Soul to Seoul

Our long holiday weekend has come and gone. A few months ago we saw this past weekend as an opportunity to go to Beijing and see the Great Wall of China but ended up deciding that we just couldn't afford to do so. So, we had the much less glamourous idea to instead take the KTX (bullet train) up to Seoul for the weekend. It's a very short 2 1/2 hour trip through mostly the countryside. I didn't know Korea was so mountainous! Some views through my window looked strikingly like home. However, with the mountains come the tunnels and nothing makes my ears hurt worse than hurling through tunnels on a train. Airplanes don't bother my ears one bit but trains and tunnels...forget it.

All last week I spent planning and booking things and printing maps and looking up places to eat. Some of the very few things I knew about Seoul previously was only that it's bigger than Busan, it has a Forever 21 and that I've had to stopover there twice on two separate flying occasions. Not much to go on. I did know before going up that my main goal for the weekend was to "get out of Korea" for a few days. Yes, Seoul is in Korea, but I figured there was enough American stuff there to keep me really happy for 72 hours.

Once we pulled into Seoul Station and exited about lunchtime I really felt I was someplace much larger than Busan. It was crowded. Busan has 3.6 million people and, truly, most days I don't feel as if I'm an extremely populated place. Seoul, on the other hand, has over 10 million people and I felt it the second I got off the train platform. It made me realize how small Busan really is comparatively. Busan is the second largest city but it doesn't feel like it, not at all. There is so much MORE in Seoul than in Busan, it's unreal.

Throughout the weekend there were times I felt like I was in any large city in the US. The diversity of people! Most of my life, apart from vacations, has been spent in very un-diverse places. The last four years of my life have been rural Canada, rural WV, rurual Japan, back to rural WV and now Busan which really doesn't have as many foreigners as I had anticipated coming here. And where the foreigners do congregate, 99% are from America, Canada, Europe or Australia...you know, white...we all look the same. Wandering around NYC, for example, is just a big melting pot of people from all over the world and it was the same in Seoul. It was a group of Indian women in their saris, a family from Africa in their traditional clothes, Latino, Nepalese...I even saw one woman in her full burka. These are things that I don't get in Busan, things I like to see on an every day basis...a variety of people. The kids don't point and stare there like they do here, either, because they are so used to the diversity. Maybe this is just the small town girl in me coming out being happily amazed at the different people in the world...but onward!  

The first thing I see when we leave the station is Bennigans. A Bennigans! Open and ready for business. Aren't they all closed in the US? I would've loved a Monte Cristo while visiting but, alas, maybe next trip. I had a mission for lunch and that mission was Taco Bell, so Bennigans will have to wait. After we descended down into the metro elbow to elbow with everyone else we got our tickets and eventually found the right platform. Subways are subways and they essentially all work the same so it wasn't something that was overwhelming. What was overwhelming was the sheer size of that one station. Enormous. Our first destination was Myeong-dong station and the area we were staying in which has the same name. I chose this area because Myeong-dong is where the shopping is. Forever 21, H&M, Zara, Aldo...it's fantastic. Also, it's very centrally located within the city. Luckily, Seoul Station is only two stops from Myeong-dong and I say lucky because the metro map looks like this:



 The last thing I would have wanted to do would be to navigate a strange subway and do three transfers to get to our hotel (again, lucky). It pretty much looks like someone took a bunch of spaghetti noodles, threw it on the ground and declared, "Ah! The subway map of Seoul!" (but this is nothing compared to Tokyo, google it, if you're so inclined)

Once we located our hotel and checked into our impossibly small room it was off to Taco Bell. It's located in the "foreigner district" of Itaewon, again, only a few stops from Myeong-dong and just right around the corner from the station exit. I get to the door and Heaven's Gates opened and inside waiting for me is my favorite fat kid food ever. I get a table outside and Al shortly brings out the tray laden with my disgustingly delicious lunch. After stuffing myself with tacos and nachos it was back to Myeong-dong to do some damage to my Korean bank account and watch those wons deplete.

Al likes shopping just as much as I, or any girl, really (<3) and he was just as eager to get in the stores. We first went to Forever 21, but upon seeing that it was three floors of awesomeness and that I would probably be spending a substantial amount of time in there, we went to the not-very-big-considering-it's-three-floors men's section first. It was to no avail. He found nothing in Forever so instead of walking around with me for hours we both went to H&M and that's where he hit the jackpot. I'm not going to make him wander around with me for the rest of the afternoon when I'm going to be ignoring him anyway so he went back to the hotel to sit on the patio and drink beer while I stayed in the shopping area to head back to Forever and finish at H&M. Three hours and 250,000 won later I'm jubilant and already feeling like I've left Korea for a while.

That night for dinner we had some very delicious Indian food (looooove curry) and called it an early night. The next day we had reserved for cheap outdoor market shopping. There were two good ones I had read about beforehand: Dongdaemun and Namdaemun. We went first to Namdaemun and though I feel like we probably saw only 5% of the entire thing, we weren't that impressed and it was starting to sprinkle. We decided to just grab a few little things from the street vendors to eat really quick (I didn't want to eat anything Korean whatsoever, but I was starving) so we got a kimbap (Korean-style sushi (without sushi) rolls) and a sort of patty thing with meat, noodles and vegetables in it that I can't remember the name. Also we ran across this menu from one of the vendors:



Stir fried pork intestines, chicken feet and pork with "lumpybones" (whatever that is). Yum. Nearly ruined my appetite. We decided to go back to Itaewon to find a real place to eat and went to a regular old pub/grill place with nothing unfamiliar on the menu (yay!). I got one of those taco-chili-mexican-tortilla soups...definitely can't find that in Busan. We decided to go to the other market, Dongdaemun, and had a very hard time finding where it was or even what it was because I read it wasn't a traditional street market. Once we finally located the place (miles of semi-derelict buildings with stalls inside) everything was closed. Lame. I was looking forward to rooting through the junk. For dinner we had ON THE BORDER. I'm talking the Mexican chain from the US. When people would ask Al what we planned on doing in Seoul he said he'd just tell them "we're going to eat Mexican food" and that's plenty alright with me, it's my favorite. I walked inside and I could be sitting in any Mexican place in any state and feel the same. Enchiladas....ahhhh!!!

Monday was leaving day and so we wanted Subway for lunch. Just so you know, it doesn't matter where you are in the world, all subways smell the same. Turkey can't be found in a grocery store over here so my turkey consumption since leaving the US is now up to two times. (first at Quiznos here in Busan - $$$$$) We had time to kill after eating so we decided to just wander around Itawon and happened to stumble upon two of the best streets I've ever found in Asia. One was a street with a ton of "foreign food" markets. O. M. G. I would DIE for one of these places here. Not only did they get progressively bigger the farther along the street we went but I bought more and more things along the way. I felt like I was wondering around Krogers or something. Cheetos, Colgate, Stovetop stuffing, Glade candles, oatmeal, cornmeal, tampons, cake mixes, ranch dressing, tomato soup, refried beans...tons upon tons of stuff that I've never seen in Busan and a lot of it came home with me. The other street was an international restaurant street. German, Ethiopian, Italian, Mexican, Turkish, Japanese...it was all represented. I sincerely wish I would've known about that place before going, we probably would've spent most of our meals there!

With my bags full of American grocery items we headed back to get our luggage and get to the train station to catch the 3:00 KTX. And after all that, I'm sitting in my Busan apartment thanking God that I don't live in Seoul. We would spend SO much money if we lived there. Eating and shopping, eating and shopping. No, I'm definitely glad we live here even if I don't have most of the conveniences of home or the variety of people like I would there.

(happy to be eating Indian food)

Workin' for the Weekend

So, I do apologize for not writing in a month. There really hasn't been a whole lot going on! The truth is, yes, I'm living abroad and while it might sound spectacular on the outside, on the inside I'm just trying to get through the week to Saturday just like the rest of you. After a few weeks of being here the novelty wears off (especially being the second time around doing this) and I'm just another person doing the same thing day in and day out, watching the clock tick past my 5 1/2 hour days until Friday at 6:35 when I get to say goodbye to those kids for two glorious days. See, my life is just like yours, I'm just in another country doing it!

Now, before you click off my page and stop reading my blog because you think things aren't that exciting over here, sorry for misleading you, they are! And here is what has been going on lately:

The weather has broken! It's finally warm/hot every day. The weather here, apart from being frigid in the winter, drives me crazy. Back home the weather is extremely inconsistant. Even in the winter you get freak 60s or even 70s days and come March you can breathe a sigh of relief because the bad stuff is mostly over. When March hits you will always have warm days/weeks scattered around to help you cope with those cold days that are mixed in until about mid-April. Needless to say, it makes winter seem shorter in a way because of the inconsistancy. Here in Busan, the weather is sooooo gradual. Slowly warms up, slowly cools down. It seems to warm up a degree or two every day. No nutty 80 degree days in March, no freak snowstorms in April. Just a gradual warm up that makes me want to pull my hair out because it seemed like it was NEVER going to get hot. Two weeks ago it finally started steadily staying in the 20s (high 60s-low 70s) and now it's hanging around the mid 20s every day which is very pleasant. And after the winter here and the steady incline of temperatures I can feel my mood improving daily. Though I think I'll be praying for days like these come summer, I guess it's scorching hot with no relief for months.

One of the awesome things about Busan is it's right on the beach. I'm not talking oh-it's-on-the-coast-but-no-real-beaches-nearby like where we were in Japan, but real genuine beach towns with long stretches of sand and salty air and waves and seashells. There are two main ones, Haeundae and Gwangalli. Haeundae is considered the busiest beach (or one of) in the world and here's a picture to prove it:

Ah, Haeundae. I've not seen it like this yet but I guess this is what to be expected so we better enjoy it now...WHICH WE ARE. It's so nice to be able to just hop the subway for 20 minutes, walk another 5 and plop myself on the sand for the afternoon. There are restaurants and convenience stores and coffee shops lining the road behind the beach and before the weather got hot Al and I would go down and sit on one of the terraces of Starbucks or something and have a coffee and watch the waves. Relax. Now that it's warm enough to dig out the bathing suit and tan it's where we spent our entire weekend this week. Saturday (Cinco de Mayo!) we gathered some friends and went and ate Mexican (well, the closest thing you can get to it here) at a place called Fuzzy Navel right beside Gwangalli beach. After we ate and the boys had their cervesas we laid on the beach all day. Al and his friends ended up gathering more foreigners for a 7 on 7 football game on the beach at which one point there were many, many Korean onlookers cheering and shouting. We spent the evening at a friend's house and then woke up and laid on the beach all day Sunday as well. I'd say my weekends will be mostly beach filled. (Yay! Tan!)



In Korean news, I still don't like the food. I haven't learned the language and I don't intend to. I really don't care much about travelling or seeing the country either. Basically, I just don't care about Korea. It's horrible to say, but I don't. I like living here, but I'm not interested in the country itself whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, scowl if you want, but it's true. And I don't really feel bad about it and I blame it on this not being my first time doing this so I'm all meh.

I just started my third full semester at school. They only last two months for some reason. The kids get changed around a bit and my classrooms/classtimes change. It's nice to have things changed even minimally every few months, keeps me from going stir crazy. I either love my classes or hate my classes. I have about 4 classes that make things very hard. I've told you all this before but some of those kids really just need a good punch in the face. I have one class of older middle schoolers, they're probably 12-14 years old and they are the most disrespectful, rude and some just plain out mean kids I've ever dealt with in my life. I remember being like that sometimes when I was their age but never to my teachers! On the bright side, I do have some really fun classes like this one:

They get a little out of hand because they are young but they're mostly fun.

On the travelling front we have a few things lined up. We'll be going to Seoul here in a few weeks because we get a long weekend. I'm actually looking forward to "getting out of Korea" for a few days. I plan on shopping my face off at Forever 21 and eating Taco Bell for every meal. Nice change for the weekend. After that we have vacation in July/August. I have a full week off but Al only has a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off. They told him that if he can find a replacement it's no problem if he takes off the Monday and Tuesday therefore giving us 9 days to go somewhere. If we can have all that time I'd like to go to India or Australia or someplace far. If we only have the 5 days we'll probably end up in SE Asia somewhere, maybe go back to Thailand, not sure yet. Even farther ahead in September we have another long weekend (I have 5 days, we're not sure which days Al has off yet) and I think we're heading to Beijing to see the Great Wall of China. I'm REALLY excited about that. It's really the only thing about China that holds any interest for me and it's only a 2 1/2 hour direct flight away from here so there's really no reason not to go for a few days.

I miss home like mad this time around. I think about it all the time and wish I could just hop on a plane and come visit everyone. I don't know why it's so different this round but I am rather homesick. And not always just for West Virginia to see family and friends but just America in general. I just want all things American and interstates and normal food and good drivers and the smells and all your lovely faces. Miss all of you <3 xo





Hunger Games!

This morning The Hunger Games FINALLY started in Korea. I read the books shortly after moving here. Al was the one who actually read them first and then convinced me they were worth a look. After reading all three I'll say that I absolutely loved the first one. Now, as for the other two, I'm not sure. I'm sure a lot of people will hate me for what I'm about to say but so be it. Here's what it feels like to me: It feels like Suzanne Collins initially wrote one single book comprised of the elements in the first book but with a definitive ending. She took it to a publisher and they told her, "This could be a gold mine as a trilogy, now go back and think of a bunch of stuff to stretch it out into three." The first, to me, is brilliant. I love everything about it and I devoured every word. The second and third I felt I was, not necessarily rolling my eyes, but just cocking my eyebrow and like really? Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy reading them, I just felt like there was a lot going on and a lot of filler things to keep the story long enough. (Like that episode of Family Guy when Peter fights the chicken for like 15 minutes.) I also want to say that I have nothing against her writing itself. Everyone knows that Stephenie Meyer is a terrible writer but, yes, I do enjoy a Twilight book from time to time. Reading Suzanne Collins is like reading the newspaper; nothing spectacular but nothing bothers me about it either, it's simply just reading.

Going to the movies in Japan was quite an ordeal (no one spoke english) and tickets were $20 a pop. Here, it's easy peasy and we paid 10,000 Won for two tickets (roughly $8.50?). Also in Asia (at least in the three Asian countries I've been to a cinema) you choose your seats beforehand from the computer screen. It does make things flow smoothly and you are guaranteed your place if you're late. But Al and I were talking about it and I wondered why the US doesn't adopt a similar system since it does make things so much easier. His answer: Concessions. Do you realize all the money that the theaters would lose if they used the choose-seats-before-the-movie system? There would be no more line-up crazes before big movies...you know those lines that we've all waited in and bought numerous, expensive items from the concession while waiting the three hours to get into Harry. I think my friend Jess and I spent a small fortune on New York Fries, Pizza Hut, popcorn and two giant sodas while waiting to get into Twilight one year. Nope. That system would never, ever work in America. But, I'm secretly okay with that. I really do love getting with my friends and waiting for movies sometimes.

Now, on to the movie! I thought it was fantastic! It was everything I wanted it to be and more. It was extremely true to the book, as much as a movie can be. I feel all the parts were casted well and Jennifer Lawrence played Katniss beautifully. All the scenery made me miss home so much! With some of the Harrys I felt things moved too fast and it was just scene scene scene scene. I didn't feel that way about HG. I felt like the movie took its time and let me savour every moment of what was happening. One of the small details I love was that they kept Buttercup, if only for a moment. Another is that President Snow was always in the company of white roses, that is nice for those of us who know the next books. A lot seemed to look as I pictured it, with one of the only exceptions being their costumes, and those were even better than I imagined. Some of the bits looked a little fakey, but it wasn't enough to make me squirm. The Capitol dress/hair/makeup was out of this world. The reaping scene was so emotional and I think a lot of it had to do with the silence in the background. For some reason, in my head while reading, everything was kind of noisy, people talking or cheering or clapping and so forth. In the movie everything was so eerily silent and I loved it. I think it made it more poignant.

I'm not much for blood and guts and I have to close my eyes even at scary movie previews but I was hoping going in that the blood would fly. The whole point of the books is the cruelty that these children are forced to deal with from the Capitol and the disgusting way they have to do its bidding. I mean they have to fight to the death on national televison. That's a captivating, gruesome storyline and I wanted no shortage of the knifing and axing. I wasn't disappointed. There weren't intestines flying through the air and brains scattered on the dirt but it was enough violence to really make the audience see the sickness of it all.

One thing I wish they would've focused a little more on is how hungry and starving everyone in the distrcts are. It didn't really go into that much detail about how terrible their lives really are compared to the extravagance of the Capitol. Maybe in future movies? And did they mention Effie's name throughout the entire thing? I may have just been caught up in it all but I don't remember them ever saying her name. Overall I really have no complaints. Al, on the other hand comes out and whines, "What! Where were her nightime glasses!" :::facepalm:::

I'm sure I'll later think of many other things I wish I would've written but for now, it's all I've got. I'm off for some dinner...it's my birthday tomorrow!!!!

Where's a Small Town Wal-Mart When I Need One?

Grocery shopping here is a complete and utter nightmare. Being in a huge city means that at any given time the supermarket is likely to be packed. I prefer to do my shopping at a store called Home Plus. It's more or less Target without the awesomeness only Target can possess. You know, clothes, shoes, food, household items...though probably with more of the food selection of Wal-Mart.

Let me just start off by saying that Koreans are constantly in my way. In every shape, form and capacity, they are in my way. Walking down the sidewalk they will always make sure that I cannot pass them. In the subway, they will always make sure they aggressively bypass me to be the first on the train. They seem to have an extra sense that someone is trying to get past them in some way or another and then purposely get in the way. Kind of like a Pennsylvanian on Interstate. Lastly, at the supermarket, they will always be dragging their cart sidways down the aisle or walking three people deep through the produce or parking their buggies at the mouth of the aisle to check out what's on the end of said aisle or walking so slowly down the middle of the row that it's impossible to get around...the list goes on and on and on. It's as if they have rented out the entire store for themselves and they haven't a care of anyone else in the world...but there are a thousand other people trying to shop as well. And considering out of those thousand people there might be five foreigners (thinking the same things I am, by the way) that means that there are 995 Koreans all pulling their buggies sidways or parking them right in the middle of wherever and all thinking they are the only ones in the supermarket. NIGHTMARE.

Perhaps Americans are the same way I've just never experienced a big city supermarket before. Or perhaps there are just SO MANY people trying to shop at once, it's going to happen. Or perhaps it's an Asian thing because Japan was the same and yet I was in a very small town. I've just always seen with my own eyes that if I'm trying to get around someone, they move. Or if I sense someone around me, I get out of the way. It just seems like a second nature thing to do.

Another thing I hate about grocery shopping is their aversion to shopping bags. Not that they don't have them, they don't give them to you automatically. Let's say I pull up to the cashier with 35 items in my buggy. She rings it all through to the other side of the conveyor just like anywhere else. But once everything is through it all just sits there. Back home, in most places, they bag things for you. In Japan, they gave you the amount of bags they thought you would need then you bag them yourself. In Korea, they just stare at you, daring you to ask for bags to put your things in. I don't know what goes through the cashier's mind when she sees I have a counter full of things and nothing to carry them in as I'm paying but I have had to ask, literally every single time I've gone to the store, for bags. And then sometimes it's like I've asked for them to run to the bag factory and make me some. Like, why don't I have 15 arms to carry all my stuff home? Maybe there is something more to the bag thing that I don't know about, but whatever it is, it's one of the most annoying and inconvenient thing I've run across.

If you haven't been able to tell, I just got home from Home Plus. I feel like I just came home from battling orcs in Mordor. Goooooooooooood NIGHT!

My Japanese Weekend

Ever since deciding not to return to Japan and come to Korea all of that stuff we left there has been lurking in the back of my mind. When we left Japan in April we had every intention of going back within a few months and so packed for West Virginia just as if we were heading there for a long vacation, and a warm vacation at that, leaving all of our winter things and household items at a friend's place in Mitoyo. What we didn't anticipate was coming to Korea, therefore temporarily abandoning most of our belongings in a different country.  We finally came back to Asia in December and I truly wasn't worried about our things because we had planned on going over Christmas break (we both had significant time off school) to retrieve everything. Well, it turns out we had no extra money so we couldn't go in December. Our plans for getting our things was postponed indefinitely.

Then, like a sign from Heaven, our friend back home who was in charge of selling my car sold it on a holiday weekend (3 day weekend!) so, in my opinion, that extra money was supposed to go straight into the Japan trip. We get to the ferry terminal and find out that 1. The ferry was leaving within a few hours and 2. It was way more expensive than originally thought so only one of us (me) could go. So right then and there I had to decide whether to embark on this overnight ferry/6 hour bullet train ride alone. I decided that I didn't have enough time to prepare myself for going so that trip was also a bust.

Finally, I get my vacation schedule for the year and see that I have a Wed, Thurs, Fri off school at the beginning of March and so I, at long last, have the perfect opportunity to go. By this time I was rotating like three sweaters and not very warm ones at that. (All my winter stuff is in Japan, remember?) so I compare prices on the ferry vs. flying and flying wins out so I book my flight to Osaka.

The weeks before leaving, going to Japan was ALL I could think about. It was almost like going back home again. Going back to the familiar. The thought was blissful to me. I finally get to eat some good food and get some things that I've been missing terribly...along with getting all my belongings! But then, March 1 was only a few days away and I kept thinking that there are much better things I'd rather be doing with my week off from work...like laying around doing nothing...and now I have to trek to Japan and haul back two giant suitcases. By the time I left I was excited, yes, but also wishing I didn't have the reason to have to go in the first place.

I hop the plane with only my backpack and take the 1 hour and 5 minute flight to Osaka and catch my 3 1/2 hour bus back to Kagawa.

Once getting off the bus Sarah was waiting for me and it was like a sight for sore eyes! So nice seeing someone I've known for more than a few months! Once settled into her newly acquired van (nicknamed "the rape van" for it's plain, white, creepy outward appearance) we pull out into the left lane and I feel like I'm back to normal. We get back to her apartment and gossip about new people, old people, GEM School...it was so nice. Then I crawl onto an incredibly comfortable mattress (the mattresses in Korea offer little more comfort than a slab of concrete) and fall asleep. The next morning I wake up and walk onto the tatami mats (which I really don't miss, I like my hardwood floors) and grow increasingly excited about my day. I catch the train first to Sakaide and stop for some Udon (something I miss beyond belief) then catch another train to Takase station where Jeremy picks me up and we head for his house so I can root through our things. I had every intention of getting through it fast and hopefully being done within an hour. After I arrive and see that we left much, much more than I remembered I was lucky to get done within three hours. I loaded the suitcases with clothes, sheets, duvets, medicines, pictures frames, decor, DVDs...and leaving many things behind. Both a big and small duffle and maybe five boxes are still in Japan that will eventually have to be picked up or sent home. Bah.

I get back to Sarah's exhausted but realize I'm not going to have as much time as I thought to do everything I want so I decide to make a trip to Zara...the one thing I was looking forward to most after getting my things. All I wanted was a nap but I dragged myself back to the station and caught the train to Kataharamachi and head for Zara. It was just as pleasant as I remember. I go straight upstairs to the sale section (something the Korea Zaras lack) and find a lovely table full of things for 690 yen. Fantastic. I try on a million things but end up walking out with only three (including a fabulous pair of green jeans) and unfortunately nothing for Al. No mens' sales. I could spent $5,000 in there at the drop of a hat. Best store ever. By the time I'm finished it's time to meet Sarah in Sakaide because we're going to the World's Best Yakiniku. While waiting for her I roam around the supermarket and all that does is make me very, very angry at how much cheaper groceries are there than they are here in Korea. Ugh! Her train gets in and I meet her and her friend Scott and we head to the restaurant where the owner remembers me! Hooray! We take off our shoes and sit on the floor (something else I don't miss) and wait on our friend Corey (another familiar face!). We order about five plates of karubi beef before we're all full and it was just as oishi as ever. They all decide they want to go to Amazon after dinner and although I'm dreadfully tired I give in. Once back in Takamatsu and at Amazon an influx of foreigners arrive and I feel SO out of place because I know hardly anyone! It's so strange being back in a place I know so well but all the faces have changed.

The next day I slept very late and wanted to do a little more shopping so I head back to Sakaide. I had lunch at Joyfull (curry rice, omg) and then walked to Shimamura to get some tights. I wanted to go to The Jumble Store (a used clothing shop) and have a poke around so I went all the way to Utazu and found nothing. I was incredibly disappointed. After my sad trip to Utazu I accidentally get the slow train all the way back to Takamatsu and it takes an hour. (I don't miss the trains in Kagawa...partly because they look so stupid)

I get back to Sarah's and it's time to get ready for her birthday party! So excited! It's blacklight themed so we get in our brightest clothes and head back in the direction from which I just came and head for the Marugame shotongai. So many people come and again I feel terribly out of place because I know no one. Let's say 40 people came, I knew 5 or 6. I kinda just sat back and wanted Sarah to have lots of fun and people watched until I spotted someone I knew. After the initial party we went to my old haunt, Fuse. It's just a teeny little bar that fills corner to corner with foreigners on the weekend. They have some karaoke machines which is the biggest draw to the place. Corey, a few others and I went there before anyone else and I had a blast singing, although I was a tad disappointed that Naoya hadn't updated the machines hardly at all since I left. Oh well. I fell asleep at like 3am in the booth. No worries.

The next day we sleep very late and I don't have time to get some things at the supermarket like I wanted so I run in really quickly and grab some yakiniku sauce and head back to the bus station. The bus back to KIX was so crowded, I've never seen it like that, I mean who goes to Kagawa?

Before going to Japan in the first place I read on Asiana's (Air Busan) website about my baggage allowance so I wouldn't go over and have to pay. It said 20 kilos (44lbs) so I thought that was pretty straight. Once at the airport and checking in I put my first bag on the scale and it was like 21 kilos or something, no worries. Then they ask me to put my other bag on as well...the 20 kilo max is for ALL baggage. Are you kidding me, Air Busan? My smaller suitcase was 14 kilos alone! Those douchebags made me pay 14,000 yen, that's like $160! Needless to say I was almost in tears because I was so proud of myself for bringing back so much cash and hardly spending any while I was away. Al wasn't happy when I told him.

So, beyond mad, I get to my gate and wait for the plane. I board, do my pre-flight praying ritual and settle in. After an hour and half and a very rough landing I'm finally landing in Korea, and actually, very glad to be. What seems like an eternity in immigration and customs and baggage claim I see Al and yes, I missed him something awful.

Now I'm finally sleeping in my own sheets with my own curtains and own house decor and it's slowly starting to look like our place. The dust from everything has given me some kind of attack but I'm dealing. I no longer have horrible pangs to go to Japan. Everything that I remember I hated about the place started setting in the last few days. And I guess I can't say hated, everything that was super annoying. I wish I could squish Busan and Kagawa into one city and then I'd be happy. Give me the concrete jungle I live in now and the people in it but with the supermarkets, shopping and food of Japan and that would be perfection!

Either way, glad to be home!

Korean Haircut

I've been needing a haircut for quite a while. I got one right before we left to come over here and with my hair as damaged as it is I feel as if I need a trim more often than people with normal hair. There is a salon like 20 steps from the front door of our building called Hwamiju, or as Al likes to call it, "Haircut Heaven". He's gone twice now to get his hair cut there and considers it to be the best experience of his life. I've been meaning to find out what all the hype is about but, really, I hate getting my hair cut and feel like it's a neccessary evil of life and a waste of $25 that could be better spent on a Mexican dinner...so I've been putting it off.

I finally made it down there yesterday. I go in to a very beautiful salon (yet still very normal looking) and they take my coat and purse and put it in the closet and return with a pretty, green silk rob to wear over my clothes. I'm not exactly sure why because it's just over my sweater; it's not extra comfortable or anything. Then I'm asked if I would like coffee, tea or juice so I choose a green tea. I sit in my now extra layer of clothing and drink my tea while I flip through a Korean fashion magazine. After 30 minutes or so a man comes to take me back to wash my hair. When the seat is leaned back and I put my head down on the sink he puts a warm towel over my face and eyes. I really felt more like I was being attacked with chloroform but I suppose it's meant for more relaxation? Or possibly to simply block water from splashing on my face? Not sure. He very gently washes my hair and then the man who Al claims has magic haircutting fingers comes to take me to his station. He has very good english and keeps a flow of simple conversation going including my favorite, "Your hair is very light yellow". All the while a woman stylist just stands and watches while he cuts and it's slightly creepy so I just ignore her. After he's finished trimming I find the reason for her hovering: blowdrying! Both of them work together with two dryers on my hair until it's dry. She leaves and he puts the normal salon goop in my hair and sends me on my way. All this came to the whopping price of about $13.

Al might think he is the hair God but I really wasn't that impressed. I've had better haircuts. He didn't even fix it for me. The whole experience was interesting, though it kind of stressed me out a bit with the tea and the gentleness of him washing my hair. Part of me just misses an in and out trip, fresh-out-of-beauty-school 22 year old with purple streaks in her hair at Hair Inc. complaining to me about her baby daddy. None of that here. All in all, of course I will keep going back but maybe they'll skip on the robe next time.

Sickness (boring) Outback (exciting)

So I've been horrendously sick for the better part of 9 days now. Two Thursdays ago at school...about mid-afternoon...I felt that slight tickle in my throat that indicates that sometime within the 24-48 hour range I will have a full blown cold. Come Friday morning I couldn't even talk. I go to school anyway and by the middle of my second class they told me to just go home. My body itself didn't feel too bad, I just had no voice so I couldn't teach. I figured it would be just a regular old cold and I'd be back to normal after the weekend, but, alas, that certainly wasn't the case. We had had a party planned at our house for weeks. Sort of a house warming party with some new friends. Just because I wasn't feel too well I wasn't going to cancel on nearly 20 people, plus, I was looking forward to it. So the party went on as planned, though I didn't go out to karaoke with everyone else and just stayed in to rest. My cold ended up turning into what I thought was a respiratory infection but in the end I had a severe sinus infection on top of something respiratory. I was coughing like there was no tomorrow. Three times at school I had coughing fits so bad I had to run to the bathroom and nearly threw up because I couldn't stop. One of those gave me a permaheadache which I have only just today gotten rid of. I can't remember the last time I felt that sick. Come Monday morning I was miserable and to make things worse the kids are on holiday again which means I was back to my morning working hours of 9-2:30. Having to wake up at 7:30 when you are sick is no fun. Plus, Al was working his normal schedule which means he didn't come home until 10. So Al gets home at 10 and then I'd go immediately to sleep. Let's just say it was the longest week of my life.

Finally today is Saturday and I actually got to sleep as long as I pleased. Perhaps that's all my headache needed was some serious sleep because I had decided yesterday that if it wasn't gone today I was going to the doctor. Thank God it was gone today because I did NOT want to go. I feel better today than I have in quite a while so we decided to go to Outback for dinner tonight. There are a few Outbacks and TGI Fridays scattered across the area and I found an Outback that's only two subway stops from here. It's ridiculously expensive but worth the splurge for a good normal restaurant once in a while. So we hopped the train a few stops and once inside and seated I felt just as if I was sitting back in America somewhere. It was a nice change. They gave us completely English menus (!) and I was desperate to order something that I couldn't make at home myself...so no pasta or anything. I'm not a steaky person at all and the ribs are like $32 so I got a chicken tender salad...and they have Ranch dressing on the menu (!!!!!!). Al got a steak...no A1 sauce here but a steak is a steak I suppose. There was even golf playing on the bar TV which made Al's dinner that much more enjoyable. One of the major differences was that the portions are so much...I don't want to say smaller because that makes it sound like a bad thing...I'd rather say they were proper portions. You go to most restaurants in America and order a meal and they bring a plate of food out that could feed three people, but it's meant for you only. (Obesity problem...??) When we first moved to Japan and would eat at restaurants all the portions were so small and I'd think, "how on earth is this going to fill me up?" Come to find out my stomach was perfectly happy at the end of those meals and not over stretched and so full that the food was making its way back up my esophogus. So over here I now expect and much prefer those smaller portions because I didn't leave Outback feeling I was going to barf on the sidewalk. Also, they bring free coffee or tea at the end of your meal, just because. It was a nice surprise.

We finally got some legit internet so we're going to start catching up on shows...which is what we are going to do now. Goodnight!

Contact!

Here is all my contact information over here:

Address for boxes/anything bigger than a card envelope:

Samantha Belt Cormier

Avalon Language School
71-1 2nd Floor Sajik Centre Building
Onchun-Dong, Dongnal-gu
Busan, South Korea
607-120

Address for my apartment mailbox for cards and things:

Samantha Belt Cormier

1907 Ho
Bando Bora Officetel
Onchun-Dong, Dongnae-Gu
Busan, South Korea
607-060

Phone #:

1-304-581-4573 (calm down, you're just calling a Morgantown number)

Skype:

sam.614 (but my webcam is in Japan and God knows when I'll be able to retrieve it)

Settling In

So here I am, 1 month and 3 days into Korea. Although I still don't know if I like it better or worse than Japan, things are becoming more routine. I definitely have a grasp on school, classes and my kids and how they behave and which ones are good speakers and which ones are nice and which ones should be thrown out the third storey window. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are nearly unbearable thanks to only a handful of kids who make the entire day a loss. I have six classes a day (except Wednesday, I have four) and my second and third classes have 18 kids each. That's a far cry from the 5-10 I have in all the others every day. I have no idea why these particular classes are so big but there's nothing I can do. The classes are called DI2 and DI3. My DI3 classes has some really good kids in it but because of all the nasty ones I rearranged their seats last Tuesday. Boy-girl-boy-girl. They hated it and whined and complained and I heard a lot of "Teacher! Change seats! I don't like this one!" as if I was going to give them what they wanted. Since I moved them around, DI3 has been full of rainbows and fluffy butterflies and unicorns compared to what it was. We even get through the lesson with enough time to spare for games, which is remarkable. Now DI2 is another story. I have this class from 10-10:50. The problem with the other class, DI3, was simply that they talked all the time. So I solved that by moving them away from their friends and it's been fine. DI2 is not only a class full of talkers but I have about 6 boys that are so unbelievably horrible I would chuck them into the Arena of The Hunger Games without batting an eye. (Preferably the Quarter Quell Arena where they can be eaten alive by those monkeys.) I know that every school and every teacher has rotten eggs of children and you wonder what on earth goes on with the parenting to make them act that way but I don't have the luxury of calling those parents. I teach at an after school program. It's not real school. Nobody cares. So today I decided to rearrange that class's seats as well. It did no good whatsoever. I'm past the point of even knowing what to do with them. I've moved them around, rewarded the good kids with candy, punished the bad ones by not letting them play games with everybody else...along with screaming myself to a migraine. I just don't know.

I have a system that tends to work in nearly every class. I put three stars on the board at the beginning of each class. If they talk when I'm talking or act up in any way I erase a star. Once they're out of stars, no games. And they LOVE games. This may sound horrible, but using this system I have a way I like to humiliate the kids acting up. Or rather, let the other kids humiliate them for me. Say there are two that refuse to listen to me. I make sure to keep pointing out those two in front of the class and then making sure everyone knows that it's the fault of those two that I'm erasing stars. The other kids in the class flip the eff out at the two bad ones by yelling at them to shut up...it's really all I can do not to laugh because it's great entertainment. The three star/humiliation tactic does not work in my DI2 class. Nothing does. But enough with my bad kid ramble.

I have this one girl, Julie, in a lower level class. The kids in her class are probably 7-8 years old. At the end of every class we always play computer games from an English learning website. The computers in each of the classrooms are hooked up to a giant flatscreen hanging on the wall, it's fantastic. There are about 9 kids in the class and they usually get divided up into boys vs. girls. Julie is SO into the games and so serious about them I want to secretly film her one day, it's absolutely hilarious. If her team gets even 1 point behind she is nearly in tears and freaking out. On Tuesday her team was like 35 points behind or something and it was just more than she could handle.  It was her turn so I was looking around the room for her and she had gathered up her stuff and ran out of class with 10 minutes left. It was all I could do to not die of laughter.

The rest of my classes are going well. The weeks seem to go by very fast. On Febuary 1st I go back to my 1-6:30 schedule which I am stoked about. Usually I'm a get-in-and-get-out kind of person when it comes to work. I would rather go early and get out early but every morning when that alarm goes off at 7:20 I count my days until I can sleep in every single day. So tired of waking up early. (I'm going to die when I actually have a real job)

The weather is horrid. Last Friday was the first day I saw rain in a month. The sun shines every single day but the temperature is in the low 30s because it's so clear every day. And it's windy. So with the wind it feels like it's in the 20s. And I walk 30 minutes to school. Ridiculous. This past week has brought GREAT weather. It's been rainy and hovering around 50. It feels like a heat wave and I'd take rain and 50 over sun and 25 any day.

Hopefully Al and I will be moving into a new apartment this weekend! Our friends Mary and Tyler are leaving and they have a double apartment two floors up. It's pretty awesome. It's probably about the same size as our place in Japan, just a different sort of layout. And hopefully along with that new apartment will come NEW INTERNET. We've been stealing off the neighbors since we've been here and I'm tired of it. All I want to do is skype my friends and call my Nanny! Is that so much to ask? I guess it's difficult to get our school to get anything done. We'll see.

Just have to get through tomorrow and then it's a four day weekend pour moi. We were supposed to go to Japan tomorrow to get our stuff but it's just too expensive to get there. We're going to have to wait, unfortunately. All I want is my duvet and my sweaters and boots! Sigh.

<3

I FOUND IT

In my previous post I wrote how I couldn't find milk tea anywhere. I FOOOOOUUUNND IIIIIITT!!!!!!! I was wanting some coffee out of a machine at the subway station and, of course, most of the cans on display are unrecognizable and in Korean. While deciding on which can I wanted I curiously leaned closer to try and read the other side of one can to see if there was any english on the back. What it said: "Royal Milk Tea". I about had a heart attack from excitement. In Japan I've had some bad milk tea while testing out different brands so I was a little afraid that while I had finally found what I had been wanting for so long it might be a dud. Nope! It was delicious and tasted EXACTLY like my favorite kind in Japan. So, needless to say, I am a happy, happy girl.