the end! (for now)

alright, this has been a long time coming, but I'm back in Canada thus ending my 3-year Korean hiatus. There were good times, there were awesome times.
Stumble upon my BLOG and have questions about Korea? email me! I love talking about it.

To satisfy the one or two people who may actually wonder where I am now, I'm at home with Mom and Dad (after 7 years away from home). I'm going to teacher's college at Brock University for Junior Intermediate French. Yeah, that's right.

Anyway, it's been educational, eh? Thanks to all the readers, whoever and wherever you are. If I happen to find myself in Korea again, I'll reopen this bad boy!

PEACE!

more birthday wishes

a poem for my dad, who is now 58...or 59.

"i'll tell your father" mom used to say
a threat that would keep our shenanigans at bay
little did we know that back in the day
dad was much tamer than mom (but in a good way)

when i was too little to hold your hand
i'd sit on your shoulders and survey the land
from those heights i felt i could stand
and hold the world in my grasp, at my command (i had a vivid imagination)

now we're both older and i'd have to guess
sitting on your shoulders would cause you some stress
but that doesn't mean i love you any less!
we all grow up! but i digress.

Happy Birthday dad! I love you to bits!
when it comes to fathers, you're one of the greatest hits!

pot pourri

today is my last day at a Korean middle school for a long long time. I feel good about it. it's lunch break and I have only 1 class left - high level grade 1s. JOY! BLISS!

so, why am I typing a blog when it's lunchtime and should be stuffing my face? well, it seems that the last meal they should serve in my cafeteria is the one meal i will walk away from given the choice. Bibimbap. For those of you not in Korea, "bibim" mean "mixed" and "bap" can either mean "cooked rice" or "a meal". Anyway it's a mixture of sticky white rice, various overcooked/boiled veggies, roots, sprouts, etc, maybe some shredded pork. The sauce (cuz you always need sauce here) is red pepper paste, which i detest. Now, in all fairness, bibimbap is one of the korean meals that the majority of foreigners enjoy. This is classic picky Vanessa coming out. I've tried eating it without the sauce, but what your left with is, well, a bland mixture of cooked veggies and rice. not awesome. usually i try to eat some. sit down with the teachers, allow them to cluck their tongues at me. Today, however, i just turned around and walked out. it's like my body said "nope, not this time, not on your last day". Turns out skipping a meal at school is cause for major tongue clucking. whatever, I got a teacher's milk out of the deal. I'll go and eat something after 5th period :P
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yesterday i went to a nearby mart to pick up some baking supplies. I passed a man with a little girl (about 6 years old). The man turn to me, waved and said "hi", then tried forcing his daughter to do the same. I noticed that the girl was on the verge of tears and then the powerful stench of soju struck my olfactory. what the hell is this guy doing pissed drunk at 6pm with his young daughter? i wouldn't be at all surprised if he had driven to the store either.
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I was talking with a Korean man who used to work in the office at the yeonsuwon (he recently transfered to a school. He loves to study and practice English, so we chat sometimes. He told me that the other day, he didn't sleep well because his son was awake watching TV until 5 am. I asked how old his son was, expecting him to be a teenager, but no, his son is....wait for it... 4 years old!! WTF?!? Has anyone heard of a bedtime? I wanted my next question to mirror that sentiment, but instead I toned it down to "Why was he awake so late? kids should sleep at night." Apparently the kid had been sleeping all day and woke up at 6pm. That awesome if your rearing an owl, wombat, or any other kind of nocturnal beast, but yo! get a clue. your kid's 4, he needs a bit more guidance in his life choices.
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here are some phrases I've recently seen on Korean clothing and accessories:
"black knickers, white girls"
white knickers, black girls
no knickers, loose girls"

" meat puppets, descendants, angst"

"poodle butts"

"i'm so hungover i wish i was dead" (note, upon reading this, my first reaction was not "that's an awful thing for a young girl to have on her t-shirt". rather, it was "yo, grammatically, it should say i wish i were")

"a call-to-arms for all chunkily-penised boy to do her right and do her good."

what's alarming about some of these is that over the past 3 years, i've noticed that the english on "konglish" shirts has improved a lot, but I'm wondering who the hell they have sitting in a room thinking up shit like "chunkily-penised". not a pretty picture.
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got some more info about teachers college that has further made me regret ever taking french as an elective. not only did it force me to do summer school for 3 years in university, but now i have to take an extra elective at teachers college along with the catholic education elective. that puts me at a whopping 32.5 hours a week of classes. nice. (oh yeah, and an extra $1000 in tuition). my degree better be embossed in gold.
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hmmm, back to happy feelings. in a week and a half, i will be free as a bird for 1 month (before coming home). sprinkled in there are random trips to japan and busan. other than that, this girl will be takin it easy. hells yeah.

for my seester

Hello!

To some people, today (july 2nd), is simply "Canada Hangover Day", but to me, today is much more awesome. It's the day we can all celebrate the birth of my big sister, Bernadette. w00t!

My celebration will be in the form of recounting random memories from our childhoods. Enjoy!

Aged 6-9 - Going out into the rain (or just after) armed with plastic ponchos and old margarine containers filled with dirt, Bern and I would worm hunt. We'd rescue poor stranded wormy souls from the sidewalk and give them a new home in our plastic jar. I don't know what happened to them when we were finished. Mom?

Aged 12-14 - Spending our summer afternoons in the cool basement eating candy and playing cards. She would always win. Recently she told me it was because she always cheated and I just never noticed. I'm not mad though.

Aged 8(ish) - My brother and sister were playing soccer in house league, but i was a bit too shy/ scared of pain. Then one summer, I started playing with my sister's team during their practices. I'm sure she hated having her little sister there, but she tolerated me nonetheless, and at that age, that's all one can hope for :P

Aged 18-20 - New Years parties - or lack thereof. A few years in a row, Bern and I rented movies and new years eve and she inevitably fell asleep before midnight. I'd turn off the movie, wake her up and whisper "happy New Year" then go off to bed. Not thrilling, but we did it together.

Aged 16 - Being in the school choir together. Notably, the time we sang a short duet together in "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".
Ah-WEEEEEEE Ah- WE-um-bum-buh-waaaaay

Aged 22 - Bern finally came to spend a weekend at my apt in London for my birthday party in 4th year. It was totally awesome to party with my friends AND my sister.

Anyway, lots of other memories, but i'll stop there!
Happy Birthday to my Seester. I love you!

sometimes, bad shit happens...

...and all you can do is shake it off and walk away...

Yesterday, I spent a glorious evening with my good friend Victoria. We went for a jog, played some hackey-sack, danced around my apartment listening to some good ol mowtown. The evening was only briefly marred by an episode that I can only imagine would happen in this country.

Post-jog, Victoria and I were enjoying a rousing round of hackey-sack at the university near my apartment. The air was cool and many people were out and about either exercising or just hanging out. We wanted to inspire people to join our game, so our enthusiam kept us from noticing this suspect character as he approached. In true drunken old Korean man form, he came up to us with a friendly look. Then he said some words that were so slurred by alcohol, it didn't even sound Korean. Then he came closer and closer, and suddenly he had my arm firmly in his disgusting drunken grasp. What was even more disturbing was the fact that he was beckoning Victoria and I to join him by offering various amounts of money, up to and including 2-3 million won. ($2000-3000) Ew. I tried being polite (why? I don't know) I offered a "Hajimaseyo" Which is the politest form of saying "Don't do that." I yanked my arm away, but that did not deter him.

Grossed out and pissed off, we tried to walk away but he followed. Victoria yelled "Hajima!" which is very rude, and even spit down at his feet as he followed. Deterrent? nope. After a few more "yah!"s, and our quick departure from the track area, he got the picture.

Not only were we angry that this man would offer us money for our "company" in such an obvious, demeaning way, but we were right pissed off that our joyous game of hackey sack had to end thusly.

Things like this happen - thankfully not very often to me. After a few minutes dedicated to anger, all one can do to move on is just let it go. I can't change these old drunk men, and it's my hope that behaviour like that will slowly peter out here. It's a scar on this culture, but hopefully it's one that will fade.

in brief

it seems as though i've lost my will to blog. i suppose it's because my life hear no longer feels like an adventure (it's a lifestyle), and this blog was meant to capture adventurous happenings of yours truly. Anyway, I've found a bit of time here between classes, so I thought I'd at least catch everyone up with what I've been up to:

1. Two weekends ago I went to Jeju Island (sub tropical island province of Korea), with three of my girlfriends to eat good food and run in the international jeju marathon. There was no 5K race option, so I sucked it up and did the 10K. As one would expect, it took my twice as long. I finished in 1h11minutes and I'm damn proud of it!

2. I confirmed my return date to Canada as August 21st. It's can't come soon enough!

3. I've watched the following movies: Indiana Jones, Sex and the City, Fung Fu Panda, Narnia: Prance Caspian. Here are my thoughts:

Indiana Jones: Good adventure flick, if completely formulaic. Go to any of the other adventure movies (national treasure, and the like) and you'll see this happen: Bad guy is established. Good guy is always one step ahead of bad guy when finding a hidden *fill in the blank* until near the end when the bad guy mysteriously catches up be it through deception, mutiny, dumb luck, or wiles. Together, everyone finds the hidden whatever. Bad guy is destroyed, being buried in the inevitable destruction of said uncovered treasure, while the heroes make it out of the destruction by the skin of their teeth. That being said, the action scenes in Indiana Jones are really cool, and I have a significant girl-crush on Cate Blanchet.

Sex and the City: Like an episode of the show that is 2h20minutes long. too long. And this is coming from a fan of the show. If you've never watched the show - don't see it. If you watched the show but have no great attachment to it - don't see it. The only reason you should see the movie is if you are obsessed with couture fashion and/or are in any way invested in the lives of the 4 main characters. It was entertaining, but often gave off a feeling of depression and desperation. Oh yeah, and watch out for completely off-putting lines like Miranda, who is looking for a new apartment saying "Oh! White guy with a baby! Follow him!" Classy.

Kung Fu Panda - everyone on the face of the planet should see this movie. sewiousy. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time and even if laughter isn't your thing, anyone can appreciate the AWESOME animation of this movie. jack black - hilarious. the other characters - it doesn't really matter because it's all about jack black...as it should be.

Narnia (Prince Caspian) - After the movie, Hang Bin said to me "it seemed like a kids movie" to which i replied "it's based off a kid's book". If you don't like loosely veiled references to Jesus and christianity, this movie isn't for you. neither is the book. Naturally, the book is better, but I found the movie entertaining and a decent representation.

Apparently I've just been spending my time at the movies, so there isn't much else to report. On the other hand, I've got some things coming up!

wait a sec, no I don't! I'm basically playing the waiting game for the end of the semester. classes are fine. students are pretty good. this biggest thing I'm planning now is a possible trip to Japan in the summer. i'll keep you posted! (but probably very infrequently :P)

A Lesson in Traditional Korean Music

two posts in one day?! holy crapola!

This past weekend was not only my first 5K race, but it was also Buddha's birthday AND and awesome weekend getaway with my friends! To see some pictures of the awesomeness, please feel free to browse around my flickr page.

Towards the end of Buddha's b-day (monday), Hang Bin's mom had a performance in Boseong. His mom is a wicked awesome Korean traditional musician. She dances, plays drums and many other things. The performance was pretty small and private, which provided me the perfect opportunity to take some much needed video.

Video #1 - traditional Korean dance.
Unlike the pelvic thrusting and breast shaking dance of modern times, traditional korean dance is very slow and deliberate. The entire body is engaged from finger tips to toes in smooth fluid movements.


Video #2 - Samulnori
Samulnori is ensemble percussion music. The instruments are: a small cymbal (leads the group by varying rhythms and tempo), a gong, a small double-sided drum and a "jang-gu" which is an hour-glass-shaped drum. Fun! Samulnori is based on rhythms and call and answer sets. It's best seen outside and it can get quite loud.

Baby's First 5K

that's right I, Vanessa Reid, ran my first 5K race last Sunday. Those of you who don't know me well may say "Big deal, running 5K is about as difficult as dropping a stubborn deuce in the morning". Those of you who are rather closer to me understand that this is somewhat of a feat for me. Up until about 6 months ago, my personal philosophy on running was "I don't run unless I'm being chased." I ran the race without said motivation, although I may have finished quicker if there were some kind of threat behind me besides the screaming children (motivation enough!!).

How did I come to this personal victory? Enter my running guru, Carol. Yes, she is the same Carol that appears in almost all of my blog entries. Perhaps 1 year ago she started training for a 5K race in Gwangju (the Pink Ribbon run for titties). She started meeting up with and running races with a group of girls who live in Mokpo. A few times I accompanied her to races in order to snap her photo at the end. Finally I realised how ridiculous that I was not participating in this new sisterhood. I started doing interval training last winter ,then promptly went on vacation and forgot all about it. The beaches of Bali will do that. Once March rolled around and school started up, I pepped myself for really going for it this time. Two months later I finally made it to a race (missed my first one due to a scheduling conflict...what can I say...I'm poopular!). I'm very proud to say that I ran (*ahem* jogged) the entire course with out a walk break and finished in 34 minutes. beside a man who could've been my grandfather.

My first race in Korea was also Carol's last race *sigh*. She's takin' off (eh?) next monday. Thanks running Guru! Other people who were there: My manly man! This was also HangBin's first race. He didn't train at all and finished before Carol and I. I will never forgive him. Sloane and Jessica made the trip to Boseong from Mokpo and ran the 10K!

Here are some pics of the blessed event! (full set of pics available from my flickr page!)

This is before the race. We look fresh and ready to roll!

Our killer numbers!

That's me coming across the finish line.
Photo taken by HangBin, who finished first.

The sweet metallic taste of victory!

me and my mans

From left: HangBin, Moi, Jessica, Sloane, Carol

ps: I've signed up for a 10K race in Jeju Island on June first. Don't look now, but this may become a habit!

best. answer. ever.

so i was playing typhoon with the grade 1s today (gr 7 to you peeps not in korea). Typhoon is a rousing trivia game that involves smarts as well as dumb luck.

one of the questions i asked today was:

What's the opposite of "man?"

To which the student replied after thinking:

"Wonderwoman?"

My co-teacher and I nearly peed our pants. I gave the kid a high-five. and respect.

with the warmer weather comes...

my ARCH ENEMY!! the mosquito. I was hoping to avoid them for a little longer, but it seems that April's balmy weather has hatched a new, voracious horde. They come in stealth, sneaking into my apartment one at a time. Snipers in the night with the dual mission of leaving me itchy AND insane.
I think they know, on some level, that if they can't find a juicy area of flesh, all they have to do is buzz around their victim's ear a little in order to rouse her into a rage, thus releasing her body from the confines of the comforter.


There's only one mosquito in my place right now and it's hiding, waiting for nightfall when it will attack again. I actually had to wake up and spray myself with bug repellent in order to go back to sleep. Why am I so delicious?!?!

Sweet Toast!

I love days at school when there is a snack waiting for me after second period that is NOT Ddeok (glutinous rice cake, aka, ew). Sometimes fruit (yay!), sometimes nothing (so I eat some candy from my desk). Today was a special day. I don't know where it came from, but there was "toast" for everyone. I put "toast" in quotations, because like many things of similar names here, the concept and/or execution is somewhat different.

When I say "toast" to a westerner, it conjures an image of slightly burned bread with a combo of any number of spreads available. I'm a fan of PB and J (raspberry), or recently, nutella. Probably cuz it's hard to find here and I seem to be developing a taste for food easily available in canada, but basically nonexistent in Korea. Perhaps I'm a bit of a masochist. Aaaaaanway, toast in Korea is a completely different monster. Whether you like it or not depends on if you like something sweet that you assume is going to be salty.

Toast is a popular snack among the young ones and has various combinations. I describe for you the generic toast sandwich:

Start by putting copious amounts of butter on a flat burner and put two pieces of bread in the melted butter so you get a "toasted" effect (ie: fried). In more pools of butter, crack an egg into a square-shaped cut (so it fits on the bread nicely), and fry up a square of the most processed "ham" you can find. Add cheese if you want (processed only). While the egg and "meat" are frying, take the bread off and put sweet ketchup on one piece and sweet coleslaw with sweet pickles on the other slice. Add the egg and "meat", and viola! Korean toast.

I ate mine today (voraciously!) and this time, I almost enjoyed it. I think that's as close as I'll ever get. If you can be at the actual making of the toast, you're able to stop the people from putting unwanted condiments on there, thus rendering the toast a "Fried egg sandwich". deeelightful.

I was so hungry today after the first two periods because I was co-teacherless. My co-t is away at a TEE training course (TEE = Teaching English in English). It's the grade 3's I'm alone with and it could've gone two ways = car wreck, or sunshine and rainbows. I had a bit of anxiety this morning before the first class because I envisioned the car wreck. Grade 3's are curious creatures who can either be really into what you're doing, and therefore the BEST students ever. Or they can be so apathetic that it makes you want to stick fork in your eye. I was expecting the latter out of my first period class today because they are "low level". All of my classes have been split into high level and low level. Sometimes good, sometimes not. Anyway, while my lesson was not the best thing that ever happened, the students were basically respectful, if somewhat inattentive, mostly because they don't understand/don't care. the GREAT thing is having a student in the class who respects you, telling every one else to shut up. It's especially awesome when it comes from an unexpected source.

I recognize this one kid as a volleyball player, or an athlete of some kind (lots in my school). I've probably inadvertently gained his respect through my wicked awesome (for a girl) volleyball skillz. [*I say 'for a girl", because most girls here can't do anything with a ball beside duck out of the way screaming. Adults included.]. Or, he saw me take a volleyball to the face at high velocity last year and respects me for not sobbing like a baby. At any rate, his presence helped me a bit, which I very much appreciate.

I really gotta start putting more faith in the Grade 3s. They really are cool!

according to...

hmmm, i'm just leafing through my grade 1 (grade 7) english text and learned that a deer crossing sign actually means Santa Claus is ComingOf course, the instructions for the exercise are in Korean, so there could be a reason for such fallacy. But I quite enjoy it!

restart, again!

Ah, the beginning of a new school year. Suddenly the alarm is interrupting my dreams, my legs are anxiously taking me to the bus stop because i left about 2 minutes later than i should have and may have to wait an extra 10-15 minutes for the bus. My days (so far) are spent desk bound, waiting for someone to tell me what's going on, or alternately, asking teachers questions as apologetically as possible. None of this is new to me yet they still manage to catch me off guard.

1) At the behest of the new English teacher here, I will now be teaching lessons from the textbook for grade 1 and 2. I've never done this and abhor the thought of deciphering the "English" that many of these textbooks teach. After I begrudgingly agreed, of course, I took a deep breath and said to myself. "yo, self. take it easy. you're gonna have to teach from a textbook eventually, so why not embrace the moment and go with the flow." so I'm now flowing.

2) My new co-teacher this year, Mrs Kim (taught with her last year, but she wasn't my co-t then), just informed me that she will be the county's new TEE teacher. One teacher in every county is responsible for creating demonstrations for Teaching English in English. Trust me, this is a title you don't want. So due to her new situation, she has asked me to create Grade 3 lessons based on the skills of Reading and Writing. (I was specifically hired to teach conversation, but whatever). Writing I have taught, reading I have not. This should be interesting.

3) I will be going back to the Yeonsuwon (education training centre) one day a week. Remember how i was there twice a week last semester until a crew of 8 new fulltime English teachers took over. Yeah, well, apparently they have their hands full and need me back. I don't mind really. As much as the politics of the Yeonsuwon can get ya down, I enjoy the change in scenery during the week.

4) Finally, the last change to my schedule (hopefully?!) is that every Monday afternoon I have to go the county's office of education to teach the supervisors there how to speak English. This is the one that hurts the most. I don't know how many supervisors actually WANT to learn English, but I can guarantee that whatever the class size is to begin with, it with dwindle exponentially as the term drifts on. What would you rather do, go for a smoke (or 10), or listen to some lady drone on in a language you can't understand? Yeah, me too *puffs*

On a happier note (or at least, less sarcastic)... Sari's coming to Korea!!! w00000000000t! Yep, she arrives this Saturday for 10 days of Korean style f-u-n.

Also, very briefly, the rest of my vacation was great, there are lots of pictures on my Flickr website (link on the right). ENJOY!

I don't want no salsa with my nachos!

(or: My gastrointestinal journey through Bali)

As my friends in Korea may have already guessed, this is not an entry about the delicious mexican side dish, but rather a witty (i hope) cross-lingual (is that even a word?!) play on words.

Basically, the English word "salsa" sounds virtually the same is the Korean word for diarrhea - "seolsa". And I gots the salsa, thanks Bali.

Apparently it's a rather common affliction for travellers to Indonesia, but I can't help wishing that my bowels were a bit more up for the challenge. The Lonely Planet guide (god bless it!) defines traveller's diarrhea as "3 or more loose bowel actions in 24 hours". The higher end of that spectrum would be, i suppose, "nearly constant arse piss". (a lovely phrase I stole from an east-coaster friend of mine). Thankfully, my affliction is more on the low end. But still, it was obvious that I have some very unwanted guests dorming in my gastrointestinal area, and it was time to give them the boot.

Unfortunately, this all happened to me whilst we were on the islands, where I'm sure I could've found medical relief, but decided to wait until we got back to civilisation (ie Bali, mainland). So, yesterday afternoon we arrived and promptly found a clinic. The nurse and doctor there were less than shocked at my state as they said they get at least one person in everyday complaining of the same symptoms. Twenty minutes and $80 later (yikes!!), I had an arsenal of antibiotics and anti-diarrheals that will hopefully set my constitution straight.

Have no fear! Despite my complaints, I really haven't denied myself any of the culinary delights available here, I just make sure I'm within dashing range of a washroom! :P

island life

carol and i have been on Gili Twrawangan (Lombok, Indonesia) for a few days. The beauty of island life is that the hours blend into days and after a while you forget how long you've actually been there. I'm sure I could muster a few dozing synapses to fire in order to tell exactly how long I've been here.

wait for it....

Ok, we've been on the island for 4 days. Tomorrow, we're leaving the island for - another (smaller) island. Gotta mix it up, eh?

Basically, our days consist of the following:
wake up (btw 6:30 and 8)
eat brekkie
read
go to the beach (1 minute from our door)
read
swim
read
swim
lunch
swim
read
dinner (usually including a game of scrabble)
read
sleep (anywhere between 9-10pm)

as you can see, our lives are not overly taxing here.
today, just for variety, we did some snorkeling. i'd tell aboot it, but I have to get back to my tight schedule.

where am I?

i'm in an int4rnet cafe in ubud, bali. NICE-uh!

Carol and I arrived two nights ago. The weather in Korea preceeding our trip seemed to say, "yeaah dudes, you'd better get the f outta here." cold, wet and rainy. [oh yeah, side note, the WORK preceeding vacation also gave us that extra kick to get out. Camp, 12 days straight. 12 hour days. unfun. nuff said.]

yanyways, we hopped on a bus to incheon int'l airport at 4am, got on a plane at 10, sat on said plane for 2 hours before it took off (bad weather. rain in gwangju is snow in seoul), then sat for another 7 hours as we flew south, south, south.

We're set up in a lovely room off the main drag. from our proch, you wouldn't even know the the street to so close by. all we heard is nature and the occasional neighbour. vacation-mode commences.

In the morning we lazed, ate brekkie then explored town where we promptly signed up for a 4 hour spa fest that included the following: full body massage, body scrub, bath soak, facial, hair treatment and then lunch. *sigh*

In the evening we caught a traditional Balinese gamelan orchestra and dance show. W00t!

Today we woke up and decided on going for an adventure - a walking tour outlined in Carol's Lonely Planet. Our track record for walking tours is not so good. we start string but then lose our way, but always finding our way home eventually. well, we ended up going through rrice fields (intentional) an jungle (unintentional) and more rice fields and jungle. We eventually made it, but a little later, a little dirtier (Carol fell into a rice paddy) and a little hungrier than we expected. I've got fun pics, but you'll have to wait for those.

After our rather strenuous morning, we opted to laze by the pool alternately swimming, napping and reading. yep, all's well here!