Owner: documentarist URL:http://documentarist.blogspot.com Join Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2007 02:05:13 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: my life as an esl teacher in south korea. culture shock to friends, to food, to school... lots of photos and updated daily. Site statistics:Click here
changes 1970-01-01 00:59:59 as you may have noticed, i am making some changes
to my blog... bear with me while i get this done... i was desperate for a three column page, and have finally found a template, but it'll take me a few days to get everything up to speed... thanks for understanding!
miss positive 1970-01-01 00:59:59 sorry i haven't updated for a few days... i usually try to write something every day, but i guess i just haven't been inspired and didn't want to bore you all - my loyal readers! thank you for coming back!this week i have been working at the gimhae middle school winter camp. i have to commute to get to the school, something which i was not looking forward to, but which really hasn't been so bad. it has kind of made me feel normal again. i usually walk to school, which is strange for me, coming from the city, where i usually spent at least 30 minutes in transit to get to work... so taking the bus has been pretty good. i catch the 1-1 across the street from my house and it takes a little over 30 minutes for me to get off just down the street from the school the camp is being held. who'd have thought that i'd ever enjoy commuting.it's nice because it gives me time in the morning to enjoy my enviro-mug full of coffee, and i can think and look out the window at the world coming to li
changes, part two 1970-01-01 00:59:59 well, things are coming together... it'll be a while still until everything is looking the way i really want it to, but i finally found a way to make my regular template (which i love) into a three column... i just wouldn't have been happy with anything else. and thanks to the incredible hans of beautiful beta i have successfully edited the style sheet and html code all on my own! THANKS HANS! there are a few tweaks necessary, and hopefully i'll have them figured out soon... until then, bear with me! :) Read more:changes
saturday night fever 1970-01-01 00:59:59 this past weekend was the birthday of one of the gimhae ex-pats - kerry. she'll be going home to the UK at the end of february and so wanted to go out in busan to her favourite bar - the fuzzy navel. i wasn't sure if i was going or not since i'm on my way to seoul this coming weekend, and a night out in busan can get expensive... i also didn't want to destroy my sunday by having to recuperate from saturday... we usually get back to gimhae somewhere around 5 am when we go...but after being persuaded with tales of "a light night out" and "not coming back late" i headed in around 7pm with a bunch of friends from gimhae... we headed to the seomyeon area (of nye dinner fame) to have dinner. we ended up at one of the most kitsch (sp?) (ie. cheesy) restaurants i have ever been to in my life! it was called 'gorilla':that's one of the waiters... the food was pretty good. kim and i shared a plate of fried rice with cheese and a big chicken salad with kiwi (!) dressing. the boys had differ
whaddya think? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 well, i think
it's done.how do you like the new look?it took longer than i thought/was hoping it would, but i think it's worth it. some changes that i've made:left side columnnew colours all aroundright sidebar background imagenew header *designed by melots of new linkslabels (in a cool label cloud)well, when i look at it like that it's really not that much, but it took a long time... guess i forgot most of what "they" taught me in uni about coding... but with the help of google i managed to find all kinds of great tips online.i know it's not all super stream-lined and curvy like my old template, i really liked the rounded corners, but it's really more trouble than it's worth, but maybe i'll do it eventually... for now i'm happy with what i've got... and i hope you are too.let me know what you think... please, don't be shy about it... is it too dark? hard to see? is it eye-catching? what do you think of the graphics? PLEASE tell me!!! i worked on it pretty hard and feed back
gyeongju - the finale. 1970-01-01 00:59:59 in the morning we were woken by someone and told we had to get up or we would miss breakfast. it was already 8 and it was only being served until 8:30. we weren't too fussed about it, since none of us really like to eat rice and seaweed soup in the morning, so we took our time getting up. in a period of about 20 minutes five different koreans came knocking on our door reminding us to get up for breakfast! (on a side note koreans are under the impression that no foreigners ever eat in the morning.)we missed breakfast.but that was ok... eileen had some nuts and dried banana, and i had some crackers, so we ate those. at nine all the kids and teachers were rounded up for an english competition. of course, it was outside in the same place as the bonfire the night before, even though it was freezing... and the wind coming off the lake didn't make it any better. after a while emma and i snuck inside to where the competition was moving after they had gotten the contestants down to 200 studen
gyeongju - part two 1970-01-01 00:59:59 after spending much of the afternoon in the cold at the amusement park everyone split up to "play games or whatever" with the kids. my group ended up singing some kids songs - the muffin man, humpty dumpty, if you're happy and you know it - i knew all of them from my childhood, and these kids were really great at singing them. they were in four groups and i had to choose the 'winner' (the group that sang the best) of every song - the teams had names: peace, surprise, excalibur, and chicken! i excalibur won this game. (yes, excalibur, they couldn't tell us what it was, but they chose that as their name anyway)after that we played a "hugging game" where the kids all held hands in a circle and then i yelled out a number - say 13 - and they had to get into groups of that number. whoever was left out at the end was out of the game. the ten students left at the end were the winners. did i mention that if they won we showered them with lollies and chocolate? ya, that's a good idea, sugar
some of my favourite... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 bushisms that have been posted here over the last little while... i change them almost daily (when i remember) so maybe you've missed a few... enjoy!"We thought we were protected forever from trade policy or terrorist attacks because oceans protected us." --George w. BushSantiago, Chile11/20/2004speaking to business leaders at APEC Summit"I'm the master of low expectations." --George w. Bushaboard Air Force One06/04/2003"I'm a follower of American politics." --George w. BushCrawford, TX08/08/2003"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures." --George w. Bush01/03/2000"Actually, I --this may sound a little West Texas to you, but I like it. When I'm talking about-- when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about me." --George w. BushHardball, MSNBC05/31/2000"Brie and cheese." --George w. BushCrawford, TX08/23/2001to reporters, on what he imagines reporters eatthat last one is one of my all t
trekkin' 1970-01-01 00:59:59 in the spirit of becoming a "hiking kind of person" (see previous post 'up, up, and down') i went for a hike today. i suppose i could have gone for longer, but two hours seemed like a decent length of time for my second hike of the year... and my first real one since october. before that it had been years... sorry, just a little pat on the back for myself there...my hike began as all korean hiking experiences start (well, many anyway) on a road.you have to take a road up part of the way up the mountain in order to get to the good part - the actual mountain. even though i technically live in the foothills of the mountain i was climbing, everything is just so built up... as you'll see.part way up you can veer off onto a path that follows the road, but much of it has been paved with cement. i wonder if this is to make it easier to get up in the wet season... anyway, it just doesn't feel like nature... gotta keep climbing for that... right?i came to this bridge, and though there wasn'
a quickie... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 don't have much time to write at the moment, but rest assured there will be some neat stuff up here soon... a friend of mine hooked me up with a gig in gyeongju - a winter camp - and i got back from it today. it was only one day and a sleepover, but it was so surreal and strange that i can't wait to write about it... so stay tuned, until tomorrow... i'll have pictures and fun stories for all! but in the meantime, enjoy this:baboons
winter camp @ gyeongju world - part one 1970-01-01 00:59:59 on tuesday i got an email from my friend emma. she was going to be working at a winter
camp and they needed some extra waegooks (foreigners) to come along... so i volunteered. we would be going to gyeongju and staying overnight, everything was planned already, and all we had to do was show up.gyeongju is the ancient capital of the silla (pronounced shilla) dynasty which ruled korea for about a thousand years. it's about an hour and a half north of here (gimhae) in the province of gyeongsangbuk (i live in gyeongsangnam - nam means south and buk means north). in 1979 gyeongju was recognized as one of the worlds ten most important ancient cultural cities by UNESCO; it is also home to six world heritage sites. there are hundreds of royal tombs, temples, palace sites, fortress ruins, and pagodas. this is just to give you an idea of the kind of place we were going... so much history, interesting sites, and cultural heritage to learn about. we were excited. but, this being korea, the camp wa
RE: whaddya think? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 thanks for the feedback guys (and gals) will look into your suggestions when i'm back from seoul... stay tuned... next post will be minimum next tuesday... so watch out for me... i should get one of those "subscribe to me" things on here, shouldn't i??? and any more feed back from anyone else is always appreciated!yay! i'm on vacation!!! c ya! Read more:think
a whirlwind weekend - pt.1 (friday) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 it's ten past midnight and i just got home from my whirlwind weekend in Seoul. i hadn't been up there yet, and since i'm on vacation this week, and my friend kim was meeting some friends there this weekend, i hopped on the KTX with her. of course, the first thing i have to do when i get home is upload my pictures and start posting!!! can't keep my away from here for long! so, in that vein, here is part one of my whirlwind weekend... it'll take a few days to post it all, since i'll go step by step and don't want to overwhelm all of my loyal readers...FRIDAYit already feels like a hundred years ago... i had to work until 4:30. our train (on the KTX - not sure what it actually stands for, but it's the bullet train... and goes up to 300 kilometers per hour) was at 9:13PM... so we met at Gupo station around 8:30.i'm lucky that i live pretty close to the high speed train, it only takes me about thirty minutes on the bus and another ten on the subway... if i lived any further west it
miscellaneous 1970-01-01 00:59:59 in keeping with the posting madness that has been going on here of late, i feel that i need to write something today. i hope you all enjoyed my trip to seoul... it already feels like a million years ago. since then i have been to ulsan and back, climbed a mountain, done a major clean up of my apartment, and started back at school. i'll make this quick.thursday i went to visit kat in ulsan. we had some good foreign food, some good korean food, and some good times at the noraebang... nothing too crazy happened, except that i saw rachel from orientation - hadn't seen her since way back in august - and we met a guy from athens named panos... which freaked me out a bit since my best friends' boyfriend goes by the same description.like i said, i'm making this quick... so here are a couple of pics to tide you over...me in my new hat - hand made by katmore korean errors... wapple? or waFFle??gotta go! gotta go! gotta go! (on the ladies room door at the WA Bar in Ulsan)on the wall next to t
Whirlwind pt.8 1970-01-01 00:59:59 (or more celectronics than you can imagine and the continuation of the search for merrell shoes - OR finally the end of these posts on seoul!!!)monday morning we had to get up early (10ish) since check out was at eleven... check out at kim's guest house means dropping your keys and sheets into a box in the living room...everything is paid for when you check in, so there's no hassles when you leave... we had our coffee and toast and headed to seoul station to find a locker to drop off our many bags. cyndi's flight was leaving at 8pm so we had the whole day to do more exploring and we knew we had to go to the electronics market.yongsan stationafter dropping our stuff in the locker, which turned out to be more difficult than it should have been, we headed to yongsan station and the yongsan electronics arcade. there are over 7,000 stores in 24 buildings covering an area of nearly 900,000 square meters! i was like a kid in a candy store!the first building we saw when we came out of the s
i've been tagged...again... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 this tagging business can be annoying, but oddly i couldn't stop thinking about this one...the top five songs i would play at my own funeral and though it is rather morbid... it's also kind of fun...as kassandra (who tagged me) insinuated, the cure makes the top of the list. i actually thought of listing the entire album 'disintegration' but i'll settle for this (which isn't even from that album):the cure - the funeral party. partly because of the title, but there are other reasons that i would rather not get in to here... just take it at face value... oh, and the above video is not approved by the cure, but made by some guy who posted it on youtube...thanks, or i never would've found this song to play here!number 2:the smashing pumpkins - 1979. from a great time in my life...oh to be young again... plus it has great bass, a great beat, and you can all dance and sing along!number 3:the doves - there goes the fear. why? well, really it's just one of my favourite songs... it help
a post a day...or insomnia relief 1970-01-01 00:59:59 i'm trying to write a post a day, since i got the ball nicely rolling after my trip to seoul. i realize that for some of you this could be rather annoying as you'll have catching up to do all the time. oh well... sorry. the good new is that the majority of my posts will likely be short.today was grey and dark with rain throughout the day. the weather was simply mirroring how i felt. i stayed out too late last night and had a rough time getting up this morning. i spent much of the morning in the ladies 'rest' room at school - sleeping... it doesn't help that my insomnia has returned with a vengeance of late. that's why i'm here now... i've been trying to sleep for an hour and it's just not happening. so, the best thing to do is get out of bed, do something else for a while and try again later. at least that's what the pros say.it's been a rough week with the return to class and the not sleeping, but tomorrow is friday - always a good thing. i'd like to go hiking this weekend Read more:relief
run-of-the-mill...and/or wishing for a real holiday 1970-01-01 00:59:59 another dark morning of rain today. my neighbourhood was literally in the clouds this morning with visibility down to a few blocks. it still amazes me to look up at the mountains that surround me here and it's even more amazing when they're covered in mist. i've tried to take pictures of it, but they just never come out right... maybe one day i'll get that perfect shot and share it with you.other than that, it was a pretty run-of-the-mill day. school, nap, school, lunch, school, and home. i didn't sleep well/much last night so was pretty knackered for much of the day. am going out in gimhae this evening - hopefully it'll tire me out and i'll get a good nights' tonight.the sun did finally make an appearance around 4:30, which was nice... i hope that bodes well for the weekend... though i really don't have anything to complain about weather-wise, it's been up in the teens all week... which is better, much better, than what i'd be experiencing back home. hope you aren't all fr
Whirlwind pt.7 1970-01-01 00:59:59 (or more shopping and eating)we left gangnam around sunset. we were meeting dan at dongdaemun market at 8, so we had some time to shop in this incredible shopping area. i would recommend this place to anyone visiting seoul... the best shopping in the country can be found here.dongdaemun is the big black spot!i had been looking for a pair of jeans for two days, but never found anything that fit that wasn't covered in sparkles, glitter or other weird decorations... but i did at dongdaemun. i am now the proud owner of a pair of 100% korean jeans! and actually, after wearing them for a day, they're too big... i should've gone down a size... oh well, at least i know where to go in the future!all malls... shopping, shopping, shopping...we ended up in this mall called "doota!" i didn't take any photos... not sure why, maybe i was justso amazed by the floors and floors of clothes, purses, jewelry, shoes, and everything else under the sun... i was dazzled and too busy looking around to take
Kim's Guest House 1970-01-01 00:59:59 (or whirlwind weekend pt.2)SaturdayKim woke up really early and went to fetch her Cyndi (from the states) who is travelling in asia and stopped in seoul for the weekend. i slept through her arrival and woke just before eleven.since we'd gotten in pretty late the night before i didn't really get a chance to 'take in' our guest house but i did in the morning. i let the girls sleep a little longer and got up to make myself a cup o' joe and some toast - included in the 15,000 won/night we paid for the accomodation. which, by the way, is totally cheap - around 17 $ cdn.it's like a hostel, but since we were three we got our own room instead of the 'dorm' style room that they also have... you can check out their website since i linked to it in part one of the trip. anyway, it's much nicer than a lot of hostels that i've stayed in and with breakfast to boot! the room was clean, the sheets were clean, there was a space heater in our room too, and air conditioning in the summer. we had Read more:Guest
, House
Whirlwind pt.4 1970-01-01 00:59:59 (or OMG how many parts is this going to have?!?!? a: as many as it takes!)Insadongtook the subway up there...this area is north of the city center. it didn't take too long on the subway to get there, and was totally worth visiting. again, it's a market centered area with shops lining the streets, but it was WAY cooler than intaewon. it is the artist district and most of the shops were run by artisans and tons of little galleries. you could find many kinds of art here... i'll have to go back before i leave korea to spend lots of money on things like: paintings, ceramics, sculptures, and traditional art.even the benches have sculptures on them! cute little froggies! the street was very busy with people, and the shops all have their wares outside on the street... just down the way we found the free hug girl:i got one from her... it wasn't very good... she probably does it to meet cute boys or something... she didn't speak any english so when i asked her why she was giving away free h
Whirlwind pt.3 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Saturdayafter a groggy late morning of free (what they call) coffee and toast we headed out of our little guest house into the big city of Seoul.a little background -- Seoul means "national capital" in korean, but the city was called Gyeongseong until 1945.- seoul has a population of around 10.2 million (ten times montreal!).- it has been the capital of korea for over 600 years.- the logo to the right is the "city's brand" which was adopted in 2002. (i found this on the internet and find it odd that i didn't know this until after i came home... i didn't see this logo anywhere...) and from the website: "The name combines the greeting "Hi" with the name of the city "Seoul," the new brand aims to convey a friendly image of Seoul to the global community, and to promote harmony and unity among Seoul citizens."- "the cuddly mascot tiger "Wangbeomi" was born in Feb. 19, 1998. It represents the proud citizens of Seoul with a strong spirit, an open m
Whirlwind pt.5 1970-01-01 00:59:59 (or a night out in seoul)after a long day of walking in the cold shopping and shopping and shopping, we were going to meet up with a friend of kim's from the US - Dan lives and teaches in seoul. we were going to meet him in the Hongik University area, which is only one subway stop from our guest house, so we headed back to the guest house to drop off all our bags.only one stop...so we walked it!we stopped off for some bbq on the way and walked the one stop on the subway instead of taking it... gotta work off all that pork! so we were to meet dan at - get this! - the HO Bar! he thinks they screwed up the english translation of the chinese character for 'how' since it's posted outside... oh well, it was so funny.so we walked up the street to look for the Ho Bar and found it:unfortunately we didn't notice the III (three) on it... guess what!? there are five Ho Bars!!! so after exploring two of the three floors, we called dan to figure out what the deal was and were informed that we
one mountain, two mountain, three mountain, four? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 i finally got a decent nights' sleep last night. i woke up at a reasonable hour, cleaned the house, and headed to the hills.i was planning on following a different route this time - one that would take me to the top of mount sino... but i ended up going the other way again... i just can't figure out where the path is. i think i'm going to have to walk up the road and that just sucks. after figuring out where i was going i was thinking i'd just get to the top of the first mountain and head back down. it takes about an hour to get up and i thought i'd been there before. well, i hadn't, but i did today.the 'top' of mountain one.when i got to the top i wasn't ready to turn back, i still had the rest of the day ahead, and figured that while i was up there i might as well see where the path goes... so i kept going, and saw this ahead:it looks more daunting than it is...so i just kept going. and going. and going.it got pretty steep for a bit. i kept imagining what this would look lik
i don't like mondays 1970-01-01 00:59:59 who does?but it seems that mondays always offer up some kind of bad news of late. last week was the first day back after winter "vacation"... that is for the korean teachers, i'd only had one week off. and today i found out that i will have to go and sit as school twiddling my thumbs for another two weeks during spring "vacation".the korean education system is fucked up. i mean, school really finished in december - the teachers were done with the text books and the students had finished their exams - now we've had another week of school - six weeks later - where none of the kids can/want to pay attention. we have a graduation ceremony for the grade three class tomorrow, then another two days of teaching the grade ones and twos before the "end" of the school year. then we have another two week 'holiday' (well, the koreans do anyway)... so, the korean school year looks like this:march ~ 5th - new year starts.july/august - summer vacation (i think two weeks in july and three in augus
i'm the proud new owner... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 of a korean gym membership!i've been thinking of joining a gym since i got here... and today i finally went and did it. going to the gym is good for me. it's important for me. especially since last summer when my back did that whole i'm-going-to-screw-you-like-never-before herniated disc thing. after recuperating from it i was doing my physio-therapy exercises every day and then swimming most days for a good two months, and i hadn't felt better - physically and emotionally - for years.when i arrived in korea i kept doing my physio - most of the time - but slowly it tapered down until i felt like a complete lazy ass. recently i've gotten on this hiking kick, and it has reminded me how much i used to love to exercise. so why can't i again?so, today, when the entire teaching staff of my school was taken out for lunch next door to the gym around the corner from my house i got a korean to come in and help me get some info. (can anyone say run-on-sentence???haha) it's WAY more expensi Read more:new owner
oh happy day! 1970-01-01 00:59:59 well, this has been a week of surprises... good, bad, and in-between... but today held the best news i've received since arriving in korea... my co-teacher has been transferred to a different school!!!! that means i have a new co-teacher - jo - the awesomest teacher at my school.i sit next to her and she's already been so helpful through all the jay crap. this is a nice turn of events. i also found out that i'll be at my regular middle school on monday, tuesday and wednesdays and going to sino middle school on thursdays and fridays. this is also a good thing since it is in walking distance to my house. i was worried they were going to start sending me to a school with no bus service that i would have to walk over an hour to get to... but no! they sent me to the closer one. i've heard it's one of the worst schools in gimhae, but if i can survive the one i'm at now, i think i can survive anything!things really are looking up. i'm on my way to go swimming with emma... and i got two
is it a sign? or should i convert? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 (disclaimer: if you are easily offended by matters of others' faith, do not read on.)i think that god is trying to find me in south korea. everywhere i go i run into another korean woman trying to sign me up for her church.when i was a kid my dad used to drag me to church every sunday. i'd be relegated to the sunday school with all the other kids and i found it interminably boring. then when i moved to quebec i became fast friends with a girl whose mother was a devout christian. they went to church every sunday and said grace before every meal... they approved every song and book their children were exposed to - to make sure there wasn't anything evil in it - they were the definition of piety in all respects... and they desperately wanted to make me one of god's children.i wasn't allowed to sleep over at their house unless it was saturday. that meant i had to go to church with them in the morning. i remember them bringing me to a billy graham function once and making me accept je
school's out 1970-01-01 00:59:59 yesterday was the last day of the school year. see posts below for what i think of the korean school year... i just thought since today was pretty chill (went to school for a couple of hours, then to the gym, then watched the latest episode of lost) that i'd post a few pictures of my school... since i spend so much time there... here it is:my school from the entrance. it looks nicer than it is! they're big into the landscaping though... so it can be very pretty when all the plants are actually green and growing.my shoe locker. we all have to take off our shoes when we enter the school, so we have lockers for our 'outdoor' shoes. i also have a pair of school shoes inside.the front entrance from the side. the principals' office is in the windows on the first floor on the right... the teachers office is right on top.a typical hallway. the boxes on the left are the students shoes lockers... they have to walk through the school with no shoes on to get to their school shoes. some of the
happy new year, the second. 1970-01-01 00:59:59 All over Asia the lunar New Year is being celebrated this weekend, and in Korea, it's called Sol-nal.Korea used a lunar calendar until the late 19th century when Christian missionaries started influencing their way of life. Soon after, the Japanese gained control of the peninsula and switched them to the Gregorian calendar (which they had already been using for several decades). Though Koreans celebrate the solar new year along with the rest of the world, the lunar new year is much more important to them.Being a culture of tradition, the lunar New Year is about honouring your ancestors and spending time with family. It's not about firecrackers, dancing, and parties, like many other Asian countries. As in most other things, Koreans are much more subdued when it comes to celebrations.the year of the pig.This year lunar New Year marks the beginning of the year of the pig. All over Korea there have been pigs statues, pig key chains, piggy banks, and millions of other pig things on sale
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