January

For being on vacation, I sure feel like I'm busy!

January has flown by and I can't believe that soon it will be February.

Which is good I suppose as it means that we're one month closer to warmer weather and I'm getting closer to leaving on my trip to Thailand.

Still keeping me busy this month is trying to study Korean and my TEFL course and banging my head at spin class.

Stephanie, Darren and I rented a car last week and drove across the country to see the old historical temples and things of Korea. Driving in Korea is always an adventure and even more so this time, as I completely forgot to ask for a GPS system.

So the atlas was cracked for the whole trip and we all had to work on our navigating skills.

On our way East we stopped at nearby Wolchulsan National park and the Boseong green tea plantation.

The first night we decided to bypass the city we had planned to stay in and head to beautiful Busan. The coastal city which was once one of the largest port cities in the world.

We wanted to head to the Haeundae area which is right on the coast and has a great Indian restaurant that I definitely wanted to get to that night.

Being only another 109 km away, I figured it wouldn't take us all that long to get there not including the time to figure our way around the city and get to Haeundae.

Well, it definitely took longer than expected but we made it and got to see quite a bit of Busan while driving around and made it to the Indian restaurant before it closed!

The next day we took a lovely walk along the water and made our way to Gyeongju, the historical area where we went to Bulguksa, the largest temple in Korea and saw some huge tombs.

We were excited to get back to our 5 star hotel (which I got for $70 online) where we could enjoy the hot springs, the lovely view and just relaxing.

I spent quite a bit of time in the sauna and got an amazing massage from an adjumma.

It was a fabulous way to end the day.

The next day we fueled ourselves for the long drive home with these amazing buns from this bakery. Oh my goodness, they are amazing!

Darren took the morning shift as he is a morning person and I am definitely not.

After a while we arrived at a tool gate. We were hoping that it was one where you take your ticket and not a toll gate where you give them a ticket and pay as we did not have any recent toll gate tickets in the car.

Sure enough, it's a give your ticket and pay type gate. Oh man.

So we had to pull over to this little booth thing and wait for this other couple to finish their dealings with the boothe lady.

We had to fill out some paperwork and the couple was nice enough to help us but we still ended up waiting about 10-15 minutes to finally figure out how much we were going to owe for not having out toll gate ticket.

Turns out it was only 3 bucks and we were standing there for that whole time wondering what our punishment was going to be.

A whole 3 bucks!

Like you couldn't have said that 10 minutes ago. hahaha

So we were on our way.

After missing a higway turn off and finally making our way back on course we noticed that the weather was drastically different from the weather we had that morning.

We were welcomed back to Mokpo with a lovely blizzard.

We think we are cursed as when we returned to Mokpo with Stephanie the first time, it was also a blizzard.

I hope this is the last one of the season!

Tomorrow Stephanie and I are heading back to Busan to spend the night and then take the "Beetle" ship to Fukuoka, Japan where we will spend 2 nights.

After that, we will spend one day in Mokpo and then head to Seoul again to send Steph on her way to Sydney, AUS.

Pepsi and Ring Dings ( Seinfeld)

Guest Blogger 2
So I was invited t o what I thought was a house warming party. The traditional gift is toilet paper or paper towel. I double checked with my Korean friend who was giving me a ride to the party- "what should I bring --wine? or TP?" --I was reassured that TP was ok. A party pack of Tp and paper towels in a very trendy Nike bag-- to my surprise it was a dinner party very traditional dinner , sitting on the floor and Korean bbq . Thanks for dinner --here is your TP -- my place next weekend?

Dear Owner

This is your stomach speaking.

Regarding last night and the amount of work you gave me.

It was a little too much to handle and I'm sorry I had to do what I did to you during the night.

But it was too much! I had to send some back!


Last night was a friend's birthday and we were going to a restaurant that I had never been to before and I didn't want to chance it, that I wouldn't be able to eat much there b/c of the meat situation so I had a huge, delicious, plate of pasta before we went.

So we get to the restaurant and I notice all of this deliciousness in front of me and I totally could have eaten a great meal there.

So, already being full, I decide to try just 'a couple' of things. Deep fried sweet potato, deep friend dough with sugar on top.
And that was basically it I think.

Feeling VERY full and quite gross while we went bowling, I got home and immediately popped some TUMS as I was feeling sick.

My stomach went on strike, and I don't blame it, and I ended up puking.
Of course it was gross but at least the after taste was of sugary dough! hahaha
Not like the last time I puked which was just in December which tasted like spicy Korean food.
THAT was terrible.

Yum.

Burning Flesh

Mmmmhmmm, nothing like the smell of a little bit of burning flesh.

Why is my flesh burning?

After several years of relentless sun worshipping, my face has developed several new spots.

Turns out, a student of mine that I have developed a relationsip with, her father is a skin Dr. guy.
Soooo, my friend Jocelyn and I went down to the clinic yesterday to talk skin.

The Dr. asked me which dots I wanted taken off and there was so many to choose from I didn't know which ones to pick under the pressure!
I ended up picking out 10 spots that irritate me and on went the topical cream to freeze the area a little.
I didn't know that I was actually gonna get them taken off today!

Jocelyn got a prescription for some magical acne pills and was told to eat more. Ha ha ha.

Meanwhile I sat with 10 spots of cream on my face for 30 minutes before the burning procedure could start.
When the time was up, we went into the burning room.

I layed (correct word?) on the bed and was a little nervous and then the burning began. Not painful except for the one that is very close to my eye which required a lot of burning and REALLY stunk!

So it all went well and now I'm walking around with 10 band-aid squares on my face.

My favorite part of the whole procedure though, is when we are putting our jackets on and Jocelyn says, "Imagine what it must have smelled like in a concentration camp with all of those burning bodies".

Hahhahahaha!!!! No, I can't imagine actually.

Dong Chim

Just a random funny story I thought of.

Here in Korea, kids and maybe even adults seem to enjoy poking at each other's asshole.

You can do it too.

1. Put your palms together
2. Interlock your fingers except for your index fingers
3. Your index fingers should now be making a point, almost like a gun
4. When your friend isn't looking, shove those index fingers up into their pants
5. You have successfully executed a Dong Chim

Anyway, the story is, Darren was at his swimming lesson practicing away when he felt something violate him from behind.
He turns and it's his swim coach giving him a Dong Chim for not doing something properly in the drill or whatever.

hahahha

now go practice!

December Update and Stuff

Decemeber is great for many reasons.

School is coming to an end which means the beginning of a 2 month paid vacation for many public school teachers including myself, Christmas, my favorite holiday, is coming and with any luck, some snow will grace the ground.

Christmas was really nice, except for REALLY wanting to be with my family.

Darren and I exchanged gifts and had yummy Christmas pancakes and then a really nice dinner with some friends.

We unfortuntaley had to go to school on boxing day which might actually be the first time that I have had to work on that day!

If you can even call it work. I showed movies and played games for almost all of December.

As of the 30th, we have both started our winter vacation which I welcomed very much after having a less than fabulous first term at my new school.

New year's was pretty mellow. It was bitch cold that day as I remember it being last year as well so we ordered pizza and surprise! watched a movie and then went over to some friends' place for some wine and games.

They wanted to celebrate the new year at a bar so Darren and I decided to actually GO to a movie in the theater. It was good.

Since being on vacation I have started to study Korean with a student of mine and am taking Tesol online in hopes of being armed with some new tricks for the new term in March.

I am also hittin the gym hard in order to look good in my bikini when I go to Thailand next month!

I am SO excited. I plan to see many beautiful things, swim and snorkel and maybe surf in the ocean, burn my skin while also getting many massages and just pampering myself.

Also, Darren's sister has just arrived to Korea for a month long visit here on the peninsula.

Although this is not her first time travelling abroad, this is her first time to Asia and to a country where YOU are the minority and everything you know from comfortable Canada is different.

We plan on renting a car and driving around visiting some temples and stuff and seeing how many gross foods we can convince Stephanie to try.

She's already one upped me in that today she ate cow stomach with Darren and his principal!!!!

GROSS!

That's about it for now.

Will be in touch more often. I promise!

Hope everyone, everywhere is fabulous and WARM!

Kernels and Friends

Apparently even when I'm on vacation and have LOTS of time on my hands, I still find it difficult to update this damn thing!

First thing I have wanted to note was something that happened a few Saturday nights ago.

To preface, Darren and I love to watch movies and eat popcorn. I know, exciting, but it's great to us.
UNLESS, we go to make popcorn and the container is empty.

So, I briskly ran to the mart across the street where we usually buy our kernels and excitedly came home to make our blessed corn.

When I opened the bag I thought that I noticed a little something extra in there but I wasn't sure.
Part of thought, don't worry, don't look again, it's nothing, just make the popcorn and enjoy!

But I had to look and good thing I did.
The little something extra was a little larvae of some sort that had attached itself to the inside of the bag.
Oh fuck is what I'm pretty sure I said.

It was SO disgusting AND now I don't get to have my popcorn!

damn it.

A few days later Darren went to the same mart to check out the popcorn situation and carefully studied the bag of kernels.
Again, there was another larvae in the other bags at the store.

We now go to another store across town to get our poprcorn kernels and thouroughly inspect the bags before we buy them!