The End... of many things.

Well, readers, it certainly has been awhile since I last posted on this Godforsaken blog, and while I hinted that something was keeping me quite busy, I never got into full details. I'm not entirely sure I am still able to, but let's give it a shot!

So several, long months ago, I was asked to write a guide to Seoul for high end (aka, not those teaching ESL- although I'm sure there are plenty classy teachers out there!)expatriates for Expat Infodesk (dot com). I foolishly (?) agreed, thinking it would take a month, at most, for me to bring the world up-to-date on the wonderful city of Seoul (a city I have never resided in) and educate those in the process of/thinking about moving to the city from abroad. Mainly from Western countries.

It turns out, what I though would take a month ended up taking about six. Seoul has turned out to be the most impossible city in the world to obtain correct information on. Income tax? Shipping your car? As a lowly teacher, these are things I have never really thought about. And it took me six months to find the best answers to questions like these. It was hard. I am finished, though, and I am glad.

But in the meantime, having taken up this task, my time in Korea has also come to an end. A permanent one. Patrick and I are finished in Korea and won't be coming back- at least not as teachers- anymore. We both want to start (in Pat's case, restart) our careers. Korea was a wonderful place to get some perspective on my life. I'll never forget my experiences there, and will never forget the amazing people I've met who I'll remain friends with forever. In short, I really love Korea. I'll always miss it. But I am happy with my memories and am ready to move on!

I'll miss this blog, too! This was my first one, and I will never cease to be amazed with the fact that people read- and what's more- ENJOYED this blog. You're all great. Take care, and many happy returns. I hope Korea (and particularly, Suwon) is as good to you as it was to me.

As promised, here are the pictures from my last weekend in Busan. We had a great time! We stayed in the Haeundae area (no tsunami warnings, but we were only allowed to swim in a tiny little area). Since it was September, we were practically the only people on the beach since beach season is officially over after August (even if it's still boiling hot and the water is lovely!). We sunbathed a bit, partied a bit, swam a bit, and took in the gorgeous surroundings. Say what you want about Busan, but Haeundae continues to be my favourite Korean beach... aside from Hamdeok in Jeju-do, of course. Enjoy the pics! And... thanks for reading.

xo




Just stunning.


Sara and Sophie, catching some of summer's final rays!


Pat was clearly enjoying himself...


The pasty ones stayed under the umbrella.


And I figured I got enough sun in SE Asia, so I stayed under too.


Love!

Hazy Summer Days...

I'm so happy it's Friday!

Sometimes I forget how close Suwon is to the ocean. On certain Spring, Summer and Autumn days, when I'm walking down the street or up the hill to get to school, I get the faintest whiff of the ocean on the breeze. I love it.

The city feels inland, and it is, but it isn't more than a 30 minute drive to the ocean and there are few mountains between us and the coast. It's easy to forget things when you live in a bubble, I guess.

It's also that time of year: monsoon season is over, giving way to hot and extremely humid weather. At least it's sunny almost every day! The big kicker is that it's also the time of year that those godforsaken cicadas come out of the ground and start partying in the trees.

I first arrived in Korea two years ago, at the end of July. When I heard these bugs for the first time I was frightened, thinking something was wrong with the power lines. The bugs make a very electrical sound- and it's so loud, so unnatural!

Now I'm used to them and even welcome their singing. When I climb the hill to my school every morning it feels like I'm walking through the jungle (heat and noise wise). It helps that the founder of Yeongbok was a great nature lover and made sure the school was completely surrounded by gardens and trees- we even have squash and lettuce growing in the flower gardens!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend- I'm headed to the beach! No Great Whites, please.

Summer Holidays in Sunny Jeju-do!

Sometimes monsoon season gets the best of you. You're tired and grumpy because, let's face it, no one wants to get out of bed when it's grey and dreary outside. Your tan that you've been able to maintain since your trip to Southeast Asia is now fading to a dull beige. You want to enjoy the outdoors but you simply can't. and you're getting cabin fever from being inside all day.

Enter summer vacation and the beautiful island of Jeju-do!

Note* "Do" in Korean, means both island and province. Jeju-do is an island (Jeju-do) annnd a province (Jejudo). Maybe it's the other way around... help me out here, people.

Anyways, it doesn't matter. The point is, I was feeling dreadful for weeks and needed a beach holiday *pronto*. So did some of my friends, although Patrick thought he would have to go to Japan and didn't accompany me.

I hate airplanes... like, a lot. It's a phobia of mine. So I didn't even consider taking the much easier and not-too-expensive option of simply flying to Jeju, which you should all probably do. I took the bus at some ungodly hour to the port city of Mokpo, and then took the ferry to Jeju, which took an entire day of travelling- made much worse by a monsoon which hit the path of the ship on the way and resulted in everyone around me (minus myself) puking ramyeon into little paper bags. Yuck!

On a sunny day, I assure you, the boat is a lot of fun!

The next day I met two of my friends at the airport and we spend our first day enjoying the scenery (the monsoon had been replaced with beautiful, glorious sunshine). We went to Udo (Cow) Island off the East coast of Jeju and rented some bikes. We did a little sight seeing and hung out on the beach, but we didn't go swimming because the water on that side of the island was freeeeeeeezing.

We found a nice motel near Hamdeok Beach and we spent the next few days using this area as our home base. There was a great little restaurant run by a Korean family, and the mother used to live in the States. She spoke excellent English and she made us "American" breakfasts every morning- bless her. She also made great cheeseburgers.

We used a taxi to get around, since it wasn't very expensive between the three and then four, and five of us (our friend, Elaine, arrived the next morning and our friend, Jeff, arrived later that evening) to share. Generally speaking, if you're going to Jeju alone, you're best bet is to a) rent a scooter (fun!) or, b) use to bus system, which isn't hard to figure out. There's basically one route around the whole island.

Hamdeok beach was amazing- full of people, sure, but it was surrounded by beautiful, green hillsides and the water was nice and shallow a long way out. Very wavey, as well, so it was fun to play in the water.

We got some sunburns, ate some "doongdedji", otherwise known as the famous Jeju specialty, poop pig (they weren't cooked with poop, of course, but historically the pigs in Jeju would live under the outhouses and... well... eat shit). Putting the poop thing aside, the pork was very high quality and some of the most delicious samgyupsal (and other mysterious pig pieces) I have ever eaten. We also spent a lot of time sitting outside convenience stores, drinking beer and having a laugh.

Vacations are necessary, aren't they? And I think teachers, above all other professions, need a nice, long holiday to de-stress. Not that I'm a real teacher, I'm thinking more about my Mom. Imagine doing this for 30 years... I don't think so!






Beautiful Hamdeok!




Palm trees galore...



The very crowded beach...




Enjoying some conversation, beer and ramyeon with Jeff... and fireworks...



Night out with the girls in Jeju-si (Jeju City).



Sara and Sophie, agonizingly waiting for their cheeseburgers to arrive. We were so hungry.



Checking out our pics from Udo.



Being silly, waiting for my dinner.



Our gorgeous boat ride back from Udo.



Sophie and Sara on the ferry- we were watching some giant jellyfish in the water. They were fricken huge!



I love my pink bike!



Udo Island Beach



Biking around Udo...



Our awesome, retro bikes.




Udo Beach, from the ferry.



Sara and Songsan Ilchulbong, the famous extinct volcano crater.



Sophie et Moi



Songsan Ferry Terminal

Happy Canada Day! Like, a week ago...

Canada Day is one of those days in a Canadian expat's life that sting a little. It's like Christmas, only slightly downgraded. You want to celebrate, you want to be with your friends and family, drinking Kieth's and eating cake and barbeque- you want to be in your country, at the very least.

There are quite a few Canadian expats in Korea. If you listen to the statistics, you will believe that there are more Canadian ESL teachers than any other English speaking nationality in Korea (they apparently like the neutral accent). However, I recently heard that more Americans than ever are coming to Korea and Koreans are starting to hire them more than Canadians- they apparently work for less. I have no idea if this is true, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

But back to my nation's day of birth.

No Canada Day is complete without the following, in my mind: Canadian music, Canadian beer (or wine, whichever), a really big cake, BBQ and friends. Of all nationalities. Because Canada is so goshdarn multicultural.

At least, this year in Korea I managed 4 out of the 5 on the list. I was among good friends, we (sorta) had a BBQ, and I made the mother of all cakes (meaning: I made my biggest cake yet in Korea- not bad for a toaster oven) and we listened to some great Canadian musicians.

Friends from all over Yeongtong came to the park the Sunday before Canada's actual birthday. An Adjuma started screaming at us, saying we couldn't BBQ in the park. We took the meat to Sophie's house and cooked it, then brought it back to the park and ate. There was a lot of yummy food. There was Canadian trivia, and finally, there was a game of beer ball. Fun times.

Once Upon a Time, I went to Namsan Tower

This happened... a long time ago. Like, November. Tristan, who lives in Seoul, called me up to see if Pat and I wanted to do something "touristy" in Seoul. We haven't really done a lot of touristy things, to be honest. I have enough fun without doing the touristy things for the most part. But we decided to go into the city and meet up with Tristan, as we hadn't seen him for awhile.

We found him in Gangnam, Lonely Planet Korea in hand, and he informed us that we would be going to check out Namsan Tower. This actually didn't seem like a bad idea, as I have always admired Namsan from afar and always wanted to see it close up. At night in Seoul, when it's all lit up, it's a gorgeous sight. In fact, the very first time I went to Seoul, a year and a half ago, I was mesmerized by it as we drove by in a taxi.


To get there: head to Myeongdong (on the light blue line) and then walk up the hill. There are two ways up- hiking, or taking a cable car. We opted for the latter and I went of my very first (terrifying) cable car ride. It didn't take very long.

... but it sure was a long way down.

It wouldn't have been a terrible hike, though.

At the top it's a typical Korean tourist attraction- and there are vendors everywhere selling dried squid.

The Tower.

View from the top... Seoul is so huge. It stretches as far as the eye can see in every direction.

Nice view of the Han River.

The only part of the city I recognized: Itaewon (that's just sad).

I was feeling a little dizzy, hence the stunned look on my face.

Afterwards we decided to walk back down. Only we ended up on the other side of the mountain. We went down a shady alleyway and then accidentally found ourselves smack dab in the middle of Namdaemun Market! I love markets so much.

Mmmmmmm my favourite kind of food. Street food.

Christmas had officially thrown up on the place (Namdaemun is rumoured to be overrun with the Russian Mafia).

China Chronicles: Day One

I woke up at 9 AM after spending the previous night at Now Bar, gorging myself on Christmas dinner leftovers with Aidan, Andrew, Amy, Jeremy and Claire. Thankfully, I had the self discipline to make myself go home and sleep after two beers. The morning was spent frantically making sure the cats had enough food for Kerri to take care of them while I was gone as well as making sure my apartment wasn't too much of a disaster for when Kerri came over to feed them.

At the last minute, I realized that I had left my camera charger at Rachael's. I called her to let her know I'd be over, grabbed my backpack and got into the first cab I could find. Yeongtong was in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go, but I was managing my time well and luckily made it to the Suwon Bus Terminal with a half hour to spare before the next bus for Incheon took off.

I grabbed a quick lunch at the terminal and was soon on my way to Incheon. I don't know if taking the bus to Incheon made much of a difference, because the Incheon terminal is pretty far away from the ferry terminal (the bus goes to Bupyeong and from there you need to make your way to Dongincheon Station by subway), but the bus is far more relaxing than taking the subway all the way to Dongincheon- plus, by the time you get to Bupyeong the subway won't be very full because hardly anyone ever goes to Dongincheon (except me- I seem to go there a lot).

After about an hour and a half, I arrived at Dongincheon Station. I grabbed a cab, expecting the ride to take about ten minutes (where all the other ferries are located) and was pleasantly surprised when the drive took maybe two minutes. Once I got to the ferry terminal I found a spot for myself in the very long line and attempted to watch my backpack... while it was on my back. That was difficult. I vowed to myself that I would buy a little travel purse for my travel documents and money when I arrived in China. While in line, I was grateful to meet another foreigner from Canada named Jordan who was going to the same place on the same boat- he would be my travel buddy for the next day or so.

We finally got our tickets and made our way through baggage checks and passport checks. A bus came to the terminal to take us to the ship and we piled on with about 30 other passengers. By about 4: 30 PM we were all on the boat and accounted for. And what a boat! It had a GS 25 (convenience store), a restaurant, a bar, a few noraebang rooms, a jjimjilbang (Korean style sauna) and much more. I was worried about my accomodations as I would be sharing with three other people, but I was again pleasantly surprised when my roommates turned out to be Chinese university students studying in Korea.

After dinner and a nap, I met up with Jordan and we had a drink on the upper deck before going back to our rooms for some much needed sleep.

The only bad thing about my time on the ferry? The heat was on in my room way too high, and my roommates didn't seem to notice or care. I just slept in my underwear with no covers. I was still too hot.



The first glimpse of China... looks a lot like Korea, doesn't it?

View from inside my room. The little table and chair were cute and surprisingly comfortable.

While the outside of the ship left something to be desired, the inside was very clean and... almost glamourous!

The bunks, TV (which has channels in Korean and Chinese) and our little fridge where we found plenty of drinking water. A great boat ride! It was so big you didn't even notice you were on the water. I would recommend this was of travelling to anyone- it's comfortable, it's inexpensive and it's fun!

Stay tuned for my exciting entry into China! Ooooh... aaaah....

December in Gok Ban Jeong Dong

This past Sunday the weather was beautiful. Usually, my Sundays are spent in bed with movies and a cup of tea except for about one hour of the day, when Patrick will go for a walk and I will attempt to clean my house.

This weekend I decided to come along for Pat's weekly walk, as he told me there are lots of dogs and people fishing. He wasn't lying! There is all kinds of farm life just on the other side of the rice fields where we never go! It was great to see animals and farmers and people fishing again- almost like being at home, except some of the farms looked like shantytowns and the water people were fishing in looked like it contained nothing but "blinkies" (insert Simpson's reference here).

Some people might find this area ugly, but for me it's a breath of fresh air from the high rises and neon lights that tend to dominate this country girl's life. Here are the pics:



The dogs weren't friendly, but they were pretty. This one wanted my head on a platter; thank God he was tied on a short rope. Or maybe that's why he was mad in the first place. All that space and he can't even run around!

The long road beside the rice fields...

The tractors are being put away for the season.

My neighbourhood is in the background; in the foreground are the remains of this year's harvest!

People had fires going and they were grilling fish as they caught them. I wanted to go down and give it a try, but Pat wouldn't let me. He probably figures I would have fallen in the water or something stupid like that. Let's face it: he's probably right.

Walkin' along.

FINALLY, I found the stupid effing rooster (and his harem) that wakes me up every morning. He is so loud. I thought he lived much closer to my house than he actually does.

Back in civilization....

Or are we....?

Here is the kitteh that lives in the grocery store. We say hello to her every morning on our way to the taxi stand. She likes Kerri more than me.

Annnnd here is my street! You can see the hagwon (private kindergarten) in green, the grocery store I like to frequent and my apartment building at the end of the road. I am on the second floor to the right.

Happy December!