Travelling with Cathy

Goose Break Wrap Up

2011-05-15T02:36:00.006+09:00

So, just a couple more days and Goose Break will be over and it's back to school. I have to admit that for the most part I was incredibly lazy throughout the entire two weeks. We went for a few walks, but for the most part I owe the passing of time to my new friends Netflix and Kindle (thanks for the kindle Mom!). It has been like a ghost town up until about yesterday; people are starting to return from their various hunting destinations. You look up and there's yet another helicopter bringing people back from wherever.

One of the teachers that lives near us is very interested in Native culture and had made her own simple yet very interesting version of a dream catcher that she had hanging up in her house, so I thought I'd give it a try what with all the free time I've got at the moment. All of the sticks, rocks and feathers (the feathers are goose feathers, which I found in a spot where it looks like a few geese were plucked) are gathered from around the lake.

Of course these are not really what dream catchers are supposed to look like, I was just playing around, so they're more just loosely related to and somewhat looking like dream catchers. I would really like to do some with the students; They're pretty simple to make and the materials are cheap! It's just too bad the kids can't go out and gather the materials on their own. Not that they would want to do that anyhow...

It's been relatively warm these last couple of weeks, but there's still ice out there. In fact, just this past Tuesday we were walking around by the lake and people were still snowmobiling out there. Dangerous stuff! We went for a long walk along the coast one day and saw a few little flocks of geese flying overhead, but they were headed straight for a goose blind in the distance, so now a few of them are probably in someone's freezer.

A Tour of Town!

2011-04-18T04:44:00.007+09:00

So, over the long weekend we went for a nice walk around the town. First off, the Cop Shop. All of the cruisers are big blinged out SUV's, which I find pretty entertaining. Although from what I hear the police are generally not all that reliable. Although Sunday morning I was at the grocery store and a man collapsed on the road and the police came very quickly (The police station was less than a block from where the man fell, but still!).

This is just an example of some Cree writing. It's so very confusing; everyone speaks it, but very few of the people can actually read and write Cree. There are so many symbols and some of them are just turned on a different angle and mean something else.... confusing!

Axep, the local grocery store. The only grocery store. Most people living here drive the 45 minutes to Chibougamau to do their grocery shopping and also just to get out of town! It has all the necessities though, and when you consider the gas money spent is about the same price as Chibougamau.

The towns "airport" for the moment. This plane can be heard flying in and out of town a few times a day as Goose Break approaches. Many people have left town already to pursue Geese. Not sure when they decide to switch their skis to flotation devices. The ice is still safe to walk on, but there are lots of puddles on top of the snow and ice that look pretty sketchy to me!

Whenever we go out to the lake random dogs will come up to us wanting food and attention. This friendly guy is a little freaky looking though.

Goose decoys! On the section of the lake that turns into a river that never freezes (not sure how it works, but the water is VERY deep) there are a few goose decoys set up next to blinds for when the actual LIVE geese arrive.

It was a beautiful day for a walk, I must say. The water is dark, but looks nice and clean and I'm looking forward to going swimming! It just needs to stop snowing first, which is what's happening outside right now. This coming weekend is when Goose Break officially begins, and I'm sure very few people will be showing up for work. Not sure what we'll be doing; probably just relaxing and exploring. It would be interesting to go on a goose hunt somewhere, but we shall see.

Northern Update!

2011-04-03T08:03:00.004+09:00

I've been very lazy in the last little while! Forgive my negligence; I wish I had a decent excuse, but I've got nothing!

Things are starting to warm up (although it's been snowing in the last couple of days), but there's still plenty of snow left. The roads are slowly melting to reveal pavement (lots of potholes!) and gravel and all of the snow is becoming dirty looking, as it does in the spring time. The lake is still walkable though, so on this past Sunday afternoon after going to the teepee we went for a walk on one of the MANY islands around the town, but got a few nice views of the town. This first picture's just some more teepee goodness. Someone brought some bacon to cook over the fire; pure genius!

If you look past the town and into the distance (in the above photo), that is the section of the lake that we would walk on to go to Murray's Lodge, so we're on the opposite side of town.

This one's just from a slightly different angle, but you can see better the section of the lake that apparently never quite freezes over. Must be some sort of spring that keeps the water circulating? Geologist I most certainly am not! We were walking around in the burned out section of the trees again and trying to figure out how long ago the fire was. There are some short trees and brush growing, but it seems to be a really rocky area, so it's hard to say how long it's been.

School's going as well as can be expected. The last few days I've been feeling like the students and I have reached some sort of understanding, but already I know from experience that the moment I start to feel comfortable I'll get a couple new students and have to start all over again!! Today we watched "The Outsiders" (classic Patrick Swayze!) to celebrate getting through the book together in class, which was-- to put it nicely-- a battle. I think I heard every complaint and lie under the sun while slogging through this book. My students are never willing to do homework because they're "too busy" but then five minutes later they'll tell me how terribly boring Reception Centre is, and how they have nothing to do. Hmmmmm...

At this point I also need to figure out what I'll be doing with myself... stay here and teach if they offer it? Try and find a job somewhere back in Ontario? I'll think about it another time... It hurts my head!

The House!

2011-03-20T08:13:00.007+09:00

Mother, as requested, a couple pictures of the house. I only took pictures of our main living areas, but it's a nice place. Four bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen/living etc. Incidently a very nice alarm system that we have no idea how to work or what the code to disarm it could possibly be! One morning I was cooking bacon and stupidly trying to do the dishes at the same time so I of course set the fire alarm off! Then next was our house alarm. About ten minutes later a couple of municipal/fire vehicles showed up to make sure everything was okay.

My laptop near the couch for entertainment purposes! We watch all movies on that little thing!

And here's our house from the outside! Pretty simple; in fact, there are many houses in the area that look EXACTLY like this one! It's sort of like little townhouse complexes in the middle of nowhere. King of strange when you think about it, but it works. We also have a back yard that I have yet to check out because there's a lot of snow out there. You see that big pile in our front yard there? That's nothing, in fact, last week people we hauling huge piles of snow out of yards and filling big trucks to take it all away. So that pile is substantially smaller than it was. Not sure how it all works, but the snow-plow-men clean out every driveway in town. How sweet is that??

All of the roads in town are covered with a 6" layer of ice that is starting to melt now as the weather gets a little warmer. It's made walking home from work a bit of a mess, but other than that I'm looking forward to seeing everything in the summer. March is already almost over! Crazy!

Random Walking Around

2011-03-20T07:46:00.003+09:00

This morning the alarm clock went off at 8am so that we could have plenty of time to get stuff together before going to Murray's Lodge, but it just wasn't happening. The last few days I've been feeling sick; a few of my students have had colds and kindly passed on the fun. So instead we slept in and went for a shorter walk on one of the trails near our house. Another beautiful sunny day, and nice and warm! Only about -8, so almost summer-like!

This is sort of a freaky picture, but I like it because the shadows look like they're blurred and moving. I also enjoy shooting directly at the sun (which is bad because it can cause damage to the camera's lens apparently...) but I get lots of interesting reflections and colours with them.

This is another favourite; he looks like he's about to fall over! In other news, things are still going interestingly as ever! Endless drama between students and trying to make them learn in between. I have a new student who has been EXTRA difficult and I was feeling very uncharitable towards her until her worker told me what had been going on in her life and I had to realize that the things she says to me are usually due to her frustrations with other things beyond the classroom. So I'm trying to get better at not taking things personally because these kids are acting out for all sorts of reasons beyond my comprehension.

My students are always telling me how boring I am because I don't have a t.v. They're always asking me if I've heard of this singer or that commercial and I always have to say no! It has made me realize how out of touch with popular culture I am (and have been for years now!). Haven't had cable since before University (well, except in Korea, but all for one channel were in Korean...), and I can't say that I miss it. I still see the stuff I want to see, I just find myself hating 95% of what is on t.v. nowadays.

Teepee (Tipi? Tepee?) Goodness

2011-03-16T09:13:00.005+09:00

This past weekend was all about the socializing. Friday and Saturday evening we went to a neighbours (also teachers here in town) house for drinks and whatnot. On Friday evening I saw a teacher that I'd glimpsed at a few of the meetings and thought to myself "I KNOW that girl" but couldn't place it until I saw her up close. She also just happened to be in my orientation group when I moved to Korea! What are the odds of something like that? Bizarre!

Anyhow, on Sunday morning we were invited along for a trip to "the teepee". A couple of the teachers have built their own teepee in the middle of nowhere and go there every Sunday for hiking and bannock cooking purposes! Very awesome! The teepee is on Reserve land, so they went to the Band Council and asked for the space and they said yes; this struck me as a very excellent idea, and awesome of the band council to let people use the space. It's literally in the middle of nowhere and right on the bigger portion of the lake which I haven't seen yet. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

The bannock was awesome; a few of the teachers had made different kinds, so we went for the cinnamon raison variety of course! I can't explain it, but everything tastes better outside, cooked on a fire.

We also made a stop at what appeared to be a gravel pit (a short hike from the teepee) and a few people slid down the big hill to the bottom of the pit. Very entertaining stuff, but I declined because I was just wearing my jeans and didn't want to freeze in cold wet pants.

Another beautiful day! It was also relatively warm; maybe around -10 or -15??

Students were driving me crazy today; they're getting comfortable with me and therefore acting like little demons and trying to get away with whatever they can. Sleep will make things better.

Clumsy Cathy As Usual

2011-03-04T11:31:00.005+09:00

This post is a little late entirely due to my laziness, but definitely warrants a bloggin' I should think. Sunday afternoon, after Saturday's walk to Murrays Lodge, we decided we hadn't had enough I guess and went for a long walk in the woods that are in view when we walk outside the house. We're also situated on the hill above the lake, so you can see it from our house even though it's about a 10 minute walk to the water. Anyhow, we followed a random snowmobile track which led to a long and winding path through the woods. It was a beautiful, clear sunny day so this made for good photo taking opportunities as well!

We found a random fire pit along the trail that we stopped to check out. It's kind of funny to see a fire built on what is basically water! As the fire burns it's also melting the snow, so it all ended up a couple feet below where it started. I wonder how hard it is to keep a fire like that going?

Funny Story: As we were walking along we heard the sound of an approaching snowmobile. He was further ahead because I'd stopped to take some photos. I stepped off the main snowmobile track to make way for the incoming ski-doer and sunk in to just below my knees. This was no problem. As the snowmobiler passed I stepped back again into the "fresh" snow by accident and was immediately in over my waist and unable to get up! I started laughing and yelling "Heeeeellllppp! I'm stuck! It's cold!!" His camera was up and it took him a while to react or say anything (and come to my aid!!!) so I realized he'd been filming the whole thing! Hahahaha... the footage is priceless. Another classic Cathy moment, but on film this time so I can be reminded of my gracefulness! Lesson learned: do not step off the trails because the snow can be very deep!

The Lodge Again

2011-02-28T05:52:00.003+09:00

The second walk to Murray's Lodge and back was much more pleasant this time around. When we walked over the lake there were lots of snowmoblie trails which meant the snow had been packed down nicely. This made things considerably more pleasant; or first walk took about 2.5 hours, while this time it was well under 2! And a lot less pain involved.

Drama!

2011-02-24T10:27:00.005+09:00

Monday and Tuesday were meant to be PED days (the Ontario equivalent of a PA Day). Monday we were in school just doing independant work, and Tuesday all of the teachers were meeting at the "complex" (also known as the towns ultra-fancy arena!) at 9am. So we dutifully show up before nine, but there are very few teachers hanging around, which is no big deal, so we sit on a bench to wait. Eventually someone tells us that the meetings are postponed until 10am; so we decide to wait it out rather than walk back home and just come right back again.

Then the principal arrives and tells us that the meetings will be cancelled due to an "incident" in the community. Someone living right across the road from the public school (and the public school is right beside the highschool) was wandering the neighbourhood in the middle of the night very drunk. My knowlege of the situation is very fuzzy, because we weren't really told the full story (since cops can't disclose that sort of thing), but from what I know, a neighbour saw this person and called the cops because the inebriated gentleman apparently owned quite a few guns. Not that gun ownership is such a strange thing here; there are many hunters and as far as I know native people living on the reserve don't have to worry about firearm permits or any such thing. So the police shut down the entire area, residents were evacuated in the middle of the night and the man didn't come out of his house until after 1pm the next day.

So the principal tells us to go home for the day on Tuesday, since all the roads near the school are blocked off by police and the school is of course closed anyhow. Crazy stuff! So we go home, relax and just stay away from the area.

Wednesday the school and several School Board members held a meeting to discuss everything; how everyone was feeling, their concerns and questions etc. There were many upset teachers (many of them probably living in that area that got knocks on their doors at 2am), so the meeting went on for a while. Towards the end it wasn't even really about the incident at all, but just concerns in general about the community and handling students. Being so new, I kind of felt removed from the situation. Yes, it happened in the town in which I now live, but I feel like that sort of thing can happen absolutely anywhere so I'm not going to worry about it too much. Life in general is dangerous and a big chaotic mess, isn't it?

Today (Thursday) I was back in school as per usual. All of the sudden I've gone from 3 students (bliss! heaven!) to 8 (booo! hellish!!) and they're all united in their efforts to make my life difficult, but that's alright.

Murray's Lodge

2011-02-21T01:41:00.004+09:00

So Saturday morning we met up with another teacher from the highschool named Galina who would show us how to find our way to Murray's Lodge which is about 10km out of town. We had decided to do the walk over the lake rather than using the road because it is supposed to be a couple kilometres less. But it had snowed the night before and we don't have snowshoes (yet! I really want to get a pair soon...), so we were sinking in with every step! Galina was on cross country skis, so she was soon way ahead of us and we were just following her tracks and snowmobile trails. It was only about -20, so soon I was sweating in my big coat. It's a lot more work walking in snow!! But it was beautiful and we stopped often to take photos along the way.

One really nice thing about Mistissini is that there are these big friendly dogs EVERYWHERE and they'll run up to you to be pet and beg for food. Whenever I walk to work there are just random dogs roaming the streets, following kids around, frolicking. Many of them are outside dogs from the looks of it as well, so these are some tough animals since tonight for example it's supposed to go down to around -40. Anyhow, as we were walking we were joined by a pack of dogs who ran out to us to check out what we were doing.

I have many pictures like this of him waiting for me to catch up! This walk made me realize that I'm very out of shape! But I love the picture because you can get an idea of how big the lake is; and we were only on a tiny little portion of it. We left our house at about 9am and over 7km later arrived at the Lodge in time for lunch. Every Saturday they serve a free meal to whoever cares to show up, consisting of traditional Cree dishes. We ate Ptarmigan (a partridge-like bird), Caribou stew, and bannock. It was all really good! Although I was starving by the time we got there, so I would have been loving whatever they chose to serve! I'm looking forward to trying goose though, my students tell me it's very delicious.

The lodge itself is a pretty simple building. There is a giant stove in the centre of it that was quite a contrast to the temperature outside. There was a bit of a crowd there, along with quite a few teachers from the highschool which was nice. I'm pretty isolated working where I am, so it was nice to get out and talk to people. After lunch we walked back along the road, so in all we walked around 17km, give or take. The walk back was longer but much easier because we were walking along the paved shoulder so the snow was packed down and infinitely easier in the walking department.

Then in the evening we went to a teachers house for a "guitar night" which was fun. I was the only novice there though, so I was just a spectator, but it was still lovely. I need to practice!

School and Such

2011-02-19T08:52:00.007+09:00

People keep giving me a sympathetic look whenever I tell them I work at the Centre. I'm working in a facility for young offenders, so yeah, my students aren't the most willing to work or even generally going to listen to a word I say. Regardless, I've really been enjoying it; I know I'm not the greatest teacher since I'm not qualified and so in a way I'm sort of learning along with the students. But every now and then I'll have a lesson where one of the students shows even a tiny bit of interest and it all feels worthwhile. It's all about those tiny moments! My most difficult student right now is The Charmer (no names since these are young offenders...). She draws swastikas on everything, she regularly steps into my path to try to intimidate me, she swears at me, I'll give her a hand-out and she will just slide it right onto the floor and will often act like being alive is just a monumental task. Today one of my other students wanted to learn how to draw faces and I showed them how to split up the face and draw a grid etc. to get proportions and placement correct, and suddenly The Charmer was participating and talking and just being a regular kid! It was awesome.

Other than that, things are just generally good. Still enjoying it here and trying to find things. Some of the buildings in town are very mysterious; they're commercial looking buildings but sometimes there's just no sign out front to tell you what it is! One small problem; there is ONE bank in the entire village and it's Desjardin. I have CIBC and can't make deposits at Desjardins, and the school paid me with a check instead of direct deposit for whatever reason. Tis a small town indeed! The closest CIBC is in Chibougamau which is over an hours drive and I have no mode of transportation. But that's alright; if that's the biggest obstacle here, I can handle it.

The last couple days have been unseasonably warm; today it was above freezing and was even raining as I walked back to work after lunch. But it's supposed to go back down to around -20 again tomorrow in time for our planned walk to Murray's Lodge, which is about 10km outside of town. Apparently many go to the lodge every weekend for traditional Cree craft-making and foods, so we've been wanting to check it out! Hoping to try some goose and beaver meat!

It's Cold Here!

2011-02-13T02:58:00.005+09:00

My number one observation thus far.

So, as of the 28th of January I am living in a town small Northern town in Quebec. There is one road into town, which is not as rustic as I was expecting at all, in fact it's paved. Because it's so close to another larger town called Chibougamau, it also has many of the amenities that I was worried about doing without! The grocery store is a little more expensive than one you'd see in a more populated area, but it's pretty reasonable. I'd been expecting things to be five times the price, but it's more like just adding 50 cents onto a loaf of bread.

My job is interesting! I work where young teens come from all over the James Bay area. The Centre is a sort of institution for troubled youth that are awaiting court dates. I teach all the essentials to students who are not overly enthused (to put it nicely...), but the daily resistance to everything educational seems to keep things lively. Some students are only there for a day, and others stay for months at a time depending on the situation.

The town is quite lovely; nice little houses arranged in a sort of suburb in literally the middle of nowhere. The town is surrounded by woods and the large lake. Our first weekend here we went for a long walk on the frozen over lake and checked out a couple of the islands. There is A LOT to explore, apparently there are quite a few little islands on the lake. I discovered new leg muscles as I trudged through the snow on the ice; but survived. Before we came here I bought a new extra-warm coat and snowpants, and by the end of the walk I was sweating, even though it was easily -20 outside. The days have been generally in the -30's area since we've been here, but pretty manageable. You know it's cold when you step outside and your nostril hairs instantly freeze. Pleasant!

Talking to one of the teachers at the highschool, we also found out that there are in fact lots of moose and caribou in the area, which is cool! I hope to see some wildlife soon! When we were driven from the Airport in Chibougamau, our taxi driver was full of interesting facts about the area, but claimed that there were no caribou in the area, which I was sad about! But the teacher claims to have seen them on a hunting trip no more than 10km outside of town. Sweet!

Vermont

2009-04-14T08:39:00.003+09:00

In Vermont on my way back to Ontario. The squalor in which I am forced to reside this evening:

Hahahahahahaha! Yeah.... that's a king size bed. I want one for Christmas. Yes??

Back to Ontario

2009-04-13T05:30:00.003+09:00

I'm in Amherst Nova Scotia again on my way out of town. Wa waaaaaa... This morning I left my Hotel in Dartmouth; it was grey, but didn't seem too bad so I figured what the hell? and started driving towards Cape Breton. As I got closer and closer it got rainy and foggy, so much so that I couldn't see more that the road in front of me. And so I thought to myself, am I going to drive all the way up here for sight-seeing when I won't be able to see the sights? Am I enjoying myself driving around in this shitty weather? Of course not! So I'm heading back, and thinking that I'll stop off at the parents cabin on the way home to continue my little vacation until I come back on the weekend. This also means that I don't get to see NFLD, but as I stated before, there's no guarantee I'd actually SEE anything, so it'll just have to be a reason to come back out east someday in the future! What I did see was awesome (PEI being my favorite), and I wasn't really expecting much anyhow at this time of year.

So anyways, as I neared the Cabot Trail and visibility became less and less I decided to turn around and go back, and as I left all that rain and fog and headed back towards New Brunswick it was snowing... A LOT.... so here I am hanging out in Amerst til the morning.

Weather Sucks

2009-04-12T05:05:00.001+09:00

In Dartmouth NS, but if it starts snowing like it's supposed to I'm done! Out! Today I did a little driving through NS but didn't actually see or do much since it was pouring and foggy all day. Shitty!

No Matter Where I am, I'm All About The Classy!

2009-04-11T07:32:00.003+09:00

From the lighthouse I went to the small fishing town of Souris. Unremarkable except for the fact that it made me laugh. I stopped to check out a little harbour that was full of snow...

Then I saw these two VERY clever peices of grafitti. Hahahahahahaha...

Obligatory Lighthouse Picture Alert

2009-04-11T07:27:00.003+09:00

This lighthouse was... somewhere... I wasn't going to stop, but then I thought, what the hell they're all over the place and historical and such AND people love this shit! There's nothing un-petty about a lighthouse by the ocean.

PEI National Park

2009-04-11T07:14:00.004+09:00

Confederation bridge, the bridge I took from NB to PEI was... long. The guardrails were just high enough that you couldn't see anything around you, which was crap! Charlottetown was nice enough, but by far the best place (where I went this morning) was Prince Edward Island National Park. Just awesome! White sand dunes amidst the red cliffs, sunny beautiful weather, and of course the beach. I could definitely live around there. Only pictures will do, really:

Hopewell Rocks

2009-04-11T07:03:00.004+09:00

Sigh... I guess I'll stop being lazy then... since I got in trouble. Alright, I'm going to split this into several posts so the don't get to long and I don't get confused. Yesterday before I left New Brunswick I decided I would try to find Hopewell Rocks. This is the place where the tides are the highest in the world which has created the flowerpot-like rock formations. Very cool!
Of course they're on park property and the park was closed, but I thought "screw that! I've already come this far" as I parked in front of the locked gate and went for a little hike. The snow on the trails was a couple feet deep, but I kept going until I reached the stairs to get down to the ocean floor... which had been raised and locked so that dumb tourists (such as myself) didn't get trapped and drown when the tide rose. I still got to see a few cool rock formations from above though, so it wasn't a wasted trip!

So... Lazy...

2009-04-10T09:09:00.001+09:00

I've made it to PEI, but at the moment I'm too lazy to write a decent post about it. Tomorrow!

Fundy Fun (I hate myself...)

2009-04-09T09:12:00.003+09:00

This morning I started my journey in St. John and headed off to the New Brunswick Museum. Walked around feeling all superior and intelligent looking at local art, but have to admit that my favorite part of the museum was their collection of whale bones! Very cool!! There was an entire skeleton suspended from the ceiling that looked temptingly like a jungle gym.

From St. John I moved on to the oh-so-famous "Reversing Falls" in which the water is supposed to flow up stream in a very entertaining way. I got there and...

nothing... well... it's there but I think the tide may be too high and the water levels higher than usual due to all the rain and whatnot. Look closely and you can sort of see the switch in water direction. Wa waaaaaaaa.Then I was off to the small town of St. Martin that was near a section of the Bay of Fundy. It was very... secluded. Lot's of old weather-beaten houses that looked unlivable if not for the the awesome nearby views. After getting a couple decent shots at a deserted tourist spot I tried to find some other viewpoints, but every road I went down just... ended. All of the suden the pavement would end and it would be a muddy snowfilled pit where the road should be! Made me wish I had a larger vehicle or an ATV of some sort! But it was still fun wandering around and checking out the area.My last stop was Moncton, where I found a room at yet another random hotel. I've been going for the semi-expensive ones ($80-$90) since it's sort of a short trip anyhow and those really cheap motels ALWAYS smell like a dirty homeless man. It's worth the extra $20 to breathe easily.

Still Cold

2009-04-08T07:23:00.003+09:00

So I'm in Fredericton New Brunswick, which is good, but the weather is still crap, which is not good. I'm a little worried about ferries to the islands since there's still a lot of snow... I just checked it out online and it looks like I'm set. I can just take confederation bridge to PEI and there are ferries running to NFLD island. Wooo! I just hope I get to see some sun on the trip at some point. I don't mind cold and snow, but it's depressing to drive for hours through rain! Today I stopped off in a cute little town called Grand Falls on the way to Fredericton and took a couple of pics, so here the are!

I'll explain the first one. I was on the Trans Can after leaving Grand Falls and part of the road must have been redone and moved slightly, beause all of the sudden my GPS got really confused and every five seconds she'd say "re-calculating!" and try to direct me to roads that I couldn't get o from the highway. hen one time after re-calculating, all it said on the map was "Canada" as though I was off-road and headed towards a town called Canada... weird... so yeah, sometimes you can't really trust your GPS...

Shit Weather!

2009-04-08T07:03:00.002+09:00

As of now I’m in a little town called Levis just outside of Quebec City. This morning I left my hotel early in the hopes of a nice walk around Ottawa. Of course it started snowing, so I only got as far as the parliament buildings before seeking refuge in a Starbucks to get away from the snow. I tried to wait it out, but after a while I just gave up and moved on to my next destination: Montreal. The city of ridiculous amounts of one way streets, unmarked lanes and tiny traffic lights that I would barely notice if not for the mass amounts of traffic in front and around me guiding me along. There was a downtown section that I wanted to visit near McGill University, but for the life of me I couldn’t find a parking space nearby, so eventually I gave up and moved on to Quebec City. QC was surprisingly hilly and beautiful! Lots of ornate old buildings and narrow cobbled streets to walk down.
Some pictures:
One of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa. They were beautiful but it started snowing and became so freaking cold that I didn't stay long.
The rest are in Quebec City within the walled portion of the city. Fun!

First Stop: Ottawa

2009-04-06T07:40:00.002+09:00

Made it to Ottawa with no issues. The only mildly interesting thing that happened was a litle dog running on the 401. I was in the other lane, but the car that was beside me came very close to hitting it! I don't know how the little guy ended up on the highway; hopefully not some jerk dropping it off on the side of the road!

Tomorrow I'm going to go downtown and check out the parliament buildings and maybe the National gallery, then off to Montreal! Fun!

The Quarterlife Crisis

2009-04-03T06:15:00.002+09:00

So true it's disturbing/funny:

"This phenomenon, known as the “Quarterlife Crisis,” is as ubiquitous as it is intangible. Unrelenting indecision, isolation, confusion and anxiety about working, relationships and direction is reported by people in their mid-twenties to early thirties who are usually urban, middle class and well-educated; those who should be able to capitalize on their youth, unparalleled freedom and free-for-all individuation. They can’t make any decisions, because they don’t know what they want, and they don’t know what they want because they don’t know who they are, and they don’t know who they are because they’re allowed to be anyone they want."

So, in reaction to my quarerlife crisis I'm going on another roadtrip starting this weekend! Last summer I went out West, so it only makes sense that I'll go East. I haven't actually planned anything yet (leaving in two days...), but I've got Pabo, Garmin and my income tax return to keep me going for a couple of weeks. I'll be posting while I'm gone so mom doesn't worry. Pictures to come!

Been A While!

2009-01-24T09:59:00.004+09:00

I know no one reads this thing anymore, but I figured what the hell. No interesting news to speak of; still living in Canada and working for IceCulture, as oppressive as it is. I've started going to the gym with a personal trainer-- trying to get into shape and train for my crazy "walk the Bruce Trail" scheme-- I actually enjoy going to the gym despite my extreme clumsiness!

Since the economy sucks so bad I've been thinking that I might be able to get lots of time off this summer and that means either my Europe trip or driving out East... It all hinges on my car Pabo! If he survives up until my vacation I'll have the money to go to Europe, but if he dies in the near future I will have to buy a new car which means no expensive flights to other continents!

Other than that, my life is the same. I feel like I haven't changed in the least since highschool (mentally, not physically). I can always be depended on to be... exactly... the... same... A bit depressing, no?

But hey, here are some ice pictures! This is me on an ice throne kissing Jack Frost and after carving a big dragon for Barrie Winter Carnival.

The Trip in Sum

2008-07-11T08:50:00.002+09:00

So the cross-Canada trip turned out to be pretty awesome. Now that I'm back life is just a bit depressing, but it always is after a good vacation. Of course I have had several regrets about not staying in a couple places long enough, or wasting my time on stuff I shouldn't have, but all in all I think I saw and did a lot in a pretty short amount of time! Some interesting statistics:

- Driving through the prairies I almost ran over at least 20 prairie dogs and saw about one hundred others.
- When I was in Northern Ontario there were always cliffs and rocks along the road. I saw a ridiculous number of inukshooks. But not many others in the rest of Canada.
- It feels like about a million people have responded "By yourself??!!??" incredulously in response to me telling them that I went on the trip alone.
- Can't even count the number of times I thought to myself "I'm driving to Vancouver!" or wherever and smiled to myself happily.
- Talked to my car, the radio and my GPS system an embarassing number of times.
- All the motels have begun to blur into one little motel room in my mind.
- Saw many many state troopers on the highways, cops in Canada stopping motorists that had passed me and did not get pulled over once. Nice!
- The odds that my car would survive the trip: 1:1 000 000 000!! But he's still alive.

Since I am a very greedy girl, I've already formulated my next vacations in my mind. You'd think I would want to put my money towards those pesky osap payments, a decent car, a downpayment on a house perhaps; but nope, I'm already planning my next trips!! Next summer I want to do the ultra-touristy cliche backpacking trip around Europe. I want to see all of the places in real life that I only got to glimpse in Art History classes. I want to be an unwashed backpacker carrying a couple changes of clothes and my passport to countries like Germany, Poland, Italy, all of the UK!!

The summer after that? I want to hike the Bruce Trail. It's about 800kms along the Niagara escarpment from Tobermory to Niagara falls. How awesome would THAT be? All I need to do in the meantime is find myself a big buff male who's crazy enough to be willing to go (and put up with me for over a month!!), able to help me carry provisions, and serve as protection (mom has of course informed me that going by myself is a bad idea and I tend to agree)! A friend knew this girl who did it by sending herself packages along the way, which is smart.

After that, I'm not sure... any suggestions? Donations are also very welcome. My job doesn't pay all that well.

Wa Waaaaaaa

2008-07-04T08:38:00.002+09:00

Why is Ontario so freaking big?? My second day in Ontario now... still driving. I'm in a town called Wa Wa on the way to Sault Ste Marie. Today I drove from Dryden to Wawa and it took me from 9am to 7pm (stopped for gas twice). It wouldn't have been that bad if I wasn't stopping for construction along the trans can all damn day! Northern Ontario is beautiful though, lots of hills and rocks and lakes.

Tomorrow I'm going to head out early and hopefully make it to the Peterborough area to visit Katelyn and Chadd. I'm finally getting sick of driving now! I just want to sleep in my bed! On my way into Wawa I was really hungry, tired and had to pee so I went to the first motel I saw, the "Wawa Motor Inn", which I think turned out to be te most expensive place in town! Later I was looking for food and found a bunch of cheap places (such as the illustrious Beaver Motel), but decided it was fine since this is hopefully going to be my last motel on the trip!! Ideally. I fel like I got nowhere today, hopefully the driving will be a little better as I get further south!

Manitoba

2008-07-02T07:26:00.002+09:00

And now I'm in Brandon, Manitoba. Started off the day driving p to Riding Mountains National Park and got in for free since apparently it's Canada Day! This meant that it was hellishly busy on the beach, but that didn't stop me from having a sim in "Clear Water Lake". There was also a band there and I got to hear a heartfelt "Oh, Canada", which was quite nice. Then I drove back down to Brandon, where I am right now. Tomorrow a stop in Winnipeg to look around (there's supposed to be a gallery of grafitti!!) then I'll be back to Ontario already!!

Gangsters and the Prairies

2008-07-02T07:19:00.001+09:00

This morning I drove to Moose Jaw to visit the somewhat famous Al Capone Tunnels. Everyone’s heard of the big crime boss Al Capone selling booze during prohibition in New York, then Chicago. But did you know he had a series of tunnels made in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan? Our tour guides showed us around the tunnels which had Capone’s office, bedroom, an illegal underground bar, and of course the storage of the illegal booze!! While it was entertaining, I wonder how often Al Capone himself actually came to Moose Jaw? Once? Maybe twice? I’m also inclined to think that those “offices” and most of the tunnels were built long after Capone was gone. But nonetheless I was entertained, and thought Moose Jaw was a cute little city.

Driving through the prairies has been pretty dull, I’m not going to lie. It’s flat, dusty, with fields as far as the eye can see. You know that song “I can see for miles and miles… I can see for miles and miles and miles and miles…and…miles…and…miles”? I couldn’t stop singing that song, which is a good thing because it kept me awake. To break up the monotony, I also stopped off in Regina to have a look around. Apparently as the city was coming together and slowly being built, they also planted many, many trees, because the city itself was like a forest, whereas the rest of the province is mainly field and just a bit of brush.

Right now I’m in a town called… Moose something. Some strange made-up sounding word, or perhaps Native? Moosomin? Moosemen? Hmmmm… I should probably know this. Ah, well. Tomorrow I’m hoping to find myself a lake somewhere in Manitoba so I can do some swimming and escape the heat! My car sadly has no air-conditioning, so whenever I’m not on the highway I’m literally baking in my little tin hot-box!

Funny story: You may remember that as I was entering Calgary my “Check Engine” light came on in my car, and I was very angry and a little worried about it. So, I’m in Regina, and I decide to go through a car wash because I was literally having issues seeing due to all the bug guts I’d picked up driving on all those highways. After I finished with the car wash, I found a place to eat and as I’m starting up my car afterwards, the “check engine” light is off again!! Maybe Pabo was just a little angry because I let him get too dirty? Does this make sense to anyone? How can a washing effect my engine? Very odd.

Swift Current "Where Life Makes Sense"

2008-06-30T09:59:00.003+09:00

Is that not the best catch phrase for a town? I'd like to live in a place where things finally make sense. So this morning I left my little hotel near Calgary to go to Dinosaur Provincial Park. It's literally in the middle of nowhere surrounded by massive private ranches. And there are little hedgehogs EVERYWHERE. I almost killed about five of them on the road (they're fast little buggers though. Every time I tought that I'd run one over I'd see it scamper off in my rearview mirror). Well, mabe they're hedgehogs. They could also be some sort of ground hog? Prairie dog? Here's a picture and you can decide for yourself.
After the hedgehog dodging, I made it to the Dinasaur Park, aka the Canadian section of he badlands. Went for a sweaty walk through the "mountains" which look like big mounds of colourful dust and rock. Lot's of fun.
From there I headed East again, and now I'm in Swift Current Saskatchewan! Tomorrow morning I'm going to head into Moose Jaw to see Al Capones tunnels! Fun!

Calgary-- Edmonton-- Three Hills

2008-06-29T10:31:00.002+09:00

From Banff I headed into Calgary to look around, do some laundry and meet up with Laurel. It was nice seeing an old Korea buddy again! She'd already had plans with a few friends so I tagged along for dinner and drinks. It was nice talking to people again for a while!

An annoying thing; as I was stuck in traffic in Calgary trying to find a laundromat, my GD "Check Engine" light comes on. Shit! I drive through the freaking rockies and it chooses to light up as I sit in a traffic jam as I am crawling along. How does that make sense? I'm due to get my oil changed in another thousand kilometres so I'll have them check it out then. Oh Pabo.

Today was a total bust. People kept telling me that if I was going to be in Alberta I should definitely check out West Edmonton Mall. So I drove about three hours out of Calgary up to Edmonton. After about fifteen minutes of looking at the miniature golf courses, the water park, the pirate ship, the ice rink and a myriad of shopping establishments, I remembered that I hate malls and I don't have much money. So I loitered for another hour, then got back in my car and headed back. On the drive south-east, I decided, "HEY! I don't need this GPS system. I am a capable, independant, free spirit!" And so I got lost for a few hours and finally stumbled upon a small town called Three Hills, where I found the wonderful little Rest Easy Motel. The nicest place I've stayed thus far. And not the most expensive! After staying in so many motels, hotels, hostels, grass and bamboo huts, tents, friends floors, etc. etc. I think I can consider myself a bit of a hotel savant. I'm getting good at just looking at it as I drive by, thinking about its location (nearby cities, central location etc.), seeing it's checking in office and being able to guess how much its going to cost me, what the room will smell like (this is VERY important! The worse the smell the less it's going to cost, but is it really worth it?) and its facilities.

Banff-- Columbia Icefields

2008-06-29T10:15:00.002+09:00

The second day I was off to Columbia icefields, which was f**king AMAZING!!! I went on one of these huge bus things onto the glacier where it was snowing.

The part of the glacier we were standing on, the ice and snow was 100 metres deep! There were only certain areas we could walk on because everywhere else there were "holes" in the snow that you could fall into that were filled with this eerie blue glacier water. Very excellent! There was a tour grop of French Canadian dudes who brought cups so they could have a drink of the glacier water flowing everywhere. They said it tasted like whisky (Crown Royal!), and were making jokes about getting drunk on the glacier.Really it's just a bunch of ice and snow on mountains, but there was still something so amazing about standing on them. That snow had been there for hundreds of years, building up and melting away season after season. When we were up there he temperature was somewhere in the minus and it was snowing!

Banff

2008-06-29T09:37:00.002+09:00

Once I headed out of Golden, it was on to BANFF!! Once I got to the Lake Louise area I found myself a campsite for a couple of days. Of course, first I went to Lake Louise, which was ridiculously gorgeous. Only pictures will do.

T

Golden!

2008-06-25T12:20:00.002+09:00

I'm finally in the Rockies. I wanted to camp in Glacier National Park but the campgrounds aren't open yet since it's still so cold. So I drove on and decided to stop in a small town called Golden on my way to the Banff region. So far I'm liking the Trans Can Highway. I was expecting it to be "major highway" like (ala the Interstate highways), but it's actually pretty modest and not too busy. Although it's a little cool, I think I came at the right time. The roads are not yet crammed with RV's, which is excellent. Another difference in the highways in the States and Canada; there was a lot more wildlife in the States. Dead on the road. I saw dozens of deer carcasses that had been killed on he highways. I'd never seen that before. They're so big they look like human bodies on the side of the road and they leave HUGE blood stains on the highways (and total vehicles, I'm sure!). I'm not sure whether to attribute the difference to there just being more wildlife in the States, Trans Can highway authorities being more diligent about clearing away animals, or speed limits in the States being much higher. On the I 90's the speed limit is often 75 miles/hr (about 120 kilometres/hr), whereas in Canada the maximum speed limit I've ever seen is 100km/hr. Interesting!

At this point I'm continually slapping my own hand so I stop taking pictures of the mountains. When I come upon a new mountain that seems bigger and more beautiful than the last, I stop my car to get a couple shots. Then later I look through the photos and realize that I'm not sure where I took any of these mountain pictures, and they're all looking remarkably similar! Still beautiful, but I think people will get the idea with a few pictures instead of one hundred.

I feel like I'm making pretty good time, so after exploring the rockies for another day or two, I'm probably going to start heading back so as to perhaps save a little money. I was talking to an older gentleman a few days ago on a ferry to Vancouver island. He saw my car with the Ontario plates and told me that he'd driven through Canada from Mississauga and it'd taken him TEN days. So I want to leave myself plenty of time just in case.

Hmmm... I Spoke Too Soon

2008-06-24T09:54:00.001+09:00

In my last little excerpt, I was marvelling at the steadfastness of my car. Then today I drove from Vancouver Island to Lilloet (where I'm staying for the night) and it got a little ugly. He's still running fine, but he's really struggling along the crazy inclines and bends on the "Sea to Sky Highway". This highway is supposed to be one of the most scenic-- and scary!-- highways in Canada, and it's definitely true! It was slow going up those steep hills and once I tried to accellerate just a bit too much too quickly and Pabo responded by emitting a nasty burnt rubber smell. After that I stopped the car, but the engine wasn't overheated I think I just went a little too far for the litle guy. So I'm going to be taking my time from now on until I get out of the mountains. But DANG, the scenes are GORGEOUS! Mountain after mountain, stream, canyon, cliffs, everything. Now I'm in my wonderful little motel room in the small town of Lillooet which is surrounded by mountains, and out-of-the-way enough to be nice and cheap. Marvelous!

Vancouver Island

2008-06-23T11:35:00.004+09:00

So this morning I left my hostel bright and early to catch a ferry to Vancouver Island. First I drove into Victoria, which was a much nicer town than Vancouver (in my opinion). After checking out a whale watching place that was already full for the day, I drove into Sidney, a relatively small town nearby which was beautiful. I found a place to do some whale watching as well, which was perfect. We all went out on a little boat that drove us out to the nearby islands where ALL THREE!! of the local pods were cavorting in the water. It was awesome! Apparently it's pretty much mating seasons so all of the pods were just swimming around together, splashing and jumping. We didn't get very close and the boat was a little wet and rocky so my pictures are abysmal. Half of them I just deleted because they were blurry, or I'd take the picture once the big buggers were already underwater. The half hour we spent looking at the pod went something like this:
1. A couple of orcas surface in a splash, swimming around
2. Annoying kids on boat say "Woah! Look at them!!"
3. My head swivels around
4. I spot the whales! Excellent!
5. The whales dive down again leaving only some stirred water to show where they were
6. I lift my camera
7. I try to zoom in
8. I look for the whales
9. I can't find the damn things!
10. I take a picture just in case they happen to surface within the frame.

Expert wildlife photographer, I am not. But in my memory they were quite majestic and other-worldly, I assure you. Once one of the big guys jumped out of the water-- I mean right out-- and all I caught was a blurry splash of water. Sigh. But here's what I DO have:

Impressive, no?

Right now I'm staying at a wonderfully cheap motel. I went to a motel 8 type place, but the lady told me it was too expensive and that I should go across the road to the cheaper place (which I did). Thanks lady! She must hate her boss... she told me that the rates had just gone up and it was ridiculous and that she wouldn't stay there. Ha!

Note to self: Stop being so jaded! Everywhere I go, I think to myself, "this is alright, but in such and such a place it was MUCH better". "Yeah, I guess these mountains are pretty big, but in so-and-so, they were way bigger". "This hotel is nice, but when I was in Kreplakistan, they were nicer, cheaper etc. etc." Why do I have to be such a jerk?
I am really enjoying my trip so far though! Being free and able to go wherever I want and do whatever I want (within monetary boundaries) is quite excellent! I'm so impressed with my car. Pabo's a piece of crap but he's still plugging along, getting me everywhere with little fuss (knock on wood). I fed him an oil change, replenished his fluids, and I've been checking his tire pressure-- all is well! He's like my little baby (in baby talk voice)!! Once I get him a car wash he'll be getting a hug.

Vancouver baby!

2008-06-22T10:32:00.003+09:00

So I've finally made it back to Canada. States that I have driven through in the last week: Michigan, Illinois, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington (maybe more...). When I was driving through Washington (day 6) I went from the mountains into almost-desert for a while. I swear to god a tumbleweed hit my windshield! Getting into Vancouver was brutal. A long line up at the border and annoying old man behind me made it pretty painful. I was creeping along one milimetre at a time in the big lineup of cars waiting to go to customs. Every time I let my mind wander (which is quite often) and didn't pull my car right in behind the car in front of me (even if I could only pull my car forward a few extra feet) he'd HONK at me! Then I'd look in the rearview mirror and he'd be shaking his head as though I'd inconvenienced him greatly. Hahahahaha... after a while I'd just NOT pull up so he could get angry. What a dillhole.

Vancouver seems alright for a big booming metropolis. The mountains in the background everywhere definitely add to the aesthetics though. Right now I'm staying at another hostel. For whatever reason, hostels always smell BAD. Those backpackers just can't stay showered or use deoderant I guess. Bunch of hippies. One of my roomates brought her teddy bear with her and it's sitting on her bed. Interesting.

Tomorrow I'm off to Vancouver Island to hopefully go whale watching! Expect some blurry photos of water with black splotches in the near future.

Roadtrip!

2008-06-20T09:08:00.003+09:00

Day 1 June 15/2008

Drove to Chicago today. Actually went well. My car is fine thus far and I made pretty excellent time from Exeter to downtown Chicago. Interestingly enough, the hostel that I decided to go to is literally on the same block as the Congress Hotel, where I stayed in third year university on a field trip! Hostel was cheap $34! Parking was not $27! The border guard dude asked
“what do you do? What’s your job in Canada?”
“Ummm… ice carving… like an ice sculptor…” then I laughed because it’s weird telling people that you carve ice for a living.
“Don’t laugh!” he says with a straight face. “That’s how I put myself through college”. Funny guy.

I’d forgotten how oddly depressing big cities can be. Maybe this is a crazy thought, but sometimes it seems like big city living makes everyone… ugly. All the panhandlers, food service workers; I’m not sure what it is. I was walking out of a dingy fast food restaurant and an African American dwarf says hello to me. I say hello back and as I’m walking off he says “I need a white woman!” Keep looking buddy.

Day 2 June 16/08

Okay, not getting such a great impression of the states thus far. Why is everyone so dang unfriendly? Not that I want to sound like an uber-nice-polite Canadian, but it’s just so depressing so far in the states. Maybe because I’ve just been on the highway and in big cities. Right now I’m in Minneapolis Wisconsin. Pretty uneventful drive except for one instance. I’m on the I 94 in the left hand of a two lane section of the highway. There’s yet another souped up SUV in front of me pulling a tent tailer. All of the sudden the top of the trailer including tarp and poles flies up and onto the highway in front of me. I have to swerve into the righthand lane to miss it, then go back into the left so that the truck behind me doesn’t get into an accident slamming on his breaks! Yeesh! My heart was beating a little faster but all was well. Right now I’m in the dumpiest motel ever in Minneapolis. I was checked in by a dude that’s half senile and a guy that looked like Marilyn Manson but with more tattoos. But it only cost me $40 AND I have my own room. The hostel in Chicago smelled really funky and all the people I shared the room with came in late (and not at the same time!) and all kept their stuff in annoyingly loud plastic bags. Brutal.

Okay, a little rant about SUV’s and the people who drive them. A bunch of a**holes. If I’m driving 120km/hr in the right hand lane, don’t tailgate me you gas guzzling piece of sh**! All these middle class suburban pricks in their big cars (driving by themselves-- not carpooling) acting as though they own the road and weaving through traffic as though they have a death wish. Hmmmm… maybe they do? If I lived in the suburbs with my 2.5 children, boring job, boring spouse, and one car garage I’d want to die as well. F**kers! (Censored for Sandra Arley Coulter)

Day 3 June 17/08

I’m in Medora North Dakota right now. Deep in the really cool badlands!!! Most of North Dakota (this is all from the I94 mind you) seems pretty boring. Rolling hills, very few trees or buildings. Then all the sudden the landscape looks like it’s all caved in on itself and desert like. Very fantastic. The hills and cliffs are straight out of a Dali painting. I can almost see the melting clocks in the foreground. Staying at “The Bunkhouse” for $80 a night; a little costly but worth it for my own bathroom and air conditioning goodness! After I checked in and found something to eat, I just drove around to check out the area. Absolutely gorgeous, and I've regained my faith in humanity; everyone's really friendly.

Day 4 June 18/08

Now I’m in Yellowstone Park in Wyoming. So I drove all through Montana and part of Wyoming. Absolutely gorgeous, but so very desolate. I’d love to be some rich rancher mans wife. Eeekkkk… that’s not very feminist of me, but I still can’t deny it. I’d like to be able to go for long walks in the mountains, but not have to do the work associated with having a ranch (that's where the big manly husband comes in)!

Yellowstone is ridiculously big. Once I was finally in the park I paid $25 to get in. Then I was told to go to Bridgeway campgrounds because they had a few campsites left. It took me an hour to get there! So all of the campsites were gone and I had to drive another 45 mins to get to Canyon campground where I’m staying now. Yeesh. As I was driving from one site to the next I notice that all the cars in front of me have stopped, then I see this bison walking along the centre of the road. This bison is HUGE and he’s taking his sweet ass time walking along the middle of the street. By now I’ve stopped and as he walks up to me I close my window and actively avoid looking him in the eye. He literally comes within five feet of me. As soon as he’s passed, I drive on and burst out laughing. Did I really think rolling up my window would help? The animal isn’t a panhandler! And if I DID look the big beast in the eye, would it attack me??... probably not. When I first got into the park I also saw a few antelope(s?)! Very cool!

My campsite: there is actually SNOW on the ground. All of the mountains around here are snow-capped, and my campsite is about a 1000 foot elevation I think, so it’s like spring has just sprung. And as I was driving here I thought there might be a nice lake for me to swim in! Ha!

For the most part I’m really enjoying travelling alone, except for when people ask me “Alone?” (whatever I may be doing). I guess this means that there’s something horribly wrong with me, but I don’t care. Whoever I might’ve brought would inevitably be complaining all the time, and I would have someone to complain to.

Note: I have a tan on my left arm, left shoulder and the left side of my face. Veeerrryyy becoming.

Day 5 June 20

I'm still in Montana in a little town called Missoula. This morning before leaving Yellowstone, I of course had to check out old faithful. Mmmmm... sulphurous volcanic goodness! Also saw a few herds of bison, more mountains and got lost a few times before I had to head out and make my way west yet again.

Hopefully I'll make it to Vancouver tomorrow!

Note: I have a nasty burn on my left arm, left shoulder and the left side of my face. Veeerrryyy becoming.

A Sunny Day in Canada

2007-10-09T07:13:00.000+09:00

Hey there! For Mrs. Lee, some pictures of the Coulter homestead. My parents live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by farms.

This is our lane way. Our house from the front yard. The shed in the backyard.

Not much happening here. Just had a wonderful three day weekend for thanksgiving. Ate a lot, was made-fun-of by the family, all in all, a good time. I brought home a big ice bowl that I made at work and we had an "ultra pretentious thanksgiving punch". We also picked names for Christmas (because there are so many kids we all exchange names so we only have to buy one gift instead of eight), and I picked Marcia who decided that she wanted a Flight of the Conchords painting. Here it is (so far):

Bret is on the left, Gemaine on the right. The show is about two guys from New Zealand in a band called Flight of the Conchords who move to New York to become famous. A very entertaining show.

Hmmm... An Update You Say?

2007-09-28T08:28:00.000+09:00

Sorry I've been so lazy about the blog! Life in Canada just seems so ridiculously normal. Right now I'm just working, and that's been going great so far. Cutting ice with chainsaws and chisels and other "cool" stuff like that. It's quite apt that my favourite time of year is winter and now I'm spending all day in a freezer!

See? I'm already done updating! Geez, my life is boring now. But I had a really horrible nightmare though! In the dream it was my wedding day. I'm already in the dress (which looked really nice on me by the way; I think I dreamt myself a little thinner!), but there's so much left to do. I'm freaking out about having to clean the house for guests but this problem is nothing compared to the fact that my wedding is to be held in a bar (the Bomber, where I worked during university! Yeeeccch!). For whatever reason it's my job to clear out a shitload of drunken students so that I can have my wedding. By this time I've turned into the bride from hell; yelling at everyone and freaking out as my beautiful wedding dress gets dirtier and dirtier. I still have a vivid image of a dirty ring around my hem and screaming at it in frustration. As I woke up I was ordering the catering staff to kick out any leftover students. I can't even remember who the groom was anymore since he was never actually there. What a jerk.

What this dream means (I think):
Both of my sisters are married and newly pregnant (Marcia's due in March, Tracy in April)!! I think my brain's also telling me I should never get married because I'll turn into a psycho!

And Stu, I update my blog just as much as YOU do!

In My Defense

2007-09-07T06:29:00.001+09:00

This is for whomever wrote me the comment about selling out to "the man" (ALEXX!!!).

Awwww... why you gotta be so mean???

So today, just over two weeks after getting back to Canada I had my first day working for a company called "Ice Culture" (iceculture.com). I'm going to be working on "suspensions" (suspending objects in ice) and hopefully carving, which would mean spending all day in a freezer using a chainsaw to make sculptures or whatever else would be needed.

This is a life size ice car! Fun! And yeah, it sucks that I'm not going to get to do my cross-Canada trip yet, but I really wanted the job. Alex, if you want to fight me, then I will e-mail my address over here and see you in a couple of days. Hopefully you won't be feeling too jet-lagged when I pummel you!

My New Baby Boy

2007-09-04T07:26:00.000+09:00

Not much going on over here in Canada, I've got to admit. Just eating lots of food and driving my new HOT car. Here are some pictures, just for Stu.

I know what you're thinking; where did Cathy get this sweet ride? This fierce machine I recently purchased is a 1999 Hyundai Accent (Korea Phighting!!!). His name is Pabo, because as I drove him home from the dealership the "check engine" light came on.

GASP! Pabo from another, equally magnificent angle. I know Stu's jealous by now. He's thinking "Bloody ripa! Why didn't I buy myself a Hyundai instead of my crappy BMW motorcycle???"

Ohhh, beautiful!! A shot of the rear end for all the fetishists out there (the parents homestead in the background). Do you think Pabo's going to make it all the way across Canada?

In other news, my "round Canada" trip is on hold while I wait to hear back about a job. My mother oh-so-subtly recommended that I find myself gainful employment and stop being such a worthless layabout so I applied on a whim to a company that makes ice sculptures (apparently the number one ice sculpture place in the world, shipping sculptures to foreign countries like Africa, Australia, Thailand etc. Cool!). I got an interview and went in, and now I want the damn job!!

I'm also missing my Korea friends! Why do you all have to be so far away?

Back in Canada!!

2007-08-23T10:47:00.000+09:00

So yesterday at about 9:30pm I arrived in Toronto! The plane rides really sucked but it was totally worth it! Good to get back to some fresh air. It's nice and cool over here, which is so very excellent. For those who still read this thing every now and then, I'm going to continue the blog for my roadtrip around Canada to keep everyone updated. Thanks for reading about my Korean Adventures!

Beijing 2

2007-08-23T10:17:00.000+09:00

Okay, basically this is going to be all of the other places I went.

This was part of a Chinese Traditional Opera that I saw at Laoshe Teahouse. All of the female roles were played by men, which made for some very interesting singing. At least once a day I would have a random person come up to me and ask where I was from. Then they'd ask to take me to a teahouse to have tea and practise their English. This of course was code for "Hey! I'm going to take you to a tea place that I work for. You'll end up spending about thirty bucks on a cup of "traditional tea" you sucker!" So I was always telling people that I was just about to meet up with some friends. The one I went to was nice and cheap since I went with this girl I met at my hostel from Rome who's Chinese was amazing (weird story: she'd been told by someone that someday China would be the biggest world power, so she's devoted a ridiculous amount of her time to learning Mandarin; is this brilliant or is she crazy? I'm not really sure).

"Snack Street" on Wangfujing. Selling the weirdest food on a stick you can find anywhere: scorpions, starfish, squid, baby lobsters, silkworm, mystery meats and other very random things.

The entrance to the Forbidden city. The most crowded place to be in all of Beijing I'm sure. It was big and old and under a massive amount of renovation to prepare for the 2008 Olympics.

Ming Tombs. This is the gate of life and death. We could only exit through it to enter the land of the living. Fun!
The Temple of Heaven. I got completely lost trying to find it and eventually had to hire a rickshaw to get there, which was interesting as well. This was on my last day in Beijing so I was already all "templed out", but it was still quite beautiful.

Beijing

2007-08-23T09:30:00.000+09:00

Ni Hao! I've already talked about my China trip a few times, so this is just so I can put some photos up. I'll start with the Great Wall since that was my favourite part of the trip. First I took a 10km hike from Jinshangling to Simitai. Some pictures:went with a tour group comprised of a bunch of hardcore Swedish hikers who were filming everything. It was really rainy and foggy, so apart from Mongolian souvenir sellers, we were the only ones there.This part of the wall was about three hours away from Beijing and therefore much less popular and falling into ruin, which was a lot of fun. All of the stairs were crumbly and broken, making the steep climbs that much more interesting!It was the ultimate stairmaster! A few days later I went to the Badaling section which is much closer to Beijing and infinitely more touristy. But this time it was a gorgeous day.
The Badaling great wall was so very crowded, and had obviously been renovated and kept up several times, but still quite entertaining. Everyone scrambling for the perfect "On The Great Wall" shot (myself included). Lot's of dodging cameras and stopping so that people could take pictures.So here's my requisite shot, looking like a jerk as usual. The Badaling Great Wall was also the site of my worst bathroom experience in my entire life. without going into too much detail; I was feeling a little vomitus, so I rushed to the bathroom (which the tour guide had warned us was terrible). First I had to pay to get in, which seemed pretty wrong, but I shrugged off. Then I realized there was no toilet paper and there was a little old man, conveniently selling tissues. Brutal! TP in hand I went into the bathroom. On a hot, sunny and incredibly humid day I was immediately punched in the face by a horrible smell, which didn't help to make my fluish feelings dissipate! Then I realized that every single stall was a squatter and most of the stalls didn't even have doors. So there were all these old Chinese ladies squatting all over the place without a care in the world in a bathroom that most likely hadn't been cleaned in a month; have I gone too far into detail?

Templed Out

2007-08-10T16:30:00.000+09:00

So today I went to have a look at the Temple of Heaven. Meh. My brain realizes that it's an interesting temple with a long history (blah blah blah), but I'm just templed out. I've seen too many!! No more!

In other news; feeling fine (since I've decided that Chinese food doesn't like me), I've got one more full day here then it's back to Korea to say goodbye to everyone!

Left My DNA on the Great Wall of China!! Cool!!

2007-08-08T13:54:00.000+09:00

That's right, I fell down! Not all that surprising is it?

So yesterday I signed up for a tour to the great wall that involved a 10km walk from the Jinshinaling section to the Simitai section of the great wall. It's one of the less popular sections of the wall because it's so far from Beijing, so myself and the rest of the tour group were pretty much the only people there. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting! There were a few Mongolians on the wall trying to sell souvenirs (or waiting for me to pass out from the heat so they could steal my Canadian passport!), but beyond that it wasn't too much of a tourist trap at all! The wall is absolutely huge, and goes up and down mountains in an incredibly picturesque way! Shortly after the hike had begun though, it started to rain a little bit, so within five minutes of walking along the wall I tripped and slidd down a set of wet and very steep steps. Then the thunder and lightning began, which was scary and exhilarating since I was walking around above mountain peaks and through towers, feeling the reverberations from the nearby lightning. Very cool! Then it started pouring, so much so that there was water running down the steps as I walked, which made things a little slow, but definitely more interesting!

So today I'm taking a "reading and sitting around day" since I'm a little cut up/bruised and tired. Last night one of my dorm-mates opened the window in the night (AND the screen) letting in a little bastard mosquito that bit my face and even now my left eye is really swollen and grotesque looking, which has only added to me not wanting to do anything today!

Killin' Time

2007-08-06T18:17:00.000+09:00

Today I walked through the Forbidden City and T'iannamen (sp?) Square, so I'm just taking a nice long indoor sitting-down break at the moment. The Forbidden City was pretty cool; I think the thing that most shocked and awed me was the mass amounts of humanity surrounding me at all times. SO MANY PEOPLE.

Funny/strange story: Yesterday I went to the Art Museum of China which was absolutely beautiful, and has a bunch of European Baroque style paintings in an exhibition right now (Tintoretto, Goya etc.). As I was entering that section of the gallery, there was a man yelling at one of the gallery workers (you know, one of those people who stands there and makes sure no one uses flash photography etc.). I was a little shocked and confused, wondering what he could possibly be upset about. Were the paintings not to his liking?). Then I hear yelling and screaming and the sound of people slapping eachother! I couldn't see what was going on since a crowd gathered in the span of five seconds, but it was very weird. I usually think of galleries as a quiet contemplative place, not a potential for violent outbursts!

I Made It!

2007-08-05T09:20:00.000+09:00

Just a note to all the loyal readers (all two of you!) that I'm alive and well in Beijing! I'll be back to the RofK on the 12th. More later...

Holy Shit

2007-08-03T09:43:00.000+09:00

Today is my last class EVER and tomorrow I'm going to China!! Holy shit!

Candy Teacher Has A Vision

2007-08-01T12:37:00.000+09:00

Last night I had a dream that I was in China. For whatever reason I was also in university again and doing some sort of crazy art project for an old professor (Robert, a CRAAAAZY dude). I had to go to this huge department store and get supplies. This place was a big huge confusing Chinese maze. I pay for my purchases and walk off, then much too late I realize that my purse is just plain gone. I start panicking since I have no idea where I am or how to get back to the store where I must have left my purse. Of course in my purse I have my credit card, passport, beloved ipod, directions in Mandarin so that I can get back to my hotel, and all of my cash so I'm freaking out. Eventually I just had to wake myself up because I was getting nowhere. So today I'm going to buy myself one of those "money/passport belts" instead of carrying everything around a purse.

Summer Camps, Beijing and Country-Name-Dropping

2007-07-31T13:37:00.000+09:00

Okay, the last couple of weeks have been a little crazy! We're now working through the second week of camps, which have been really awesome; in fact the perfect way to end my teaching year over here! The kids have been enthusiastic and entertaining. We just had a "Hokey Pokey" dance competition before sending them home for the day. So cute! Mrs. Kim's sister brought in her grade one aged daughter and she's not shy about dancing at the front of the class!

This Friday is my last day of classes, then on Saturday I'll be heading out to the Incheon Airport near Seoul and flying to CHINA!!! I couldn't find anyone who's going to be going to Beijing at the same time (most of the expats are either back to Canada for a visit or already off on their travels since school ended a couple of weeks ago), so it's going to be a solo mission, which I'm pretty excited/scared about!

Places on the agenda:

- The Great Wall of China!! Dude! There are several "sites" along the great wall to see, so I plan to go a few times.

- The Forbidden City (not really forbidden, actually a HUGE tourist attraction)

- The Temple of Heaven

- T'iannamen Square (spelling subject to complete wrongness)

- Shopping at Wangfujin, silk street etc. Oh, there will be lots of shopping

- Beijing Contemporary Art Gallery

- Mausoleum of Mao Zedong

- Random wandering and getting completely lost

- Sweating my ass off and evaporating into a dry shrivelled version of myself.

When I found out that I'd be travelling alone I had a moment's thought that maybe I should just skip it, then kicked myself in the head! What if I never come back to Asia and miss my chance to see the Great Wall?? That would be just plain ridiculous! After my week of sweating it out (apparently it's going to be ridiculously HOT) in Beijing, I will fly back to Korea to hang out for a week before heading back to Canada! Less than three weeks from now I'll be back in Ontario. It's a little surreal at this point.

I've really enjoyed my year over here, but at all costs I will try not to talk about it so much that people back home want to kill me. There's nothing worse than having one of those friends that is constantly Country-Name-Dropping. "You think that bathroom is dirty?? When I was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro-- that's in Africa-- I didn't even have toilet paper, and the mosquitos were the size of my head... etc. etc." I will try to only talk about Korea when asked directly and keep it brief!

Now, for your enjoymeant, some summer camp pictures! Well, I guess to be honest it's for my enjoyment. I'm sure no one else will care!

This is from the first week of summer camp. The kids pretended they were chefs on a cooking show and made themselves sandwiches. Korean sandwich combinations are a little scary for me-- egg with ham and cheese and strawberry jam. Seriously! But when I tried to introduce olives into sandwiches, the kids acted like I was crazy; they'd laugh and point when I'd pop one in my mouth.

The ladies of summer camp one. This was after we'd finished our "flea market" class and everyone had all of the fake American dollars. These kids are obsessed with money. Everyone had to fill out an introduction form and under "hobbies" five or six of them wrote "I like money". Little punks.

The second week group. The rest of these pictures will be the kids doing the hokey pokey. It was hilarious.
And I'm spent.

To Honour Naju's Spirit

2007-07-23T13:51:00.000+09:00

School's out for the summer, so all that's left is two weeks of summer camps in the English Town. So today we played some games, did some drawings, ate lunch and sent them on their way. Summer camp is awesome. After summer camps I'll be heading out to Beijing for a week to see some sights (if anyone has any tips, they are very welcome!). Then back to Korea for just over a week until I move back to Canada! Geez! To honour Naju's spirit, I will now post some pictures of Naju's top regional food (well, the restaurant)! Delicious Gomtang!!
Yep, that's a cow coming out of a bowl! Delicious!

Boryeong Mud Prevents Wrinkles!! Let's Have a Festival!!

2007-07-16T15:52:00.000+09:00

Daaaammmnn I'm in a pissy mood today. Of course this is due to the sun, lack of sleep and Soju that I experienced over the weekend. On Saturday morning a big gang of people met up in Mokpo at 8am to meet our own personal bus (Thanks to Crystal and Miji for the arrangements!) that would take us to the Boryeong Mud Festival. The morning started off the right way in the bus with jello shots and much conversation on the way. When we got there, (Boryeong's about three hours north of Mokpo along the coast) I was astonished to find a perfect, smog-free sunny day. Maybe the first one EVER in Korea: very rarely are there clear days without a haze in the distance. When we got to the mudfest it was already in full swing with a ridiculous amount of people partaking in the fun. The beach was huge and beautiful but absolutely packed with people. We quickly found a place to get nice and muddy, and after that I had a sort of anti-climactic feeling. So... I got myself into a mudfight, but what do I do for the rest of the day? At this point I started wondering why this Mud Fest was even started (in 1998). I looked it up today and apparently the mud in this area is special, so the citizens of Boryeong wanted to share it with everyone by having them smear it all over eachother (prevents wrinkles!). Even though the mud frenzy wore off quickly, there was still fun to be had because big crowds equals people watching! There were so many big buff foreign guys (probably GI's from Seoul) without shirts; people in speedos to giggle at; men with pink parasols to protect them from the sun (I'm not lying); Korean ladies wearing high-heel flip-flops; and cute little kids playing in the sand and mud. At night we camped out on the beach watching fireworks and drinking, then all went to our "room" which was very big, but there were about fifteen of us packed in like muddy, drunken sardines. Good times! My face is wrinkle free, but very lobster-like at the moment.
The sleeping quarters. I woke up first, so I took a picture of everyone trying to sleep off the booze!These sharks were in a tank sitting in front of a restaurant! The bigger one is at least four feet long! Can you imagine ordering a shark at a restaurant and grilling it at your table??

General Pandemonium

2007-07-11T14:38:00.000+09:00

No word of a lie, at least five students cried today (no jerks, it wasn't after I made a face at them). We've been working our way through the younger students, and they are really cute, but can get VERY upset over the whole "stamp reward" procedure! Today's class was very... high energy. I pulled apart several fights, yelled at kids who were screaming and chasing each other around the English Town, a boy got a question wrong on the quiz and went and cried in a corner; general pandemonium. As of today there are only five more classes of English Town students, two weeks of summer camp, then I'll never be in the English Town again. Holy crap!

Last night me, my co-teachers, the principal, a vp and a few other teachers went out for dinner at Venezia. Even though I can't have a conversation with my principal I found myself getting all teary-eyed when he was telling me that he appreciated my work etc. (translated through Mrs. Lee). I'm really going to miss my school!! Even the evil ringleader and his cronies!!

Sidenote: Our extra class with Elementary school students has gotten waaay bigger, so we split the group into two, which was much more bearable! And I also discovered for the first time that the evil ringleader (Gwang-sun) is much smarter than he ever appeared! Smaller classes are genius. In the past he would spend the entire time asking to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water, completely unwilling to speak English EVER. Then on Monday after we'd cut the classes in half I was attempting a ghetto form of Bingo. I got all of the students to name some countries as I wrote them on the board. Then I had them draw a four by four grid and write in any of the countries I'd mentioned. Then I called out random countries and the first student to get a line was victorious. And Gwang-sun actually did the exercise and WON!!! Then at the end of class he actually said goodbye to me (albeit in Korean). Geeez! If I had another five years to teach I might actually win this kid over.

Shuddering Even Now

2007-07-09T12:07:00.000+09:00

Ahhhh, Seoul. A fun place to visit, but I could NEVER live there. So on Saturday morning I woke up at five thirty so I could catch the train out of Naju, arriving at Yongsan Station around ten to meet up with Laurel. My mission for the weekend was to buy lots of fun touristy items to give to people back home. So first we went to Dongdaemun, then Insadong, then Namdaemun, then finally Hongdae. Yeesh. It was so freaking hot as well; every chance we got we'd stop in a shop that had some sweet sweet air-con! We went out for some dinner at a restaurant called "Carne Station", which was interesting. For whatever reason there was about forty foreigners all having a get-together there and I had my first reverse culture shock moment! There were just so many of them, they were all drunk and loud and acting obnoxious. The girls were all dressed so very skanky. I've just become so accustomed to small town Korea that I was unaccountably annoyed after seeing all those foreigners. Don't get me wrong, it was nice seeing some diversity, but these people were OBNOXIOUS. The restaurant had an open bar, which would could probably account for them terrorizing the staff.

From there we went in search of a bar called "Tin Pan" (maybe?) that is supposed to be really good. All was well when we were just having a seat people watching. When we decided to get on the over-crowded dance floor, things went a little down hill. This guy came up to me and started flirting, which was a little uncomfortable (he was like thirty-five and more than a little creepy). It started off normally; where are you from? Are you a teacher? etc. etc. Then he decides that it's a good idea to divulge to me that he had slept with a couple of Korean girls but he didn't find them to his liking so he'd "gone back to white girls" all the while stroking my back and holding my hand as I tried to back away.

EWEWWWWWWWWWWW!!! YEEEEECCCCHHHHH!! Why?? Why?? Why would he think that I would want to know??? *shuddering even now* A fellow teacher had a theory about foreign guys in Korea, and I'm starting to believe it's true:

The Characteristics of Foreign Men who move to Korea:
1. Moved here with their girlfriend.
2. Moved to Korea so they could find themselves a Korean girlfriend/wife.
3. Moved to Korea to be bizarre creeps in another country.
(Note: this is a generalization! I know some guys who are none of these things, but for the most part it holds true)

The man I met was a former number two, moving on to a number three. Shortly after our conversation I motioned to Laurel that I was frightened and she informed myself and random creepy guy that we were meeting some friends and had to go. Boys reading this, never try to woo a girl by informing her that she's your race of choice. You may think it, but NEVER say it.

Okay, enough bitching about men! Here are some pictures that summed up this visit to Seoul nicely:

Me, (sporting a burn from shopping all day) in front of the "Luxury Ho Bar". This was one of several "Ho Bars" in the area, and apparently they're just regular bars with unfortunate names.

While walking through Insadong Laurel was just walking along looking at tourist items as an old homeless man walked by slapping her on the arm and laughing. I think he was crazy... and drunk... We were thinking that this might make a good t-shirt slogan so I wrote it down on a napkin and took a picture to preserve the memory. I'm fully aware of how weird I am. (Ruler is Laurel. Her name can be really hard to pronounce due to all the r's and l's, so that is usually what her students end up calling her.)

Veeeerrry Genius!

2007-07-06T16:30:00.000+09:00

There are ridiculous amounts of billboards made in Korea. They cover every bit of commercial property and are used for even the most inane sort of advertising. Until now! When I saw this outside one of my co-teachers apartments, I had to take a picture.
Very genius.

Hajiiiiiimmmmaaaa!! (Stop That!)

2007-07-04T09:27:00.000+09:00

I hate waiting for my elevator, so every morning I descend the twelve flights of stairs to get out of my building. As I was stepping down to the fifth floor there was an unmistakeable scent of urine. Awesome. Very rarely do people use stairs here, so they also seem to be a receptacle for cigarette butts, empty soju bottles and somewhere to dump pots of water (That's what I choose to believe. Why else would there be a puddle of water in the 10th floor stairwell?) .

I've also decided that my next door neighbours are the Korean version of "rednecks".
- Three or four children, all toddlers. Maybe they practice "natural family planning"?
- The mom is always yelling at her kids in the hallway, in a very public way.
- Instead of wheel-less trucks on cement blocks, all of the kids bikes and tricycles are lying around in the hall/balcony that I walk past to get to my apartment.
- There's a big tupperware container full of fermenting kimchi that's been sitting in the hallway for months. So that's kimchi that must get really HOT during the day. Sometimes I try not to breathe as I walk past.
- They are very nice though! The parents always say hi when the see me, and their kids are really cute (even though they like to play with my electronic door lock. They'll press buttons and wait for me to come out and point my finger at them saying "hajimmmmaaaa!!!". Then they laugh.)

In other news, no classes for the next couple of days since exams are coming again. So I've been preparing power points for the upcoming summer camp. Power point is my friend.

What a Wando-ful Hurricane it Was!

2007-07-03T11:46:00.000+09:00

Today Mrs. Lee was checking out my blog and got me in trouble for not writing in it recently, so here I am!

So... this weekend: Stu decided it was a good idea to have a big party in Wando to celebrate the full moon and the birth of Canada, and I was all for it. Yes, it may be monsoon season, but up until now I hadn't experienced anything "monsoon-like"; just a bit of rain and a lot of humidity. So about a group of twenty crazy waygooks decided to pitch some tents near the beach. Saturday afternoon was beautiful! Nice and warm, and even a bit of sun. Once the sun had gone down though, it got a little cold and rainy, but that wasn't a big deal either. In the middle of the night, the wind really began to pick up. It sounded and felt like something was shaking the tent insessantly. I thought to myself "okay, that kind of sucks, but okay". Then the torrential downpour began. I was in a tent with Monique and Alex, and this tent wasn't so waterproof, so I was just trying to stay away from the edges. Then the thunder and lightning began, once striking so close that I FELT the reverberations (yeah... we were all in tents set up around the only trees in the area as well...). The rain was still pounding down soaking our tent so when the lightning let up, we took refuge in a big public restroom. Of course as I was running through the dark in the rain to the restroom I fell down twice, once into a huge puddle. Magnificent. Monique followed shortly thereafter and lost her sandal to the very same puddle I had fallen in! At this point sleep was certainly not an option and the sun had begun to rise somewhere behind the dreary dreary clouds. At about 5:30am we left the bathroom to start cleaning up our stuff and assess the damage. Someones motorcycle had fallen into the mud and broken the clutch, a big tent Stu had erected had fallen down, peoples tents were flooded and broken, and most heinous of all, I couldn't find my Korean won boxers (I'd left them to dry on a bench the previous evening and I thought they'd blown away. I later found them in my backpack). So we left camp at shortly after six (pouring rain still) to catch a bus back to our respective homes.

The guy wearing the Canada hat umbrella is just a random guy. Monique and I were on the beach and he came up to us asking to take pictures, and we gave him a bit of a glare, said no and walked away. Then as we were all sitting around drinking and chatting he came over again, telling us he was an "off duty coast guard", and wanting everyone's picture. So someone gave him a beer and we posed for some pictures.

All in all, a fun weekend! Thanks for the organization (and the curry!) Stu! A true adventure/disaster (there is no such thing as an adventure if there's no disaster!)!

Cathy's "Oh Crap I Fell Down Again!" Count: 2 678 895 and gaining everyday.

Just Me Being Random

2007-06-27T10:52:00.000+09:00

- Yesterday I finally sent home a BIG box of some of the crap I've accumulated. It was so cheap I may send home another!
- Today we have a grade four class in. This means total anarchy and a lot of "mulaiyo's" (I don't understand), but the cuteness factor cancels it out.
- On the weekend, a foreigner (meaning a non-Korean) came up to me in Club Vanilla and started talking to me. He asked me if I was his sister, and I said "Ummmm... yes." I realized how un-hip I am.
- Did you know that "westerners" only eat sandwiches? It's a little known fact. I'm munching on a big sandwich as I write this.
- The humidity over here is sucking my will to live.
- Yesterday our computers were all shut down because my entire school's network got some sort of virus. 1) I have no idea what to do with myself at work without internet. 2) Mrs. Lee let me read her "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul" (in English) to pass the time. It only reinforced my hatred of teenagers.; well, perhaps not hatred so much as some sort of fear. 3) I don't handle sentimentality well.

Sajik Party and Other Disasters (not that the Sajik Party was a Disaster...)

2007-06-25T12:23:00.000+09:00

Last week seemed to progress pretty slowly, so by the time the weekend arrived it felt more than due. On Friday night Alex came to visit Naju, so Alex, Monique and myself went out on the town in Naju. Of course we had to go to the Golden Kettle aka Sience 96, which is our own little hang-out place. The owner is a freindly ajumma who laughs at everything we say and likes to give us service-uh (which means discounts and stuff for free!). Then the next day it was off to Gwang-ju to catch an open-mic type night in Sajik Park. We got there early so we decided to see a movie called Lobe Troubles (Love and Other Disasters to those in Canada/States). It was really bad, but in English so I enjoyed it. Then we met up with Jessica and it was off to dinner at a restaurant serving Shabu Shabu (사부 사부), a delicious Japanese style meal. Everyone shares a big red pepper soup with lots of veggies, and throughout the meal you can add meat and noodles. At the end the server fries some rice and veggies up then you eat that as well. Delicious and filling.

After that we met up with more friends and it was off to Sajik Park to watch some people sing and play guitar etc, and they were all really good. After watching a bunch of performances, we all went to Club Banilla (hahahaha.. Club Vanilla), where we proceeded to dance to some hip-hop music and get stared at a lot. THEN we went to the WA Bar (not sure what WA stands for...) and sat around eating snacks for a while and people watching. After that everyone was ready to head back to the motel to get some sleep.

I guess Virginia got mad at me at one point... but Jessica's looking angelic in the background.Monique and former Najuite Stu. What a deserter he is!There are three types of Korean beer (well, I've only seen three...) Hite, OB (which makes me think of tampons), and Cass.

Layer of Wetness

2007-06-22T16:07:00.000+09:00

Monsoon season has officially begun. I just went to the bank to pay some bills and it wasn't raining so much as just... misting. By the time I got back into the English town I had a layer of wetness everywhere (even though I was using an umbrella). Apparently this "rainy season" is going to last for about a month, then it will just be "so damn unbearably hot". Yeesh.

Not much happening in the English Town at the moment. Pretty much just waiting for the day to end. I had an funny (not funny ha ha)/angry moment in the classroom today. Whilst the class was in the middle of learning dialogues, I was asked to pronounce a word. She did this by pressing an imaginary button and looking at me, saying "play". Needless to say I was not amused.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2007-06-19T15:16:00.000+09:00

Happy Birthday Dad!! And Pat as well!! (both upcoming, both getting pretty OLD, muahahahahaha). Seriously, love you guys, please help me find a car when I get back to Canada.

I'm far too lazy to speak in full sentences and remember things in chronological order. Thus:

- The apartment above mine has some leaky pipes happening which has caused a section of my wallpaper to get all wet and moldy and nasty. Of course I couldn't just talk to my upstairs neighbour, so I had to enlist the help of Mrs. Lee, who called the owners and we arranged a meeting. The only thing I understood was the man saying "chiosonghamnida", which means sorry. Apparently he's going to fix whatevers wrong. Wow, that's sort of a boring story. Sorry bout that!
- This weekend I'm going to go about getting a visa in order, so I can go to Beijing for a week!! (Aug. 4-11). Great Wall, here I come!
- Mrs. Lee is getting administration to pay for my flight home directly (instead of me paying then being reimbursed), which is awesome!! I'll be arriving in Canada the evening of August 21st.
- It's getting HOT over here. Monsoon season is supposed to be starting next week as well, which will make things interesting. HUMID. Weather here is pretty predictable compared to Canada. But I guess it's not a fair comparison since the weather in Canada is always insane.
- Today I started thinking about all of the photos of myself there are floating around the greater Jeolla area right now. Kids take pictures of me on their cell phones; people on the street will try to (and suceed in) taking pictures of me since I'm such an oddity; all of the teachers who bring their classes in make sure to get the waygook monster (i.e. me) into every shot; and I must admit there have been many times that I've wanted pictures with Hangookin (Korean) people, and then they end up taking pictures of me as well. So I was trying to think of how many pictures of me there are out there. Hundreds! Literally hundreds! *shudder* There goes my soul.
- Everyone who's contract is ending in August has begun to talk about "reverse culture shock". The theory is that when we go back to Canada, we're all going to wonder why the food is so bland, and wish we didn't have to understand EVERY SINGLE CONVERSATION. I have to say, for the most part I kind of enjoy not understanding conversations. Then I can zone out and spend some time in my own little Cathy world, and later someone can explain a half hour conversation in two sentences. Of course this doesn't always go well and I get some mixed messages, but, meh.
- Spending time in Cathy world. Sigh. It's not such a great place for others, but for me it's a joyous occasion. I have great conversations with random people and find myself winning every argument. Everyone tells me how witty I am; I react with humour and humility when complimented etc. etc.
- Ha! Funny story. Last night I get a call on my home phone. Most of the time it's a random person with the wrong number, and this was the case again. In response to my "Hello", I got the usual "ahhh... yoboseyo?" (Korean phone greeting). At this point I gave my usual "I'm sorry, you have the wrong number" and hung up. He called right back, but at this point I was thinking he might realize he was calling the wrong number so I decided not to answer. After letting it ring for a looonnngg time, he gave up. Then directly after I get a THIRD call which I pick up and he starts trying to talk to me in English, apparently convinced that the person he wants to talk to has just made some waygook answer the phone as an elabourate joke. After saying hello again and telling him I'm a "waygook saram" he asks "You... in Korea?" At this point I could only laugh. Did he think he was accidently calling a foreign country (three times!!)? Did he think that he had accidently called another dimension where all people in Korea had been forced to learn English (maybe that is more of a "future" than an "alternate dimension" thing, if you get my drift)?
- I am the queen of digression.

Wave Index Finger in a Circular Motion Beside My Head, Indicating CRAZY

2007-06-18T16:20:00.000+09:00

My Extra Class today:

Me: Students! Listen!!

Students: (talking amongst themselves, completely ignoring me).

Me: Me!! (pointing at myself) You!! (pointing at students) You make Cathy teacher, make Me, CRAZY! (wave index finger in a circular motion beside my head, indicating crazy) Crazy!!

Students: (not listening, some are writing on the whiteboard thinking I don't notice what they're doing)

Me: YOU make ME want to kill myself!! (makes motions of tying a rope around my neck and killing myself)

Students: (still chatting. Maybe one or two students are attempting to decipher what Candy Teacher has said)

Me: (gives a desperate/resigned laugh, moves on to making the kids talk about what time they get up in the morning)

Enough said about those little punks! This weekend I went off to Mokpo yet again, to check out an island called Waydaldo. It was a fun afternoon of beach, gossip and cooking a couple of hotdogs on a stick. After a rainstorm I got a sweet picture of the sun breaking through the clouds in a very picturesque and aesthetically pleasing fashion. More pics can be viewed on my flickr site, which is linked to the right!

Butt

2007-06-15T16:34:00.000+09:00

A student that came in today was wearing a shirt that said "BUTT" in big red letters. I tried to explain what it means but she just gave me a confused look and walked off. Sigh.

Better Than Christmas

2007-06-12T10:54:00.000+09:00

I was sitting in my apartment last night watching some horrible reality show when I hear this god awful noise below. I look out my balcony window and there's this truck in the parking lot with a man sitting in the bed with what looks like a big huge gun!! Being the alarmist I am, my mind immediately goes to all sorts of crazy situations, then he presses a button and an engine starts up. It sounds sort of like a REALLY loud lawnmower and the man presses the trigger. Out flies a HUGE cloud of white smoke and I realize it's the MOGGY MAN!!! (Moggy is the Korean word for Mosquito). He was spraying bug repellent all over the place! I was inordinantly excited.
The best thing about it is that a bunch of the kids were running after the truck and playing in the toxic fumes. Mmmmm... healthy!!

I've Just Gotten Used to Everything

2007-06-11T13:26:00.000+09:00

I kind of feel like my blogs are lacking in the stories I usually have. It's not because nothing ever happens to me now, it's just that nothing seems strange here anymore! I've gotten used to the mountains, the ajummas, the stares; and I have mastered a sort of "Survival Korean" that includes gesturing, pointing, one word responses and smiling, which has begun to serve me quite well. One day I had just gotten onto my elevator and an old woman got on with me. In Korean, she asked me what floor I lived on and I responded in Korean. Then she asked my how much I had spent to acquire the watermelon in my hand, and again I was able to tell her in Korean (chil chun or $7, which is pretty cheap in Korea). As I'm walking along the Naju river kids walk past me, talking about me and I can always understand what they're saying. It's either "Hey, it's Candy the English teacher at Naju English Town!" or "Look!! An American/foreign person!!".

Enough of that. Virginia, a new Mokpoer had a "Housewarming-Rooftop-BBQ-get-together" on Saturday night. The theme: dress up as a song title. So Alex and I joined forces and came up with "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot(s)" by the flaming lips.

Lyrics:

Her name is Yoshimi

she's a black belt in karate

working for the city

she has to discipline her body'

Cause she knows that

it's demanding

to defeat those evil machines

I know she can beat them

Oh Yoshimi, they don't believe me

but you won't let those robots eat me

Yoshimi, they don't believe me

but you won't let those robots defeat me

Those evil-natured robots

they're programmed to destroy us

she's gotta be strong to fight them

so she's taking lots of vitamins... (and so on)

If you look closely you can see that I'm holding a case that says "VITAMIN", I'm wearing a black belt, and I have chopsticks (from Japan!!) in my hair, AND I"m wearing a pair of Yen boxers (which you can't see). I have WAAAAYYY too much time on my hands, but my costume pales in comparison to Alex's. He had to paint a bunch of boxes pink, and whined about it a lot.

I just had my extra class. The evil ringleader and his cronies showed up half way through the class so I locked them out of the room. It was awesome. I'm well aware that they didn't learn their lesson but for once I didn't have to spend half the class trying to make them shut their pie-holes, so it was a positively blissful class.

This Morning's Dream

2007-06-08T08:56:00.000+09:00

I'm eating a big bowl of this weird iridescent soup (but that's not the weird part). It's sitting on my lap, and for some reason I'm bent right over it, eating away. My hair is down, and hanging right above the soup as I eat, so I notice one of my hairs has gotten into the soup. I pick it out, but since it's my hair, I'm not too disturbed, so I keep eating. All of the sudden there are ten more hairs (apparently from my head) in the soup, and I have to painstakingly fish out these big long thick curly hairs. Just as I've put the last hair in the garbage (conveniently sitting next to me) I look back at my soup and there is literally half of my hair (and that's a lot of hair) in the soup. So I gave up on the soup and awoke feeling hungry.

2007-06-05T16:03:00.000+09:00

Facebook is an EVIL little program.

Gettin' on in years...

2007-06-04T16:28:00.000+09:00

Sometimes I feel so very old.
If someone had told me in high school that I'd end up teaching, I would have laughed scornfully at them. "Me? Teaching? I hate teachers. I hate school. Impossible." But here I am yelling at kids and trying to teach them to say sentences like "Birds eat bugs" (taught my extra class kids about food today).

Calm Down Candy Teacher!

2007-05-30T15:21:00.000+09:00

I've been so unaccountably angry today, and for the past few days (I credit my oncoming period... too much information?). Usually I can see the humour in most situations, and handle small changes in schedule with a shrug and a "meh". Today about thirty men in suits had to come in today to "see Naju English Town". Sigh. It's not the visit that's the annoying part, its that no one knows what the hell is going on, least of all me since I can't understand what is being said at any given time! After changing the schedule, changing the schedule back to the way it usually is (multiple times), being interrupted during a class, fussing again and again over details, people showing up late, etc. etc. the group of visitors stayed long enough to have a glass of orange juice and take some pictures with eachother.

The reason I'm not on a rampage over stupid little things beyond my control:

1. Everyday as I enter the gates at school this little boy runs up to me and shakes my hand. He doesn't say anything, he just smiles in a goofy way and shakes my hand very enthusiastically. Then sometimes as I'm walking away after he's already shaken my hand he'll run up and shake my hand again. Elementary school kids are so ridiculously cute.

2. I was sent a picture of me with the bikers we met on the weekend.

Jeollanamdo Roadtrip

2007-05-29T13:53:00.000+09:00

This past weekend Stu superbly planned a roadtrip around the province, so I jumped at the chance to travel around taking pictures. We all met in Gwang-ju where Stu had rented a mini-van, and set out from there on Saturday morning. Our first stop was some sort of train station/ traditional drama set/ theme park. After this we drove through the mountains to Jirisan, a very popular mountain in Korea, and where there are also some bears being raised to populate the mountain because most of them have been wiped out.Then as we were driving around, what did we see? A big gang of hardcore Korean bikers!! I didn't think they existed in Korea!! Stereotypically Koreans are far too reserved to be into motorcycles and leather!! So Stu stopped the van and we all approached cautiously, wanting photos; in no time we were all arm in arm getting our pictures taken with these friendly bikers, and they were equally enthusiastic with their cameras! Sometimes it takes me a while to realize that I am just as big of a novelty to others here as they are to me! At the same stop was an old ajumma that we bought icecream from. I was the first one to approach her, so she was very inquistive. She was stroking my arm, then my leg (I was wearing a skirt). Without words, she was able to say "Damn! You foreigners have hairy arms! And you shave your legs?? Weird!!!" As has become very evident from visiting saunas, Korean ladies don't shave their legs (or anything else... have I gone too far again?).

I believe our next big stop was Suncheon to watch a Gumdo tournament. It's some sort of Taekwondo like sport, but with samurai-esque swords and lots of stomping around. Only the black belts get REAL swords, all of the other levels have wooden ones.

After dinner at The Outback in Suncheon we headed out to Boesong and checked into a love motel for some rest. The next day we were up bright and early to see the Boesong Tea Plantation, which was awesome! The green tea plants are in rows all the way up mountains.

From Boesong it was on to Wando via two ferry's. After a while on the beach we'd run out of time so Stu had to take us back to Gwang-ju so he could take back the car in time. It was nice to see more of Korea. The best part was driving along country roads seeing all the mountains, rice fields and old ajummas!!! The final picture: the group of us that went on the roadtrip.

Metaphorical Oozing and Puss

2007-05-25T08:57:00.000+09:00

In honour of Buddha's Birthday, Monique and I decided to take a walk to one of the Temple's near my house. Many thanks to Buddha for providing this wonderful day off!!This is just a "progress shot" as we walked to the Temple.I love this little tree farm. Beautiful, but I'm not sure why.

This is what Moniques refers to as "Disco Buddha". These lanterns have been hung absolutley EVERYWHERE for Buddha's birthday. Kind of the Buddhist version of Christmas lights.

One of the cool demon statues in a temple. You'd better not piss him off.

And me sitting in front of a Temple. In other completely non-related news, it's Friday and we have no class in Naju English Town today. It's 9:10am and I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I feel like my attention span has been diminishing recently, due to my mind melting in a horror-film-like-manner. With oozing and puss and fun stuff like that. I need to watch less t.v.

Buddha's Birthday

2007-05-23T09:11:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow I have the day off for Buddha's Birthday, which is fantabulous. How do people here get away with celebrating Jesus' AND Buddha's birth? you may ask; I haven't a clue, but I love it!

Crazy Waygooks and the Po-po

2007-05-21T12:11:00.000+09:00

On Friday after Sports Day the principal told Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Kim to show me around Naju, so we went to the illustrious Naju Pear Museum!!! I've been meaning to go all year, just to find out what they could possibly put in a pear museum, and strangely enough, they had filled the place with pears. Plastic samples, sculpted pears as art, and my favourite: the "freak pears" in jars that reminded my of visiting a freak show and seeing two-headed babies in jars. Then from there Mrs. Lee and her husband took me to a ridiculously beautiful temple (the name eludes me) near Gwang-ju. At the top of one of the mountains nearby there was a huge reclining Buddha carved out of rock, which was very cool. In Korea there is a superstition that if a pregnant woman steals a piece of a Buddha, she will have a boy. So many of the smaller stone statues were missing ears and their nose. After climbing around the temple (I fell into a thorny bush and almost fell down the side of the mountain at one point... I'm so graceful) we went to Mrs. Lee's house for dinner, which was delicious.

Then on Saturday I headed over to Mokpo for a party being held for some teacher's whose contracts have ended and they're going home. Near Yudal Mountain there is an old abandoned school with a big open field, and that's where everyone decided to have a bonfire. So as we're sitting around, singing and whatnot (guitars are excellent around a campfire), a cop car shows up, flashing it's headlights at us. Afew people go over to talk to the po-po and we find out that the property has been bought by some people. So the police called the owners, asking if a bunch of random foreigners can stay for a while!! So after some bargaining and photo opportunities, the police leave with a warning to leave in two hours and clean up after ourselves!! Nice!! So we sang some more songs, lit some fireworks, cleaned up and left. All in all, a good weekend.

So now I'm back at work, and as of yesterday, I am officially going to be leaving Korea in three months!! Time is flying, but I'm also excited about going back to Canada and seeing everyone!

Sports Day

2007-05-18T13:42:00.000+09:00

Sorry Monique!! I've been quite busy as of late... busy downloading songs onto my ipod!! Not too much happening in Cathy land, apart from wonderful class free Sports Day today. OOOh!! A couple of days ago I went out to lunch with all of the teachers to a fish place. As I was biting into a piece of the strange (and really expensive) fish, Mrs. Lee says "this fish is... hmmmm... what is the word... poisonous". My reply: "Oh?" as I continue to chew. "Yes. There is poison in its blood." I was eating blowfish!! All I could think about was that episode of the Simpson's when Homer eats the fish and thinks he's going to die.

So yeah, sports day. The kids were all super-excited about this event. They've been practicing for weeks and today all of the kids came in wearing white, which I guess was their sports uniform. Some pictures. In the first one, you can see my apartment complex in the background. Living close to work is awesome! And the last picture is me (looking like an idiot) and one of my excellent extra class kids, Mi-rae.

Teacher's Day

2007-05-15T10:07:00.000+09:00

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

So, since it's teacher's day, there are no classes. This Friday is sport's day, thus no classes (or on Thursday either so that the kids can "train for sports day"). It seems that the spring semester is fraught with days off, sitting in the office trying to figure out my new ipod!! Poor me! I got some flowers from a couple of students, a nice barrette and a really cute note so far from the students in my extra class. They'd better get me presents after acting like little hellions in my class yesterday!!

My note from a student:

Cathy Hi~

My name is Lee Ah-Jung

today is teacherday

Cathy my present~

This is for you

I hope you like it

teacher I love you (heart)

Awwwww.... Just when I'm ready to stop showing up for my extra class (not that I could really get away with that...) a couple of the students have to be all cute.

So yeah, my weekend... originally I had planned on a big party weekend in Wando, but when it was rained out, I went into Gwang-ju wth Monique and Laurel and ended up buying myself a sweet little video ipod instead, since I like spending money so much. The downtown area was extra crowded and busy because there was some sort of concert going on. What really caught my attention was a few old city buses being spraypainted!! Very cool!

Happy Happy Happy

2007-05-11T12:52:00.000+09:00

Happy mother's day mom!! Love ya!

Thank You Slaves

2007-05-10T16:48:00.001+09:00

I'm not working very hard at the moment, I have to admit.

Drawings From Naju

2007-05-10T13:16:00.000+09:00

In the evenings I sit in front of the t.v. and draw/paint in my sketchbook:

Hmmmmm...

2007-05-09T10:13:00.000+09:00

Just... You know... Stuff...

- Saw Spiderman 3 in theatre with Mrs. Lee and Mr. Choi. We were all in agreement that the movie sucked. Too many big American flags, not enough story line (at least one that was cohesive).
- Did I move to a foreign country to become an interesting person? I don't think it's working...
- One of my students felt the need to stop class to ask me what size of clothes I wear. I told him "Very largiiieee!!!" In Korea I buy size 100 clothes. Isn't that a scary number?? It's also the largest size you can get over here.
- Alex's mom made me change my mind about bringing a dog with me, since dog's won't be aloud in many places. I want company though!! (But company that won't talk about stupid stuff, whine, or complain about my music).
- Instead of a dog, I think I'll get an i-pod (because apparently I need to spend money whenever possible). Then I can hook it up to my car speakers!!
- A grade two student went missing for a while today. There was a huge uproar over it!! All the kids were outside practicing for "sports day" (aka Track and Field day) when they realized a little girl had gone missing. After looking around for her for a while, they found out she'd walked home. No idea why; I guess she doesn't like sports.
- The "negative Nancy" attitudes of other foreign teacher's over here is starting to make me angry. (Don't worry Monique, I'm not referring to you!) Just people who are constantly bitching about the food, culture, people (EVERYTHING) and sometimes even when Korean friends are around! Come on people!! I just don't understand what they were expecting coming to a far-off country; fluffy clouds with fluffy cloud people saying nice things about you all day?? Hmmm?? Is that what you're looking for whiner?
- Hmmm... awww... I was describing the care bears!! I would like to visit them; if only it were possible...

Thinking Hurts My Brain

2007-05-08T12:38:00.000+09:00

On Monday I had one 40 minute class and today I have absolutely no class (the class that came in was too rowdy so Mr. Choi kicked them out!!! At first I thought they would be coming back, but nope...), so I've been doing A LOT of thinking. I've already long exhausted checking my e-mail and poking around facebook, so I've officially begun my "back to Canada" planning!! This is exciting and scary for many reasons. Exciting because I can't wait to see family and friends, but scary because my plans have gotten bigger and more grandiose by the day!! Thus far:

- Contract ends August 20th, so I'll be heading back to Canada sometime shortly thereafter.
- Hang out: harassing parents, visit old friends.
- Put all of my paintings and other junk in storage to get it out of the way!!
- Buy a decent car: I often have daydreams about cruising down country roads listening to music, stopping to take pictures etc.
- Buy a laptop to store my pictures, download music and provide entertainment!!
- Buy a puppy from a shelter to keep me company!
- Destinations: I definitely want to go through Alberta, BC, Montreal, NS, PEI, NWT, etc. Today I was looking at places to go in Nunavut, which may be a bit of a crazy idea but I REALLY want to go... Glaciers, ice floes, and Northern lights oh my!! And I also want to be able to say "yeah, I've been to Nunavut. It was alright." (And I want to re-enact scenes from Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. Wouldn't you want jump from ice floe to ice floe naked???).

- When I run out of money, which may happen pretty quickly; find a job and a place to live. Rent some studio space to keep painting, re-apply to schools.

I was looking online, and there are even hostels/backpackers places in Canada! They're pretty expensive, ranging from $25-$50/night, but that's pretty do-able. I'm also thinking of camping at provinicial parks along the way to reduce costs. It'll be fun!

Note: Sorry about the nudity (I know you can handle it mom!! And grandma!!). It's a scene from the previously mentioned movie that was filmed in Nunavut.

Hampyeong Butterfly Festivus for the Restofus

2007-05-07T09:45:00.000+09:00

On Saturday afternoon I was sitting around watching another episode of "America's Next Top Model", and I get a call from Stu saying that I should come to the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival. It was hard to tear myself away from quality programming, but I somehow managed, so I caught a bus out of Naju with Monique. When the bus finally got into Hampyeong there was so much freaking traffic that our bus was at a standstill, but we could see balloons and whatnot in the distance, so we decided to get out and walk!

Took a picture of the mahem: us and hundreds of others had also left their vehicles to walk the last little bit, so we were walking along a big highway dodging buses and whatnot!

The festival itself wasn't really all that much to look at; I think it was more of an excuse for parents to get their crying children out of the house for a day. The group of us stood out A LOT amongst all the other visitors, so we also recieved many many stares and "*Gasp* Megook saram!" (American person). And I'm not talking little children whispering it behind their mothers leg, I'm talking run up to you and point. After a while Stu was joking about saying back to the kids "Ahhhhh!! Hanguk saram!!!" ("Ahhhh! Korean Person!!"), but I don't think the kids would've gotten the irony. Eventually we did finally see some real butterflies, but not enough to have a big festival surely!

From there we (i.e. Stu, Mi-ji, Monique and myself) headed out to the barbeque that Hyun-joong and Kristen were hosting in Mokpo. Hyun-joong's cousins have a country house with an actual backyard!! So we all sat out side eating and drinking until there was a big thunderstorm and everyone had to move their guitars inside. Alex's mom is also visiting from Canada, so on Sunday we took a walk up Yudalsan, which was nice, except that the humidity has started over here, which is probably going to make me want to hide in my apartment in front of the fan a lot. I also learned that Alex is a big baby (even more so than usual) with his mom around (hahahahahaha).

So that was my weekend! Now I'm in the office waiting for my ONE 40 minute class that I'm teaching today. Here are some extra pretty pictures of the view from my balcony after sunset.

Enthused

2007-05-03T14:12:00.000+09:00

Today's class was SUPER FUN!! Right kids??? Right?? Ummm...

Today the English town had eight kids in from our branch school. Ordinarily a class of eight (usually it's about thirty) would make things much more interesting and fun, but these kids just sat there staring blankly at us. No one knew their dialogues, understood when we said "hello", or even slightly cared. So Mrs. Lee and I are trying to teach them a couple of songs, trying to bring out a little energy... nothing. Sigh.

This week we had a couple days where no classes could come (testing and whatnot), so I had Wednesday off, which I spent doing errands, cleaning my apartment and generally being lazy. On Friday we have no class again, so Mr. Choi, Mrs. Lee and myself are going to watch Spiderman 3 in Gwang-ju. Hahahahahaha... isn't life tough?

This One's For The Family And Friends Back Home

2007-04-30T15:47:00.000+09:00

The result of a double-dog-dare:What's Cathy doing?? What... oh wait, she's contemplating a spoonful of blood-chunk-soup. Yep, on my spoon is a congealed, cooked hunk of blood (and some onions). Is she actually going to eat it????
Of course she is!!! Cathy's no wimp. Alex and myself went out to a Samgyupsal place on Friday, and were served a steaming bowl full of blood soup while we waited for our meal to arrive. So, of course, we decide to take pictures of eachother eating it. It actually doesn't taste all that bad; just strange. Then Alex went into this big long story about how the blood is gathered; I'm not convinced that this is true, but apparently the blood is left to drip from a dead animal of some sort, congeal, then is cut up and put in the soup. Masshiket Juseyo! (Enjoy your meal!).

Wolchulsan Again

2007-04-30T12:19:00.000+09:00

On Saturday Stu, Alex, Monique and myself met up at 11am to climb wolchulsan... again. This time though, Stu suggested the "goat trail", which meant that it was much more difficult. We found ourselves jumping over huge rocks, hanging from old ropes over sheer cliffs, and slipping along loose gravel on the rocks. It was a lot of fun. These are our "Korea Phighting" poses. This was at the beginning when we still had lots of energy, and were ready to "kick the mountain's ass". This is one of our many stops on the way to the top (which we could just barely see in the distance). At the top of this particular mountain there was lots of holes in the rock. This was a particularly stagnant pool of water we found. (That's alex resting nearby).

At varios stages on a big fat rock. The nice thing about the "goat trail" is that we were pretty much the only people on it. Once we went down the mountain on the regular path it was really crowded. Waiting in line to walk sucks.
Here's the view from the top (as Stu eats some chips on the right).

Thanks Beeridget!!

2007-04-30T10:29:00.000+09:00

I just got your package at work!! Customs opened it in Seoul, but I'm pretty sure all they did was put in some bubble wrap for the rest of the journey through Korea! Thanks dude!! I can't wait to eat some tacos!! My co-teacher Mrs. Lee thought all of the items you sent were so cute she wanted to take a picture!!

Written Apology

2007-04-25T15:32:00.000+09:00

I was just having an msn conversation with Alex and felt compelled to say sorry after ten minutes of "your mom" jokes. I'm sorry Alex's mom, for what I've said, and I'm sorry to my mom, for what Alex has said. Hahahahahahahahahahaha... but apparently Alex thinks you're a hot mom, so that's always good!! Hahahahaha, the best part: I've just written this on my blog, and now you're going to be printing it out (for other readers, my mom prints off all my entries)!

In other news, Mom, I got your Easter pictures and letter. I especially liked the fake smiles as the siblings did the dishes. Muahahahahahahahaha. Marcia was telling me she wished I'd been there to deflect some of the abuse, so it's nice to know I'm missed, even if it's only as a potential target!!

And now, to totally switch topics again: I felt that I was long overdue for some Naju English Town pictures. I've always been meaning to add some but it just never happened. I would just like to show everyone that I work in a cartoon:

Yep, that's an actual car, sans engine.

I didn't Almost Have a Freak-out This Time!

2007-04-23T15:42:00.000+09:00

Don't get me wrong, my extra class was still a little crazy, and the Evil Ringleader just as inattentive as usual, but I played some games!! You want your class to all the sudden think you're a good teacher? Play a game!! The game I planned was ridiculously simple: I gave three groups little pieces of paper with each month, and the numbers one to thirty. Then I would say a random day (like January 23rd) and whoever found the right months and numbers first, won a point. They went crazy for it; they were screaming and fighting and generally acting like hooligans over it.

The Final Countdown... (da na na nuh... da na na na nuh...)

2007-04-23T11:15:00.000+09:00

This blasted cold is still causing me angst, but apart from that, life in Cathy land is tranquil. It's still hard to believe that in just over four months I'll be back in Canada, dealing with reality. It doesn't feel like I've been here eight months at all!! There are still lots of things I'd like to do before I head back! A list:

- Wolchulsan one more time (going this weekend).
- Jirisan, another famous mountain, but I have no idea where it is.
- Jeju island. I think I'll just take a ferry from Mokpo one weekend when I've got nothing planned.
- Spend a weekend in Busan (Korea's second largest city)
- Go back to Seoul to shop (which of course I have already done, but there are always more tourist items to buy!!
- Visit the DMZ. I had a few opportunities to go, but it never happened. Apparently North and South Korean military spend their entire day staring at eachother in anger. Some guards stand half behind buildings in case the other side attacks etc. etc. But then it's also a huge tourist destination because it's the only country in the world to be divided by a huge strip of wilderness with landmines buried everywhere.
- Visit another country (I've still got two weeks of vacation left!). After thinking about my plans for Canada: somewhere cheap, preferably.

All of those things are very do-able.

So What Could This Dream Mean?

2007-04-17T16:00:00.000+09:00

So, I had no classes today, and it's becoming surprising and a little scary how easily I can while away an entire day sitting at my desk. For some reason I keep on thinking about this dream I had a while back. It started with me in Korea, except that there were people there that I'd known in Canada there as well of course. I was with this big group of people and we'd just finished school (as in, we were all students at a school?? Makes no sense), so we were walking down these back alleys. The entire dream had this post-apocalyptic, Tim Burton-esque backdrop. The sky was gloomy with an ugly redish tinge, the buildings old and derelict.

So we're walking along, all wearing backpacks, until, in the distance we see a mountain, and it's this twisted, ugly-bizarre looking Mt. Fuji (which is in Japan... again, the dream isn't making a lot of sense). All of the sudden we're at the foot of the mountain, which is this immense, monstrous, gothic looking thing; so we start climbing. But we're not walking along the ground, we're walking along a HUGE vine suspended over the ground that is anchored to the peak of the mountain. The vine gets thinner and thinner as we ascend, but we never stop for a break or get tired. Eventually it's a straight-up climb, but no one slows down. Now I'm basically pulling myself up using my arms more than anything.

Mt. Fuji is a huge mountain, and is often viewed with an ample snow covering at the top. The top of the mountain was white in my dream, but it wasn't snow, it was more like styrofoam. And the actual peak of the mountain was only big enough for one person to stand on the "top" at once. Weird!! So we all get to the top, but it's really crowded and since only one person could sit down on the top of the mountain we're all clinging to crags ("those craggy bits!") in the styrofoam and dangling from the vine. Just as I was starting to try to appreciate the view, I woke up. Waking up sucks sometimes... well, all the time.

The Day Kesi Teacher Spazzed

2007-04-16T15:38:00.000+09:00

Had my extra afternoon class today. Came perilously close to freaking out on a student. It kills me that half of the class is SO GOOD, and so willing to try; if only I could just weed out the kids who are only there because their parents make them go!! So I'm trying to teach them about the country and the city (super-fun topic eh?) and there's this one boy, of whom I will name "Evil Ringleader" who will never speak English at all (in any way, even just repeating back to me). Then he's got his buddies "Crony 1", "Crony 2", and "Crony 3" that do his every bidding, just to make things extra fun. So they were running around the class, doing nothing, refusing to even open their books or participate. Just as I was about to scream and rage (or adversely to burst into tears) one of my nice students who hardly ever says a word, said "Kesi angry?" and made devil horns with her fingers. Of course I started laughing and said "Yes. Kesi very mad."

So I gave stickers to all of the kids who actually did something. Mom, all of the stickers you just sent me are already gone (I've got some more from Bridget on reserve though)! I said "two stickers each", which the students took to mean "two pages of stickers each". By that point I just wanted everyone gone though, so I dismissed the class.

Sometimes it's just so frustrating that I can't yell at them in Korean! There are so many ways I could get them in trouble if only I could actually talk to them without hearing "mulaiyo" (I don't understand). AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! There, now I feel better.

Kesi the Whiner Takes a Moment

2007-04-16T13:30:00.000+09:00

So I'm sick again. I spent the entire weekend in my apartment watching "Six Feet Under" as I stuffed my nostrils with kleenex (a charming visual, I'm sure). I didn't speak to a single person from Friday at work until Sunday night when mom called. It was pretty great, or it would've been if I hadn't felt so sick.

Oh, and here are the pictures to go with a previous post about my love of intrigue: this is the abandoned car near my house, and the beach toys in the back.

Think what you will...

Spring in the Land of Morning Calm

2007-04-12T16:39:00.000+09:00

Assshhhh... I already had my entry written out, then I pressed a wrong button (my demands are all in Korean... it can be a little frustrating!!!). Now I'm feeling so apathetic that I don't want to do it again. Yes Alex, I know, I'm very emo (but never as emo as YOU). I'm going to abbreviate what I had originally written, which was articulate and interesting, I assure you:

- It's spring, and it's windy, and the wind is blowing dust from China into Korea.
- So obnoxious! China! We don't want your dust! It's making people over here sick!
- Makes my apartment dusty, the sky's a little yellow, but that's really all I've seen over here in the Naj. Apparently it's worse in Seoul.
- I just spent the afternoon watching a Korean movie called "The 200 Pound Beauty" and this is the only moral I could glean: If you're fat and ugly, get A LOT of surgery and you'll become famous and people will love you.
- Plastic surgery is on the rise in Korea. Big time. You can go into a 7-11 and buy these little oval shaped pieces of tape. Girls (and I guess some boys) put them on their eyes to give them the "western double eyelid". Whenever I watch t.v. it's easy to see which actors/actresses have had the double eyelid surgery.
- Kids are always pointing at my big white-girl nose. Some kids are instructed to pinch their nose often so that they will develop their bridge!
- Today Mrs. Kim (the mean co-teacher) said to me: soft drinks are for soft people (after encouraging me to drink the coke that's been in the fridge since winter camps).
- This led to general bitterness.

This is amonument near Geumsong Mountain. Yep, he's shooting a gun into the air. And in the previous picture is Kimbap Man, offering you some delicious kimbap like a weird cannibal! (kimbap usually involves veggies and rice wrapped in seaweed)

Please Teach Me English

2007-04-10T16:34:00.001+09:00

This movie is so very excellent!! If you want to know how Koreans feel about learning english, how teachers feel teaching in a foreign country etc. etc., watch this movie!! I also love the fact that the ESL teacher's name is Cathy. This is only a part of the movie though; if you want to watch the rest, check out youtube.com. Just type in "Please Teach Me English", and the movie is cut into 11 parts (I think..).

Kristen's Birthday

2007-04-09T13:43:00.000+09:00

On Saturday I headed out to Mokpo to pay Kristen a visit so I could say Happy Birthday and all that stuff. We started the evening with a traditional Korean singing/dancing/instrumental extravaganza. This is the only picture I took because we weren't supposed to use flash photograpy, and I thought I had turned off my flash, but I hadn't, and it went off in the middle of the performance. After that I felt bad so I didn't want to take any more . There was one really good performance involving four guys playing various traditional instruments. I was absolutely transfixed by one of the guys; he had really bad hair, but he was having a marvelous time banging on his little mini-gong insatrument.

Then we walked over to a restaurant called "China Food" whish was delicious.

And here's Hyun-joong about to bite Kristen. Eeeek!

Before I went to Mokpo Saturday afternoon, I decided to go for a nice walk on the mountain with the helicopter pad on top. I rarely see others on the trail, and I got there at around 9am, so I had wondrous visions of solitude. This vision was coming true until I spent too long at the top resting and was joined by a few students from my school. After the "Hello Kesi's!!!" were over, they made it known that they were with an entire class full of students on a field trip. Just my luck. So after about thirty more hellos, a photo opportunity with the waygook, and trying to assist the kids up the mountain ("Candy teacher!! Help me!! Help me!!") I got to leave. I can never escape!!!

I Love Intrigue

2007-04-09T13:23:00.000+09:00

This is just a little story about how I like to over-think absolutely EVERYTHING. Near my apartment complex there is a really beautiful mountain range and I walk along the same streets/paths to get there everytime.
First I make my way through the shanty-town region of Naju, then walk along the river looking at the koi fish, then I walk under an overpass. Parked on the left side is a car. There's nothing strange about the car except it has been there for over seven months now. I saw it the first time I took a walk to my mountains when I moved here, and it's STILL THERE. It hasn't moved in all that time! It's gotten really dirty, someone ripped the licence plates off, and the same items that were sitting in the car are still there in the exact same place.
In the back seat there are two inflated beach toys, a blanket and some books. It looks like someones on their way to the beach, they're just running seven months late.

So naturally I've assumed the owner of the car has been murdered, the children sold to some sort of prostitution ring, or sold to wealthy celebrities who want to be like Angelina Jolie. But how come the Naju Police haven't had the car towed?? Why does no one know about the existence of the car? Maybe the car's from Seoul and someone stole it and ditched it in Naju? Or maybe I should get a life?

The Bamboo Forest

2007-04-06T12:25:00.000+09:00

So yesterday we found out that we didn't have any class so we decided to go on a "business trip". After lots of official Naju English Town work in Gwang-ju (i.e. hanging out at Mrs. Kims place and going out for lunch), we went to Damyang (a city near Gwang-ju) that boasts the most bamboo in Korea. So here are a few pictures of us in the "Bamboo Forest".

This is Dong-gyu, Mrs Kim's older son; he's eying a strange statue that we found. Not a clue who he is. I'm pretty sure Dong-gyu had his suspicions though.

2007-04-05T09:15:00.000+09:00

I got your package mom!! You are so awesome!!! But I owe you some money!! All those seasons of Six Feet Under must've been pretty expensive, and the Trailer Park Boys movie's going to be entertaining!!

So in the last five minutes (about 9:10 am) I found out that I have no class today, which is wonderful. So to get out of the office we're going to go on a fieldtrip!! Top ELT Bookstore in the morning, and Mudeungsan Mountain in the afternoon! Sweet!

I'll add to this post later!