Moving Sucks!

Once again I’m packing up my home and getting ready for the big move. Argh moving!!! At the moment I’m full of mixed feelings; I’m excited to be leaving my job and also that my parents and brother are finally coming out to Asia to see me. Then we will leave together to go traveling around S.E. Asia ~ I can’t wait. But on the other hand, I’m sad, really, really sad to be leaving my friends, my apartment the art scene the big city. I’m not really a small city gal, I love to get lost and find something new but in Calgary I guess I can get lost in the suburbs. I must admit for the first little while it will be new again and I will have to find my way around and I’m really hoping that things have changed but so far I can see that the city has gotten really expensive.

My apartment in one day of organizing has already changed and there’s no going back and I’m feeling cold. I’m moving out earlier than my original plan as I had mentioned to a neighbor that my place is free at the end of March. Well their building will be torn down in the first week of March ~ hhmmmmm I was in the same position this time last year were my building was being torn down. Well they took one look at my place and wanted it within the first five minutes of seeing which was the same reaction I had when I saw this place. Korea has some nasty apartments that in western standards are unlivable. Anyway I’m moving out early which will save me cash in the long run as well as I get to visit people in Daegu for longer too!

This is indeed the year of changes. My little group of, “Seoul Sistas” is dwindling fast, Irene is now living in DC, I will be going back to Calgary, Heejeong will go to Beijing for a while but will come to Calgary for a few months vefore returning home to Korea, Nado is trying hard to get a design job overseas preferably in Sweden. My other friends; Youngjoo is in L.A. and Nayan in Canada for a short while before heading back to India. Whaaaah!


By the way:

Say hay boke-mahn he pah du say oh! 

새해 복 많이 받으십시오! 

Best wishes for a happy new year!

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

恭喜發財

Congratulations on the New Year and be prosperous!

This is my livingroom before moving (shot on my new Canon) ~ the after pic coming soon ;p

Singledom on the Weekend!

This weekend has been really quiet, or the truth is that I spent yet another lazy weekend doing nothing. I am stuck in some broken record lately of procrastinating and arguing with myself to do the right things ~ don’t worry I’m not walking around my apartment talking to myself! However I end up doing nothing and sitting on my arse!!!

So I got myself a pizza, from the local joint for $6 it’s a steal, which I allow maybe once a week or two weeks. I watched “Copying Beethoven” which was great but some parts I didn’t understand the deliberate camera action/focus that reminded me of NYPD. It’s worth watching if you haven’t yet. Then I spent another couple of hours just browsing on the net wanting to listen to some new Indian music as it keeps me in touch with Southall, as you can never get the Southall out of me! Ha ha ha~!



Sunday I wanted to go out but then I thought of the dangers of me spending too much money, so staying home was the cheapest option. I searched online for accommodations, flights etc.. for the big trip that my family will go on in March. Man, there’s so much it’s really overwhelming I forget what I was looking for. I remember when I booked a resort back in 2000 for Cherie, her family as well as some friends and myself, it was so easy it took one evening and a few websites before I made my decision but now I’m all over the place. But I must admit I do have a biased view now as that time was my first time to Thailand but this upcoming trip will be my forth and the first for my family. So I feel some pressure to pick the best that I can as I’ve stayed in some icky places as well as amazing places too.

Well I still have lots to research but my trusted belly started to rumble and annoy me as I really didn’t want to cook. So off I went as I had a craving for kimchi jjigae and thought that I can do this thing by going to the famous place close to my apartment but it’s normally full of taxi drivers which isn’t so nice. I got there only to be disappointed as it was closed, I looked at the other restaurants and saw so many people in them. It’s weird I have eaten in all of these restaurants either alone or with friends. However I felt a different vibe to the weekdays as everyone was sitting in groups. All of a sudden I was feeling panicky and didn’t want to be alone in a restaurant and walked by to the point where there was no more places to eat. I had to go back but I felt so stupid as I felt like everyone had seen me by now as I walked by the windows, so I hopped on the minibus and ended up closer to home. I saw that Manilla Bay restaurant was still open and is normally quiet. I walked in and ordered the same seared tuna dish as last time. But this time, it was absolutely awful, I ate it all due to pure hunger! But now, I regret eating there as my belly is not a happy camper at all! It’s still rumbling but not from hunger and it hurts too, it reminds me of two years ago when I had some serious food poisoning which I’m hoping is not the case here.

Ooooh , tomorrow is one more day closer to this silly winter camp being over! YAY! But I’m excited to practice the play with my kids as we’re doing, “Where The Wild Things Are”.

UK Music

This is an interesting video and the part where Riz MC is talking about Harrow!


Riz MC ~ this is great!


And here's more of Riz MC this dude is wicked!

Happy New Year!

I guess I've been neglecting this blog for quite some time and I'm shocked to just how long it's been since my last post. Oops~!

Well 2008 is here and it seems to be the year of changes. The biggest for myself is the fact that I will be leaving Korea this March. I have come to the end of my rope with ESL teaching here. It's been good as well as it's been frustrating. I'm glad that I have had great kids who actually made it worth while at work. However it's the administration and the fact that as a foreigner I will never have a future and will always be entry level. I was most disappointed with the fact that my contract does not offer anything for signing for the third year however it is expected that I hold most responsibilities as a senior foreign teacher, which makes no sense. But oh well!

So, it's been one of the hardest decisions to make as I love many other things about Korea, I have many dear friends here who are all artisitc and creative in some way that inspire me and my art work. I have independence with the money that I make as I feel it goes a long way here, and I am sad to be giving up my apartment. My art ~ I've been able to partake in a number of shows as well as events with other artists as I'm part of the community here and I will dearly miss it. It took me a long time to get where I am at and I will leave for Calgary once again.

However I'm so excited that my family is finally coming to Asia! This March they will stay here in Seoul for a few days and all of us will leave for a tour of Thailand. My brother will leave and my parents and I will go onto Cambodia and Vietnam. From there they will go home and I am hoping to meet up with my dear friend in LA and possibly my other friend in DC.

I'm planning on starting my own line of necklaces and other art goods as well as the possible career with the oil and gas in Fort McMurray with my brother. So wish me luck!

Here's whats been happening:

My 6th graders created  Halloween comic stories and the 5th graders made 

bookmarks.  The winners received a bag of candies.

Having fun in Itaewon.

The Itaewon Ohs!

Toad in the hole darling?

Saying goodbye to the lovely Irene ;(

My crazy shopping spree except for the whale.

Nado's birthday :)

Preparing for the Minority Report Art Show.

Sketchbook and table.

Hey I found Santa on stilts!

Christmas shopping!

Christmas dinner with some friends.

The best turkey ever!

Boxing day trip to Insadong. 

 

Yatren, Sandy and Ananda visiting from Daegu.  I hope 

mum and baby are having fun at home in Canada~!

Outside the Minority Report show at Gallery 175.

The family pose~!

My work.

Irene's work.

Fashion is exciting and so is Doota in Dongdaemun!

I accidently ended up at Seoul Tower but took a walk around as it's close to 

my house.  But I love the suspended sculptures.

My new line of necklaces.  Tell me what you think ;P

Birds in Spring.

Geometry wasn't my forte but this is!

For the diva with friends.

Eloquence

My first necklace, "Nabi" also the first to sell.  My friends Jameet and I used to make and sell jewelry during our breaks in high school, but I miss shopping for beads and that as we used to go up to London and Neal Street. 

Let’s eat again, like we did two hours ago!

Food and I have an interesting relationship, it goes up as well as down. I’ve been through some rough times as well as some gourmet times. When I first came to Asia I felt like my tongue was under attack by the new textures that I had never experienced before. I remember one time being given a Daifuku gift that my Hong Kong friend was so excited to give and explained that they’re expensive too. I ate one with the same sort of excitement she had, but to my horror they were full of sweet red beans with sticky rice on the outside. The texture really got to me making it really difficult to eat, she quickly offered a drink which I was desperate for but was also in shock to be handed a Heineken, anyway I downed that can of beer like it was water! I’ve come a long way since then, I actually don’t mind them anymore but I do prefer the ice-cream kind.
My first time to Korea, I had no idea how to speak or what to eat. I was given a huge bag of rice by my school which I knew could last a year. Some teachers introduced me to the small corner shops around my small downtown area, but I couldn’t recognize anything I could eat. So I lived on canned tuna and rice unless I went out for dinner to Burger King or the one coffee shop that a friend bought spaghetti for me which I returned to religiously until I met other foreigners. It was an interesting year as I gave up so many things, TV, radio, chocolate, computers, transportation and food that I recognized. I lost a lot of weight then.

Now that it’s going on almost my eighth year in Asia I’m finally gaining control and planning what I eat. It’s hard but easier that I live in this part of Seoul as I’m surrounded by grocery stores that carry some foreign food, a small fruit and veggie market and really good foreign restaurants as well as one of the best kim-chi jjigae restaurants in Seoul as it’s one of my favourite Korean foods. I’m now making my own lunches for work as I gave up eating the school dinners as sometimes there’s not much I could eat. The menu is not something to brag about even the Korean teachers complain at times.
Planning is a little difficult as I have to coordinate my cravings, needs, what ingredients I can get as well as the nutritional values. I use http://www.sparkpeople.com which is awesome as it helps me to plan as well as to break down the calories, fat, carbs and protein for my day. My taste is changing as these days I seem to crave poached eggs like the one in the picture below. There’s a fantastic restaurant near my home that prepares the egg on top of mushrooms, toast with a side of spinach and hummous; that is absolutely delicious!


If you have any recipes for poached eggs please let me know as I found my new love :)

---

What are some of the strangest foods you have eaten or drinks you have drunk?
Here's my list:

turtle jelly and coconut milk drink ~ tasted like wood

fried chicken bum ~ it's chicken but I felt so diiiiirty!

bird's nest on ice-cream ~ it was slippery

pat bing soo/팥빙수 ~ sometimes it's good but please don't put cherry tomatoes in them!

cakes that have cherry tomatoes! ~ wierd I really don't like cake in Asia, it's blaaaaaand!

salads with lettuce, chicken, corn flakes, corn, sprinkles, mustard, Pringles and ketchup ~ overload of strangeness

hot lemon, ginger coke ~ love it, great for sore throats!!!

black sesame bubble tea ~ love it, it's my favourite and I MISS it :(

This I love, it's batter filled with sweet beans, sold on the street in the winter months. But I can never remember the name cause I never bother to look at the sign as I'm so focussed on eating. They're normally four for a $1!!!

My teachers used to scream at us for running down the hall, now I know why!

Well I sure know how to make life more interesting hhmm let’s see….

Last week as I was running up to teach the 6th graders on the 5th floor, I fell on the stairs in front of many teachers. Major embarrassment; so I was quick to stand up and assure everyone in Korean that I was fine. I’ve done this before ~ a real major clutz I am! So I’m standing there smiling and all, and rubbing my knee to feel a indent that the stair made, “yeah yeah, qwen-chun-a-yo/괜찮아요!” However it felt a little damp, another teacher didn’t quite believe me she was lifting up my pant leg also I looked down to see that my knee was cut open with blood everywhere the other teachers were about to faint as they saw the bone, “Oh shit!”

I left a trail of blood behind me, as I hobbled along the corridors to visit the nurse’s office the whole time I’m calling myself a baa-bo/바보 (twit). The nurse cleaned up with everyone standing to watch as they were in shock with the amount of blood. But me, who was laughing and smiling ~ baa-bo/바보! After getting permission from the vice principal to visit the hospital (what if they said no), I walked about three blocks to visit an orthopedic. I sat there still smiling as I couldn’t believe what just happened but it was just pure denial, as I knew I was about to have an injection or two along with a few stitches!!! So I had a few x-rays done and phew that was fine then it was time for the sewing to begin. The doctor started by giving me an injection thankfully my body was already in shock and some pain that I couldn’t feel it too much and by the second stitch I could no longer feel anything. The doctor was asking me some questions with his limited English and I was answering in my limited Korean. However things came to a halt when he asked if I was married and I said no, I guess he was in more shock than I was, as he smiled no more! Also I was in more pain I think from the two shots I got in my buttocks ~ I still have bruises!!!


Cartoon characters reassure your fears!

I hobbled down to the elevator and off to the yak-guk/약국, (pharmacy) which is when my co-teacher came to rescue me from my adventures of being a dumb foreigner but instead she found me conversing with the pharmacist and the grandmothers around me as they were so happy I spoke some Korean.

Hobbling became me as I was still smiling and thinking what a twit I am and what bad timing. The next day was one of my biggest days of my teaching career, (*I will go into more details later). I got back to school and went straight to class with my bloody pants, not the most hygienic and I’m sure if I was in the States I would have been burned at the stake for doing such a thing. The kids were already told that I was in hospital so they were super sympathetic ~ bless their hearts! At lunch my friend/roomie came to the rescue with fresh black pants; okay I lied they weren’t so fresh I worn them the day before but they were the most comfortable thing to wear at this point as well as me having to explain it's location; no don’t worry they weren’t in the dirty hamper!

Two of the five students who acted in the play.

*So here we are at the part I said I would tell you later.

I had been preparing five of my students for a competition amongst other schools from our district. The kids and myself wrote a script for a news broadcast that was quite humorous. We had to practice at least three times a week and last Wednesday was the big day, hence the bad timing to fall on stairs! I even worked on my holidays to get this thing done, prepared the set and all the props. I wanted the kids to be more involved however the poor things have so many private classes after school hours, which is rather ridiculous, plus they had their midterms last week. I was the only teacher involved with more teachers giving a helping hand the closer we got to the main day. We had to take the whole thing to another school, which was hosting the competition, and Young-joo was the sweetest, by driving the props and myself there and back.

At the school all the other groups were busily preparing which motivated my kids too who were busily eating junk food of all sorts ~ sshhh I can’t tell their mums as one kid put it, his mum would kill him! What was really funny was so many teachers came from my school to help us, as well as all the mothers, we had the biggest group there! But it was so annoying; another foreign teacher Malcolm and myself kept directing others in what they have to do to help us get everything onto the stage. When it came down to it almost everyone disappeared leaving the two of us to do it all, remember I’m the one that was limping!

The kids did a fantastic job; we had two presenters sitting at a desk with three boys acting like field reporters. The first report was about the camping trip the sixth graders took and Harry the fishing expert then they talked about studying, preparing for their midterms. The last was a report on the school pond, which was funny to us as I still can’t find my school’s pond but the school that was hosting this competition had a huge pond with a stream, a mini bridge as well as a waterfall. All the kids were laughing about it before we got on the stage. The show ended wonderfully as the kids were humorous and entertaining, so much so that we won! Now we have to do it again in Seoul National University ~ argh!

Happy Chuseok/추석!

I can’t believe that I’m actually staying in Korea during this holiday, I was hoping to visit Thailand but the airfare is pure extortion and I refuse to pay more than double the regular fare! One of the joys of being a public school teacher.

So far I haven’t done too much which is the whole plan as I’ve been way too tired lately. However Young-joo, Nado and myself took off shopping to Costco to stock up on some of the yummy food that is otherwise hard to find. Hhhmm the TV is on at the moment the show from what I gather is about the black market for prescription drugs here in Korea. Anyway where was I??? Yeah I needed things like Special K, kidney beans and some ground beef ~ oh oh soooo exciting!

Sorry that I haven’t posted in a while I’m actually busy these days at work ~ yeah I admit that I normally post while at work as all my stuff is done and I have hours of time spare. But these days I’m preparing a few kids for a school play that will perform for a contest that involves all the schools. I also have pressure seeing that my principal expects us to win. GREAT!

Not too much else is going on, I went out last night with the girls and Nado’s friend David from Scotland. We had a couple bottles of red wine while sitting on the rooftop at the bungalow lounge. But dinner was at the Wolfhound Pub a small Irish joint that offers a pretty good menu, but the beef and mushroom pie was not what I expected as it seemed more like a soup with pastry on top. The apple crumble wasn’t bad but not so Irish with all the cinnamon, or maybe I’m wrong.

Tomorrow I guess is the main day for Chuseok/추석 which is Korean thanksgiving. For those who are unfamiliar with this major holiday it’s a time when everybody visits their families especially the eldest male who is the most important figure. So Seoul seems rather empty as everyone is off to their hometowns around Korea.



This is not the time to be traveling, as traffic is absolutely horrific!!!



The family pays their respect to their ancestors early in the morning by bowing and then enjoying a meal with them. It’s a great time to visit Koreans in their homes which I have done in the past when I lived in Daegu as it was a destination for many Seoulites.



It’s also a good time to see many people dressed in hanboks or receive some interesting gifts like a box full of more boxes of toothpaste or a box full of Spam!



This year the holiday falls on a five day weekend, so starting Saturday till Wednesday however I’m lucky that my school has a day off on Thursday but why, why and why again do I have to go on Friday???

And for those that reside in Hong Kong/China ~ Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Maui, Calgary, Fort McMurray and back to Seoul!

It’s official my brother is married! Man, what a gorgeous wedding too in Maui, both he and Joanna looked extremely happy which was the main thing.

Receiving a high five from dad!

Self portrait

I miss my brother dearly, even though we fought like cats and dogs when we were young but the best thing and what I miss the most is that we could argue but he's always there for me and I'm always there for him with total respect.

We started of as four and now we are five :)

I love this photo!

Saying goodbye is the part of my vacations that I hate the most and I know I'm not the only one. But I'm glad that I got to stay with my brother for a couple of days in Fort McMurray :)

And the last leg of my trip home was a night in Waikiki I managed to squeeze in some time on the beach however it was about 7am!

July's Photos

The summer classes are now on; this year I have to teach two seperate camps as oppossed to just teaching my school kids. The Gangnam English Centre Camp which is open to nine local schools - but it's stressfull with the press and alsorts of heads from the edcation board to the blow Joe of the street coming to check it out as it's the first of it's kind in a public school. However this photo is of my favourite class so far. I did a social studies lesson on Freedom of Expression with focus on North Korea. We watched a Korean B-boy video then froze certain frames in order to draw figures similar to Keith Haring.

Watching the world go by in the Itaewon St*rbucks.

Walking around in Samcheon-Dong, one of my favourite areas around Gyeongbuk Palace and the President's Residence, "The Blue House". This area is being preserved as it's rare to see the old Hanok houses.

With Mark in Samcheon-Dong.

A thank you lunch from my school for Malcolm (another foreign teacher in my school) and myself for teaching during the summer vacation ~ like we had a choice. But hey, the lunch was awesome it's rare to have a good Chinese meal in Korea.