The View From Where I Sit

The Road Home - Thoughts on Leaving South Korea Pt 2

2011-05-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

Blink. Five Months Later. Whoopsie.

Ok, so working on recounting my days leaving South Korea. Last Entry I spoke about my last weekend up to the point where I returned to my apartment to cry and finish packing my things.

I stayed up until 3am repacking my suitcase, figuring out what else would have to go in the mail. Checking and double-checking all my tickets and documents. Around 3 am I went down for a few hours of intermittent shut-eye. Mokah was agitated, she knew something was up. I only ever packed my bags when I was leaving for weeks at a time, and in the past that meant she stayed at the apartment while friends looked in on her. This time though, she was coming along for the ride.

Here was my intinerary for the travel home:

8:00 am - Train from Suncheon to Iksan.
10:30 am - Bullet train from Iksan to Seoul.
12:00 pm - Shuttle Bus to Incheon Internation Airport
1:00 - 3:30 pm - Supposed rest time before flight.
4:00 pm - 10 hour flight from IIA to Vancouver
Massively confusing time change while in the air....
2:00 pm - Arrive at Vancouver Airport
3:30 pm - Flight to Winnipeg Airport
6:30 pm - Arrive at Winnipeg Airport, greeted by Mom and Sister and hit the highway for 4 more hours before arriving in Dryden ON.

These are rough estimates of the times. All told, we were in transit for about 30 hours, start to finish.

My dear friend Lindsay arranged to drive me to the Train Station and it felt so good to have a friend there to see me off. Mokah was in her carrier and not happy about it, but once on the train, she seemed to settle. All told, Mokah was an amazing traveler. The only time she was vocal was when were in between modes of transportation and understandably so. My hands full with a large suitcase and a smaller carry-on suitcase, her carrier was slung over my shoulder by a long duffle-bag strap and was left to bounce against my hip as we jostled from place to place.

It was on the train to Seoul that I realized that I had failed to get to a bank and withdraw the final amount of my funds from my account. Now, you may be asking, "Lisa, why on earth didn't you do that the day before? Or a few days before?". Well my dears, for once the culprit was not my own procrastination, but rather the procrastination of my co-teacher. Her complete lack of planning led to us to run around all day like chickens with our heads cut-off doing paperwork and getting my visa extended by 3 days so I wouldn't face a fine leaving the country. Because she did not file my exit papers sooner, it meant that some of the money my school owed me (reimbursement for travel costs) were not sent to the bank until Friday afternoon and thus, not being put into my account on Monday morning.

No problem, just have to find a bank machine on the way and pull out the rest of the funds. Here's the funny thing. My travel costs put my bank account balance at around 1.2 million won (roughly $1000 CDN). Most Korean Bank Machines only offer notes in 10,000 won denominations. And this machine only let you pull out 300,000 won per transaction. To get my money, I had to pull 300,000 x 4. So there I was in the middle of a busy train station pulling bricks of cash out of an ATM. 120 bills stuffed into my purse. I felt like a gangster. (To this day, there is still about 45,000won sitting in that account, by the fourth transaction I was so nervous about someone robbing me I forgot to grab the last little bit).

The shuttle bus to the airport was uneventful. I was the only passenger. I closed my eyes, but couldn't sleep.

At the airport, an Army guy (I don't know his rank, but he was grey-haired and had lots of insignia on his uniform) helped me with my bags. I felt good. I had 3 hours before my flight, so far everything was going according to plan. Once I got on that plane, I would be home free. Upon checking my bags, I was informed that I needed more paperwork from immigration downstairs before I would be allowed to check my bags. And Also, my suitcase was overweight and I would need to go to customer service to pay the extra weight fee. They let me leave my bags at the kiosk and Mokah and I headed for Customer Service. Then down to the immigration office. Everyone was very helpful, but all in all it ate up most of my relaxing time. I needed to be through security at least 1 hour before the flight left. Once I had gotten all my paperwork sorted and my bags checked, I grabbed a very fast final bowl of bibimbap.

Going through security was one of the things I was most nervous about. I knew I would have to take Mokah out of her carrier and carry her through security. If you know anything about my kitty, then you know she is a skittish cat. And she has a "panic now, ask questions later" policy when it comes to new people/situations. I knew,if she got loose in that airport, I would never ever find her. Thankfully, Mokah's panic default is to run and hide in a safe place. Besides her carrier, the only safe place Mokah had when I dragged her out of the carrier in the middle of a busy airport security check-point(while the security attendant pulled the carrier in the opposite direction) was me. The only real struggle she made was try to stick her head in my arm pit. And once the carrier was free of the scanner and she could see it, she was pulling for it.

Once through security, we had about 20 minutes before our flight would be boarding. I took Mokah into a handicapped washroom, where it's basically a private room with a door that runs floor to ceiling. I though Mokah would want to pee or eat something, but nope not interested. She only stretched her legs for a moment and then returned to the safety of her carrier. I quickly gave her a sedative and we headed to our gate with about 5 minutes to spare.

Korea Air is an excellent airline, I must say. Their staff are always super polite (unlike Canada Air where the staff all seem to be bleach-blonde harpy's from crabby-bitch island), the food is excellent and the flights always seem to be on time. I felt some relief as the plane took off, though I wistfully watched out my window until I could no longer see the coast of South Korea. Mokah was passed out in her carrier. I could relax a little.

I watched that documentary "This Is It" about Michael Jackson's last concert. I dozed.

About halfway through the flight Mokah's meds wore off and she up in a panic. I pulled the carrier out from under the seat in front of me and tried to calm her, but upon hearing my voice, she decided to start clawing through the plastic mesh to get to me. I quickly headed for bathroom and was able to let her out of the carrier for a little bit. She was still a bit unco-ordinated and managed a face plant or two before she settled into my lap and purred. Then there were angry knocks on the door.

Apparently, a little line up of older koreans with full bladders had gathered outside my door. Mi-ahn-hapnida!

Mokah was fine for the rest of the flight. In fact a stewardess came over and complimented how quiet she'd been. I felt kinda proud of my crazy cat.

Arrival in Vancouver was fairly straightforward. Though I was running on very little sleep and something of a walking zombie by this point. I had no trouble getting mokah through security. And once I located my gate for my last flight to winnipeg, we found another washroom with a wheelchair sign and mokah again got to stretch her legs. This time, she was not eager to return to her carrier though. Still not interested in her food or relieving her bladder, she searched and sniffed every nook and cranny of that bathroom. And upon discovering the waste bin mounted in the wall, she promptly jumped inside it. Must`ve seemed like a great hiding spot.

I don`t remember much of the flight to Winnipeg, I`m pretty sure I was comatose for that one.

But I do remember the excitement I felt getting off that plane. I could NOT wait to see my mom. And sure enough, coming down that escalator there was my mom and my older sister waving Canadian flags and holding a big "welcome home!" poster.

We had made it, my cat and I. There was nothing to do now, but relax on the ride home. But first, a stop at subway for a proper sandwich.

Thoughts on Leaving South Korea

2011-01-01T21:06:00.000-08:00

It's a new year. Boom. Just like that. 3 months have past since I left South Korea and returned to Canada and my small hometown in northwestern Ontario. I'm almost ashamed at how quickly I have re-acclimatized. I no longer wander dazed through the grocery aisles, completely dumbfounded by the sheer volume of choices, all written in a language I can understand. I've begun to take eating a Subway Sandwich for lunch or grabbing a tea at Timmies for granted. Even the snow and the cold does not bother me. It feels as it always has, like the way winter should be. I do hate North American TV commercials though. I've several times gone to bed grumpy and realized it was simply that I watched some TV and it annoyed the hell out of me.

I do want to spend some time in reflection on how it was to leave Korea, and how it felt to first return home and how it feels now. I don't know how many entries it will take me. But I do intend to make good on my promise to avoid writing entries that take you your entire lunch break to read, so there will be more than one.

During the last two weeks of my time in Korea, I began to feel anxious. There was a big part of my conciousness that did NOT want to leave. I found myself wistfully watching the city go by on my bus rides home from work; the same familiar stops, passing the fruit and vegetable vendors, crossing over the river that divides Suncheon, winding around the roundabout by the train station, reading the names of the love motels in Hanggul and trying to figure out what the English transliteration actually was, and I would be seized by the thought that soon I would not be passing by these people and places as part of my daily routine. Soon the Homeplus, and the Choeun Plaza and the samgypsal restaurant we always went to and the fruit truck guy with the limp who I always bought my oranges from would become unreachable and far away. A small ball of emotion would wind up tight in my stomach, and I wondered, "Am I making a big mistake?"

As I always do before making a big life change, I started to have nightmares about going home: I can't find my plane tickets, I forgot to get all of my money out of my bank account and don't realize it until I'm back in Canada, I arrive home and all of my old friends don't like me anymore(so my expat friends arrive out of nowhere and throw me a party - thus, I shouldn't go because everyone here loves me and what if the folks back home have changed their minds?). Lots of irrational subconscious fear bubbling up and waking me with a start.

I started taking down the artwork in my apartment to force the bareness of the walls on myself, the reality of moving out. I threw a "garage sale" and started emptying my apartment of everything I wasn't shipping or taking with me on the plane. All in a very conscious effort to prepare myself psychologically for leaving. I know myself very well, I procrastinate like crazy and if I didn't start doing these things two weeks in advance, I would find myself 8 hours before my train leaves in hysterics trying to do everything in one night. Even so, I have to ask my friends to come and physically sit on my couch so that I will focus on packing and cleaning and not twiddle away the hours online or whatever else will effectively waste my time.

Chuseok happened to fall during my second last week of classes, giving most NEST's a
full week of holidays. While most of my friends took the opportunity to zip over to Japan or Malaysia or the Phillipines, I stayed home in Korea. I knew that is it was a financial necessity. I'm simply couldn't afford to spend a bunch of money on a trip two weeks before flying home to unemployment. But it was also an emotional and mental necessity. I needed that time to get last minute details sorted out, loose ends tied and just get some rest. I could feel my nerves becoming raw as the time to leave drew nearer. On Chuseok, I went to the centre of the South Korean peninsula with a few friends to go for a very wet and chilly hike at Sognisan National Park. At the end of the week, I went to Chogyesan provincial park just outside of my city and hiked the mountain ridge between Seonnam and Songwan Temples on my own. Not once did I feel lonely. The next day a disappointing attempt to locate Namwon Hot Springs turned into a really charming trip around the Namwon Folk Village. I had checked everything I could off my list, and done plenty of hiking and local tourism. That uneasy feeling will go away now, right?

During my last week of teaching, I got many sweet letters from students and kind gifts from co-workers. We held a volleyball game on Wednesday, and Kwangja made sure they saved me some pizza, which she had specially ordered for me since I don't really like the spicy raw fish salad type stuff they always get. After the game, my principal, vice-principal and a male co-worker took me out for a delicious galbi meal and we laughed and talked and sang together over the bbq. On Friday, the school cancelled my classes so that I could spend the day running around like a chicken with my head cut off getting administrative loose ends tied up with my co-teacher - loose ends that were present because she is also a procrastinator apparently. As the day wound down and I started to say real goodbye's to my Korean co-workers, I waited for emotion to overtake me. I wanted it to. I wanted to be released from the anxiousness that had been building for weeks. I wanted to feel nothing but anticipation for the flight home. I wanted to feel nothing but excited to see my family and old friends and hometown again. And to be sure, I felt sad, I felt sentimental. But no tears came.

That night, I went to the Jinju lantern festival. It was a perfect way to end my time in Korea. The Jinju Lantern Festival was the first festival I attended in Korea, it was my first introduction to Korean culture in its many forms. And it remained the most beautiful festival I ever attended while in Korea. The realization of my last weekend in Korea was with me, like a fog I could not get out of. I had accepted it. And yet the uneasy feeling remained with me.

Saturday was the night of my going away party. I had designated it a "James Bond Themed Party" in hopes that all my friends would get dressed up and I go home with some great photos. They did not disappoint. We went to dinner at a Vietnamese Roll restaurant that has amazing food. I was shocked by the number of people that came. So was the restaurant's owner. As we ate dinner, as we got ready for a night out on the town, as we began to enjoy ourselves at San Antonio's, as we sang our hearts out at my favourite noraebong, it was dawning on me the reason my anxiety was still clinging to me. I loved Korea, I loved my tiny little Shit-tae apartuh, I loved my school. But I could be at peace with leaving them. I could let them go. What I could not really accept, what my heart would not let me feel at ease with was leaving these people. The phenomenal group of people I have been so fortunate as to become friends with while I worked and lived and grew in Korea. I owe so much of that adventure, and my own growth to them. I have met many kindred spirits in my life, but never have I found so many all in one place. I've never felt so nurtured and accepted as by these people. And leaving them, that was truly scary and truly heartrending.

Even as the night wore on into the morning, and people began to call it a night, I delayed the inevitable: "We'll meet for coffee tomorrow, no need to say goodbye now!"

We did indeed meet up for coffee, and I managed not to cry until the very end of that last social gathering. Once the damn was broken though, I needed to get back to my apartment for a good cry. Despite all my best efforts, there was still much to do before I would be ready to leave in the morning. So, with many mixed emotions I kept one eye on the clock as I cleaned and packed up the last of my things.

to be continued....

Scientific Certainty

2010-09-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

There are definitely some interesting cultural influences happening in the practice of medicine in Korea. (Ask me to recount my friend's J's tale of the birth of her daughter in a Korean hospital sometime, holy moly!) Another friend of mine has had severe allergy problems since she moved to Korea in the spring. She posted on FB the her doctor's top 5 reasons that explain why she is sick:

1. I am homesick
2. I live alone
3. I eat Korean food
4. I am emotional and aggressive ?
5. Canada does not have 4 distinct seasons.

Perhaps a definitive answer, or the ability to test for a definitive answer was lost in translation. Oh Korea!

Irony

2010-09-16T23:43:00.000-07:00

I guess my question is: Why bother going to the beach at all?

The Down Side to a Super Collective, Super Hard-Working Society

2010-09-09T23:42:00.000-07:00

One of South Korea's leading english-language newspapers released some saddening stats about the rising suiced rates in South Korea. Though the ROK does have high suicide rates, it's an issue not really talked much about. Atleast not with foreigners who ask about it. There are a lot of good things to be said about South Korea. A LOT. But having a tonne of people in a very small country combined with a very VERY competitive culture where everything is about not losing face and you get more than a few folks cracking under the pressure.
During my first year here, the former President of Korea,Roh Moo-Hyun , threw himself off a cliff amongst accusations of bribery and financial scandal which had allegedly occured within his administration (Roh was succeeded by Lee Myun-Bak in 2008). It hit the country imensely hard. School classes were cancelled, jumbo tv screens were set up in public spaces so the public could watch the funeral and mourn. In Jeollnamdo at least, he was a well loved President and I saw more than a few of my co-workers cry about it. But nobody talked about suicide. Nobody questioned why he did it. Or if it could have somehow been avoided. The media and "Netizens" were ruthless during the time of the scandal (all allegations). The shame brought on him and his family by the scandal, whether it was true or not, left him only one option. I couldn't help but be stunned. How differently our western culture deals with shame and scandal. Most enjoy all the media attention and celebrity they receive, some even profit from it.
I see this pressure all the time in my school. Although most of my students consisently recieve straight A's, it is nothing to be proud of because everyone is getting straight A's. I have seen girls crying after receiving their grades on exams, not because they got a bad mark but because it wouldn't be good enough to get them into one of the top three Universities in South Korea (ie a 96 instead of 99). It's an enormous weight for teenagers to bear, all the expectation and honour of their family resting on them getting into the right schools. And these kids don't know that there's life after University, or even high school. They've been going to school for 12 hours a days since they were 6. All that matters is that you are the best. Unfortunately, there's only room for one on that podium and there's 55 million people here.

Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads...

2010-09-02T21:57:00.000-07:00

Wow it's September! 2010 doesn't seem to keen on sticking around and getting aquainted. OK, so that title (from Back to the Future) is my lame attempt at conveying some of what I'm feeling as these last few weeks in Korea are winding down. Firstly, that time here goes by WAAAAYYYY too fast. I really can't believe that I'm finishing out my 2nd year. At the same time, the vastness of the experiences and personal growth I've had while being here makes it seem like nearly a decade ago I got on that plane at Pearsons IA and became an expat. Also, it's reference to how I suspect that going home will feel a lot like stepping back in time a bit. No, that's not a dig at how behind the times my home town is (even though it's kinda true, sorry D-town). I just mean that I will be returning to people and places that have been an enormous part of my past and I feel as though I will be returning as such a different person, I have to reconcile these two lives I've lead, with their very different narratives.

But enough cogitating (oh yeah, its a word). What's new?

Well, on Wednesday night, Typhoon Kompasu hit the peninsula with enough rage to kill five people. Suncheon didn't see much of that damage. It was quite a storm though and I enjoyed the sound of the howling winds and gusting rain slamming into the apartment building. It also got my imagination going. If one of these tall slender apartment buildings was to get blown over, would we all go down like a bunch of dominoes? Thankfully, reality never tested my theory.

Two weeks ago, I started teaching an evening class for "gifted" middle school students for the city on Monday and Thursday nights. It means I don't get home until 10pm, but that little bit of extra cash will be nice at the end of the month. Plus, "gifted" middle school students are basically "general" high schoolers, so woot! to reusing my lesson plans.

Life is good in Korea, folks. The sun is shining, the AC is WORKING, and I've been finished classes since 10:05 this morning.

Why am I leaving again?

Letter from Eun-Ju

2010-08-25T00:14:00.000-07:00

On Monday, I came back from teaching my first two classes of the new semester (I think I am at the first High School in Korean history to be organized enough to have their NEST teaching on the first day back!) and found a letter on pretty stationery (Entitled "Rome Color Holic") on my desk. It was from Eun-Ju, a 3rd grade student who'd been assisting me with English book club at the beginning of the summer. This totally made my day.

"Dear Lisa teacher,

Hi ~ Lisa Do you remember me? My name is Heo Eun-Ju. During the summer vacation, though very short period, I helped you prepare the class of your book club. I'm sorry that I couldn't help you much because I'm poor at speaking English. But, I'm glad to give you a hand.

Frankly speaking, I was afraid of communicating with a foreigner. So, I had less confidence... but this experience gives me a chance to overcome my fear. You are very generous and considerate. You always smiled to me. Even when I made a mistake. Thank you for your kindness. <3

Do you remember the first time I participated your class?

That time, suddenly you let me introduce myself, and I showed you my poorer ability than I could. That moment, I saw your face and I was worried about that you might be disappointed me.

But, you didn't ignore me so I'm deeply grateful to you. I promise you. I will improve my ability of speaking English and visit you with my fluent English. Please remember me, and that day I want to be your friend. Sincerely, Eun-Ju"

Unremarkable day...

2010-08-24T22:45:00.001-07:00

I overslept this morning. And struggled to wake up from a nightmarish dream about travelling, ice-tunnels caving in on us in the sewers of Italy (and nobody could help us because they didn't speak english), hippies stealing hemp hats from a eco-thrift store, accidentally smashing a patio-door I borrowed from someone (???) and movers ruining furniture (also borrowed from someone). I get anxiety nightmares before a major change happens. Leaving Korea in 6 weeks means they'll just keep getting weirder.

Today for lunch we had chop-chae sausage, egg and onion soup, spam fried rice and 3 kinds of kimchi, with unripe peach sections for dessert.

My classes went excellently. I'm still stunned by how well behaved my classes have been this week. Sometimes a simple lesson plan is the best lesson plan I guess.

It's been raining on and off all day. Right now, it's raining so hard outside that the rain itself is creating a breeze. I love it. But, it's a bad day to forget your umbrella at home (which I did).

Third Time's a Charm! Gayasan Hike Video

2010-08-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, you have my mom to thank for this one. She wanted a link she could email to relatives of my video from hiking on Gayasan two weekends ago. The quality is better on my facebook page, but just in case you're not on there, here it is!

MUDFEST music video!

2010-08-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

Two posts in one day?! Inconceivable!

Ok, here's another vid I did of our trip to Mudfest in Boreyoung last month. We had a fantastic time!

Video! Swimming with Sand Tiger Sharks!

2010-08-17T05:38:00.000-07:00

I have been an absolutely terrible blogger. Completely fell off the wagon. I suppose partly its just that Korea has stopped feeling like a foreign place; now it's just the place where I live. So things in daily life don't seem as remarkable as they once did and its hard to believe anyone would still want to hear about it. But that being said, the last four months have definitely NOT been boring. There's always so much to do and see. So I'm going to post a few videos and photos to get caught up as best as I can. In just 7 weeks my Korean adventure will be over and I'll be returning to Canada, looking for my next one. I've really started to play with windows movie maker lately, I've been enjoying it alot! Here's my first attempt at syncing up music with video and photos, and lucky for you its of my "Shark Dive" experience at Busan Aquarium that I went to in mid-May of this year. We had a great time. I shot all the videos/photos myself. Quite exciting to be that close to the sharks!

Very Bad Blogger! March and April Update.

2010-04-18T20:49:00.001-07:00

Oh I started off the year with so many good intentions for this blog. But any of you who know me, know I am a terrible procrastinator. In fact, as I write this entry I'm procrastinating planning a lesson for a class I have in two hours. You're Welcome.

(Note to reader: I will continue to blog about my trip to Malaysia, but not today)

I returned safe and sound from Malaysia and was back at work on the 16th of February, teaching an advanced English class. It was a like every ESL teacher's dream. I had about 12 students, all high level english speakers, all very keen. I taught them about formal academic debate, argument structure and making objective, logical statements. (Believe me, we had some interesting discussions about the topic "Couples should live together before they get married" - quite a different perspective from the one that's in North America right now) At the end of the two weeks we held a formal debate where I divided the students into two teams and randomly assigned them to the negative or affirmative side of the topic "Children with Mental Disabilities should be Fully Integrated into the School System". It felt so strange to give them their assignments for research and have them take off with it, no help needed from me! I was very proud at the end of it. It was also a rare pleasure to get to learn all of my students names.

The regular school year got into swing in March, with lots of changes underway. There was the usual circus of losing 1/3 of the teaching staff to mandatory reassignment and gain that many new teachers as well. In Korea, teachers must change school every 4 years to ensure that remote schools are staffed as equally well as schools in larger cities. Sounds great in theory, but it's a logistical nightmare: many families wind up with a mom or dad who lives in one city during the work week and travels home on the weekends. If both parents are teachers, often the children live with their grandparents. So we had lots of good-bye dinners and then lots of "welcome" dinners. My supervisor, Son Hwa-Ja, was reassigned, but thankfully another teacher I already know and who has excellent English was promoted to fill Hwa-Ja's place: Choi Young-Ju. Choi Hyun is still my main co-teacher, but she's a bit absent-minded and her English isn't great, so it's nice to have another person to go when there are questions or problems.

On top of the staff change up, I was ousted from my beautiful "English Zone" classroom which I had enjoyed so much last year. Mr. Jo, our progressive vice-pricipal, signed our school up for a pilot project introducing a western class schedule to Korean High Schools. The goal is to make the education more student-centered (as it is in the west), where students choose their schedule to fit what they want to study or pursue for a career, rather than the current Eastern teacher-based philosophy. Part of the change involves having teachers stay in one room and the students travel to different rooms based on the subject. Ironically, this changed occured for every Korean teacher, but went in reverse for me. The Korean English teachers now have their own homerooms, (including the English Zone, which is now Mr. Lee's Homeroom) and I travel from English classroom to English classroom depending on the class, carrying all my lesson supplies and handouts with me. Until the projectors were installed and working, I also had to recreate my powerpoint presentations on large poster paper and magnet them to the chalk boards!

As an incentive to schools to take on the new system, the government also gave approx. $2 000 000 in funding to schools for renovations and upgrades. Awesome stuff, except that our renovations weren't finished on time, so for the first two weeks of school I had no office or desk to work at. I usually sat in an empty teacher's conference room, freezing my butt off. (BTW, March was unseasonably cold for Korea this year, we had snow on March 10th and temperatures frequently dipped below freezing at night. Now you may think, "Why Lisa, aren't you a tough Canadian girl? A few degrees below zero is nothing!" but you would be an ignorant Canadian who takes your insulated/CLOSED doors and windows and effeciant furnace for granted)The lack of desk also meant I had to carry all of my materials with me everywhere, as I had no where to store them. So I brought a backpack to school everyday full of my resources. Thankfully, soon a desk was provided for me. Unfortunately, my office is a completely different building from all my classes, so I'm still lugging alot of stuff around with me during the day.

Oh well, having adjusted to all the changes now, the semester seems to be going just fine. It's hard to believe I'm already on to the 7th week. April 1st was the beginning of my last 6 months in Korea, time sure is flying. Lots of fun stuff has been going on socially, but in an effort to keep these entries short and more readable, I leave it here. I tell you about my rocking social life, and more about Malaysia, soon. Honest!

Rickety Train Ride to White Water Rafting Site

2010-03-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

AA, SB and I on our way to the white water rafting site on the Padas river in Sabah Borneo January 2010. The river is muddy and swollen from the rains the day before. As the train ride continued, the river became choppier and choppier...

Bursting with Pride for my Country!

2010-03-01T03:05:00.000-08:00

It's a well known fact that Lisa does not do early morning wake-ups cheerfully. Whenever possible, she does not do them AT ALL. But this morning was different. This morning Lisa felt excitement akin to the anticipation a 6-year old feels on Christmas Eve, as the alarm clock began clanging away at 4:45AM. Today, the Canadian Men's Olympic Hockey Team was facing off against the USA in the gold medal match. To be more specific, facing the US team again, after losing once already and fighting hard to make it back into the final game. And I was determined to watch, cringe and cheer with everyone else back home, regardless of whether or not the sun was up. So donning my Canada hoodie (which I bought in a moment of "I'm already homesick" at Pearson airport before returning to South Korea) over my pj's I headed to AA's apartment to watch the historic game. And, well, you know how it ends.

Is it just me, or was there something about these Olympic games that felt almost magical? Even from way over in South Korea, I could feel the buzz, feel the momentum building through out the last two weeks. Not just around the hockey teams, but all the games' events. Our nation was knitting together much closer than our geography would seem to allow. Unable to watch most of the events live to do the time change and Korea's Sports News channels insistence on replaying their speed skating and figure skating triumphs ad nauseum, I had to follow most of the excitement through internet reports from CBC and various status updates on Facebook. Even so, I definitely caught Olympic fever, the Canadian strain, and it's major symptoms: glowing heart, American-like Patriotism (the kind where you really do feel your country is better than everybody else's) and homesickness.

I found myself saying on more than one occasion, "How on earth did I manage to NOT be in Canada when we are hosting the Olympics?" as if those all the very rational and responsible reasons I came back to Korea for a second tour of duty no longer mattered. Talking with friends and family back home, you could hear the excitement and pride in their voices as we discussed our skyrocketing, record-breaking gold medal count and the big opportunities ahead to claim more hardware. Growing up, I remember always feeling alittle sad that our country's medal count usually kept us in the top 20, but not often in the top ten. It was often argued that for our small population size and the low amount of investment/sponsorship our athletes were recieving, any stop at the podium was a big victory. And now, finally, thanks to the "Own the Podium" iniative, our athletes finally got to really shine and on home turf too!

The Men's Gold Medal Victory match was the only portion of the games that I watched live, thanks to an online feed from an Australian sports channel. I'll have to satisfy myself with pictures of the opening and closing ceremonies, and perhaps, in a few months when the networks ease up on the copyright infringment, watch a few of the highlights on Youtube. Even so, in my tiny apartment in South Korea, I feel hugely, proudly Canadian and I'm celebrating with you all in spirit. See you in 7 months Canada!

Sabah, So Good!

2010-01-25T02:37:00.000-08:00

Selemat Petang! Wow - time flies! Already so far behind in the blogging!

I'll try to update you as best I can on how we spent the last few days we had in Sabah, the eastern province of Borneo, Malaysia. I'll save the recent excursion to Miri & Mulu National Park for the next entry.

Our second full day in Borneo was a full day indeed. Because of the wet weather (see previous entry) we decided to for-go a two day hike up Mt. Kinabalu and opted for the less exciting, but convenient day trip offered by most of the tourist operators in the area. The tour took us, a middle-aged Japanese man, and a family from India with two adorable little ones in a groaning minivan up into the Kinabalu mountains (and the clouds) before going into the park's Botanical gardens for an informative introduction to rain forest flora. After which we enjoyed a tasty Malaysian lunch before driving to the Poring Hot Springs for a fantastic walk through the rain forest canopy via a suspended walkway. Then AA, SB and I took a dip in the hot spring tubs. By mid-afternoon the rain had moved into the mountains and we spent most of the 1.5 hour drive home slowly winding along the mountain roads covered by clouds. When we arrived back in the city, we hit up an Italian restaurant across the street from our hostel for some fantastic thin-crust pizza (I'm on a vacation from Korean food, not Canadian, after all).

The next day was the big highlight of our short time in Sabah. We were pick up early by Mini-van and drove 3 hours through the stunning countryside to the tiny town of Tenom, where we got on an old rickety train to get to the launch point for white water rafting on the Padas river! The course boasts level III and IV rapids, but thanks to all the rain the day before, the guides advised us that we would actually be navigating level IV and V rapids instead. In the minivan, the only folks who appeared to be rafting were the three of us and Ronnie, our guide. The other men in the van were simply catching a ride to Beaufort en route. However, when we arrived at the train station in Tenom we were joined by 40 Brunei soldiers on an Adventure Training course (a break from their usual boot camp routine). Needless to say, we were a popular addition to the group. The muddy Padas river was all riled up from the rain and after some brief safety instruction and strapping into our jackets and helmets, we hit the river. It was the most exciting, heart-pounding experience of my life. Our raft capsized once in a really tough section of rapid, only Ronnie managed to stay in the boat. Most of my raft members resurfaced close to raft and scrambled back inside quickly. However me and one of the soldiers found ourselves quickly being swept down river away from the boats, struggling to hang on to our paddles and figure out which direction our boat was in. We followed Ronnie's urgent advice to swim right toward the bank and it wasn't long before we were back in the boat and back in business. We rafted for about an hour and a half before stopping in a (relatively) calm stretch for lunch at a stilt-home of faded clapboard. Toddlers chased puppies and chickens around the grounds while we chowed down on some delicious home-made Malay food. It was exactly the break (and fuel) we needed before we went back out on the river to finish the course. Our second time round, our team seemed to hit our stride, navigating the rapids with more confidence and grace than the first time round. Near the end of the course, the river calmed significantly and we were able to hop into the river for swimming/body rafting. I climbed out of the raft onto the bank thoroughly soaked on rubbery legs and feeling elated.

(I'm sorry, I have to interrupt the narrative here for a moment: Korea has been following me everywhere on this trip! K-pop has just started blaring in this cyber cafe - the group 2NE1 for those of you who know who that is, if you don't just Youtube 'em - which reminds me that I forgot to tell you about the 100 or so Korean tourists who managed to find us on Mamutik island. They were impossible to miss - all wearing matching baby pink polo shirts and big sun-visors and staying far away from the beach. Oh gawd, why? Instead they blared bad Korean music, Noraebonged and played coordinated group clapping/towel waving games on a green space near the public toilets...oh Korea, if you're going to follow me all the way to a beach in frikkin' Malaysia, at least try to enjoy it! We've also met folks from Korea at nearly every stop - though thankfully they are the more adventurous type!)

Anyways, we all made it out of the river alive, feeling fantastic. We had another rocking, rickety train ride to Beaufort I believe and then a shorter ride back to KK. One of the guides of the trip, Angelo, rode with us and AA and I really enjoyed chatting with him about his rafting experiences, and some Sabah environmental and political issues.

Arriving back in KK, we debated about heading out to see some of the nightlife (which would include partying with those Brunei soldiers, a few happened to be staying at the same Hostel as us) or getting up real early to catch the ferry to Brunei. We wound up doing neither. The plan to go to Brunei got kaiboshed when I did a little online research around 1am and found it really difficult to find availability to Mulu National Park in Sarawak, a fly-in only location which we were really looking forward too. We decided it would be better to stay in KK at least one more day and get that part of the trip sorted out, rather than delay booking it and miss the opportunity. So we weighed our options, talked to a few airlines and managed to get some flights but they meant taking a flight to Miri in Sarawalk that night. So we're skipping Brunei this time. To be honest, we were mostly going for the stamps in our passports and since Brunei is quite a bit more expensive than the rest of Borneo, we felt it was better to spend that cash in Sarawak where we would get the most out of it. After all the tickets were bought, it was still only lunch time, so we grabbed some grub and our bathing suits and hopped on a speedboat to Sapi Island, another island part of the same park as Mamutik. This island had much better snorkelling and assortments of fish! I still had the bottle of fish food (re: breadcrumbs) from Mamutik and had blast starting a literal feeding frenzy around me in the bright teal water. (You'll love the video, once I get it posted!) Amanda and I took a short hike through the interior of the island to the other side, where we enjoyed a fantastic view of the sea stretching out to the horizon. Then we headed down to the abandoned beaches of the island accessible by hiking trail, but not by boats. We found several fresh monitor lizard tracks in the sand. And a few hops and scrambles-over-rocks later, we found 3 of those giants slowly lumbering across the sand. Two of them quickly slipped behind some rocks and into the forest (I'm sure they'd heard us coming a mile away), but a slowpoke patiently waited in the sand for us to go by (we had to go waist deep into the water to give him his space, we didn't feel like testing how aggressive monitor lizards are). We caught our speedboat back to the jetty at 5 pm, enjoyed a dinner of delicious Arabic food on the wharf and finally got to watch a spectacular KK sunset, which all our guidebooks had raved about, but we'd seemed to miss every night so far. As the brilliant golds and oranges began to fade into magenta and purple hues we headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and head to the airport.

As our plane lifted off, I felt reluctant to go. I know that Sabah has so much more to offer, so much to see and do that we simply couldn't get to because of time and budget constraints. It's definitely on my list of places to return to. Kota Kinabalu turned out to be a great base-camp for our day-trip excursions and a good introduction to Malaysia, a great place to get our feet wet (Literally and figuratively). At the same time, I was so eager to get to Miri and head on to Mulu National Park - we had seen so little of the Borneo rain forest, soon we would be flying into the heart of it!

Coming at Ya from Borneo Malaysia!!!

2010-01-17T03:22:00.000-08:00

Hey All - I guess I spoiled the surprise, but I'm writing to you from Malaysia!!! Yesterday we (Amanda A, hereafter AA, and Shari B, hereafter SB) flew from Seoul to Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of the Sabah province of Borneo Malaysia. The plan is to travel west from here through Brunei and the Malaysian province of Sarawak, then hop on a boat or a plan to Singapore and explore some of Peninsular Malaysia. Well that's the first 3 weeks. I'm splitting off from the girls in Kuala Lampur to fly to Chiang Mai Thailand, for a week at Elephant Nature Park (you may recall me gushing about this place last year).

Now I realize that my last entry ended in November. I've decided I'm not going to write up a huge thing about December/New Years. One of my goals for the New Year was to update this blog more frequently, therefore have shorter entries, easier for ya to digest. A comment I just had from my mom confirms this as a good idea. Here's the highlights from the end of 2009:

- weekend Christmas shopping in Seoul (ate 2.5 feet of subway sandwiches while there, I'm not ashamed!)
- finals at school + Christmas holidays coming up = lots of watching "Merry Christmas Mr. Bean" and singing carols in the classroom
- had a REAL turkey dinner at Jodie and Stephen's place with a few friends, soo soo good!
- Skyped with family back home
- toured around SK with my friend Mike (who was visiting all the way from San Francisco!), showed around Gwangju, Suncheon and Seoul. We went up Namsan Tower (the Seoul equivalent of the CN Tower) and did a temple stay at HwaGaeSa.
- Snowball fight with Zen Master and 3:00 AM meditations at HwaGaesa
- 5 days of "Additional In-Service Teacher Training" at Seoul's NIIEC centre
- Desking warmingin a cold teachers office (but you've heard my take on that!)

Here's the pics from it all, they tell the story better than I do anways. December

Also, here's some pics of me teaching (as you requested Uncle Mel!), a cornucopia of hilarious Korean signs/stuff, and the outcome of a funny student assignment. Enjoy

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming...
Ok, so landed in Kota Kinabalu around 3:45pm local time. Getting off the plane, the humidity and sweet smell hit me immediately. My guidebook gave us a good tip on looking for 'minibusses' (ie. minivans) to get into town for 2 Ringgit (60 cents) rather than taking a private taxi from the airport for 30 Ringgit ($10), so we hopped in one going the right direction. One of the passengers was a friendly local who helped us get on the correct city bus to get to the heart of downtown KK, where we could walk to our hostel. Everyone here is really friendly, and in a sincere way (as opposed to the "Friendly" people in Thailand who were happily trying to con you). We're sticking to a budget this trip, so we're staying in a dorm-style room with bunkbeds for 10 people and only fans, no air-conditioning. No privacy, but you meet lots of backpackers from all over. After checking into our hotel and changing out of our winter layers (because it was -5 when we left Seoul), we deided to hit the waterfront nightmarket for some local food for dinner. We ate fried noodles w/ chicken and veggies for $1/plate and drank ABC Miah's, the wierdest thing I've ever tried to suck through a straw. Ingredients included canned corn, condensed milk, grenadine, chopped nuts and some green stuff soaked in syrup for good measure. Shari and I also tried some mystery meat - the vendor told us it was pork, so our best guess is that we ate sections of pig tail. We wandered through the craft market and the fruit market in the hot rain. I tried two new tropical fruits: Mangosteen (very sweet and strange looking) and Duku-langsat(which is like a big grape except that you peel it and the inside comes out in sections like a citrus fruit). We loaded up with fruit to eat for breakfast the next day and made our way back to the hostel. I was exhausted - the trip had started at 10:00pm in Suncheon to catch a midnight bus from Gwangju to Seoul and then get on a Plane at a 11:00am. I'm a light sleeper so I really didn't get much if any sleep on the bus or plane. I decided to hit the showers (a good way to keep cool at night is sleep with your hair wet after all. When I got in, a little pink gecko clambered up the wall away from me. I kept my eye on him as I soaped up, and good thing I did. The little bugger climbed until he hit the ceiling and then started making his way across the ceiling directly above me. He lost his grip right above me, naturally. He landed with a loud splat at my feet. I very gracefully squealed and huddled against the door. We stared at eachother dumbfounded for a moment. Then he spotted the exit, which I just happend to be blocking. I squealed again and hopped to the opposite side of the shower as he scooted out under the door.

Today we headed to Mamutik island by speedboat from KK harbour. We thought we would get rained out, but those ugly storm clouds stayed near the mainland and we got to enjoy some swimming and snorkelling (though, as can be expected in a public swimming area, almost all the coral was dead from being stepped on), Tom Yam Soup for lunch (spicy tomato and herb soup with veggies and chicken) and happened upon a HUGE monitor lizard lounging on the rocks. No seriously, HUGE. HUUUUGGGGGGEEEE! We thought at first he was Komodo dragon. Yeah, that big.

I just finished a big dinner at the food court of a big shopping complex and am heading back to the hostel to relax for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we going to Mt Kinabalu park to do alittle touring of the area (the wet weather makes any serious climbing too much trouble for us) and check out the poring hot springs! I'll let you know how it goes. I cannot WAIT to get into that beautiful jungle that is just pressing itself up against the city. Cross your fingers for me that the rain stays away!!!

Going Retro - November 2009

2010-01-04T17:46:00.000-08:00

As promised, in a much better mood now. I'm better prepared for my chilly office. I put winter tights on under my jeans, and super warm fuzzy socks on too. Thermal undershirt under my sweater which is under my winter coat. And I brought my sheepskin slippers (from Egli's Sheep Farm back home) and a big jar of Citron tea to school, I think I'm on mug number 4. Also, brought my MP3 player to school, so I've been chillin to some fantastic music: Fleet Foxes, the Weakerthans, Great Lake Swimmers, Sandi Thom, etc.

Now, imagine my shock and surprise when I scanned back through recent posts to the blog and discovered my last narrative entry, as far as the "life of Lisa" goes, left off at Halloween! Sorry guys!

The good news is, November wasn't nearly as busy as September and October.

The first weekend is probably the only one really worth blogging about - Amanda Ammon and I headed to Gyeongju (Korea's ancient Capital during the 3 kingdom's period)located north of Busan, to tour the ancient sites and do our first Buddhist temple stay. Gyeongju is one of those places in South Korea that I think every expat should go see. Once it was a royal city filled with Palaces and Shrines, now it is a small tourist town built around the remains. About the only things still intact are the enormous royal tombs that rise out of the ground like the small perfectly circular hills you would see in the background of a Mario Bros game on a Super Nintendo. We toured much of the sights on foot, beginning at the Gyeongju National Museum, then walking over to Anapji Pond. From there we walked past the first of the royal tombs (Daereungwon tombs), and the remains of Royal Palace - only stumps of stone left in the ground - Cheomseongdae Observatory (the oldest standing Astronomy tower in Asia) and onto the Royal Tomb park. One of the royal tombs has been opened to visitors as a sort of "walk in" museum, where visitors can see how the tomb was designed and how the body and artifacts would have been laid out! We learned that when a King died, his queen and many servants would also be sacrificed and buried with him, the intent being that they would continue to serve the King in the next life.

After pounding all that pavement, I felt relieved when we met up with our friends from Suncheon who would also join us for a temple stay at Golgulsa, a mountain-side temple outside the city. We were dropped off at a highway junction by a rural bus and walked about 20 minutes following signs. I didn't mind. Fall in Korea is spectacular and we were walking down a winding road than ran through a small industrial town settled in the valley of a mountain range. I loved feeling 'away' from the city. We huffed and puffed our way up the short by steep pathway to the temple office for check-in. We then learned that our accomodations were at the bottom of the hill we'd just climbed, and thus we'd be making that trek many times in the next 24 hours. According to the Buddhist tradition, we ate a vegetarian supper and finished everything on our plates (Buddhists try to not to waste anything, particularly food as it sustains our bodies). Golgulsa is a famous temple in Korea because its monks practice Sunmudo, a rare and ancient meditative martial art. Not designed for combat, Sunmudo requires the practitioner to have complete control over their mind and body in order to perform the difficult, almost dancelike moves. So though most of us came prepared to meditate, we were quite suprised to find ourselves sweating and straining through a Sunmudo training session. We had a short lesson in meditative technique and then were treated to a remarkable Sunmudo demonstration that had been put together for a group of Korean visitors to the temple (lucky us).

Soon after that it was time for bed - we had a 4 am wake up call to meet! We slept as most Koreans do, on a hot ondol floor with blankets to serve as mattress and cover. Our pre-dawn alarm clock was a junior monk tapping a wooden bell and chanting outside our building. (Punishment for sleeping in was 1080 bows to Buddha, and no one dared risk finding out how strictly this policy was enforced!) After doing some morning bows and a walking meditation, we met with the monks in the dining hall to participate in the Balwoo-gongyang for breakfast around 6 AM. The Balwoo-gongyang is a meditative meal practiced by Buddhists designed to focus the mind on the food that sustains us: where it came from, the earth it gained its nutrients from, the farmer who cared for and harvest the food to the cook who prepared the meal. Nothing is wasted. The dinnerware consists of a placemat, chopsticks, a spoon and four bowls - one of which is filled with hot water for washing the other three bowls with at the end, so that you begin and end the meal with 4 clean bowls. Done properly, nothing is wasted except maybe a half a cup of water. It was one of my favourite experiences at Golgulsa, not to mention a technique I can adapt the next time I go camping.
After breakfast was finished, I hiked up the side of the mountain to see the Maya Tathagata Buddha (a big Stone Buddha cut in relief into the side of the mountain)and take in a breaktaking view of the mountain valley and forest as the sun rose. I visited the cave shrine for a little bit of meditation. We had some free time in the morning in which you could go on a tour of some local sites, which I opted out of to take the most glorious nap this girl has ever taken. To finish up the stay we ate lunch and then participated in a special tea ceremony with a student monk (He was one of the few who could speak English) who answered our questions regarding Buddhism and the Buddhist lifestyle.

Before heading back into Gyeongju to catch a bus home, Amanda and I decided we wanted to take in one more historic site: Bolguksa Temple, a temple so big and beautiful they made into a UNESCO site. It was raining pretty heavily by the time we got there, so I bought a bright green poncho to try to protect my pack. Despite the rain, the temple and its grounds were stunning, particularly the pond outside which made the brilliant japanese maple trees nearby seem to glow. We were in a bit of a hurry, so as not to miss the last bus back to Suncheon, and in my haste I managed to forget my wallet inside the main Shrine hall, and naturally didn't notice until we were all the way at the bus stop. It was quite a jog to get all the way back up the hill and inside the grounds! Thankfully the ticket guys didn't make me pay again, and of course, this is Korea, my wallet had been put behind the counter for safekeeping, money and cards just as I had left them. I also bought a really pretty souvenir bell similar to the Emile bell we saw at the National Museum from a vendor who happily accepted my money and then stuffed the trinket in a box proclaiming "Made In China". Yeesh.

Here's the photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2273036&id=122614903&l=711a8a0481

I was low on cash and energy after all that had happened in the last 5 weeks, so the rest of the month was pretty low key. Lots of social events of course, but I stayed in Suncheon, and we did a few fun photo shoots with Amanda Gale's fancy new DSLR camera. Photoshoot #1 - Kate, Lindsey C and I dressed up as Marionettes (ala my design for my Halloween Costume); Amanda G dressed up as an Angel and Lindsey V dressed up as death. Photoshoot #2 - at the end of November I put up my Christmas tree and Amanda Gale patiently took about 600 pictures over two days until Mokah decided she was ready to sit pretty in front of the tree for my Christmas Photo Cards I sent out. But we did have a lot of fun with it and Amanda and Kate both got some holiday shots to send home out of it too!

Will try to quickly write up a summary of December and the New Year before I head off on Vacation - Tomorrow I'm flying to Kota Kinabalus Malaysia!!!

I'll leave you on this note: I discovered that of all things, the toilet seats in the teacher's bathroom are heated! I have seriously been considering bringing my laptop to school and setting up shop in the lavatory. :P

Freezing My Buns Off in 2010

2010-01-03T18:55:00.001-08:00

Considering that Koreans are so very proud of their four distinct seasons which includes a harsh winter (due to Siberian winds and North Korean clear-cutting), you would think these guys would be on the up-and-up about insulation and heating for the winter months. But no. ALL the entrance doors to my school are wide open and several windows have been left open to let in "fresh air" for good measure. Or you might think that since they are so proud of their Ondol (floor heating) system, they would install it in their schools instead of installing crappy air heating systems in the CEILINGS (hot air rises people!). In Canada, we insulate then weather-strip then insulate our weather stripping and cover everything up with plastic sheeting just to be safe! THEN we turn on our turbo-awesome furnace which vent hot air up from the floor.

***If you haven't guessed the tone, this entry is going to be rant-y (Yes, I can make up words, I'm an English Teacher now :D)***

I'm currently sitting in the teachers room with my winter coat, wrist warmers and scarf still on, wishing to high heaven I could wear my warm and cozy boots inside but instead I have little toe-sicles due to the fact that I have to wear my slip-on "inside" shoes. Me thinks a trip to Shinae (shopping district) for fur-lined "inside" shoes has moved to the top of my priority list.

On top of freezing at my desk, I cannot even take refuge in the usually warm and cozy "teachers rest room" which is the only 40 square feet in this building equipped with Ondol and also blankets/pillows so you can "take a rest" in super warm and cozy slumber-party fashion. I really thought this whole desk-warming thing would be fine because I could spend 50% of my day sleeping on a hot floor. (The other 50% would be spent blogging to you, naturally :P)

What is desk-warming you ask? It is a gift from the National Education Office to all of the Native English Speaking Teachers (NEST's) this year. Alittle context for you -

The public education schedule in South Korea runs like this: School starts 1st semester at the beginning of March each year. 1st semester ends in Mid to Late July. School is on "summer break" until the end of August when the 2nd Semester begins. The 2nd semester runs from the End of August until the end of December. The schools then begin "winter beak" from January to Febuary. Middle Schools and High Schools return to their classes for one in Febuary, a so-called "Graduation Week" to officially close out the school year and send the graduates on their way to High School or University.

In the past, school principals had the jurisdiction (and rightfully so) to decide what to do with the NEST. Some schools runs extra camps and classes to benefit the students who are not participating in aggressively scheduled Hogwan (private academy) programs. Others only stay open for the Administrators and higher ups to continue their work. Some close completely. So, the case has been that some NEST's end up with a lot more time off than the 26 days written in their contract for winter break or the 7 days alotted to us for summer break. -

I was one of these lucky folks. My school said "see ya later" last year on Dec 31st and I didn't return until March 2nd. Similarly, I finished teaching in Mid July after exams and didn't return to work until the end of August. This year was going to be the same deal, but the National Office has been brooding and stewing over complaints made by Korean Teachers and other NEST's about the "unfair" treatment some of us have recieved. Tired of hearing complaints and attempting to put a tighter thumb down on NEST's (thanks to the efforts of groups like the Anti-English Spectrum who very publicly denounce NEST's as lazy/incompetent/sexual predators/drunks etc etc etc) the National School Board announced that they would no longer allow schools to give their teachers more time off than what is written in the contract. If your teacher is not at the school, you don't pay them.

For some teachers, this is not a big deal. Most elementary school teachers run extra camps for the their schools during the breaks. I was asked to run some extra classes at the end of Febuary (After I return from my trip to MALAYSIA!!!)and of course agreed. The problem is that there are also many schools which do not run programs for the NEST's to participate in. Some schools are not even open to the students. This is especially true in my province, Jeollanamdo, which is less populated and much more rural than the rest of the country. The new enforcements mean we now have to come and sit at our desks from 9-5 to earn our keep, regardless of whether there is work for us to do or students for us to teach.

Not the end of the world, to get paid to do nothing. But it would nice if I wasn't freezing my butt off. And it wouldn've been nice to have had this announcement earlier than December 21, 2009. You know, that it wouldn't have screwed up my plans to travel within SK with a friend visiting from the US. Sorry Mike.

I really am just blowing off steam here. There are atleast a few other teachers here at my school teaching morning classes in January. I'm not alone with janitors like some people. I've got books to read, blogs to write, journalling to catch up on, etc etc etc.

All the recent changes just wind up making me feel like the Education board sees me as a child that must be chaperoned or an hourly worker who must be carefully watched because I can't be trusted otherwise. I know my school loves me and my co-teachers and vice-principal were really apologetic about the abrupt change to my plans for January. It just sucks that my direct employers/supervisors no longer have the authority to adjust my work schedule in ways that make sense for our particular school. It sucks to be paying for the mistakes/poor behaviour of other NEST's and xenophobic socio-political groups.

It sucks freezing my buns off for the start of 2010.

(Tomorrow I promise to be in a better mood and write to you about the awesome Christmas & New Years I had here. I just wanted to vent alittle.)

Tonsilitis: Canada '06 vs Korea '09

2009-12-17T20:23:00.000-08:00

Spoiler Alert: Korea wipes the floor with Canada's thoroughly beaten behind.

Here's the story of two very different health care systems. And why I'm glad I was in South Korea for Round 2.

Round 1 - I was meandering through the 3rd year of my BA at the University of Waterloo as a part-time student while I worked full time (Shout out: Parkway Ford!). I came down with one hell of a sore throat in mid-September so I stopped into the student clinic and the lady-Doctor there looked at my throat, took a swab and perscribed me some anti-biotics to kill the infection she assumed to be strep throat (wait time: 45 minutes, consultation time: 10 minutes). It was very painful, and please understand I really hate going to see a doctor unless I'm really ill. If you're from Canada, you know what a waste of time it is. The anti-biotics worked. It went away but came back 6 weeks later with a vengence. I returned to the clinic (wait time: 1 hour) and was checked out by a less friendly and less thorough lady-Doctor. She checked my history, informed me that the swab test for strep came back negative so she wasn't going to perscribe me anything. She told me to rest over the weekend (this was a friday) and come back on Monday *if* I still felt sick for bloodwork. Methinks she suspected me off trying to get out of midterms or get more T3's? Anyways, my throat hurt so badly that I couldn't sleep, at all. Not Friday night, not Saturday night. And by Sunday I couldn't swallow ANYTHING, not even my own saliva. Some said I should just go to the hospital but I felt sure the clinic would help me out. I waited until Sunday night turned into Monday morning. At 9:00am sharp, I walked into the clinic (Wait time: 30 minutes even though the clinic JUST opened) and another Doctor checked me out. He asked why I was there. I told him I wanted the bloodwork done. After a few vials were pulled from me, he asked me with an edge in his voice: "What else do you want me to do for you?" I replied "Can you please prescribe me something to open my throat so I can eat and sleep again?" He prescribed a special mouthwash. Fabulous. The bloodtests were to be done in 24 hours. I knew it meant a 4th night without sleep, but surely the wheels were in motion, I could tough it out for one more day. I waited until 12 noon on Tuesday to call and was informed by peeved nurse that they would call me when the results were ready *if* they showed anything. I was determined to wait and be vindicated by science, even though at this point I was dangerously dehydrated and exhausted. That night, while getting out of the tub, I nearly fainted and since I have never fainted in my entire life, gave in and went to emergency at 11:30 pm. At this point, nearing full Zombification, I was running a fever of 101 and unable to swallow any of the medications in pill or syrup form the nurses tried to give me. I was spitting my saliva into a cup that I carried with me. I was put in an isolation room to avoid a zombi-pocalypse. Around 2am on wednesday I was taken for x-rays, hooked up to an IV and blood work was done. Within AN HOUR the results came back, mononucleosis and tonsilitis. The doctor said I may have to go in for emergency surgery to remove them if I didn't respond to medicine. He wanted to wait for the throat specialist to come in at 8am, until then I would get some morphine injected through my IV so I could sleep. Which sounded awesome, but unfortunately the morphine had no effect on me and thus I waited out my 5th night without sleep until the Throat Specialist lady showed, examined and ordered a miracle concoction of drugs which opened my throat/killed the pain. I feel asleep so quickly and so soundly they had to wheel me up to my room in the bed from the isolation room and I didn't wake up until about 10 hours later. Thankfully, I responded well to the antibiotics and after another 24 hours in the hospital under observation I was sent home on Thursday afternoon. Thanks to my student insurance and Canada's much lauded free universal health care, I walked out of the hospital only having to pay for 40% of my medication. Cost: $60 CDN.

Round 2 - Sore threat/headache/fever symptoms begin a few days ago. I could feel the swelling and hoped it would just pass. But by last night around 2am, I knew what that "shards of glass in your throat everytime you try to swallow" feeling meant. And I was nervous. Everytime I've had a sore throat since 2006 I feel little shreds of panic that I will go back to the land of being really sick and exhausted but none of the medical professionals around me believe that I am. I called in to work. My friend Jodie called a Korean friend who recommended a Throat Specialist clinic conveniently located right beside my apartment complex. Walk: 5 minutes. Wait in reception: 5 minutes. Consultation & Diagnosis with Specialist: 5 minutes. Cost: 3500 Won ($3 CDN). Go to pharmacy with my fresh off the printer prescription: 5 minutes. Prescription pills: 3 200 won (less than $3 CDN). DONE. OVER. (My insurance only covers 50% of doctors visits and doesn't cover medication, so even if I had forgotten my insurance card, my total cost would've been about $10)

(Well I hope, if I'm not ship-shape by Monday, I go back again, but really, it's not hard to THAT over again)

I really don't understand enough about the Korean Healthcare System to understand why is it so cheap and effecient. And I don't care. As far as I'm concerned it was designed by Gandalf and Dumbledore and Santa Claus.

Video! Finale to the Busan International Fireworks Show Oct/09

2009-11-24T04:01:00.000-08:00

2nd Year in ROK Starts with a Bang!

2009-11-18T02:12:00.000-08:00

Ok, ondol's on, cat is fed and cuddled, hot chocolate hot, music on. It's just you and me, Blog. Let's do this.

Well after that fantastic weekend on Jeju island, it was back to the old grindstone. Well not exactly. Midterm exams gave me another week of cancelled classes, thank you Korean public education system. Well actually, now that they have me monitoring exams during these periods, I prefer a regular week of classes. It goes by so much quicker, not to mention it's so much more enjoyable to interact with the students and see some of them making progress. I've really enjoyed this semester so far. I'm in groove with teaching, confident with my lesson planning and have a good repoire with all the students (spent the months of first semester getting the 1st Graders comfortable with me and speaking English in front of their classmates). I had a very successful lesson with my Gr.1's discussing the similarities between Thanksgiving Day in North America and Chuseok in South Korea. Another fun one was doing Fall Acrostic Poems with my Gr. 2's. My students constantly surprise me. (I did post a sampling of the stranger poems I recieved on Facebook and my Google Group, so I won't post them here, if you want me to email them to you let me know).

October was a very busy month for me outside of work. On Facebook, I have a new photo album for every weekend!

The 2nd weekend of October was a social one. My friend Janet, who had been in South Korea for over 3 years, decided rather abruptly that she was ready to return home to San Francisco, so Friday Night we threw her a surprise Party (Appropriately titled "Where in the World is Janet SanFrancisco?"). We played a hilarious game of Shu-ele-Phone and realy enjoyed eachother's company. (Side note: Shu-ele-phone is a group game hybrid of Sherades, Clue, and Telephone that I picked up camping with a bunch of LDS friends in University. The Waygook crowd over here has really taken a liking to it). The next night was Janet's non-surprise farewell night, which she had gone and planned herself. We had a great meal at Outback Steakhouse and then headed out for a last night of Noraebong.

Pics are mostly of me with a bunch of people you probably don't know, but here's the link anyways: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2269408&id=122614903&l=c44a08dfe8

The next weekend was jam-packed with fun! On Saturday, me and my partner in crime Amanda bussed to Busan (SK's 2nd largest city) to see the Busan International Fireworks Festival, held at the end of the Film Festival held the week before. We got there early enough in the day that we were able to take a cable car and then a short hike up to see the south gate of Geumjeongsanseong, the ancient fortress that overlooks the city. It was a beautiful site and made me sad that we didn't have enough time to hike along the wall of the fortress. But we knew we had to get down to the Beach well before the fireworks started if we were to see any of the show. As we left the subway to head for the beach, it became clear that everyone in the city was headed in the same direction. Police and men in Army fatigues were stationed everywhere directing masses. Arriving at the beach, I thought we would have to watch from the street. The beach, km's long, was packed. Somehow we managed to find a spot at the front, alittle too close to the water (Tide was coming in!). The show was 45 minutes long and amazing! I'd never seen anything like it in my life. We weren't in the ideal location for watching it, way off to the side like we were, but it was still spectacular. I will post the video's I took after I get this up. Getting back to the subway turned out to be way more difficult after the show. I've never been in a crowd like that before in my life! (Will post those videos too)
The next day, Amanda and I managed to find the energy for another hike. But first, I went downtown to buy a proper pair of hiking boots! We were planning to hike Jirisan, the 2nd highest peak in South Korea, the next weekend and I wasn't going to be caught without proper footwear this time! Boots aquired, we hopped on a local bus out to Songgwangsa. This temple is considered one of the three "Jewels" of Korean temples. In the gorgeous fall foliage, it was breaktaking. After looking around the temple we hit the trail for 3 hours. This turned out to be one of my favourite hikes of the year. Because we didn't hit the trails until 2pm, we didn't see too many hikers, and for the last hour of the hike we didn't see anyone else at all! It was a great opportunity to really enjoy nature. At the end of the hike we arrived at Seonnamsa, a smaller temple, but we had arrived at the perfect time. The monks had begun their evening drumming, which I'd never witnessed at a temple before. The sounds of the drums seems to go right inside your ribcage and bounce around. And in the classroom was a school of student monks being lectured by a head monk. A winding road lined with paper lanterns led us down to the busstop and as dusk deepend, the lanterns all came on and lit our path.

Now these are some pics you don't want to miss! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2269416&id=122614903&l=5cb8c8f136

The next weekend was one I had been dreading and looking forward to all month. We were going to hike a small part of the Jirisan mountain range, the trail upto Cheonwangbong which is the highest peak in the range and the 2nd highest peak in Korea (Hallasan on Jeju is #1). This time Amanda and I had some company, Suze and Lindsey were coming with us. We were up early (6:45) in order to get on the trail before 9:00am. The trail we were taking was estimated to run between 7-10 hours and we woul lose the light aroun 6:30, so we would be cutting it close as is. It was a tough hike, but hiking the weekend before and taking the stairs up to my apartment on floor 17 a couple of times during the week helped me a little bit. On top of that, the mountainside boasted such beautiful scenery, I was constantly distracted by it and not thinking too much about my aching muscles. I summitted at 4 hours 20 minutes. Lindsey and Amanda arrived first and picked out a great perch for us to eat lunch on. My canned tuna with cream cheese and crackers was fan-freaking-tastic. After lunch we head west along the ridge to Jaesakbong peak and then headed south back to the trail head. My energy was quite high for the whole hike, but I fell behind the girls because I just couldn't stop taking pictures!

Pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2270119&id=122614903&l=2c2560383c

Of course the following weekend was Halloween. I had felt totally uninspired as to what I should dress up as, and then a few days before Halloween my friends Jodie and Stephen helped me come up with the idea of being a marionnette who had freed herself from her master. Which turned alittle grisly at Stephen's suggestion that I should have severed hands attached to my strings. It was too awesome of an idea not to try it! Stephen even helped me find a craft store to get materials to construct the severed hands. Findind doll-like clothes was easy-peesy since looking like a doll seems to be what most girls are going for with fashion here. All week, I was showing the "Thriller" video to my students and that also really helped me get excited. On Friday, my supervisor from the previous year (Lee Myeong-Sook) gave me a halloween treat bag full of candy to wish me Happy Halloween. And so inspired by my co-worker, I ran out on my lunch and bought a ridiculous amount of Kic-Kers (Kit-Kat's) and delivered them to the teachers room with a big black and orange poster wishing them a Happy Halloween. That night, the Halloween party for the foreigner crowd in Suncheon was held at McCarthy's bar. We had a great time. On Saturday, the actual Halloween, I was happy to stay in with friends and play some games and watch a scary movie. It really was a great month. I can only hope the rest of the year will be half as good!

Check out my costume here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2271173&id=122614903&l=eacdec29d5

Happy Anniversary Korea! The End of My First Year as Spent on Jeju Island.

2009-10-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

It's always too long before I sit down to this keypad and try to reconnect with you, any of you who read this. It's a great compliment to me that anyone reads it, that anyone follows my life here with me to South Korea.

It's been a fantastic 21 days since I last wrote. I can hardly imagine a better beginning to my 2nd year here. I celebrated my 1 year anniversary on October 1st and I celebrated well. My 1 year anniversary in ROK was spent on Jeju island, a large Island off the southern tip of the peninsula which is often referred to as the "Hawaii of Korea". It's the most popular destination for honeymooners and attracts business men and wealthy golfers (you must be pretty wealthy to play golf in Korea, those courses take up a lot of precious land). I was able to enjoy the weekend with a large group of friends as we all were enjoying a long weekend thanks to Chuseok, a Korean fall harvest holiday, that granted us an extra day off work. We travelled by ferry from Nokdong. We had originally reserved 3rd class tickets, but quickly upgraded to 2nd class when we saw that 3rd class was a noisy open hall with no seats, only floor which you could place a mat (if you'd packed one)and sit or lay on, while children run amuck about you. It was a clear day as we pulled out of the harbour, and I enjoyed spending sometime at the side of the ship, looking for jellyfish in the water.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, and after some debate, Amanda and I split from the group to try to rent scooters. The scooter-rental shops we contact weren't willing to rent scooters to a large group of foreigners, most of whom did not have international licenses, and some of whom (like myself) had never actually driven one. We didn't have any luck in Jeju city renting scooters, but we were determined to see a little of the west coast before the sun went down. We hired a taxi to drive us to Guemnueng Seokbul-won stone garden. Amanda and I were mainly looking for some good photo ops with the Dol-Harubang ("stone grandfather") statues that have become the iconic symbol of the island. The statues were original carved by the island people for protection and fertility. We certainly got what we were looking for at the garden, and had a great time looking at all the other statues, exploring a cave and a small maze, a replicated folk village and buying a little dol-harubang to take home with us. (check out the pics! link below...)

After the garden, we zipped through the country-side to the south coast of the island, where we would be staying in Seogwipo. In the light of the setting sun, we drove through lush vegetation, Halla mountain rising up on our left and farmers fields lined with lava-rock walls on our right. It was strange to feel that although we were still in South Korea, we were in a foreign place. After we settled into our room, we rented scooters from a shop close to our motel that wasn't nervous about renting to foreigners. It was a bit of rocky start (see, when you don't feel in control you tend to grip hard onto something, which is bad if you're gripping the gas pedal) We grabbed dinner at Mr. Pizza and then picked up some food for the big hike. You see, tomorrow Amanda, Lizzie, Ian and I were going to hike South Koreas highest mountain peak - Hallsan. That night was as early a bedtime as a nighthawk like me could manage.

Our little scooter gang hit the road shortly before 8:00AM and wound our way slowly along the winding mountain highway to the base of our path for the day. I was relieved to see the trailhead started at 700M, so only about 1250 to go instead of the full 1950! The trail we chose was the longest at 19km roundtrip, but it was the easier of the two trails that lead to the peak. We were on our way by 9am. We kept a good steady pace, and stuck together until about the 1500m mark. At this point the trail got noticeably steeper and I started to fall behind the others a bit. At around 1700meters I broke out of the tree line. From then on out, it was a gorgous view already down the mountain to the seaside town and the coast. It was steady stairs all the way up to the peak, where I met up with my co-hikers who had all summitted between 30 and 12 minutes before me. We stopped here for about a 1/2 hour for lunch and to take a few pictures. Did realize it was freaking freezing up there until I'd been sitting for about 5 minutes! We also had the treat of spotting a korean deer, which until this point I didn't really believe existed. The descent turned out to be a lot tougher than the ascent. My thin street sneakers proved to be no match for the constant uneven, jagged lava rocks that are the pathway up Hallasan. My ankles and knees were hurting pretty bad from trying to keep everything stable when my ankles would twist unexpectedly. Still we made it down at 5pm, feeling pretty good. I dropped off my scooter at the shop and Lizzie, Amanda and I treated ourselves to a couple of hours at the Jimjilbong (sauna/public bath house)to relax our weary muscles a bit.

Later that night a few of us headed over to Dongdaemoon beach area to visit Lindsey and John at their swanky hotel that they'd splurged on. We mostly hung out in their room. But at the end of the night, a few peeps wanted to try their luck at blackjack in the casino. After sitting with my cranberry juice and a couple of galpals for few minutes chatting (minimum for playing blackjack was 100 000 won) we decided to throw 10 000 won (less than $10) at the slot machines for fun (sorry Mom!). Lizzie didn't have much luck but Kate did well and walked away with 35 000 won. And wouldn't you know it, beginners luck hit me too: I walked away with 60 000won! Thanks to Kate, who dutifully hit the cash out button when I reached my limit. It was a late night, and needless to say, after that hike I slept like a rock.

That casino money came in handy the next morning when Amanda, Jordaan and I decided to parasailing at 50 000won a pop each. It was a great experience, but at that price we all felt really disappointed that our rides didn't last longer than about 5minutes. Then again, we had a 5 oclock ferry to catch and still lots to do. Next we hopped in a taxi to see Biljarim forest, a protected forest of trees that are all 300 - 800 years old, the oldest of which is the Millenium Nutmeg tree, estimated to be nearly 1000 years old. It was a really beautiful walk, and I truly enjoyed every moment of being in that forest. After Biljarim, it was onto see the giant lava tube that is Manjanggul Cave. Manjanggul is an enormous cave created 100's of 1000's of years ago by lava flowing underground to the surface (I have mentioned that the whole island is the remains of Hallasan spewing her guts for a few centuries a long long time ago right?) One kilometer of the tunnel is open for tourista to walk through, until the lava column which reaches from floor to ceiling and is 13 meters high. The cave is dimly lit to protect the interior of the cave, and in many places water drips from the ceiling. The tunnel itself widened enormously in some places, feeling truly cavernous. It was an atmospheric walk to say the least, made just a little more dank and creepy by the fact that I had managed to drop my glasses case in the back of the taxi that had driven us, so the only thing I had to wear were my perscription sunglasses. In a cave. Well done, Lisa. Well done.

We left the lava tubes shortly before 4 o'clock, panicking just a bit. Jordaan had his ferry leaving the dock in Jeju-si at 4:30, and I was on the phone back and forth with an awesome lady from travel services trying to track down the taxi that I had left my glasses in. (As a side note: I am ridiculously near sighted, if I didn't recover the glasses, I would be teaching in my sunglasses until I could order new ones) Luck was on our side in both cases: We literally dropped Jordaan off at his dock at 4:30 on the button and he did make the boat, but not without making quite a run through the terminal. The kind lady from the tourist help line did manage to track down the taxi that had my glasses and arranged for the driver to meet me at the ferry terminal to retrieve them. The ferry ride home was great, relaxing, dozing and looking over everyones photos of the weekend. I had gone with 11 friends, but because we were such a big group we all split off and did different things throughout the weekend, so we all had different experiences of Jeju Island. Hope you enjoy the pictures, which can be seen here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267194&id=122614903&l=94b2e18874

So thats...the first weekend in October. What day is it? November 10th? Crapsticks.

Catching up...

2009-10-05T05:59:00.000-07:00

Let's play catch-up shall we?

I left you in July, but I did forget to mention that second weekend of July, before I went home to Canada for 4 weeks, was spent at the annual Boreyoung Mud Festival. The mud that is found in around this small city is renowned for its cosmetic uses, and every year it attracts thousands of people to come get muddy. We had a really good weekend, despite being in a room far too small for our group of 17 people and despite have sub-tropical storm weather on our second day. We enjoyed romping around in the mudwrestling pits, painting our faces with colored mud and having the press swarm around us like we were celebrities (just celebrities covered in mud).

Of course, after that weekend, I was very fortunate to come home to Canada for four weeks. I had originally thought I would spend 3 weeks in my hometown visiting family and friends, relaxing, having plenty of time to catch up with people before flying to Southern Ont to visit my friends from Uni. Of course things rarely go as planned. I spent about 8 days in Dryden, then 10 days on a holiday within a holiday visiting my little sister and her husband in South Dakota, then 2 more days in Dryden, and then 7 days in Kitchener-Waterloo, which I though was 8 days until I woke up early the day of my flight back to Korea and notice my flight was leaving 12 hours earlier than I thought it was! It was a really amazing trip though, it was so wonderful to see so many people I have missed so much, and really heartwrenching to still have missed seeing so many of you (Parkway crew - I'm so sorry! And Denise! And Roberta! etc etc etc...) Most of you were there for part of that trip so I won't describe it in detail. I'll just give you the link for the photos of the whole thing ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2259747&id=122614903&l=0163560f52 ) and jump back into blogging about life in Korea...

When I walked through the arrival gate at Incheon IA, I felt a strange feeling. The thought "It feels good to be home" ran through my head. Don't panic Mom, I'm not a lifer. But, truth is, South Korea doesn't feel like a foreign country to me anymore. Now, this is where I live. I have my cozy little apartment, and my cat, and my great job.They are all here. I have a great group of friends that I was eager to catch up with. I was suprised but how comforting I found the lush, mountainous landscape that raced past me on the bus ride home and eager I was to sleep in "my own bed" again.

Now, I'm not sure how the H1N1 flu is being covered by the Canadian media, but I just don't get the sense from talking with family and friends back home that people are panicking about it. South Korea is. And Canada has had a lot more deaths linked to it than SK, they're not even in the double digits yet. The Korean government has responded to H1N1 by cancelling all major cultural festivals (booo!) and many
schools have delayed opening for the fall semester.Standard procedure by our Provincial Education office mandated that anyone who had travelled internationally needed to stay in "quarantine" for a week. Sounds scary, but really it only meant I wasn't allowed to go in to work and make the school liable if I infected everybody with swineflu. More days off for me, yay! It was also recommended that I stay away from public places (though being away for four weeks, it was necessary to go get groceries!). The extra days off were put to good use. Immediately there were "Welcome Back" dinners in my social crew for everybody coming back from vacation and "Goodbye" get-togethers for those who left in August when their contracts were up. We had to say goodbye to ALOT of great people (You know who you are!!!) which was tough, especially since my trip home hadn't quite cured me of my homesickness. What makes living in Korea so pleasant is the wonderful circle of friends I've found here, and big part of September was just adjusting to having so many of them leave. On the other hand, I really enjoyed getting back to some great Korean cuisine. I ate so much junk while I was in Canada that I think I OD'd. I really craved kimchi, and bibimbap, and cheomchi jiggae, and samgypsal, and haejanguk and samgaejuk etc etc etc. So it was great to have so many opportunities to eat out with great people.

It was alittle tough to get back into the swing of things at school. I had been on vacation for 6 weeks, and the last two weeks of classes were spent watching movies and prepping for exams. What do you mean, I have to plan real lessons again??? It was a well needed kick in the pants. And once the first couple classes were under my belt, it felt really good to be doing something productive with my days. My students were rowdy for the first couple of lessons, and for the first time in a very long time I felt my temper trying to get the best of me. I've got all but one class reigned back in (and that's because the disruptive students are so eager to be part of the lesson that it goes off on wild tangents). At any rate, I've got the classroom decorated for Fall, and am really looking forward to dressing it up for Hallowe'en, Winter and Christmas. I didn't think much of it at the time, but everyone who comes into the classroom (students, teachers, principals) loves it. I'm hoping the added visual stimuli will enrich their learning and help the lower-level students stay interested.

Two weekends ago, I travelled to Gwangju, a great city about an hour from Suncheon to have a "Girls Night Out" with some ladies in and around where I live. We got there in time for lunch at TGI Fridays (I had a REAL chicken burger with cheese and bacon!) and dessert at Cold Stone Creamery (of course). Next, we headed to our favourite Gwangju love-motel, "The Windmill" to drop off our bags, then it was off to do some shopping. First, we headed to the art district as C was visiting from Canada and was looking for authentic Korean art to take home with her. A sudden downpour drove us into a small shop where we each wound up finding something unique for a good price. I bought a beautiful embroidered hanging of Korean blossoms on black material for only 30 000 won. It was made about 50 years ago, and it's one of a kind. On our way back to the central shopping area, we found an underground market and did some shopping there. Soon it was time to meet up with everybody at the delicious Indian restaurant in Gwangju, the only one of its kind in this province. We enjoyed the buffet and then went back to the Windmill to make ourselves up. The evening was a journey starting at Ethnic Bar, an atmospheric basement cafe lit by pillar candles and oil lamps, featuring a small pond and decorated with huge swaths of fabric imported from Thailand and India. It was such a relaxing place, I almost didn't want to go anywhere else. But the reason why we had come to Gwangju was really go out dancing. So after a quick stop at the foreigner bar Speakeasy, our group headed over to Houze. Houze is a big dance club that really delivers what you want to find when you go to a club. Lasers, disco balls, a crowd of energetic people and DJ's who really know how to work the tables. It was truly a great place for dancing. The Korean guys were stoked to see a crew of foreign ladies, and were total gentleman, which was a great change from the kind of guys would've had to deal with had we been in Canada. Plus, they knew how to DANCE!!!

See pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267190&id=122614903&l=3d970af3e1

Last weekend was Chuseok in South Korea, similar to Thanksgiving in Canada. So I hopped on a ferry to Jeju Island with 10 friends to explore the "Hawaii of Korea". I'll post that entry the week is out!

Some fun vids....

2009-09-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a couple of vids here for those of you who don't have Facebook. I often post funny music videos from Korea on my facebook page, just to give the folks back home of taste of the popular media over here. Here's a recent ad for Homeplus, SK's Walmart. The men in the video are the hosts of a popular variety show 2 days, 1 night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNPLVOk-nj8 The store is celebrating their 10th anniversary.

Here's also a new music video that's been released but the girl group HAM (Heart And Mind, they love acronyms over here): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt9BOIAxCWs

Hope you enjoy it, it all just seems very normal to me now...

Mountains, Movies, Myeongsashimni, and so Much More!

2009-08-23T01:51:00.000-07:00

Breath, relax, let your mind wander away to the recent past...(trying to get caught up, here's a very brief summary of events in May and June and a bit of July.)

Thanks to May hosting Buddha's Birthday, Children's Day, Midterm Exams and the school Field trips, I had an astounding number of days off work. I used the "float" day in my contract to make room for a long-weekend trip to Seoul at the beginning of the month with a bunch of Suncheon friends, intending to take in Buddha's birthday parades and lantern celebrations. Unfortunately, we were there the weekend after all the really big stuff went down (oops) but we still had a great time shopping (English bookstores and Costco!), eating (thin crust pizza, Indian, Coldstone Creamery, Subway...*drools on keyboard*), touring Changdeokgung Palace, and catching the Nanta stage show (think "STOMP" in a kitchen). We even saw a parade, accidentally! And all of the lanterns from the previous weekend were strung up along the streets of Seoul, making for some beautiful late night strolls. Of course, some of the great highlights of the weekend came from just hanging out in our hotel rooms watching hilarious movies, including a very funny adaptation of a popular Korean folk tale about... well ask me if you really want to know.

The next weekend was time for me to pay the price of signing up for the "Fun Run" category of the "King of the Mountain" race, held at Mt Wolchulsan to raise money for the Yeosu orphanage. However, some important details about the course were not included in the event announcement, like "your average Korean mountain hike will feel like a walk in the park compared to this", "make sure you bring 6 litres of water because you'll sweat at least twice that much out" and "if you are not in excellent physical condition you will regret this race for the rest of your life". Look up "contradictory statement", "misnomer", "self-flagellation" or "oxymoron" in the dictionary and you will find "Mt Wolchulsan Fun Run" as a definition. The mountain is a mere 809m tall and we spent the first 3 hours of the hike climbing straight up it. The kindly Korean government did install railings, ladders and stair cases en route so that we weren't scaling the rocks themselves but that hike was the most difficult thing I have ever done physically. It is the first time I have seen KOREANS sweating and panting while hiking a mountain (they're human after all!). At the summit, I gratefully received a hearty round of applause from those who had already arrived. I'd never felt like I deserved applause more in my life. However, now we had a much longer trail to travel that would take us down the other side of the mountain to the finish line. And while the descent had a much less vertical angle to it, it also had less railings and staircases to help you out. Once in a while there was a rope anchored to help you down a large boulder and more than once I used the old butt-scoot to get down in places where I didn't trust my ruined legs to support me if I jumped down. My hike companions, Amanda and Jennifer, were real troopers. Being in better shape than me, they were very patient: they never complained about waiting for me or how many minutes I was adding to our final run time. And against all odds, and the desire to lie down in the brush and die, we finished the hike six and a half hours after we began. Last team to finish, but there was some satisfaction in the fact that not all teams who start the climb completed it. In all seriousness, it was an incredible day and the view from the top was amazing. It's a beautiful place for a hike. FYI - there was an actual "race" category, and the jerk who won it ran up and over that mountain in 2 hours and 15 minutes. The nerve!

At the end of the month, we packed up some gear and headed to Myeongsashimni Beach on the island of Wando. It was a really fun weekend. A large group of foreigners from around the area were there and we all enjoyed being away from our students for a few days. We camped on the beach, played games, cooked samgypsal and tin foil dinners, and had a big bonfire on the beach. Unfortunately, camping so close to the water had the downside of it becoming excessively chilly at night. We wound up shivering the night away in our sleeping bags wearing whatever layers we could find in our packs! Luckily, the next day gave us beautiful weather and plenty of time to nap in the sun.

The first weekend in June was another wonderful getaway, this time to Sangbulsa temple in a small mountain range near Gwangju. Lower on the mountain from where this temple sits, a mountain stream has carved away at the rock for centuries and created a beautiful swimming hole. We gathered there for a swim and a picnic with a few foreigners. The water was fresh, clear and cold. The temple was charming, quiet, and just full of beautiful paintings, new marble statues and wooden carvings. We did get caught in the rain on the way back down the mountain, and had a bit of an adventure finding cabs way out there, but we did make it home eventually.

The next weekend found me on the road again, this time to Gwangju to go to my first pro/semi-pro (?) Korean baseball game. We bought thundersticks on the way in for 1000KRW and a few in a group even in invested in cardboard sun visors when faced with the setting sun. It was a really enjoyable game, even thought the game itself was a little dull. In South Korea, sports are extremely competitive (like the school system) and baseball has become what I've heard referred to as a "pitchers game", meaning if you enjoy the technique of pitching, you'll it. But otherwise it's pretty much a whole lot of strikes and the occasional walk. What was entertaining though, was the enthusiasm of the Gwangju crowd, who regular broke out into song and synchronized thunderstick dance moves. Also entertaining, matching couples and, even better, matching families; pre-schoolers jazz dancing before the game started and an old lady in our section who refused to give up enthusiastically leading cheers even when it was clear that our team was going to get thoroughly beaten. That's quite alright, there's plenty of other reason's to go to Gwangju (a large city 1 hr away from Suncheon by bus). Reason #2: Ethnic Bar - a really cool basement cafe that is almost entirely lit by large pillar candles, is draped floor to ceiling with beautiful iridescent fabrics that must originate from India and Thailand, features a small pond for lack of a better word) in the centre of it all with candles in it, and it's only furniture are low tables and large pillows lining the floors and walls. We went there for drinks and snacks (birgin pina colada juseyo!) and then headed out to Noraebang (of course) before calling it a night and heading back to the Windmill hotel. Reason #3 Great Food - Gwangju is host to the underground grocer (a tiny shop that stocks granola bars, sour cream, Dr Pepper and sharp cheddar!), a delicious authentic Indian food restaurant, and in the bus station alone: Burger King, TGIFridays and Cold Stone Creamery! I really enjoy Korean food, but sometimes you really want a taste of back home. Gwangju delivers the goods.

The NEXT weekend in June (still with me?) was my good friend Kate's birthday bash at String bar in Gwangyang. The theme for the party was "Anything Bought at a Korean Street Market", which we decided to go all out for. We headed into Yo-young-dong shopping district and picked out only the finest Korean attire that Won can buy: Ajumma pants, crazy Konglish tshirts, and sparkly Ajumma visors. String is a great little bar that is dominated by foreigners. So much so that the sweet Korean couple that runs the place let the regulars "work" behind the bar when it gets busy and happily give over control of the dance music. We had a great time celebrating and of course, topped of the night with a good long round of Noraebong.

Pics from all of these events can be found on my facebook page, or by clicking here

Now I do believe the next weekend I stayed at home and relaxed with my cat, she was probably feeling a bit neglected after all that. The first weekend in July though, Amanda A and I were on a bus from Daegu to Cheorwon, in Gangwon-do on weekend tour package from Adventure Korea. On Saturday we enjoyed rafting on the Hantan river, bungee-jumping (no, I didn't *hangs head in shame*) and a midnight tour of the war memorial situated near Odaemi village where we homestayed with a Korean family. This village area was one of the fiercest battle points during the Korean war and today most of its residents and farmers are paid handsomely to live on the land so close to the DeMilitarized Zone (DMZ), only 6 kilometers away, and keep it populated thus protecting it from any North Korean attempts to infiltrate undetected. On the Sunday, we toured the 2nd infiltration tunnel (a tunnel blasted 3.5 kms long by the North to invade ROK), Unification observatory (which overlooks the Iron Triangle Battlefield and was the headquarters and front line of the North Korean Army, through observation goggles you could their outposts), Wolcheongri Station (which shows the remains of the last train that used to run to border, which was bombed out) and the Labor Party Building (a three-story building constructed in 1946 and used as The House of the Labor Party, many people who were here during the anticommunist movement were later tortured and killed, the remains of the building are eerily pockmarked by bullet holes).

The next couple of weeks saw my school semester come to a close on July 14th and then I had a week to relax before getting on plane back to Canada for my home leave! (Well technically a plane to Tokyo, which then sent me to Canada...). I'm going to take a rest here. But I'll do my best to shortly get a summary of my trip home and how things have been since returning to Suncheon posted. Thanks for reading!

Thoughts about Spring 2009

2009-06-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm trying to catch up, I really am. Over the next few days/weeks I'll be posting shorter entries about stuff that's happened between March and now. Hope you like...

When I returned to work after my two-month hiatus, I had a hard time getting back into the swing of, you know, working. Plus, my school asked me to start teaching classes on the 3rd day (the nerve!) so I was throwing lesson plans together in record time. I was excited. The first year students I had last year would be returning as second years and I felt I built a comfortable repoire with them. I was a little more nervous about the 1st year students. Whatever impression I made, these are the kids I would stuck with all year, and next year too. I seem to have done ok. All reports I receive from my principal and vice principal are that the students love me. Yeah, I'm pretty rad.

In March, the weather warmed up and brought with it "yellow dust" from China and subsequently I was sick for most of them month with what felt like a stubborn head cold. The drop in the quality of air had the same effect on a lot of the foreigners living here. Apparently it happens every spring. Still, it was an enjoyable month. We celebrated St. Patrick's Day at Elvis bar with our fellow expats (and a number of sleazy sailors, yeesh...). I also took in the Apricot Festival in Hadong with Jennifer. We had a great time walking around, enjoying the blossoms and snacked on Octopus Jeon (potato pancake). Every weekend there were festivals celebrating the arrival of spring and it's many flowers/blossoms.

Near the end of the month, my school held "Student Sports Days" for 3 days, where all of the student classes competed in such physically challenging events as Dodgeball, Tug-o-War, Dance, and Kick Baseball. It was a lot of fun. The weather was hot and sunny for all three days and the students really enjoyed the break from their normal routine. I really enjoyed it too. The students at my school are always enthusiastic about competitions, sunny weather and assemblies, so these sports days sounded like a Big Bang concert non-stop.

My birthday arrived, as it always does, on March 30th. I went out with my friends to dinner at restaurant that specialized in marinated pork and beef dishes. Very delicious, but unfortunately there was a miscommunication about the price of the meal and it was quite a shock to receive the bill afterwards. That weekend, my friend Jodie invited me to her apartment to help her with some baking she promised to do for a friend. So I put on my best sweatpants and headed over to her place with a couple of friends (suspiciously dressed very nicely, but I thought nothing of it). When we walked in, confetti canons exploded and I was shocked to see about 20 friends crammed into the Holmes apartment wearing a "lion" or "lamb" caricature around their neck. They had planned a surprise birthday party for Lindsey (who's Birthday was at the beginning of April) and I, following the old phrase about March: "in like Lion, out like a Lamb." I was a little embarrassed to be so under dressed for the occasion, but very grateful and genuinely surprised. We had a lot of fun!

See pictures of the party and other spring stuff here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2235464&id=122614903&l=386c8b11ba

This semester, I've been learning a lot more about just how hard high school students work in South Korea. In one class assignment I had the girls completing poems where they write about their past, present and future. More than one student likened their new high school life to prison. The students have to go to school for 8am and remain there until 10 or 11 pm (unless they have a private school to go to in the evening). The competition is intensely fierce for spots at the top Korean Universities. Students don't have part-time jobs, don't go to parties, and rarely (if ever) date. Extra-curricular activities are limited because students fill so much pressure to spend their free time studying. The high school at which I work is an Academic High School, so there are girls who have moved to Suncheon and live in the school dormitory's because their parents believe they will be able to get into a better university if they graduate from this school. Also the students sleep about 4 hours a night, especially before exams. There is actually a Korean rule of thumb here that parents tell their children: If you sleep for more than 4 hours a night (and therefore miss out on time to study), you'll fail. Now that it is close to exam time again, I'm letting my students watch movies during my class. They NEED a break.

SE Asia Chapter 6: Vietnam. Fin.

2009-05-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

Well here it is finally, the last chapter of my trip across Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. For those of you just tuning in, I haven't been travelling for the last 4 months, it's just taken me this long to write up the trip in blog form (*insert sigh of frustration and self-loathing*). The trip actually finished on February 26th, 2009. Here's how the last week of it went:

Vietnam

Mui NE

We could feel the end of the trip around the corner and with itchy feet we got on a bus to the Cambodian/Vietnam border. We were on our way to Mui Ne, a coastal fishing town about 3.5 hours away from Ho Chi Minh city, where we would need to end up in a week to catch our flight back to Seoul. We felt gunshy about the journey because of all the hassles we'd gone through to get from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Thankfully, the journey was a smooth one. We had a bit of a wait at the border, but other than that we rode on a comfortable airconditioned bus into Ho Chi Minh, which dropped us off close to a travel office where we booked the next bus to Mui Ne (and it happened to swing by and pick us up within 10 minutes of getting off the previous bus).

When we rolled into Mui Ne, we had no sleeping arrangements and after the recommended guest house was found to be full we hopped on the back of some moto-taxis and stayed at family owned guest house a couple miles down the road with cute, clean rooms. Although it had been a long day of travelling, but we were all too excited to have made it to the beach to go to sleep. Especially in my case; it would be my first time on a saltwater beach. The matron of the place gave us a huge light to take with us to explore the beach that lay just beyond the backyard full of palm trees. And not only did it light our way, but it also warned all the crabs we were coming, so nobody stepped on one as we wandered down the beach to the closest beachside restaurant named cowboys. Their lasagna wasn't great, but it was sure better than the baked kimchi and ddok in red pepper sauce my school sometimes makes as a cruel joke. We toasted our fruit shakes and mohitos over the sound of waves rolling to shore: we'd covered a lot of miles and we'd earned a few days of unscheduled, unstructured bliss.

The next morning we were up pretty early and on bicycles searching for some bungalows on the beach. We stopped at a lot of places, but naturally our first stop turned out to be the best bang for our buck. We stayed at Nhat Quang for $13 bucks a night. Not quite the bamboo huts we were hoping for, but the bungalows were very nice with white linens and mosquito nets. Also, the grounds at this guesthouse were absolutely beautiful, and acted as a buffer against the constant honking of motorists on the road (in Vietnam, it's a law to honk when you pass someone, which motorists have taken to include passing not only autos and motorcycles but bicycles and pedestrians, so it's A LOT of honking). We were also far enough off the road that it also camoflagued the strange organic, musky smell that was inescapable on the main road (and was also present in a big way at our first guesthouse).

side note: The mystery smell turned out to be the scent of Mui Ne's famous fermented fish sauce, which most of the homes and restaurants keep in big clay pots on the roof or in the backyard. We suspected this, and it was confirmed during the first week of school when my school cafeteria served fish in a sauce that instantly brought back waves of memories of Mui Ne.

The next few days are probably better described by pictures than my narrative, so here's the highlights:

- hour long oil massages on the beach for $6

- fantastic sunsets

- watching the cattle be driven across the beach daily

- watching the fishing boats leave the village in the late morning and return in the evening

- hammock naps

- tasty eats like: thin crust pizza, bananna pancakes for breakfast, jackfruit and mango smoothies, panini's, Vietnamese soup

- chasing a cockroach out of Jen's room at night

- getting dressed up for tropical drinks and fire dancers at Wax

- not a single full night's rest, thanks to my summertime insomnia making an early reappearance

Now I had mentioned back in Chapter 2 that I broke my camera at Elephant Nature Park and that it was not the only camera to meet its demise on this trip. Of the five camera's brought with us to SE ASIA, only two made it out alive. Here are the stories of how cameras #2 and #3 bit the dust.

Camera #2 Jennifer's Camera - "If you can't take the heat, stay away from the tail pipe!"

On our 3rd day, Jennifer and I felt adventurous and decided to take our rented bikes for a trip down the highway to see if we could find the red or white sand dunes all the tourist offices boasted about. At a Y intersection of two main roads about a 1/2 hour north of Mui Ne we found a place to rent ATV (4 wheelers) on the sand dunes. We were sold. It was pricey, but we couldn't think of a better way to see the dunes and knew we would we regret it if we didn't do it. After giving us a very quick explanation of where the brakes and gas controls were located, the manager sent us off with our guides, smiling "Don't be afraid, you can't tip them. Go fast, they won't roll over!" Hey buddy, you don't have to tell me twice! Jen and I took to ATVing quite differently. I found myself exuberantly bounding up and over steep dunes blindly following my guide over the edge, while Jen found her herself often stuck in the sand and needing rescue from her guide. She was cautious, you know like a complete newbie should be. It should be noted that after taking a few pictures, Jennifer handed me her camera for safekeeping in my little sling bag. She was ready to call it quits after 10 minutes while I pretended not to hear her and followed my guide down the next dune. He told me in broken English he was impressed with my driving abilities and continued to take me up progressively steeper hills. I even caught air a couple of times. As we travelled down the side of one dune, my guide cut to the left to travel in the ravine of two dunes. I followed his lead, but I cut the corner alittle short and the two left wheels of my ATV caught a ridge of hard ground hidden in the sand. Suddenly I was launched into the air sideways, and braced myself for a broken leg, certain it would be crushed under the ATV that was going to land on me. I landed in the sand, head and right shoulder first like a rag doll, stunned. First, stunned to see my glasses laying only a few feet from me in the sand. Second, stunned that I felt no broken bones. In fact I felt no pain at all! I rolled over and saw the ATV turned on it's side about 5 feet away. I rolled my eyes forward in time to see my guide looked over his shoulder, shout out a shocked "Oh my God!" and make an immediate u-turn. I quickly stood up and started wiping the sand off the right side of my body. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" the guide kept saying. I assured him I was ok, also surprised to find my self completely scatch free. He righted my ATV to find the front fender had sustained a significant crack, but otherwise was still running fine. From here on out, Jen and I experienced a role reversal of sorts. Jennifer found her confidence increasing and began having the time of her life on the dunes. I on the other hand found, after the adrenaline rush passed, that my nerves were completely shredded by the fall, and though I continued to follow my guide, felt terrified everytime we bounded blindly over another dune. Now it was Jennifer hooting as she ascended another cliff of sand and me who was ready to call it quits. For the last 10 minutes of our rented time, one of the guides decided to take me on the ride of my life. He hopped on my machine and I held on for dear life as what was left of my nerves abandoned me completely. As we pulled into the overhang and I got off the ATV on clumsy legs made of jelly, I felt a stab of heat. My small sling bag, which had been hanging safely at my side, had fallen behind the back of the ATV for the duration of my "joyride" with my guide, directly infront of the exhaust pipe. The heat had burned through my bag and melted Jen's camera cover to it. The camera came out like a hot potato - too hot to handle. Jen pulled into the overhang to see us all huddled over her camera. The prognosis grim. The camera was totally melted. I was really upset having destroyed yet another camera, especially one that didn't belong to me. But Jennifer was really wonderful about it. Thankfully, camera wizards in Korea were able to recover the pics on her memory card.

Camera #3 Susan's Camera - The Camera I Did NOT Break

I believe it was our 4th day in Mui Ne when the 5 of us took a walk up the "fairy stream", a gorgeous fresh water stream that met the ocean close to Nhat Quang. We politely refused the children who offered to "guide" us to the waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful: the red sand, the green foliage and the bright blue sky seemed almost too saturated with colour. Again, I'll let the pictures do the talking. We took turns splashing under the small waterfall and then headed back towards our guesthouse. About 2/3rds the way back, Suze realized she didn't have her camera. In fact, none of us did. She and Ali headed back down the stream to look for it. Jen, Amanda and I tried to assure ourselves, "There is no way we can lose 3 cameras on this trip!" Suze and Ali ran into a couple of little "tour guides" who responded excitedly when Suze mimed that she was looking for a camera. Sure enough one of the boys held up a water-logged, grim-looking camera. Filled with relief, Suze generously offered the boys some money as a reward for finding the camera. Ever the opportunists, the boys held on to the camera and tried to extort Suze for more money to get back her broken camera. Thankfully, Suze has good training in handling youngsters as a teacher and was able to get the camera back without being ripped off by some very ballsy 8-year olds.

I spent the last couple of days in Mui Ne relaxing as much as possible. While I didn't break any bones in my ATV accident, I found myself very stiff and sore for the next few days. I also took a gamble and got a $3 dollar haircut at a beauty shop. Let's say, you get what you pay for. (Krissy, you'll find out what I mean when I get back to Dryden in July.) Reluctantly, I got on a bus to Ho Chi Minh after 5 wonderful days in Mui Ne. Exciting and relaxing, it was the perfect way to end a long trip of constant movement.

Ho Chi Minh

Amanda and Suze had gone to HCMC earlier than Jen, Ali and I. Those ambitious gals had plans to some more historical sight-seeing around old Saigon. The idealist in me gave the old lady in me guilt trips about staying on the beach alittle longer. But let's be honest: I was out of steam. I was ready to get on a plane and I was not anxious to be back in the middle of a bustling metropolis, which is exactly what HCMC is. About 80% of its motorists are on motorbikes, and rush hour traffic was like watching densely packed schools of fish travel. Unfortunately for us pedestrians, there are no crosswalks. You just walk very slowly out into traffic and the motos drive around you (I guess one benefit of traffic that dense is that it rarely gets moving over 40 km/h). We reunited with the history buffs at a cafe and got settled into our guesthouse. HCMC is alittle like Bangkok but friendlier, cleaner and the vendors are a lot less pushy.I slept in nice and late the next day. Jennifer and I decided to hit up a local waterpark (her first time at one!) instead of touring the Musuem of American Atrocities. The idealist in me didn't like that decision either, but I assuaged her with a promise to return to HCMC one day and see it properly. Jen and I ran around the waterpark like the rest of the 13 year old's there and had a great time. We had dinner at the fantastic vegetarian restaurant we ate almost all of our meals at while in HCMC and then the five of us met up to see a Vietnamese Water Puppet show. It was really cool to see and, being in the front row, we got a little wet. After the puppet show, it was time to head to the airport and catch our midnight flight back to Korea and back to semi-normal life.

I felt bittersweet boarding the plane. I was ready to go back. I missed my cat. But I felt overwhelming gratitude for having the oppportunity to take a trip like this. I felt stretched and expanded as a person, and more grounded. I felt I was taking so much with me from SE Asia, so many positive things to keep in my life and was leaving behind so much of my own negativity.

Pictures here (minus ATV pics, I'll post them next): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2236674&id=122614903&l=0ebc4c8a8c

SE Asia Chapter 5: Cambodia

2009-04-07T05:14:00.000-07:00

When you work as a foreign English teacher in South Korea's public system, every so often you get this unexpected gift. It happens when your co-teacher turns to you at 8:55am and says "Oh, Lisa, you have no class today." If you are me and your school is awesome (shout out to 순전 여고!) , this happens a lot. But today, instead of wasting time or planning lessons, I'm going to try to get this monkey off my back, my blog about the rest of my trip in SE Asia. It was 3 months ago, I'd be surprised if anybody actually still cares, but I seem unable to write anything else until I get it out of the way. So without my travel journal, here goes...

Cambodia

Siem Reap/Angkor Wat

After a day of much needed R&R to recover from our travels from Bangkok to Siem Reap (see Chapter 4), we rented bicycles to make the trip around the Angkor, the ancient city that has made Siem Reap the bustling, wealthy tourist centre of Cambodia that it is. It's home to many famous Khmer temples ("Wats") including Ta Phrom where parts of Tomb Raider and Indian Jones were filmed and the big kahuna: Angkor Wat.

History buffs can your fix here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor I'm not writing down everything I know about the place, we haven't got time!

I was happy to get back on a bike after having such a great time touring Ayutthaya on one. Even the most unsteady of our troop felt significantly more bike-confident having had a full night of rest and some great food the day before. And Angkor was definitely worth seeing by bike. The forests were beautiful and gave plenty of roadside shade. We pulled up at the first small temple, Banteay Kdei and I was already enthralled by the beautiful gate to the temple, which featured a large serene face of stone smiling at visitors. After Banteay Kdei, we ate lunch at a roadside stand (fried rice, soup and fresh fruits while children and chickens ran amok around us) and then made our way to Ta Phrom, which was so surreal and beautiful. Wandering through this ancient structure, with enormous trees reclaiming the grounds, it was easy to imagine myself as an explorer or picture the temple as it might have been centuries earlier. After Ta Phrom, our travelmate Amanda ventured off on her own, while the rest of us (Susan, Ali, Jennifer and I) continued on to Angkor Thom (Angkor City). On the way we stopped to climb up Ta Keo and paused outside a couple of other smaller sites for water breaks. The day was already quickly slipping past. We biked through the east gate of Angkor Thom and parked our bikes beside the terrace of the Elephants. On foot we toured Krueng Palace, Baphoun, and (my absolute favourite) Bayon Temple. Bayon temple features hundreds of faces staring out over the city and keeping a watchful eye on its inhabitants. It was the perfect place to watch the shadows grow longer as the afternoon changed from golden to deeper hues of orange and red, matching the dusty ground beneath our feet. As we headed for our bikes we did come across a large group of Korean tourists who were thrilled to find out we were teachers in Korea and knew how to say "Hello" to them (which earns a round of applause apparently). I would have loved to stay at Bayon a little longer, but we needed to hit the road before we lost the light. Cambodian traffic is crazy enough in the daytime; we did not want to be on our bikes (without lights) after dark. As we rode past the magnificient sillouette of Angkor Wat at dusk, I felt, for the first time, excited to be going to see it at sunrise the next morning. We ended our day of biking (about 40km) with dinner in the marketplace and an hour long shiatsu massage by blind masseurs. It was lovely. It did not, however, change the fact that I had a wake-up time of 4:30 am coming around the bend.

Let me be very clear. I am not a morning person. I do not like getting out of bed. In my opionion, it is a process that takes all morning to be done properly anyway. I tend to feel a seething (but thankfully temporary) hatred towards those who disturb my slumber. This is especially true of being awakened before the sun is even up! I warned my travelmates as best I could. Every travel book and visitor to Siem Reap advised, you MUST see Angkor Wat at Sunrise. I'd seen the pictures, I was satisfied. But the girls outvoted me 4 to 1. Even Ali, who usually will happily join me in cursing the morning sun that interrupts a night of rest, was tricked by her love of photography into believing Angkor Wat at sunrise was something that could not be missed. And so it was I found myself posing for a now infamous picture for my photo-pass at 5:15 AM and bumping along a dusty road, squished in the back of a tuk-tuk with four cheery-eyed early birds. The child vendors that mobbed us would recieve no sympathetic looks or "No, thank you's" from this Lisa. Maybe afternoon Lisa, maybe even late-morning Lisa, but not pre-sunrise Lisa (some have referred to pre-sunrise Lisa and afternoon Lisa as a Jekyll & Hyde-like transformation). I will say that Angkor Wat was beautiful, I can't deny it. But I also remember hating it for being so beautiful that I had to be there at 6 am to see it and hating all the pesky tourists buzzing around happily who also had to see it. And especially, hating the shrill-voiced lady at the food stand: "Breakfast! Coppee! Hey Lady! You want breakfast? I sell you cheap!" After the sun had risen, I spent at least an hour wandering around inside Angkor Wat, solitary. It was beautiful, but you know what? Even more enjoyable at 4 in the afternoon when Susan and I returned that day to see it at Sunset. Bah! We went back to the guesthouse in the late morning, I had a wonderful nap and woke up feeling a hundred million times more cheerful and ready for lunch. We had some fantastic pizza and then Jennifer and I headed out to "The Happy Ranch" horse riding stables for an afternoon look at rural Siem Reap on horseback. As I mentioned, we returned to Angkor Wat for sunset although we missed the cut off for going up to the lookout. That night I enjoyed a deliriously blissful 3-hour spa package that scrubbed and massaged all early morning bitterness out of me for a miniscule $26. Well that is, until I had to get up at 5:30am the next morning to catch the boat to Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh

We travelled to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, by speedboat down the Tonle Sap river. It's more expensive than the bus, but if you want to see the best of the Cambodian landscape, that's the way to do it. At the dock in Phnom Penh, a ravenous throng of Tuk-Tuk drivers waited for us. And followed us for a block as we tried to get some distance and get ourselves organized. We found a room at a great guesthouse recommended by my lonely planet book. I say "great" not only because our room was huge and spotless, and not only because the owner arranged our vietnam tourist visa's and travel arrangements to Ho Chi Minh, but also great because she stocked kettled-cooked potato chips and Crunchie chocolate bars, the likes of which I haven't seen since September 2008. By now the pace of our trip was taking its toll on me. I was eager to get to a beach and do nothing but relax for a few days. We decided to stay in Phnom Penh only two nights, long enough to see the royal palace and the Killing fields. We went to the Royal Palace early in the day, knowing we would need a few hours to get grounded after the Killing Fields. The palace site, including the silver pagoda, was beautiful and much less crowded than the Royal Palace in Bangkok, understandably.

Next, our tuk-tuk driver for the day took us to S-21 Toul Sleung Prison, which is now converted into a genocide museum dedicated to the victims of the Khmer Rouge. The Prison itself was once a high school before the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia in 1975 and emptied the cities as part of its design to turn Cambodia into a communist agricultural society. In an attempt to achieve this, the Khmer Rouge systematically killed the educated and professional people in the population. Doctors, teachers, lawyers, journalist, and anyone dared object the parties policies was killed to stem dissent. The high school was converted into a prison where suspected "traitors" were detained and tortured before being sent to Choeung Ek for execution. We walked the halls and holding cells silently, reverenced by the gravity of what happened there. Many of the rooms have been left in the same condition as when they were found. Rusty bed frames, arm and leg shackles and waste boxes are the only objects in the rooms. Some feature black and white photos of the dead who were found here when the Vietnamese took back the city in 1979. Another floor features thousands of pictures of detainees recovered in the Khmer Rouge files and another features artists paintings of the different torture techniques used here, the most savage of human behaviours. Amanda comments on a beautiful flower bush blooming between two of the buildings at S-21, its loveliness standing in stark contrast to its setting. Next, we drive outside the city to Choeung Ek, one of the largest mass graves found after the Khmer Rouge was toppled, and now the site of the Memory Stoupa, which houses the skulls of almost 9000 people, excavated at this site. A tour guide took us around the grounds, describing how Choeung Ek operated and answering our questions. Its hard to put into words the feelings you feel at a place like that. It's estimated that 2 million Cambodians died under the Pol Pot regime.

As we drove back into the city, I felt as though I were seeing it for the first time. A bustling metropolitan of people working and living, children playing. People who'd returned to a city they'd been forced to abandon 34 years earlier came back to rebuild it. I am completely amazed by the spirit of the Cambodian people. Despite horrific loss and tragedy, despite the murder of their educators, lawmakers and medical professionals, they are rebuilding their country at an astounding rate. Every single Cambodian we talked to had lost family members in the genocide. It was a day that filled me with tremoundous gratitude for my family and friends and Canada, a country which makes all of its citizens wealthy just by virtue of living there. We take our freedoms and opportunities for granted there.

That evening, we walked a road along the river lined with cafes and shops. But I lost my desire to stay out in the city. In Siem Reap, the poor were evident on every street. In Phnom Penh, they were on every square of pavement. In Siem Reap, I was able to give groceries and baby formula to mothers begging on the sidewalk, their babies asleep in their laps or on the sidewalk beside them. In Phnom Penh, there were too many to count. Of course, they congregated on this street for a reason. It was lined with restaurants, cafes and shops frequented by foreigners. We stopped and ate at a bakery who's proceeds benefitted an city orphanage and then headed back to the guesthouse. Tomorrow we would get on a bus to Vietnam, by tomorrow night I would be on a beach, worlds away from Cambodia. But not forgotten.

Pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2234943&id=122614903&l=3cca382e02

SE Asia Chapter 4: The bumpy road to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

2009-04-06T03:18:00.000-07:00

I've got tardiness and laziness combining against eachother to get these last couple of entries out as quickly as possible, so I can go back to actually telling you about what I've been up to in South Korea since the new school year began in March. That, and I can't find my travel journal at the moment, so I'll do my best to be accurate and specific, but I make no promises.

We left Bangkok early, determined to make our way to the Cambodian border and on to Siem Reap without getting caught in the all too common "Bus Scam" that local tourist agencies book most land travellers on. What happens is you pay a pretty cheap price and the agency will tell you that you ride is in a comfortable bus that you only get off to go through the border and then it will take to you directly to your guesthouse in about 10-11 hours. What actually happens is they put you on a legitimate bus to the border, then arrange with someone on the other side to pick you up and take you to Siem Reap. Your ride from the border to Siem Reap is more likely to be in the back of a pick-up truck or in an over crowded minivan, and the ride that is supposed to take about 5 hours could take anywhere from 10-15, ensuring that by the time you get to Siem Reap you are too tired and exhausted to complain about the overpriced, shoddy guesthouse they've dropped you off at (the guest pays a commission to the travel agency to have you dropped there).

We walked a block or so away from Kho-San road in order to find an honest taxi driver who took us to the bus station and ta-dah! We were on our way to the Cambodian border. There, that wasn't so bad right? Not so fast, girls. We were dropped off in a small town on the border at a 7-11 and some tuk-tuk drivers agreed to take us to the border. Unfortunately, just because they've got numbered vests doesn't mean they're honest. Instead of taking us directly to the border we were diverted to a station to get our "express" tourist visas for Cambodia. The very friendly gentleman who spoke excellent english explained that if we wanted a regular tourist visa we would have to wait about 6 hours for processing. However if we paid to 200 baht more, he could get the visa's processed in only a few minutes. And naturally, if we needed a ride to Siem Reap from the border he could arrange that too. We saw other tourists arriving and leaving with their visas and their passports, so we agreed to the "express" Visa's and declined the travel arrangements. Within about 10 minutes we were back on the tuk-tuk's and dropped at the border (which incidentally, we could have walked to from the 7-11 if we'd had a map or something, our guide books made it sound like the distance required motor transportation). As we waited in line a Thai border guard checked our Visa's, and smirked "How much did you pay for these?" We told him and gave a knowing nod, "Next time just come straight here." Ok, ok. It's only 200 baht (approx $6.50), at least we're finally getting into Cambodia! We walk across to the Cambodian guard station and wait in line some more for our stamps (this office had a giant tree growing through it BTW, they just built the office around it!). Our guide book advised us to take the "free goverment run transport bus" that would take us to where we could arrange a bus or taxi to Siem Reap. We're now sweating in the exhausting, dust filled heat with our bags watching tourists get tagged with coloured post-its. These tourists had pre-arranged their travel plans with an agency (or that guy who got us our "express" visas), and we felt pretty smug watching them get corralled and shipped off by eager guides. We had to wait alittle longer but at least we weren't suckers.

The government shuttle didn't take too long to arrive and once on board, our guide with his fancy vest and photo-ID told us all about the free-shuttle program and how the government runs it. And oh, by the way, things have changed quite a lot in Cambodia in the last year (you know we have a pretty turbulent history) and, besides boarder towns, no one really accepts US cash like the travelbooks say, so you should exchange your money now before you head further into the country. Maybe you will find a bank that can help you, but maybe you won't. Don't worry, we have conveniently arranged to take you to a currency exchange office before you choose your travel arrangements to Siem Reap. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling so smug. We were not taken to any kind of official bank office or ATM, just a guy in a seedy looking office with a calculator. At least two of the other girls I was travelling with had waited to take money out because our guidebooks assured us we could get money in Cambodia without a problem, all they have was a few thousand Baht leftover from Thailand. I had a small amount of US cash so I exchanged that and it was enough to pay for the other girl's taxi fares.

We arranged two taxis (Del from France, shared one with us) and our friendly guide assured us that our driver would take us directly to our guest house in Siem Reap. Our taxis were 15 year old toyota corollas, but atleast there was air-con. In the car, we finally had a chance to catch our breath and take a look around. Only a few minutes from Thailand, Cambodia feels like a completely different world. The kind of world you (sadly) "expect" from the media and movies you might have seen around the region. There are a few cars, but mostly it's motor cycles and bicycles and these mingle easily with ox-carts and cattle being driven on the side on the side of the road by skinny, shirtless 10 year old boys. The "highway" to Siem Reap from the board was a dirt road constantly under construction and lined by bamboos huts on stilts. Young children in clothing made red by the dust dart in and out of their homes and behind them lush green fields and palm trees stretch out across the country side. No pavement, no familiar trademarks, no street lamps or stop signs.
We were all starving when we stopped for gasoline, and as delicious as that pineapple was, I wasn't too happy to find the prices of course much much higher than you should ever pay. The shop girl was very friendly though and wasn't shy about asking if I had any Canadian money she could look at (the shop being the driveway of someone's hut with a meager spread of snack foods laid out and some soda's on ice). I did have some coins and was happy to give her a quarter and tell her about what a moose is.

The sun was setting as we drove into Siem Reap. What a difference tourism makes! Suddenly there was smooth pavement under us, street lights lit our way, and beautiful hotels began to appear on the sides of the highway. We were so close to a comfortable bed and some good food, hurray! It was now, as I tried to show our taxi driver where our guest house was, that I realized he spoke no English and didn't care where our guest house was. He dropped us off at a tuk-tuk stand on the outskirts of the city and drove away. Through gritted teeth, we listened to the one guy who could speak any English tell us that if we wanted a ride into the city it would cost 30, 000 riel. Or only 10, 000 riel if we went to a guest house he recommended instead. Or free, if we agreed to hire the same tuk-tuk driver for the day tomorrow. We paid the 30 000. Just get us to guest house, please!

Thankfully, the Red Lodge guest house was a beautiful old house with marble floors and big wooden doors and hammocks in the backyard. We gratefully dropped our bags and raced for the showers. It was an easy walk to the restaurant/market area frequented by foreigners where of course we found tonnes of ATM's and currency exchange banks and menus listed in US prices. Our buddies at the border had given us about 66% of what we should've gotten on the dollar. But even a good meal and a cleansing shower couldn't wash away the stress of the day. We all ended the day bitchy, with frayed nerves and clenched jaws. To avoid taking it out on eachother we made a firm committment to spend the next day doing nothing but resting, eating and relaxing. Angkor Wat could wait.

SE Asia Chapter 3: The Road to Bangkok

2009-03-23T03:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, so where did I leave you? Ah yes, the phenomenal week Amanda and I spent at Elephant Nature Park. I should mention that there was one casualty that week: my digital camera. I wish I could say it was lost when we ran to escape a stampeding elephant or was swept away by the river while we were dissembling rafts. But no, there wasn't even a breeze when my clumsy fingers fumbled it and it fell onto the sharp edge of large rock between my feet. So the rest of pictures of the trip belong to my friends Amanda and Ali.

We left the park feeling bittersweet and headed back into Chiang Mai on Sunday evening. We shared a room with a friend from England at Top North Guest house in the old city. We found the Sunday Market more lively than usual as the annual Flower Festival was being celebrated at Tha Pae Gate with a stage full with dancers and a chubby vocalist and substanstial live band all saturated painfully bright colors. We met the other volunteers we'd worked with over the last week at the Rooftop bar (whose decorating scheme had an unmistakable rastafarian influence) across from the market. On monday, Amanda and I headed into the centre of the old city looking for the temples we'd been diverted from seeing with Beer the last time we tried. First we stopped at a post office to ship from things back to Korea and lightened my backpack considerably. We found Ratchadamnoen Rd peppered with temples and shrines (and chickens and dogs and scrap metal sculptures Aliens and Predators!) but Wat Chedi Luang was the big one we were looking for and it didn't disappoint. It's an impressive structure on its own, but we were told by a friendly local that current commotion at the temple that day was due to a prominent Monk's death the previous week. His body was being kept at the temple for buddhist followers to come and pay their respects. Also on the grounds was a tree garden with Buddhist proverbs painted on sign posts. It was a great afternoon of sightseeing and some last minute shopping (Chiang Mai had the BEST markets of our entire trip!), but soon it was time to catch the 6:00PM sleeper train to Lopburi. Lopburi was the first leg of our trip south to Bangkok to meet up with Ali, Susan and Jennifer who'd left ENP on the third day and gone south to enjoy some time on Thailands famous beaches.

We kept entertained during the first few hours playing a make shift game of cribbage, while 3 of the train crew members watched us intently trying to discover the rules of our game. As night fell the crew made up the bunks. Amanda and I headed to bed, as we were scheduled to arrive in Lopburi at 4AM. I had no luck at sleeping though. The rattling and rocking of the train, the passenger snoring in the bunk beneath me, and the blinding light that defeated my curtain kept me tossing and turning until our train arrived in Lopburi at 5:30AM. The sun was not up when we left the station, which sits across the street from some beautiful ruins. A sign near the ruins pointed to a tourist information centre. We got some plastic wrapped breakfast from the 7-11 and, though it was a long shot, decided to see if the tourist building had some kind of map so that we could find our way to Phra Pramg Sam Yod. We didn't have much luck, but we did find a quiet spot to eat our pre-packaged pastries and watch some seniors practice thai-chi in bright pink exercise clothes. As we listened the drone of "hummmm-heeeee...." Amanda spotted something that looked promising: a monkey on a roof top. After a somewhat arbitrary deduction about what direction the city centre might be in, we headed down a main street. We didn't walk further than two blocks before we saw a monkey running along a telephone wire. And then two on a post, and then several more along the windowsills of a hotel's 3rd floor. Soon monkeys were everywhere and we knew we were headed in the right direction. When Phra Prang Sam Yod appeared before us, it was clear that my "lonely planet" had understated. It wasn't merely a "gang" of monkeys, there were hundreds of them! We were the only tourists onsite at 7:00 AM and the friendly gateman gave us a stick to whack away ambitious monkeys. It was a great morning. We were throughly climbed over and investigated by the youngsters. My notepad, M&M's and hand lotion were looted by one monkey who happily took my notepad to the top of the ruin and ripped it to pieces, letting the pages rain down on the other monkeys below, who made it their morning snack.

Across the street we found a temple complex where more monkeys were bouncing on vendor umbrellas like trampolines and picking their way through piles of fruit delivered by the locals. The monkeys are feed by the people and generally left undisturbed because they are considered lucky. I was running low on cash and my Mastercard hadn't been working, so after we'd taken a few hundred pictures with the monkeys, we headed further into the city to find a bank. We hopped aboard a brightly colored bus blaring loud music and hopped off again at a busy looking intersection. We found some goodies at a bakery and then found an internet cafe and was informed that my korean bank card was completely useless outside of Korea. Wonderful. The new mission for the morning was to call Mastercard to find out why I couldn't access those funds. This turned out to be a lot more difficult than expected. Convenience stores everywhere sold plenty of international cards, but none of the cards matched to correct brand of payphones on the streets. I was duped. And becoming very frustrated. By noon, Amanda and I were ready to move on to the quiet city of Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Thailand and home to some fantastic ruins. I was sure I had enough funds to get to Bangkok and if there was anywhere where I could get connected to Mastercard, it would be there.

Getting off the train a tuk-tuk driver offered to take us to a cheap guest house near the cities priniciple ruins. We felt alittle weary, but we had not made plans ahead of time, and there was no harm in looking at a room. Luck was in our favour. "One Coffee Love" Guesthouse had paid drivers to fish for tourists because there were brand new and so would not be in any listings. The rooms were clean and bright, and directly across the street from Wat Mahathat. We spent the evening at the night market and ate dinner at an italian restaurant. I was feeling guilty about eating pizza in SE Asia, but Amanda reminded me we were on vacation from Korea, not Canada, afterall.

The next day we went bicycles for $1 and toured the major ruins of the city. There were moments that felt really transportative, like you could just imagine what the city had looked like 900 years earlier. We also took our bikes across the river that surrounds the city centre and saw some of the poorer side of town. We also stumbled across a temple being restored that housed a very large reclining buddha. It made us even more excited to head to Bangkok and see the world famous golden reclining buddha there. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and I had their speciality dish: Joon Zap. It's a delicious soup you make yourself. They bring you a bucket of hot coals and place a large bowl with broth on top, then bring you all the veggies and seasonings on the side along with your meat (I had pork). It was one of the best meals I had all month! We were alittle sad to leave Ayutthaya. We'd found our short time there to be very relaxing and beautiful. But we needed to be in Bangkok to meet the girls at New Joe Guesthouse by 6PM that day, so soon we were back on the train. Despite not having a place to sit, I really enjoyed our times on the train. As I watched the landscape go rolling by I felt exhilerated to be doing more than staying in one place for this trip. And there was still so much more ahead of us!

We arrived in Bangkok and with a girl from Germany we'd met on the train, we got a cab to Kho San Road, the tourist centre of Bangkok, where Suze, Jennifer and Ali were meeting us. Immediately the traffic, noise and concrete of the city engulfed us, and Ayutthaya felt far away. We managed to get a cab driver who would put the meter on for us after a few attempts (tourist scam #1) and arrived at Kho San Road only alittle late. Kho San Road feels abit like a circus and a lot like a pond, where you are the fish and there are alot of hooks in the water. It was overwhelming to wander the market. Tour guides, tuk-tuk drivers, bars, restaurants, guest house owners, masseurs and street vendors all call out to you for your business. The streets are so crowded with people you can't see more than a few feet in front of you. We had been warned, but by the end of the evening I felt claustrophobic. And I had a very difficult time keeping my composure when we came across a street begging baby elephant, fear in his eyes. I had no desire to stay in Bangkok any longer than we had to.

We had a rough plan and we stuck to it. The following day we were up early to see the Royal Palace and Wat Pho, where the golden reclining buddha is housed. At the entrance some very legitimate looking gentle tried to divert us and tell us we could go in that gate. Going to another gate a man invited us to take a boat tour instead and come back when the palace was open (Tourist Scam #2). We went back to the main gate and walked in, ignoring the conmen trying to convince us to turn around. The buildings were absolutely exquisite, take a look at the pictures on the link at the bottom. I can hardly begin to describe it. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. Wat Pho was a short walk from the Royal Palace grounds and was equally breathtaking, even before we entered the main complex housing the reclining buddha. Jennifer had stayed back due to a stomach bug, and we had arranged to meet up with her at one of the largest malls in Bangkok. There I enjoyed some great shopping, including picking up two pairs of jeans that fit! (Finding pants for western women in Korea is a real plight, they just don't make pants for women with hips here!). We decided we would leave early the next day to make our journey to Cambodia, but there was one more thing we felt we needed to do before leaving Bangkok and that was of course: see a Ladyboy cabaret show! Thailand's drag queens are world famous, but I was surprised at just how openly accepted they were by the country itself. In the Thai language, there is actually a third gender included, so that women speak a certain way, men speak another and there is another set of words for the ladyboys to use. We were delivered to a fancy hotel for our show, and though there wasn't any actual singing (all lip-synched), I thoroughly enjoyed the campy show. We had a blast!

The end of the night was a real treat though. The alley in which you could find our guesthouse, was also the address of many massage parlours. I found one still open at quarter to midnight and went in for an hour long oil message. Faaaaantaaastic!

The pics are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2233529&id=122614903&l=d9a48d9761

I want to thank you guys for reading with these posts with so much patience, I know I'm very behind! Next Chapter: Cambodia. Coming soon, I promise!

SE Asia, Chapter Two: Elephant Nature Park

2009-03-15T07:09:00.001-07:00

I have no idea how I am going to write about this part of the trip. There are no words or pictures that will do it justice. The experience is lodged in my guts and my bones now. But I will try. I will just preface it by saying, my week at Elephant Nature Park as a volunteer was the best week of my life.

After signing some additional paperwork, donning our free t-shirts and playing with the office puppies, Amanda and I got in a van with about 8 other volunteers and our guide, Brad. Brad does his best to warm us up, but his jokes are stifled by a mix of eagerness and summer-camp-esque self-conciousness from being around new people. Well I speak for myself, Amanda was shaking hands and introducing herself to everyone like a prostar! The 1.5 hour drive to the park went by quickly, I was engrossed by the beautiful scenery of small rolling mountains and lush jungle encroaching on plantations and farmers fields. Imagine how much more beautiful it must be outside of the dry seaon!
As we come around the last bend in the battered road, the park reveals itself like the "Great Valley" at the end of "The Land Before Time": nestled between jungle-covered mountains and a river running through it that reflects the morning sunlight beautifully.
The park's mandate is to promote ethical Elephant Tourism in Thailand, where the wild Asian Ele has dwindled to as little as 1500, and the domestic Ele population has the same legal protection as any livestock: none. The economics of the Ele tourism industry combines with tribal traditions for "taming" the elephant to create conditions that are truly cruel and apalling. An unaware rich tourists create demand for it by going to elephant trekking camps, watching elephant shows, buying elephant paintings or buying food for "street elephants" in the larger cities. The crazy part is that none of these Ele Tourism options offer the level of interaction with these beautiful animals that a visit to ENP does. I won't go into it at great length, but there are some excellents videos worth watching on the subject that feature the work the Park and Lek, ENP's founder. You can see once released by National Geographic here:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0510/feature5/video.html

At the park, the elephants are never forced to perform circus tricks or trek for miles with guests on their backs. Instead, guests and volunteers are involved with basic elephant care by feeding the elephants by hand and bathing them in the river twice daily. And in participating in these activities, guests can get the kind of up close and personal contact they want but would never get on a trek or from watching a show. On my first day, I quite literally hugged an elephant while I scrubbed it's hide in the river, as it calmly lay in the water. At the end of the day, Amanda and I sat up in our bamboo hut, thrilled we'd be there for six more days, and the other girls had extended their stay for another night.

The entire week we ate amazing food, the best food we had the entire time we were in south east Asia. And we learned alot. As volunteers, Amanda and I had signed up for pitching in on chores and projects that the park needed some extra hands for. Our daily tasks included:

scooping elephant and buffalo poo and cleaning shelters
cutting down spent corn fields with machete's for Ele dinner
working on the fire break (cutting an 8 foot path through brush to stop fires from crossing into park land)
dismantling bamboo rafts to use as building supplies at the park
cutting down banana trees (with machete's once again!) for Ele dinner
hauling rock and reinforcing a water resevoir
shucking corn in the elephant kitchen
picking up garbage around the park
teaching at the nearby village elementary school

It's hard to explain why you would pay money to do hard labour, but every experience was fun and rewarding. And we could do it happily knowing that our work and money was directly supporting the elephants who live at the park. And truth be told, the most hard labour we ever did in a day was 3 - 4 hours. On top of the daily feeding times and bath times, we had many other special experiences with the elephants. Like...

1) Participating in an Elephant rescue from a trekking camp just up the road from ENP. Two of the elephants there had fallen very ill from malnutrition and a skin fungus infection. The manager of the camp had asked Lek to care for the sick elephants, as ENP also acts as a free hospital for these gentle giants. Providing free medical care ensures the Eles will get the care they need and creates opportunities for Lek to influence trekking camps and teach them about humane Ele care. As with every elephant that comes to the Park, Lek will try everything to buy the elephant from the owner so that it can stay at the park. Sometimes she is successful and the animal never goes back to work. Sometimes though, the owner knows they can still make money by leasing the elephant to a Tourist camp and won't sell her until she is too old to earn any money. Going to this camp, after spending just a few days at ENP, was heartbreaking. The elephants were kept chained in close quarters when they weren't trekking, babies chained to their mothers and working alongside them. Many of the elephants were underweight, often kept this way so that they are not too fat for riding. Our first rescue, named Golden Leaf, went into the truck without a fuss and we successfully transferred her to the park without a problem. After the vet had a good look at her, we bathed her in the river with medical soap and then rubbed a medicated location on her skin to treat the fungal infection. The next day, the second elephant was brought to the park and both Ele's were docile and subdued as we bathed and treated them. And several of the resident elephants insisted on joining us in the river, in order to meet the newcomers. However, Amanda and I weren't actually there for the second rescue because....
2) We went up to the Elephant Haven overnight. Elephant Haven is where Lek began, with four Elephants she had rescued from tragic circumstances (Two babies and two aunties, three of which accompanied us: Hope, Mae Perm, and Jokia. Another family of four, Mom and two aunties of baby Aura, also went with us.) It is a small bamboo hut nestled in the jungle on a mountain side that is a 2 hour hike from where the park now exists. Here the elephants can roam in the jungle and forage for food naturally. It was surreal enough hiking along with the Ele's, but it was a real treat to go out at night to find Hope with the mahouts, as Hope sometimes wanders too far from the safety of the Haven mountainside at night. We located him fairly quickly, but discovered it was best friends Mae Perm and Jokia (blinded by her previous owners) who had wandered off. No problem. Hope's mahout, Dam, tracked them down within a few minutes, stopping to show us the snapped vegetations and tracks in the ground that led the way. Nothing but moonlight, jungle and a couple of the worlds largest mammals. The mahouts also played music for us after cooking an amazing dinner. That night we slept on the floor, under mosquito nets, listening to Hope's family trumpeting from above us back and forth with Aura's family, who had settled in further down the mountain for the night. On the hike back the next morning, we were given orange scarves blessed by buddhists monks to tie around the trees around the haven to protect them from logging.

Other park highlights:

traditional Thai massage for $4/hr
over 50 dogs to hang out with
cuddles from Mae Keaw and Kha Moon and others
waking up to the sunrise hitting the Ele shelters behind our hut
baby elephants checking us out freely on our Park walk around.
learning the elephant song and legend from Pom, Lek's second in command.
welcome ceremony including music performed by village teenagers and a blessing from the Shaman.

Pictures from my week at the park can been seen here:

Album #1 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229057&id=122614903&l=8b5dbaa399

Album #2 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2229061&id=122614903&l=89a17a8668

There were so many special moments, I'd be happy to recount them for you at any time. I just need to bring this entry to a close. I know I will return to the park. Being there was like realizing a childhood dream. I hope after I have paid off my school debt, I will be able to stay there and work there for longer than a week.

Stay tuned for Chapter 3: featuring pick pocket monkeys, reclining Buddha's, tourist scams and drag shows!

South Asia: Chapter one

2009-03-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

"Alright, Lisa. Smarten up. It's halfway through frikkin March and you STILL have not written anything about your travels through South East Asia in February on your blog. Your family and friends have been very patient with you so far, but I'm pretty sure they will get their virtual torches and pitchforks out soon if you don't get off your lazy butt and starting writing!"

My conscience may have a point.

There are many perks to living and working in South Korea: free rent, tasty foods (most of the time...), a great expat community and mountain ranges far as the eye can see. And if you are one of the fortunate folks to have a contract with the public school system, the greatest perk is undoubtably the five weeks of vacation time written into your contract. If your school is nice (like mine) you'll get more vacation than this, but you aren't technically supposed to leave the country except for vacation time as indicated in your contract. Four of the five weeks in the contract are allocated to Febuary while schools are on their winter "break" (which includes January for the lucky folks). Myself and four other Canuck gals working in SK decided this opportunity to travel was not to be wasted. We found ourselves planning to spend our 26 days in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam in a whirlwind cross-country adventure sure to be the trip of a lifetime.

My travelmates were Amanda, Jennifer, and Ali who all live in Suncheon with me, and our friend Susan, who is working in Wando. Of the five of us, I was the least travelled. I had never been anywhere besides Canada and few of the northern states of the USA. I hadn't even seen the ocean! Well, technically I guess I saw it when I was in NYC, but I don't feel like Manhattan harbour really counts. So I did a whole lot of prep, like picking up a copy of Lonely Planet's "South East Asia on a Shoestring" two days before departure and sewing shut a large whole in my $30 backpack at 3 AM the night before departure.

Side note: My cat Mokah was looked after by my good friends Stephen and Jodie while I was away. While I was very grateful to them for this, Mokah was less gracious, and after about a week of destruction and noise in their apartment, she was moved back to my place where Jodie and Stephen visited her frequently. Our seperation and reunion were much more emotional for me than I had expected them to be. Strange the way your heart becomes attached. The poor schmoe's out there who have tried to date me know well that I can be a cold-hearted wench when I should be filled with affection. My friends and parents can vouch for the fact that I often keep people, including those I love most, at arms length when my emotions are running high. And for some reason, this crazy little furball has got my heart. I cried like a baby when I got home to her.

Korean Air Flight KE667 was right on time and delivered us to the Chiang Mai airport in northern Thailand at 12:30 AM on February 1st. Our taxi successfully dropped us off at the hostel we were booked into, but when we arrived we found the office locked and no employees to be found. We soon discovered that the hostel thought we were arriving at 1PM on Sunday, not 1AM. We were SOL in the middle of the night in Chiang Mai city with no map in a part of town low on hotels and taxis. Ali had kept her eyes open on the drive from the airport (thankfully) and remembered seeing an upscale hotel down the alley from where we'd been dropped off. We gratefully crashed there for our first night in Thailand at $12 each.

Eating my continental breakfast of fresh fruit and toast on the patio the next morning and staring at the hotel's beautiful gardens, it hits me: I'm in Thailand. Not thinking about it, not talking about it. I'm here. We found ourselves falling quickly in love with Thailand during our first day in Chiang Mai. The heat, the vegetation, the friendly people (who speak English without fear or hesistation!) and the food, oh my goodness the food! After getting Suze, Ali and Jennifer booked in for their overnight at Elephant Nature Park (Amanda and I had already booked our 1 week stay), we hired a guy named Beer to show us around a few of the local Temples. All five us piled into his tiny toyota sedan (Amanda and Jennifer shared the front bucket seat) and sped up a winding moutain road for 30 minutes to see Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai's most famous Temple which overlooks the city from the north. The steps leading to the temple were lined with vendors selling souvenirs, jewellry, fresh fruit, and anything else that might fetch a price. The main stairway had railings made of dragon scales. We paid a donation of 30 baht (approx $1 CDN) to enter the temple. I let the pictures do the talking:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2230910&id=122614903&l=4bba8

We removed our shoes and were given scarves to cover bare shoulder and low necklines. Beer was indespensible as he explained the offerings of insense, flowers and money and prayers made by the local Thai people, and showed us how to participate in a monk's blessing and show respect inside the temple rooms. After the monk blessed us with holy water, a white string was tied around our wrists, the threads has been blessed to give us protection and good luck and we are instructed not to take it off for three days. There were bells everwhere (rung for good luck) as well as dogs sleeping throughout the complex who were cared for by the monks. Children played music and danced for donations to their schools. The scenic lookout reveals a smoggy Chiang Mai and some beautiful mountainside vegetation. On the way back to the city, Beer tells us that the other temple we want to see inside the old city is closed today for the Sunday Market, and just as our guidebooks predicted, instead takes us to a silk factory. We are given a demonstration of how silk is traditionally made from start to finish and then have to walk through the large store to exit. It was cool to see, but we knew the real reason we were there was that Beer would collect a comission for taking us there, becuase the owners are hoping we'll spend our money in the overpriced shop. He also tried to detour us to a tailor shop but we tell him we're tired (which we are) and are ready to head back to our hotel. Once we get back to hotel Suze, Amanda and I decide we want to check out the Sunday Market inside the old city, and we make plans to meet Ali and Jennifer for dinner at Riverside restaurant.

Chiang Mai's old city is surrounded by a moat and some ruins of the old walls and gates still remain, the most famous of which is Thai Pae gate, which is also the entrance to the popular Sunday market. It was a blur of colours, sounds and lights. It was the best shopping we found the entire time we were in Thailand and I quickly found myself snapping up jewelry, bags and clothing, unable to avoid being sucked in by the price. I also found myself enjoying bartering with vendors. We were also bumped into by a pretty convincing pick-pocket who took a nasty spill into us from behind, and after we helped him up, he hobbled along with his cane and then did the same thing to a wealthy white couple about 60 feet ahead of us. Thankfully we didn't keep anything worth snatching in our pockets.

We hopped in a tuk-tuk, a 3-wheeled motorized vehicle with a bench seat in the back, and headed to Riverside to meet the girls for dinner on a boat. It was delicious food and lovely view of the riverside night life. Our hotel was nicely situated within the city's night market district, so we did some more shopping before calling it a night. Jennifer and I also enjoyed 1/2 hour foot massages for about 3 bucks each. We went to sleep excited to head to Elephant Nature Park the next morning.

To be continued....

Mishaps and Minor Injuries

2009-01-31T00:05:00.000-08:00

Well it's been an interesting week and I hope it's not setting a tone for my month of travelling in SE Asia.

It started in the Holmes' kitchen. One night I decided to make Jodie's famous one-bowl brownies while we enjoyed the 1970's wonderfest "The Apple". In attempting to get eggs out of the fridge I manage to smash one egg on the floor, and then dump a container of stirfry leftovers on the floor on my second attempt. I was thus banned from the refrigerator.

Two days later I returned to the Holmes' home to watch horror movies and enjoy fruit smoothies the Lady Holmes. We created a delicious batch of smoothie: kiwi, strawberries, bananas, yogurt and orange juice. I attempted to remove the pitcher from the blender base so we could enjoy our fruit concoction, but unfortunately I failed to notice that I was twisting the pitcher off of its bottom, not just off of the blender base. You guessed it, I pulled up and 1.5 liters of smoothie went all over the counter and the floor. Wee! And to just to spice things up a bit, I didn't unplug the blender and set those blades a-wirring while wiping it down. Thankfully no one's fingers were in the way. I was thus banned from the Holmes' kitchen and electric kitchen appliances in general.

Two days later I was enjoying some friendly banter with Kate and Will outside a social get together. Will and I were having fun accusing eachother of being racist and I meant to give him a friendly jab in the stomach. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had in that same hand the cheese grater that I had left at Amanda's the night before. Will moved to block my jab and got his hand grated. There was a little blood, just a little. I was thus banned from all objects with sharp edges.

This morning as we got into our cab to head to the bus station for our first leg of the journey to SE Asia, I jammed my thumb putting my backpack in the trunk. I have a cute little purple bruise under the nail. Can a person be banned from trunks?

Oh well, we arrrived at Incheon International Airport (where I am currently writing this blog)with time to spare and decided to get a decent meal while we waited. Unfortunately, the waitress knocked a big fancy fruit drink all over my backpack and purse when delivering items to our table. Now that was definitely not my fault! Maybe it's not exactly a change of luck, but hopefully I'll stop being the cause of the trouble. So now I get to smell like fruit smoothie all the way to Thailand or maybe a compost heap depending on when the orange juice starts fermenting.

Better luck next week! ....right?

(As a side note: the staff was very apologetic and helpful with cleaning it up and gave me a free drink. I think we had about 5 different waitresses apologize...)

Out with the old Year, In with the new!

2009-01-17T23:56:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been far too long since I updated my blog, I know! No need to shout and throw things!

The rest of December was wonderful. Classes were sporadic at best with final exams, school festivals, school tours and Christmas interrupting things. I taught my students Christmas Carols and played "The Snowman" for them. The student were so exhausted from studying from finals, you almost felt bad for expecting them to keep their eyes open for cartoon in class! "The Snowman" actually went over really really well, only a 20% mortality rate (on avg. 8 of 40 students asleep by the end of it). And I heard the most hilarious rendition of the 12 days of Christmas ever thanks to an enthusiastic student who without pitch or rythym yelled out the words at the top of her lungs and threw everybody else off. I couldn`t keep a staight face no matter how hard I tried.

About two weeks before Christmas I recieved two amazing parcels from home filled with Christmas decorations, goodies and presents. Christmas spirit exploded onto my desk when I opened them. So I couldn`t help but spread it around a little. I held movie nights at my apartment to watch `A Muppet Chistmas Carol`(my favourite!) and also a non-denominational Christmas carol singing night where we also read the Nativity story from the Bible. My students were confused at my excitement. In Korea, Christmas is a Christian holiday or a day to give your BF/GF a gift, much like valentine's day in North America. It's not a big family affair unless you're Christian and even then. It made no sense to them for me to be so excited when I didn't have a boyfriend. December 22nd and 23rd was my schools "Festival" which was two days of dancing and singing by the students, much like Christmas concerts at schools in Canada except for the concert stage lighting, sound system and flame canons. (yeah you read that right!)

On Christmas Eve I invited 3 other Canadian girls living in Shidae to stay over at my apartment. We went carolling to other foreigners in Shidae (and frightened a few of the Koreans who bumped into us)then settled in to our PJ`s, sipped hot cocoa, watched Home Alone and told stories of our favourite Christmas memories. We had bought stocking stuffers for eachother, so in the morning we opened our stockings together before splitting off to talk to our families.
It was really neat to have two Christmas mornings as it was still Christmas Eve when I called home to Dryden at 11 am.

Dean and Mandy (the suncheon Co-ordinator for foreign teachers and his wife) very generously invited us to their apartment for Christmas brunch and served us such a amazing things as eggs benedict, bagels and salmon, crepes with fruit, and huge assortment of cookies, pies and other desserts. And if that wasn`t enough, in the afternoon we went to a Turkey pot-luck dinner at Elvis Bar with 50 other foreigners for a meal of Turkey, Stuffing, gravy, porogies, salad, veggies, potatoes of every variety and buffet of desserts.

At around 4 pm I came home totally stuffed and had a blissful Christmas nap. I called home again at 10pm and was able to open my presents with my family via webcam and watch the Christmas morning excitement in Canada. It snowed here just a little that day. However, I was a bitter girl going back to work on Boxing Day - my body knows after 25 Christmasses in Canada that it is supposed to sleep until noon and laze around in pajamas the day after Christmas, and it could not be fooled despite how much I tried to tell it to be energetic at work.

My last class was on December 31st, and my students had as much enthusiasm for the "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" as bread dough rising. Me too, kids, me too. I spent new years Eve at Jodie and Stephen's with about a dozen awesome ex-pats (I am actually in love with the term "ex-pat", it makes me feel I dunno...European?)eating great food and goofing around. I didn't stay out too late, I think I went home around 1AM, and was greeted by thick, lazily falling snow.

It feels so good to be in a new year with a fresh 12 months ahead of me. When I checked out of 2008, I happily left my baggage behind. The month of January has gone by very quickly, as often happens when the days are lazy and unstructured. My only semblence of productivity is found in the online teaching pilot program I have been participating in Monday - Friday from 9-11AM. The program is testing a new Microsoft program that creates a virtual classroom for students who live in remote areas and islands and don't have access to English education with a Native English speaker. I have a Korean co-teacher and five students, though only 4 have been reliably able to connect to the classroom environment in the last week. It's been a learning experience for me: using a new program, learning how to make power point presentations, teaching 8 years olds with very little english, following a curriculum (I make my own for the HS students), etc etc etc. I might mention I am also being paid very well for being part of the pilot project on top of my monthly salary (yeah I'm bragging alittle bit, sorry...). And now that the school board has announced that they are launching the program in March for all 5 school boards, it means that I can significantly increase my monthly income and pay off my debt even faster!

On January 31st taking my 26 days of official vacation to travel to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam with 4 other ex-pats (hehehe!). I've never travelled abroad before (Korea being my first time on another continent) so it really feels like the trip of a life time. For the first week I am volunteering at an Elephant Sanctuary in northern Thailand near Chiang Mai city. The rest of the trip is mostly unstructured. We are planning to travel south to Bangkok, spend a few days on the beach, make our way to Cambodia and see Angkor Wat/Siem Reap/Phnom Penh and then head to Vietnam for about a week for more beach time and sight seeing around Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) before flying back to Korea on the 26th. I will do my best to update this blog throughout the month as we stop in internet cafe's in Southeast Asia!

Video! Mokah playing fetch in my apartment!

2008-12-15T04:54:00.000-08:00

Video! Jinju Lantern Festival, Oct 2008

2008-12-15T04:48:00.000-08:00

Videos!

2008-12-14T08:08:00.000-08:00

When in Seoul in November, we came across a street festival a block from our hotel. Here's a small portion of what we saw:

Reunions and Rockin 80's Tunes Revisited

2008-12-14T06:29:00.000-08:00

Tonight I sit in my apartment, letting Sarah Slean, candles and mini Christmas lights set the ambience. It has been a lovely, lazy weekend and so easy to enjoy because I still don't have to be back at work until Wednesday. Mokah was attacking my feet for a while, but the Ondol (floor heating) has lulled her into yet another nap. I submitted some photos of her to Cute With Chris (http://www.cutewithchris.com/) so who knows, maybe soon she'll be famous on YouTube. OW! Ok no, not napping as much as I thought, hold on....

Last night was another fun night of Noribang, the Korean Kareoke. You get a private room for you and your friends equipped with its own kareoke machine, two mics and some disco lights thrown in for good measure. Being a zero hero myself, and big car/shower rockstar, its my ideal night out because is actually a fun activity going on besides just the entertainment that occurs when you're wasted (fun for the drunksters but for us zero heroes, we just don't follow down the rabbit hole). Drinkers are welcome to bring their own booze and with a bottle of soju costing less than a bottle of cola, you can understand why Noribang is widely popular. It's also great because you are singing in front of your friends instead of strangers, and the scoring system on the machine is based on volume and not key/pitch of the singer! My friends in Suncheon have proven multiple times to be a great Noribang group, we often go until 4 AM and always have a great time. It must be that we share a love for cheesy ballads and rocking 80's (does Kenny Loggins count as rocking?). You can see some pics of Noribang and food fun herehttp://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2213823&l=7fe47&id=122614903.

The weekend before my good friend Kristen and I got to hang out for the second weekend in a row! Kristen was my roommate for two years in University and I guess you could say she is to blame for me being in Korea. She was the first person I knew to pursue it and she recommended Canadian Connections (http://www.canconx.com/) to me, which worked out really well! We had some great food (korean porridge and doc galbi!) and had a great time at Noribang with some friends. The highlight for me was going to the Sauna though. The Sauna always wins with me, hands down. And it was great to have a friend to go with. A lot of westerners here are shy about the sauna, especially about going with someone they know. It's one thing to go and let a bunch of strangers see you nekkid, but it takes a little more gumption to go with someone you know. I'm not sure why, I guess people don't like the idea of crossing that line. Afterall, the list of "people I've been to lunch with" is a considerably less exclusive list than the list of "people who've seen me naked". If you are one of the ones it freaks out, let me offer a few words in defense of the Korean public bath. The sauna beside my apartment building has 5 baths: hot, luke warm (with massaging jets), ice, green tea (very hot) and cedar (also very hot). It also has two sauna rooms: salt and crystal. Nothing is as relaxing as going from a sauna to a cold bath to a hot bath and back again, it chills me out like nothing else. And really, once you just get over the fact that "yep, these people are going to see me naked" it's a breeze. Afterall, they're all naked too and (surprise!) nobody looks like a supermodel, not even skinny korean women! Also, the showers have way better pressure than the one in my apartment!

The weekend before that was my first time seeing Kristen when we reunited in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea! It was a very quick visit, didn't do alot of sight seeing, but I got to eat a Subway Sandwich! And buy christmas presents for everyone! And get the dead skin on my feet eaten off by little fishes while drinking tea! AND saw Cirque du Soleil's Allegria! It was a fantastic time. I can't wait to go back and see some of the museum's and temples (and you know, write a proper description of what I saw/did...I'm sorry it's late!). Here's a couple of pics, you're the first to see em, I haven't put them on Facebook yet!

Month 2 summed like a true Psych Major

2008-12-11T03:46:00.000-08:00

Well. Here I sit at my desk at Suncheon Girls High School, rolling a werthers original around on my tongue (I found some at a Mini-stop, woo hoo!), killing time until 5:00 because it's final exam week so I don't have classes. I'm realizing it's been over two months now since I've arrived in Korea. It's hard to believe that time has passed so quickly, that it continues to pass by so quickly. I still haven't put my christmas cards in the mail yet!

I'd like to compare my time in Korea to the stages of life:
Week 1 - New Born Baby - you can't speak, read, comprehend anything. You can barely feed yourself. You cling desperately to adults more competent than you are. The world is a frightening, unfamiliar place and you desire a hand to hold.
Week 2 - Toddler - you start taking a few steps on your own. You are overcome with a sense of accomplishment when completing menial tasks by yourself (like giving a cab driver correct directions or figuring out how to work the washing machine). You feel perplexed that people aren't as impressed with your new talents as you are. You know what you want, but not how to get it. Adult supervision is still required.
Week 3 & 4 - Early Childhood - Basic abilities develop and you gain confidence in your own ability to do things without supervision. You start speaking a few basic words or phrases and can begin to communicate with others through language (rather than wild hand gestures). Your comfort zone expands to the nearby stores you have been taken to by other more competent people. You are still illiterate and need others to make any big decisions.
Month 2 - Late Childhood - Language ability continues to develop (albeit, very slowly). You are slowly learning to read the gibberish of written language, but you are painfully slow at it. You meet others who are "younger" than you and actually look up to you because you "know so much". You can handle day to day activities on your own (like buying fruit from an agima in the market), but still need help with any complex task (like paying bills at kiosk at the bank). Your sense of self-efficacy increases!

I'm looking forward to "growing up", though I hope I can skip puberty this time, haha. Korea continues to be challenging and exciting while already becoming mundane, ordinary and routine. It would be easy enough to stop my development here. I could stay in my routine and not need to learn another word of Korean and could get by eating at the restaurants I know that I like, if I wanted to. From what I've heard from others, this does happen with some foreigners. In a city like Suncheon, where there is a large community of foreigners, it would be easy to stay out of the Korean culture altogether; to go from your office to your apartment, order some pizza and watch CNN at night. But I think that's a surefire recipe for disenchantment. And I hope to have many months like November. Months of travelling (To Gwangju for a teachers meeting, and Seoul to see an old roommate from University and Cirque du Soliel!), eating at new restaurants and meeting new people. I've been here long enough to hear from alot of people about their experiences in South Korea. Newbies like me, or veterans, it really seems that so much of the experience is your attitude going in, and then how you handle the times when things don't go smoothly. There are real cultural challenges for westerners here and coupled with the language barrier, its easy to understand how some people find themselves miserably counting down the days until they can go home. Who knows, you may find me blogging about feeling that way in a couple of months! But I hope not. No place on earth is perfect, and Korea offers alot of opportunities (and perks) that I just wouldn't get in Canada.

The First Month Zooms By: Originally published Nov 11/08

2008-12-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

The First Month Zooms By!

Well you know, when I was thinking about how things would be in Korea I really thought I would have lots of time to write letters and especially keep a really up to date blog about all that I see and do, but time has just been flying. Sunday, November 2nd was my 1 month aniversary in Korea! I will try my best to get you caught up without boring you with too many details. Here are some highlights:

Week#2

At the end of my first week of work (but no actual classes) there was a National Holiday, I believe it was called Foundation Day or something to that effect and so our school took its staff and students to Kyangcheon Sa (temple). It was an hour and a half long bus ride (most of which I spent talking to my mom on my nifty new cell phone!) to the mountain. At the base of the mountain was alittle business street with restaurants, a hotel and the ever-present street vendors selling fruits, vegetables and chestnuts in enormous quantities. It took us about an hour to reach the temple site which was really beautiful to see. The monks were friendly about all the visitors and you could hear the prayer bells tolling throughout the rest of the hike. It was a nice hike (and I have learned a very easy hike comparatively!), we hiked up the mountain for approximately 3 hours before we were called down to meet the teachers for lunch at a lower spot on the mountain, which was frustrating for me because we had just crossed the "spine chilling suspension bridge" (I wish I'd taken a picture of that sign!) and I had a feeling a few more minutes of climbing would've have given us some really great views. But mealtime gets priority around here so we met the other teachers for a picnic lunch of Kimbap (think California rolls but with spam and cooked egg in it instead of crabmeat), fruit, kimchi, and dried squid. .Friday night I went out with a group of Foreigners for bowling and Noribong. Bowling apparently is the same everywhere but Noribong, the Korean version of Kareoke, is something you've gotta try! Instead of going to a large bar and having to wait 2 hours to sing 1 one song in front of a bunch of strangers, Noribongs are Kareoke clubs where you get a room just for your group of friends. There are usually comfortable couches, disco lights, a good sound system and plenty of famous english songs to choose from. And after your song, the computer gives you a score out of 100. You can imagine this was pretty much right up my alley! We sang and danced the night away! ('Hangin Tough' by NKOTB was the surprise smash hit of the night, hahaha) The next day (Saturday) I travelled by train with some foreigners I had met here to the city of Jinju for their annual Lantern Festival. Thle Festival commemorates a special battle where an outnumbered group of Korean Soldiers held their ground against the Japanese. The isolated troops were able to send important messages to others by floating lanterns on the river. So now every year hundreds of lanterns are lit up on and along the river, and for a couple of bucks you can float your own wish lantern down the river, carrying your hopes on to their destination whatever it may be. My favourite lantern was an animatronic Dragon that moved and breathed fire! It was a really great day. The market there was fantastic and there was a spectacular fireworks show at the end. If I can figure out how I will upload the video I took of it to the google group page. And like so many things in Korea, the day trip was incredibly cheap. The return ticket for the train cost about $10 and it was 1.5 hours each way! The next few days were huge for me to get through because they were my first days actually teaching at the High School and I was very nervous. Korea is a very homogeneous country so foreigners, like myself get alot of notoriety here. It's not uncommon to walk down the street and have someone yell "Hello!" from a passing car. I had been prepared for this my first week in the school, when during class breaks I would find my desk surrounded by 10-15 students all saying hello and asking me how I like Korea. I had my lesson planned, I had my materials. I took a deep breath and walked into my first class. My students acted like a rock star had entered the room! Reasons: 1. They had been waiting almost a month for a new native speaking english teacher. 2. I'm a white girl with long hair (the last teacher was Korean-Canadian, and they have to keep their hair short while in the public school system) 3. Koreans are happy people who don't hesitate to clap/sing/skip down the street, so outbursts are not outside of social norms. I was amazed at how that energy from my students gave me confidence. And I'm thankful to my high school drama club for making me feel comfortable in front of 40 students. Talk about a sink or swim situation! Thankfully, I'm swimming, or at least treading water. I'm entering the school half way through the second semester of the school year, so there isn't any structure to my curriculum. I'm simply trying out different lesson techniques and filling the weeks until winter vacation (the new school year will start in March 2009). I have an amazing opportunity here in Korea, both for cultural experience but also my job is excellent. I work 9-5 monday to friday. I work at an all girls high school, which means: a) I don't have any boys to deal with (so no disciplinary worries so far), b) all the students have a basic understanding of English, even if they don't speak it well, and c) there are lots of exams so classes get cancelled on a regular basis. As of writing this note (my fourth week of Teaching) I have only had 1 full week of teaching without any classes being cancelled. This week is the Korean SAT exams so I have only one class on Wednesday and no classes on Thursday! On top of that we get all government holidays (there are 14 in the year I believe) and I have 5 weeks of holidays officially in my contract, but according to my teacher I get at least 3 more weeks of holiday in the winter break because my school won't be open. And it's especially sweet compared to what most other foreigners get teaching at Hogwans (private english schools) who often work six days a week, from 12-8 PM, and get one week of paid holiday in the year. Their income is higher, but I wouldn't trade this position for a few hundred thousand won. Plus (honestly, THIS is my favourite part...) my school has a teachers nap room! You sleep on the floor Korean-style, but the floor is heated so you sleep like a baby! (Anyone who has every worked with me has heard me say: "You know what this place needs? A nap room.")After school one day, my co-teachers took me to Suncheon Bay. Located south of the city, its an ecological reserve, protecting the reeds, muddy banks, birds and millions of crabs that live there. The city has constructed a remarkable raised walkway through the bay so that you can walk through the reeds a couple of feet above the muddy world of th crabs. The bay is surrounded by mountain peaks, and we were treated to a beautiful sunset of every colour in the spectrum in the west, and the full moon rising in the east. I will post pictures when I figure out how to get them off of my cell phone! Afterwards, my co-teachers took me to the Pizza Hut in Suncheon which was really considerate of them since western food is expensive and not too tasty to the Korean palate. Our pizza had sweet potato on it, hmmm tasty!

Week #3

After my first week of teaching, our school had a 'mini-holiday' (Oct 21-20) where we didn't have classes on Monday and Tuesday, so my co-teachers invited me to hiking with them on the Monday. We drove to the port city of Yeosu where a boat took us to the island of Gamodo (sp?). The view on the boat ride was fantastic. Now "hiking" in Korea is really mountain climbind without needing ropes and pick axes because of the terrain. It is hard work and there is an entire industry here that sells "hiking" gear - special pants, shoes, jackets, sun visors, hiking sticks and gloves. Most of my co-teachers were fully decked out. We hiked up the first mountain in about 3 hours and then spent the rest of the day hiking along the peaks on the island. It was hard work, and on a bad ankle not always enjoyable, but definitely worth the view. Korea is stunningly beautiful. The next day, Jodie took me to see a local doctor for acupuncture to help with tension in my shoulders. It was definitely an interesting experience! First the put this strange suction cup things up my spine (which left big hickeys, I looked like I'd been attached by an octopus afterwards) and a little blood letting, then the acupunture itself. And it was like they say it is, painless. The most shocking part came after. One hour of Acupuncture treatment cost me 6000W ($6)!

Week #4

At the end of the month I went to two Halloween parties, both of which were alot of fun. The first was in Yeosu. Myself and four other Canadian gals did the Alice in Wonderland theme; I went as the Mad Hatter, and litterally cut and pasted my hat together. I still can't believe that it held together for both parties, the second of which was held by Dean and Mandy just two floors above me in Shidae apartments. I had alot of fun at this party and even dunked my entire head bobbing for apples (I was not coming up without that apple in my mouth darn it!). On November 2nd, I took a train to the Daejeon to pick up Mokah, my new kitty! I have wanted to adopt an animal for sometime but the transitory life of a University student isn't to a pet so I've waited. There are alot of foreigners here with pets because animals are not treated very humanely in Korea; they are seen as food or pests but rarely as companions. Once I realized that I could get food and veterinary care for an animal here, I knew I wanted to get my first cat in Korea, to help me with homesickness and rescue an animal that really needs a home. I contacted several rescuers and let them know I was looking to adopt a cat, especially one that needed alittle extra care getting used to humans as I know how to work with them thanks to my Mom. Mokah had been rescued off the street as a kitten and had been kept in a cage at vet's for four months as she was scared of humans and would sometimes hiss at people that got too close. She didn't warm up to me right away, she was very frightened. But once I picked her up and talked to her for a few minutes, she started purring and I felt my heart melt. In one short week she has gone from being a frightened kitty who hid under the bed and behind the fridge, to the biggest suck you've ever met. We are getting along great and its so wonderful to see her adjust so quickly to life outside of a cage!

The month has been filled with lots of new experiences. I've got my apartment decorated, I've eaten alot of new things, I've hiked the mountain beside my apartment complex and I've learned enough basic Korean to get around the city just fine by taxi. There is so much to see, do and experience. I've been warned that I'm still in the 'honeymoon phase', but I am loving my time in Korea so far. I love you all very much. Thanks for your support. Miss you!

Lisa

Lisa's 1st week in Korea - Originally published Oct 15/08

2008-12-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

Well technically, this blog starts with my last couple of days in Canada, but after this I’m planning to do weekly updates from Friday to Thursday of the following week. Feel free to leave me comments via the google group or Facebook, or send me an email at lisahaessler@gmail.com. My new mailing address and cell phone number are listed below.

Monday, September 29, 2008

The plan had been to leave by 6:00 pm and get into Thunder Bay around 11:00pm. There I could get a full nights rest at my brother’s apartment before my flight left at 1:00 pm Tuesday for Toronto. However, any of you who know me can suspect I was not nearly ready for that! There was still quite a bit of shopping to get done plus you know, pack my suitcases! My mom and dad were a huge help with getting me out the door at a decent time, albeit two hours later than I originally planned, and cheerleading me when my nerves were completely frayed. Saying Goodbye to Dryden as I drove away, watching the lights fade in the rear view mirror was a different Goodbye from when I left for University 5 years earlier. It was definitely bittersweet, partly because I was feeling much less sure of myself and because I knew it was the last time I would see the “Home” I had known for the last 15 years as my parents are hoping to sell the house and move before the end of the year. I knew that when I returned, Dryden would be a visiting place and not a staying place. I arrived safely in Thunder Bay around 1:15 am and stayed up chatting with my Brother for a while. Going to bed proved to be a useless attempt at sleep; every time I got close to sleep I would wake up certain that the alarm clock would malfunction and I would oversleep and miss my flight. Hours of sleep: maybe 4.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

After repacking my suitcases (and leaving behind many books I really wanted to come with me!) in order to get my luggage under the weight restrictions I had no problems with catching my flight to Toronto, arrival 3:00pm. At Pearson I was able to keep myself busy by connecting to their wireless internet service and chatting online and reviewing some “Let’s Speak Korean” lessons on youtube. Only major disappointment of the day was that my lack of organization the day before ended up in a miscommunication that kept me from meeting some very good friends for Dinner at the airport . At about 9:00 PM it was time to check in for my flight with Korea Air. I was the only white person and the only English speaker in line. Most of the signs were written in Hangul. Here was first time that I had the feeling to tuck my tail and run. “Mark and Whitney are only an hour away, I could get on the bus...”, “My Aunt Charlotte lives 10 minutes away, she could come get me...”, “I could get on a bus and go to Mexico and start leading another life under an alias and no one would ever have to know what a chicken I am...”. These were the kinds of thoughts that ran through my head as the line pushed me closer and closer to the check-in attendant. It was the first time since I was about six that the sentiment “I wish my mommy was here” felt like an immediate need, haha. Well, sheer determination kept me planted in that line until I was checked in. At security the bobby pins in my beauty case caused a connumdrum at the security gate because they showed up funny on the x-ray and none of us could figure out what it was. We took that whole bag apart before they decided it was unlikely I was carrying anything threatening. I found my departure gate and sat there in a daze for probably an hour before I heard over the Airport loudspeaker, “Korean Air passenger Annalisa Haessler, please go to courtesy mumblemumble, you have a message waiting.” Worried that this is something really important like I left my credit card at the Yogen Fruz stand or they overbooked my flight and now I won’t be able to get on, I go in search of a Pearson Airport employee to find out what this “courtesy mumblemumble” thing is so I can get to my message. Turns out it’s a courtesy phone and the mumble part was to press 2 to get my message. “Annalisa Haessler, the message is ‘Call your mother’.” OK, so now I’m thinking about the things that could have gone wrong at home and how I may be turning around anyway after how brave I was in the check-in line up. At the payphone I call home. “Hey Mom, what’s up? Everything OK?”“Hi sweetie, yeah I just wanted to let you know I was just talking to Joy (my older sister) and she’s going to be visiting us in a couple of weeks and helping out with staging the house, so you don’t have to worry about those unfinished projects.”“Oh. OK, that’s pretty cool. Wait. You had me paged over Pearson International Airport’s loud speaker to tell me Joy is coming home for a visit?”Later my mom told me the real reason was that she really wanted to talk to me one more time before I left Canada, but she thought if she said that she would get emotional so she decided to tell me about her conversation with Joy instead. Aww...When all was said and done I got on my flight with no problems at 11:50 pm. A Boeing 777 jet. Again, only white girl in sight.Wednesday October 1st, 2008 I had been given a lot of really good advice prior to going South Korea. I found two pieces of advice in particular had a major impact on my travel experience. The first was this (from my Uncle Mel): “The moment you get on the plane, change your watch to Korean time.” In doing this I instantaneously lost 13 hours of my Wednesday, but it helped immeasurably with jet lag. Even though it was midnight in Canada, it was now 1:00pm in Korea, and so even with only 4 hours of sleep the night before I decided it would be best to stay up as long as possible. Dinner was served soon after takeoff: a Korean dish called Bibimbap, which was made of ground beef, various vegetables, rice and spicy red pepper paste and was pretty tasty. The big screen at the front of the cabin showed our flight path as flying almost directly north over the pole, not east or west as my mother and I had debated. The in-flight movie was ‘Ironman’; I watched the first hour or so before my eyelids got too heavy. Hours of sleep: maybe 5.

Thursday October 2nd, 2008

We landed smoothly at Incheon International Airport just outside of Seoul at 2:30 am. I had checked thoughout the flight, and at no time was sun shining during those 14 hours so sadly I didn’t see the ocean from 35 000 feet. That’s alright, there will be lots of opportunities in the next year. Having arrived at Incheon and fumbled my way through customs to get my stamp in my passport (yay!), I immediately bought an international calling card. I didn’t immediately call my parents though, haha. No, I followed that second piece of excellent advice I mentioned earlier: I went to the basement level of the airport and found the all night sauna/bath. I had a few hours to kill before I needed to catch my bus to Gimpo airport, and Shane (the director of Canadian Connection) recommended the sauna to me. It was wonderful and, although pricey, totally worth bathing naked with some older Korean women in order to calm my nerves and get freshened up. In Korea, communal bath houses are still very popular. The tradition has continued long after indoor plumbing would’ve replaced it I think because of the Korean emphasis on community. Women and men come with the friends to share a long soak in multiple shallow pools of various temperatures and switch to a sauna room or two. There’s also usually a jinjubong (resting room) where you can go sleep on heated floors. After my lovely sauna, I waited outside the airport for my bus to Gimpo to arrive. Here I met a very nice Korean woman named Jay who had grown children in the US so her English was very good. She helped me find my way at Gimpo Airport and was another friendly stranger to make my journey easier. The bus picked us up at 6:15 am. The sky was going purple as we got on, and I watched the sunrise on the way to Gimpo. After helping me check in for my flight, Jay gave me a hug, I gave her a Dryden pin and she headed to her hotel room. I went in search of food. I picked a decent looking noodle bowl with beef and veggies from a numbered menu written in Hangul. It was enormous and tasty but I probably only ate ¼ of it, it was such a big portion. The flight from Seoul to Gwangju lasted about 50 minutes. I enjoyed the scenery before sleeping for about a half an hour. Korea is 70% mountains so it was beautiful, I don’t think the pictures do it justice. At Gimpo airport I was met by Mr Yang, the provincial co-ordinator for English Teachers in Jeollanamdo and Seon-hee Park, my co-teacher at Suncheon Girls High School. Mr Yang shook my hand, welcomed me to Korea, asked me for a copy of my contract and then got in his car. Seon-hee (pronounced Sunny) helped me with my bags and we got in her car and drove to Suncheon (about an hour away). That drive was the most surreal. My brain seemed to catch up with my body and as I watched the mountains roll by excitement filled me up. I did it. I actually made it. Nothing horrible happened, no strange twist of fate kept me from realizing this dream. I didn’t screw it up!Once in Suncheon, Seon-hee got me set up with a bank account and took me to the hospital for another physical. Here’s my favourite part of my first day in Korea: Getting on a weight scale and having a big red “FATNESS!” appear above my weight, hahaha. Lots more paperwork was done etc etc etc. The afternoon felt like a big hazy blur of signs I couldn’t reach and conversations that were about me but I couldn’t understand. In the early evening, my co-teachers helped me get some groceries and took me up to my apartment. Just as we were getting into the elevator , a white girl was walking up to the second elevator (one elevator only stops on even floors, one only stops on odd floors, don’t ask me why) and I had never been so relieved to see a stranger in my life. She must have seen it on my face.“First day? My name’s Jodie, I live in ***. Come visit me anytime.” And the doors closed. Now it was past 7PM and I was feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. My co-teachers made me something to eat and they were so sweet. All I could think was “Jodie lives in ***...Jodie lives in ***, don’t forget Jodie lives in ***” as my head hit the pillow.

Friday October 3rd, 2008

After 13 hours of sleep, I awoke to a familiar feeling: "Holy crap, I'm in South Korea." It's a feeling that sinks in at least once a day. I spent a good part of the day unpacking my belongings and cleaning up my apartment, though the previous teacher had left the place in really good condition for me. She also left behind some handy things like speakers for my computer, a hair straightener and some nice bedding. My apartment is a small studio style apartment on the 17th floor of a 19 floor apartment building, situated on the side of one of many small mountains around Suncheon. Once I was done unpacking, I sat in my apartment wondering what I should do next and feeling a little trapped. I didn't know how to read or speak anymore and I didn't know where anything was except for the grocery store down the block and the internet room across the street. The internet room! A connection with the English speaking world! I was on my way. Internet rooms or PC bongs here are very cheap: 1000 won for an hour. The clerk didn't speak a word of English, but that's fine, what else would a waygook want in a PC Bong but to use the internet? I felt much better being able to check email and facebook and still know that friends and family were just a few mouse clicks away. That evening, back at my apartment, again feeling confined, I decided I had better stop being a chicken and go knock on Jodie's door. Jodie lives with her husband Steven and their tiny white dog, Wicket. When I knocked on the door they also had their friend Fraser over visiting. They were very welcoming and had plenty of advice for me. I don't remember what any of it was, but it was good to know I had met some friendly Canadians who could help me out while I was settling in.Saturday October 4th, 2008 Jody offered to show me around our neighborhood and the city a little bit, so we walked a lot that morning. She took me out for a beef soup lunch that was very tasty. Meat portions for soups are often left in very large pieces, so the soup was served with scissors to cut it up with. Eating out in Korea is very cheap ($4-$8 CDN), and every Korean entrée comes with 6-10 seasonal side dishes included. Usually there will be two or three kinds of kimchi and various vegetables. Traditionally Koreans don't drink anything with their meals, a cup of soup is served on the side for washing things down. Strangely I have found this difficult to adjust to since everything in the meal tends to be spicy or very salty. Most restaurants however now offer cola and cider (like gingerale) to drink, especially to foreigners. After lunch we went back to my school to meet Seon-hee, who wanted to be with me when the men came to install my internet and television. Seon-hee had been waiting for us to eat lunch, so we ate lunch again in the school cafeteria (it would have been considered rude to refuse). So far cafeteria food at the school has been quite tasty, though I find the kimchi too spicy.After the internet and tv were hooked up, Seon-hee took me to watch an English Speaking contest in the nearby city of Gwangyang which her sister had organized. It was in a building called "The World Marine Life Center" and it was 17 floors of glass windows; the building itself was shaped like a sail. Unfortunately, at 17 floors up the only view offered was of the surrounding shipping docks, not picturesque but still interesting to see. On the way back to Suncheon we picked up Seon-hee's daughter and went for another meal near my apartment. Soon after I got home I hit the sack for another 12 hours. I think being busy all day since I've arrived has really helped with jetlag, as I am forced to stay up all afternoon.

Sunday October 5th, 2008

Seon-hee had told me over and over not to be late for the teachers meeting on Monday morning, so I spent a good portion of the day riding the #59 bus and wandering around downtown trying to find my school. No such luck. OK, I figure I will take a cab and get there just fine (oh wishful thinking…).On Sunday evening I tagged along with Jodie to a book club meeting for foreigners living in our complex. There were about eight of us there, and it was great to meet some more people my age and talk about our favourite books. Being in Shi-dae apartments feels like my first few weeks of University, where everyone is very friendly because you don't have a lot of friends (even more so here because it's exciting to meet someone who speaks english!) and you can just go up or down a few levels and knock on someone's door if you need to. Shi-dae is known for having a lot of foreigners living in it. I still meet people on my bus or in the elevator. Note: at this bookclub meeting Jodie made the best homemade brownies this girl has ever eaten!

Monday October 6th, 2008

Monday was my first official day of work. Got up early, all ready to go. I hop in a cab at 8:15, and I figure that is plenty of time to get there since it only took Seon-hee 10 – 15 minutes to drive me home over the last couple of days. However that had something to do with the driver knowing where she was going. I had the address of the school written in English, and told the driver "Sucheon Yah-go" thinking that was the Korean name of the school was. Nope, I was mispronouncing it and he couldn't read english. So instead the cab driver proceeded to drive me to local schools (he correctly guessed I was a teacher at least) and when I shook my head and wouldn't get out of the car, he'd try another one. After 3 schools he finally pulled over and asked a nearby businessman for help. The man looked at my paper and then told the driver "Suncheon Yo-go" and poof! He knew where to take me! So I walk into the teachers meeting a few minutes late, very embarrassed and feeling unnerved. Mr. Kim informs me I will be introduced next. When the vice-principal puts down the microphone, Mr. Kim picks it up and introduces me as "Our new English teacher from Canada, the most beautiful western lady!" and hands me the microphone. Well at least it gave me the opportunity to apologize to everyone for being late. As luck would have it, my first week of classes were cancelled because of exams, so "you have all week to prepare your lessons" Seon-hee tells me. Haha, well not quite. On Monday, Seon-hee took me around and introduced me to a lot of the staff, one whom was Gwang-ja, the hilarious PE teacher. Gwang-ja used to play volleyball professionally for Korea; she also insists on talking to me very enthusiastically in Korean even though I can't understand a word she says. Now I should tell you that Volleyball is HUGE in Korea, and since I had found this out I was using it to make a good first impression with a lot of the teachers I'd met so far. When I told Gwang-ja I had played setter in High School she went nuts and drafted me for the team. And because this week is exam week, we had three-hour team practices on Monday and Tuesday to prepare for the match game on Wednesday. At Monday's practice I discovered several things: Koreans don't sweat, western girls who are out of shape DO, Koreans play with nine people on the court instead of six, there is no such thing as rotating in Korean volleyball, I need to buy knee pads, there is no such thing as an illegal lift or hit in Korean volleyball (kicking the ball was quite popular), and Koreans have a great sense of sportsmanship.The English Teachers also treated me to a Traditional Korean Lunch (Lunchee as they say it here) where we sat on the floor and ate lots of raw fish and squid and plenty of things that I'm glad I didn't know what they were. And traditional Korean Lunches are 3 full courses. Because of how salty things are, I find that I lose my appetite quite quickly here. But these skinny Koreans eat so much its hard to believe, it's really impressive. It is also common to drink beer and do shots of soju (a vodka like alcohol, very popular here) at lunchtime. Thankfully Seon-hee explained to the teachers that I don't drink alcohol so there was no pressure.After the school day was over, Seon-hee made sure to walk to me to the nearest bus stop so that on Tuesday I wouldn't be late.

Tuesday October 7, 2008

On Tuesday, Seon-hee and I drove to Yeosu to apply for my alien registration card at the immigration office. She told me we would be meeting some teachers for lunch when we got back to Suncheon, but on return we had some time to kill so she took me to exchange some money at the bank and then to the 5-day market in the centre of the city. It's an enormous traditional Korean market where vendors sell produce, live animals for slaughter, fish and all kinds of seafood, plus clothing, crafts, jewellery and anything else you could think of. I bought a beautiful Korean quilt for 33000 won. I love it! Lunch turned out to be the entire school staff including our principle being treated to Korean Samgibsa by the parents of the students who had been elected chairperson of their grade. Samgibsa is pieces of pork, mushrooms and onion grilled over coals. The grills are in the middle of the table so you cook it yourself. You take the pieces of cooked pork, place them in the middle of a lettuce leaf, add some sauce and some veggies, wrap it up in the leaf and shove the whole thing in your mouth. It was quite tasty and I was relieved to eat cooked food, until the next course came out which was soup and another full serving of various raw seafoods. Still it was impressive to sit among such a large group for lunch, and an honor to have a seat at the same table as the principle. After lunch was another 3-hour practice of volleyball, where I was presented with a pink & black school jersey to wear to the game on Wednesday. That night Jodie and Steven were a huge help and took me shopping for things for the apartment and groceries! It was great to start feeling like I was getting settled.

Wednesday October 8, 2008

Today was the match game against another school's teachers. I wasn't nervous until we stepped into the gym and there was quite a crowd in the stands and both school's principles and vice principles on stage. And even though we had just had lunch, there were tables and tables of food, and lots of beer and soju going around! Now the nice thing about Korean volleyball is that the height of the net is low, so I can actually spike and block at the net (handy since Korean's don't rotate so I'm ALWAYS playing front row centre, ie I'm blocking every spike coming from the other side). We didn't win our game, but the guys team did and here everyone seems to genuinely enjoy playing the game so there was no sourness about our near miss. Afterwards, they gave out draw prizes. My number was picked from a hat and I got (drum roll please…): a tube of toothpaste! A tube of toothpaste?When I got home my muscles were killing me. Truth be told they had been killing me since Monday. So I decided it was time to check out the sauna at the DongSu gym beside my apartment building. It was exactly what I needed. This sauna has two sauna rooms: a salt sauna and a crystal sauana and 5 different baths of various temperature and featuring powerful jets of water you can turn on if you like (great for getting out those kinks!) The two-hour soak was exactly what I needed.Thursday October 9, 2008 You still with me? Ok so Thursday Seonhee informs me that the school is going to pay for the teachers to go to the Cinema downtown in the afternoon and that we are going to drop by a cellphone store and see if we can get me a phone even though I don't have my ARC card back yet. We saw "Go Go 70" about a Korean rock band in the 1970's named "The Devils" who became famous playing western rock music and were consequently thrown in jail when the government put western rock and roll under prohibition. Good movie, although it was all in Korean. Afterwards I got a cell phone! Yay! Seon-hee put it in her name to save some me money and just like that, I was a cell phone carrier. It's a new experience for me, but I like the security it gives me, living in a foreign country. Once the cell phone was bought, I went out for dinner with Dean (the coordinator for teachers in Suncheon) and his wife Mandy, who live just two floors up from me. We went to one of the only Italian restaurants in the city, the Gran Piatto, and I had some DELICIOUS chicken pizza. I didn't realize how much I would miss western food until I got here. Breads and cheeses are enough to make you stop dead in your tracks if you see/smell them. Dean and Mandy were very kind, and also lent me their hammer when my vanity fell apart that night while I was rearranging the furniture.

I'm having a tremendous time, even though its still an emotional rollercoaster. Everyday is something new. As promised here is my contact information:

Please send mail to:

Ms. Annalisa Haessler

c/0 Suncheon Girls High School
88 Bunji, Jeojeon-dong

Suncheon city, Jeollanamdo

South Korea

Postal Code: 540-180

It's safer to send my mail to the school, kids may get curious about Canadian mail at my apartment and the mailboxes aren't locked. I would love to hear from you!Cell phone: 010-5872-5161.

To dial direct from Canada you would dial 011-82-10-5872-5161 (right mom?) Don't worry about the time difference, call me ANYTIME!!! Stay tuned for my next blog featuring: mountain hike and temple excursion, bowling and noribang with the waygooks, the jinju lantern festival and my first week of teaching!Thanks for all your support. I miss you and love you all, hugs from the other side of the planet!!!

Lisa