too easily. When I snapped back into reality one of my students was looking over her shoulder trying to ascertain what I had been looking at so intently. Whoops! Sorry kids!

Soju!

Crazy Little Bastard

One of my students dropped the f-bomb today. He and one of the girls were in the same group and they were competing for more stickers. He felt the need to tell me how ugly she was, how stupid etc; meanwhile she's smacking him around and yelling at him. I literally had to pull the two apart. Then I informed them that their behaviour meant they were in love (pushing their hands together and saying "Sarang!! Sarang!!" "love, love"), which prepubescent teens absolutely hate to hear. Embarassment is BY FAR the best form of punishment.

Despite their shitheadedness, they were still really cute. I know, it's really hard to pick out the HUGE waygookin!!!

And So, Second Semester Begins

Today was the official day back, as we had our first class in Naju English Town. Since we're going to be seeing some old students again, all of the teachers (including myself) have switched our dialogue. I was the immigration inspector, but now I'm a doctor. This dialogue is even worse than the last, but funny in a way (Sumin has visited the doctor because she/he has eaten too much ice cream). It's good to be working again!!!

The girls who used to clean the english town have graduated on to middle school, so there's a new group that comes in every day. One of them (I don't know her name yet) is a bit of a gawker. The first day they came in she stood at my desk just to stare at me for a while. If I smile at her she will avert her eyes or shy away, but the second I look back at whatever I've been doing, I can feel her eyes on me. And this isn't staring from a distance, this is right up against the side of my desk, just looking at me. The first day it was kind of okay, and I could laugh it off, since I'm a bit of a novelty. But it's been over a week and she still does it. She doesn't try to talk to me, and gets scared when I talk to her... she just STARES.

Ladies and gentlemen, that awkwardness cannot even compare to my first trip to a jimshilbang. There is a really big one right beside my apartment complex, so when Kristen came over on Friday night, we decided to check it out. A jimshilbang is a "sauna room", and the one by my apartment is really nice; there's a big hot tub, cold pool, green tea bath and ladies to give massages and scrubs. It's sex segregated so absolutley everyone's naked. I'd visited a similar place in Japan, so I thought I was mentally prepared for a few people to see me naked. When we entered (at about 10pm) the place was PACKED, and even worse still there was a bunch of elementary aged students. That just seems so wrong on SO MANY different levels. I'm also pretty sure that we were the first non-Koreans to step foot in that Jimshilbang for a long time (or perhaps the only, ever). To say theat there was an ridiculous amount of staring would be an understatement. From now on, I'm only going to saunas where the kids don't say in hushed tones "Kesi (other stuff in Korean). Young-un town sunsaengnim (more stuff in Korean)!!".

Konglishee: A Short Story by Me

Editors Note

First off, yes it is strange that a short story (a very short story) has an editor's note, but where else would Cathy be able to get across what she's trying to do? This story is written in Konglish. If you read it excactly as it's written it will make more sense (more sense, but not that much more). Below she's translated it into regular English, then for shits and giggles, put it all into pidgeon Korean/English for those who are super bored and can read Korean!!!

Konglishee
Kesi situ. Perree perrie poredu. Asa!! Haendu pone! Kall Aleksu!
"Neeeeeeeeee, yobeseyo?" Aleksu askee.
"Anneeyong hasseyooo!! Itsuh Kesi."
"Ye, ye. Whutaes up?"
"Aleksu, you busee?" Kesi saeii.
"Ani, ani. Waetchiee On sutilee," Aleksu reepulae.
"Assssshh!! Mee missu aneetingue?" Kesi piks up klikaer.
"Tuh pikkest loosa. Shoooo muchee pat!! Sarang hae pat!!"
"Grossuh," kesi sighes, "Aleksu, you sickee."
"Arrasseyo! It perree phasinate!! Kan't helpuh."

English
Cathy sits. She's very very bored. She is so smart!! She has a cell phone! She'll give Alex a call.
"Yes, who is it?" Alex asks.
"Hello and lots of wellbeing for you in the future!! It's Cathy."
"Yeah, yeah. What's up?"
"Alex, are you busy?" Cathy says.
"No, no. Just watching On Style," Alex replies.
"Oh shit. Have I missed anything interesting?" Cathy says as she picks up the remote.
"I'm watching "The Biggest Loser".* There's so much fat!! I love watching the fat!"
"Gross," Cathy sighs, "Alex, you're a sick puppy."
"I know. But it's very fascinating! I can't help it!!"

너드 슈르
케시 시드. 배리 배리 포라트. 앗사!! 한드 판! 칼 알랰스!
"내, 여버새여?" 알랰스 앗크.
"안영 핫새여! 잍스 케시."
"야 야."
"알랰스, 알 유 빗시?" 케시 새스.
"아니, 아니. 언 스다일," 알랰스 립울이.
"앗흐! 미 밋스 안니싱?" 케시 빜 웁 카맄아.
"둫 빅잇드 려사. 서 무치 팓! 살랑 해 팓!!!"
"가러스," 케시 싯, "알랰스, 유 시키."
"알랏아여! 읻 배리 파신아드! 칸드 핼프."

For those who tried to read this last part, hahahahahahahahhaha. Yes, I spent a ridiculous amount of time, and no, I don't want any e-mails or messages telling me where I should have done a better job of spelling or Konglisizing!

You Know You're Korean When..

Hey again, while the last list was pure Cathy original, this is stolen from a forward, and most of it is eerily true. There are a couple of "in the mens room" things I don't know too much about though; it seems this was written by a guy.

You know you're Korean when:

1) You're 12-years old and you don't go home until 10 pm.
2) And yet when you're unmarried at 25, you have to be home by ten.
3) You wrap kimchi around your rice before eating it.
4) You stare like a blinded deer in headlights at anyone different.
5) You attempt to go into the subway or elevator before the people get out.
6) If you ain't chewing and slurping your food at a loud volume then you obviously ain't enjoying it.
7) You "slightly disregard" traffic rules. Like stopping at crosswalks for those pesky pedestrians. 8) You go home and everything smells bad.
9) You think having 4 seasons is really special.
10) You describe any girl over 110 pounds as "fat."
11) Your closet is full of black, brown, and grey clothes.
12) You suddenly want to go to Prague or Bali because you saw them on a Korean TV drama. 13) You drive out of a blind alley at 60 km/h.
14) You're an "expert" at making ramyen noodles.
15) You try the doorknob instead of ringing the doorbell or knocking first.
16) You eat more off your friend's plate than your own.
17) You answer the phone with a loud warbling "Wieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?"
18) Your favorite teacher is the one that beats you the hardest.
19) The national hero you admire most is the one who has a nuclear bomb pointed at you.
20) You watch "Planet of the Apes" and you really identify with the apes, or it hits too close to home. Either way, deep down you don't like the movie. I don't really get this one.
21) You appear to be thinking you look quite dignified while drinking your shooter of 2 cent booze after noisily slurping octopus.
22) You're dropping a log in the squatter and spit on the floor in front of you, thus clearing two orifices at once. Korean multi-tasking.
23) You jump out of the shower at the local gym and stand naked in front of the mirror blow drying your family jewels.
24) You grab the communal toothbrush at the gym and take it into the shower with you!
25) Even though you weigh 120 you have to try and out bench the 190 pound guy, because he's a foreigner.
26) You think that your mom's kimchi can cure your grandma's halitosis and your grandpa's cancer.
27) Your cell phone has more than 20 pictures stored on it...of yourself.
28) There's more toilet paper in your dining room than your bathroom.
29) You believe that flushing toilet paper down the toilet will clog up the plumbing so instead, throw your shitty paper in a bin next to the toilet.
30) You are no longer bothered by the old Korean lady (ajumma) shoving a mop between your legs as you stand at the urinal.
31) You view the handicapped-ramped crosswalks as a perfect place to jimmy your car into at an angle. Pedestrians and handicapped people be damned - you need to park!.
32) You hang a plastic glove filled with water in the window because you believe mosquitoes and flies are scared of their reflection.
33) You look at thin blonde women and assume they are Russian hookers. I'm not all that thin but I've had many older men ask me if I was Russian. Ewwww...
34) You open all of your windows in the middle of winter and crank up the heat.
35) You're standing in the shower at the Sauna and offer to scrub a total stranger's back.
36) You don't think it's at all weird to share a hot tub butt naked with a grandfather and his two grandsons. In Japan I went to a "sauna" (i.e. all naked zone with hot tubs) and an old Japanese lady started talking to me. Yep, chitchatting with an old naked lady.
37) You open the window a crack when your fan is running, just in case because you think running fans can kill you!
38) You've traveled to various places in the world and when asked about whether you liked the food or not, you say, "I don't know." "Did you try the food" "No. Well, only the chicken. The only food I ate in Germany was chicken."
39) You dial a wrong number, proceed to yell at the people on the other end of the line for not being the people you were trying to call, hang up on them in a huff......and then hit redial.
40) You do exactly what your boss tells you to do, no matter how stupid and idiotic.
41) You would never dream of asking to get paid extra for the overtime worked.
42) You feel well rewarded for the long hours and sacrifice if you get taken out for sam-gap-sal (Pork BBQ)and a few hours in a singing room once or twice a year.
43) You sleep under a piece of oversized gauze and call it a sheet.
44) You put sweet potato on pizza. I love sweet potato on pizza.
45) You think picking your teeth or nose in public isn't polite...unless you oh so discreetly do it with one hand covering up your activity.
46) You push, claw, and elbow your way to position yourself to be the first to exit the subway car, and then right after you exit, you walk at a snail's pace.
47) You go on a nice beach vacation, where you sit under the beautiful shade of your huge umbrella fully clothed, wearing a Darth Vader visor, covered in sun tan lotion, refusing to go near the water.
48) You eat dog because it supposedly gives you four thrusts instead of three.
49) After going to the washroom, you wash your hands for 1 second under ice cold water and dry them in your hair.
50) You open up a new business with an arch of balloons and two dancing girls.
51) You proudly adorn your new business with a sign that reads:?"SINCE 2005" The Naju bar I like to frequent? Since 1996. Yep! It's got some staying power!!
52) You close the business two years later after realizing there were already ten nearly identical businesses on the same block.
53) You would rather park on the sidewalk than the huge parking lot 5 feet away.
54) You drive for 5 hours to spend 30 minutes at some over crowded tourist trap.
55) You order a side of kimchi to go with your steak. In most restaurants you don't even need to order it; it's immediately put on your table.
56) You ask the foreigner next to you if he can use chopsticks, while he is eating with chopsticks. 57) You deny that Koreans still eat dog, after the foreigner next to you has just said, "Last night I went out for dog with some Korean friends, it was better than I thought it would be!"
58) You think eating eel will give you a hard-on, but eating bean sprouts will make you lose it, and the reasoning behind both is: "the shape".
59) You correct the pronunciation of the American in the back of your cab, by saying: "Ahh...you meaneuh Joji Bushi..."
60) You think your foreign co-worker's fridge is full of coca-cola, burgers, ready-made sandwiches and spaghetti.
61) You think the messages of the Buddha and Jesus are perfectly compatible with the statement: "Koreans are a superior race."
62) You base that superiority on being a descendent of a bear that ate garlic.
63) And you claim the above is only a myth, but you believe it. And that makes sense to you.
64) No one in your country has AIDS, but "kimchi" can cure it.
65) You are a young man who really believes in a future Asian revolution, after which you, as a Korean, will be administering an Asian dominated autocracy in which Chinese labor and Japanese technology are under your boot. But whitey is way under that, and Africa and Southeast Asia have somehow disappeared. You perform self-love to this fantasy daily. See? A boy must've written this.
66) You laugh at your foreign co-worker's "Brooseuh Williseuh" shaved head, while pressing down your comb-over with a hand covered in your own saliva.
67) Your students try to convince you that Catholics are NOT Christians.
68) Your students tell you that they are devout Catholics but don't know who the Pope is.
69) You order pizza and it comes with corn and mayonnaise as well as a side serve of pickles to put on top.
70) You think that smoking in a crowded restaurant (with a no smoking sign) or any other place is perfectly acceptable behavior for men but woman who smoke in public are clearly prostitutes. 71) Your students are convinced that music by The Beatles is hard core rock'n'roll.
72) You see a flashing green walking man in the distance indicating that pedestrians may cross...and you run at full pelt, as though you were running away from a T-Rex, to cross the road. God forbid having to wait 2 minutes until the next one.
73) You think that the sink in the bathroom/public toilet is for fixing your hair and appearance and NOT for washing your hands after going to the toilet.
74) You have a terrible cold and it doesn't occur to you that coughing in other people's faces and food will make them sick too.
75) You honestly believe foreigners care about whose island takashimi/dokdo is!??(Korea by the way)
76) You think an ambulance with a siren blazing is just another car. Therefore, you need not make way.
77) You hear the monthly air-raid sirens, remain totally unfazed and go about your business.
78) You stick a needle in your thumb to relieve indigestion.
79) You wear an undershirt with a t-shirt.
80) You own a cell phone with a built-in breathalyzer.
81) Your main purpose of going to the office everyday is to persuade your colleague(s) into a night of drinking.
82) Low cut, v-neck, floral print, pink t-shirt, shiny jeans, and Paris Hilton-esque sunglasses are perfectly acceptable items for a heterosexual man to wear for a night on the prowl.
83) You put corn on/in any kind of Western food.
84) You warn your visiting friends/family about how hot ALL Korean food is... and check to make sure they can eat it when they're half done.
85) You understand why prior to a given date there will be no heat and after a given date there will no longer be heat, regardless of the weather.
86) You cover your mouth when you laugh or smile but not when you cough or sneeze.
87) In the winter (-10 degree weather), you wear short skirts, but in the summer (in +40 weather) you cover all skin with jeans and a sweater because that's the fashion.
88) You don't wear deodorant because 'Koreans don't sweat.'

Ahhhh... The Weird Shit I Have Eaten

This is Ddukbolki with "cheese". Yep, that's a slice of processed cheese thrown on top. Ddukbolki is quite delicious; spicy red chili sauce, big rice noodles, egg, some sort of processed fish that has the look and consistency of tofu, and some mixed veggies.

Last night was another night of welcoming teachers; i.e. the entire staff gets together to drink their faces off at a nice restaurant. It seems that every restaurant is less about taste then trying to out-weird the other establishments in the area. "Live octopus eh? Well, tonight we're serving various animal intestine and fish egg sausage, with a lovely grey-black tasteless sesame soup". Yep, that was just a sampling of the many delicacies which I partook (hahahaha... I don't think that's even a word...) in last night.

And so, a list of the Weird Shit I have Eaten:

- Just last night I had some sort of stew which involved fish intestine (actually not too bad), and these little sausages with some sort of fish egg inside.

- "Black Sesame Soup"- it's a mottled grey and black colour with a gritty non-taste. My co-teacher said to me "It's very good for your health. Just trust me".

- Every sort of raw and cooked fish you can imagine. Octopus (still moving), squid, from small little snails you can find on the beach to the big escargot-like snails, sea slug, skate (the fish that smells like urine... that one was an unfortunate accident), eel etc. Dried fish is also very popular; my favourite being the little whole minnows. Very crunchy!

- Chunks of cooked blood. One afternoon Alex and I had lunch in a restaurant in Naju and we were served this mystery soup that had strange chunks of brownish red stuff... we thought it was some sort of mushroom at the time (it almost had a hard tofu-like quality).

- Every sort of leaf you can imagine, including underwater greenery as well. Koreans love to wrap rice, meat etc. in leaves, any sort of leaves.

- I'm pretty sure I've sampled every sort of kimchi by now. I love fresh, just made kimchi, but Koreans especially enjoy it after it has been fermenting for A LONG FREAKING TIME. Kimchi is cabbage and spices and good ole red chilli peppers (sometimes with fish guts if you're lucky!) all mixed together. Then the old ajummas put a crapload of it in a big pot and let it sit outside for a while. Then it'll need to sit in the Kimchi fridge for even longer, and voila! you have delightful, sour pickled kimchi. I know now what the older stuff looks like now (extra floppy and brown, emitting a strong odor), so I can avoid it for the most part.

- Goat stew. Very stringy.

- Various street meats. I shudder to think of what could be in some of them. It's best that I don't know. Whenever I go out with friends in Gwang-ju there is always the obligatory "street meat run" at 3am; always delicious and just a little bit questionable.

- This is kind of boring, but every kind of rice you could possible think of. Before I moved to Korea I had no idea that there were so many possible variations. Have you even eaten rice that was purple?? Black? A strange yellow colour? A very popular soup in Korea is, of course, "Rice Soup" which consists of burnt chunks of rice in water. Mmmmmm... a party in my mouth!!

- Now for the bug category: ummm... just silkworm larvae I believe. Although I've had ants and grasshoppers before (covered in chocolate!!), it wasn't in Korea.

- Drinks!! Soju is a sort of vodka all the teachers at my school delight in making me take shots of. Some sort of murky, evil rice wine. Pomegranite juice, persimmon juice, "Nostalgia Drink" (which I think consists of sugar, water and chunks of rice from the taste of it), aloe juice (with actual chunks of aloe in it, my personal favourite) and the evil ginseng drink to name a few.

- I think it's meant to be a desert: apple, raisin and cucumber all tossed in mayonaisse. ??

- Chopped cabbage with ketchup on top; on the side, sliced cucumber with ketchup. (This was at a "Chinese Restaurant" in Naju. I think maybe the owners thought since we were white we'd appreciate ketchup on everything??)

- Pickled radish slices (used as a dessert and a veggie wrap).

- Soy bean soup (kinda smells like feet, but very healthy I'm sure).

Typical Lunch At My School: Yesterday on my plate there was (in clockwise order) simmered and sauced octopus tentacles, new kimchi, old kimchi (I didn't eat any of it), some sort of salad which was meant to be the desert), seaweed soup with mussels, and rice.

A Bit of a Whiner Moment (Feel Free to Skip This)

I know everyone who reads this is going to think "boo-frickin-hoo Cathy", but I'm feeling a bit of the post-excellent-and-very-long-vacation blues. I'm back at work (but not teaching yet) so I'm just kinda sitting around in the office being useless and dwelling on my boredom. Now that I'm back from my various adventures and counting up how much I've spent, I realize that I should also start saving some money, which means I'll be doing less fun stuff.
Then I talked to Alex and he made me feel better: "awe c'mon, you know you're looking forward to seeing all those cute little faces again and being called beautiful and Candy and mixed-race" (that's a direct quote).

That Was Japan

As with the Thailand pictures, for chronological order, scroll down to get to my first Japan entry. Here's a final picture of Laurel and myself waiting for our Beetle to go back to Korea. It was hella busy, so our boat was late and we had to wait around. Our faces looked like this.

Japan IV Miyajima

Just a three minute ferry ride from Hiroshima was an island called Miyajima, which was a bit of a tourist and deer paradise.

This one's a view of the island from the ferry. Yeah, I've got photographic skills aplenty. The island seemed to have a strong focus on buying stuff, but the tourist items were so expensive that we didn't buy anything. Then when we went to lunch at this little restaurant, Kristen and myself ended up ordering some sort of rice and meat with raw (and I mean completely raw) egg dish. Mmmmm... delicious.

There are a bunch of deer that inhabit the island, wandering around, sitting on picnic tables. Some Korean tourists decided to try to feed some, and they became completely surrounded. The deer were trying to jump up on them as well, so they had to stand on top of some tables. Being the good samaritan that I am, I took pictures as they yelled "Hajimmmmaaaa!" (stop it!) at the deer. It was funny.

This is the Otorii Gate. I'm not sure what it's significance is apart from its role as a big fat tourist attraction in the water.

Japan III Hiroshima

I could never live in Tokyo, it was a bit much, but Hiroshima was beautiful. Much thanks to the US for bombing Hiroshima so they had to rebuild everything so nicely!! Yeah, my angst towards American politics and military was only heightened on this trip. Not that I think Japan was blameless, but after seeing pictures of everything, models of what was left of Hiroshima, accounts of people who were disfigured, children who died, mothers who gave birth to disabled children etc., I was a little bitter.

This is the "A-Bomb Dome". It was one of the only buildings to be left semi-standing after the bomb fell, and it's the only building that has been left in ruins as a reminder. The rest of the area is a big memorial, full of statues, museums, fountains etc.



Ringing the Peace Bell.

This is a globe that was in one of the museums which shows all of the worlds Nuclear weapons and where they are (none in North Korea, I checked). Of course the States has the most. And take a look at pristine Canada, nuclear weapon free! I love it.

Japan II Mt. Fuji

So yeah, I REALLY wanted to see Mt. Fuji. A lot. Laurel and I spent the better part of one of our days trying to see Mt. Fuji.

We took several subways and trains, and as we neared, the clouds began to part and I caught a brief glimpes of the top of the mountain, above the clouds, far off in the distance. I decided to wait to get a picture so I could get a really good shot.

BIG MISTAKE. So this first shot is a picture of where Mt. Fuji would be if it wasn't so freaking cloudy. We got a really expensive cab out to a "Mt. Fuji Lookout", but to no avail. Eventually we had to give up because we were meeting with Kristen back in Tokyo, so it turned out to be a big waste of time. If I ever go back, I'll go in the summer so I can climb Mt. Fuji. Then I'll DEFINITELY get to see it.

This is a picture of a picture of Mt. Fuji I took to make myself feel better. It didn't work.

Okay, Japan

Konicheewah! (sp?) which means hello, and is one of the three words I could almost say during my Japan adventure.

So, from the beginning; Myself, Kristen, Laurel and Kevin decided that we were bored and since we didn't have to be back to work for over a week, what better way to spend our time and money (lots of it) then by visiting the nearby Japan? So we all booked tickets on a "Beetle", which were these little boats that were almost hover crafts. They were REALLY fast (we got to Fukuokua in under three hours), but it was kind of choppy and every time we hit a wave it felt like we'd crashed into something. Some really annoying foreigners that had brought beer with them on the trip kept on claiming that we'd hit a whale (ha ha.. ha). They brought shame to Canada, but they were from Alberta, so I guess it's okay that they were being really loud and obnoxious. When we arrived at Fukuokua, we all caught a train that would eventually be bound for Tokyo. We had all bought these wonderful Japan Rail Passes, which ended up being pure gold!! I was talking to this woman who had been heading for Tokyo from the same place and she had decided to take an overnight bus that would get there in over twelve, but our train ride was about six. Saweeet.

So we get to Tokyo, and it's crazy. Here are some pictures, but I don't think they even come close to showing the huge sums of people there are!!

This is a Shinjuku District picture. It was one of the big "downtown" sections of Tokyo. It may be hard to see, but I was trying to get a shot of the mass amounts of people crossing the street.

In a lot of ways, Japan reminded me of Korea; Tokyo is a lot like Seoul. Except that Tokyo is on CRACK. I stood in the middle of an intersection as literally HUNDREDS of other people surrounded me in the centre of the street. Ever seen the movie Baraka? There's a scene of an aerial view of a busy street, and it's been sped up too look like a thousand ants stopping and going as the lights change. That's kind of what it felt like.

Here's an outdoor market in Asakusa (another district in Tokyo). This is where I bought lots of expensive trinkets and ate strange little rice cakes. After the inexpensiveness of Thailand and Korea, paying Canadian-like prices in Japan was painful. I'm going to be even more stingy when I get back to Canada. "What?? They want more than two dollars for my meal?? No way man."

And this is some sort of theatre play house that Kristen and I went to. Japanese theatre was an interesting experience. I felt like I was in the 1500's; all of the female roles are played by men and it was very traditional. As we began to watch, it was all very interesting; everything is overacted and there were all sorts of sound affects (bells and drums) to go with the action. Then people from the audience started yelling stuff in Japanese at the actors!! Apparently there are several kinds of acting "houses" and all of the different groups have different styles. When a member of the audience identifies a movement (all of the actors had these crazy, almost interpretive dance moves to go with their dialogue) that is associated with a certain group, he yells out the name of the group. But as it turns out, Japanese theatre is very slowwww. It involved a lot of talking (which of course I didn't understand), so I may have fallen asleep at some point, but I admit nothing.

We also got to see a few Harajuku* girls, which was quite interesting, but caused me to have that stupid Gwen Stefani song in my head the entire trip ("those harajuku girls, damn they've got some wicked style" etc. etc.).

*Harajuku girls are Japanese teenagers who like to dress up. And by dress up I mean crazy colours of dyed hair, bright bizarre makeup, huge platform boots, little bo-peep dresses. I'm not kidding.

Back to Work

Yep, my big long holiday is officially over. Back to the grueling schedule at Naju English Town. I don't have any classes until March 12th, so I've got some time to put all my Japan pictures up!! But before I do that, here's a random picture. It's of Stu, Laurel Alex and myself hanging out at a waygookin bar in Gwang-ju. I just thought we all looked cute.