tarakoenig

mounting fuji

2009-07-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Mounting Fuji

To celebrate my 23^rd birthday I felt something big was in order. I decided on climbing a mountain. Actually it’s not quite a mountain but more a volcano. A really big volcano. Saturday morning Katie, Maureen and I got on a plane to Tokyo. We figured that once we got there everything would just fall into place. This is my way of travelling, I figure the more I research and look into things the more stressful trips can be with trying to get to everything in the lonely planet. But in this case it backfired. The official climbing season is July to august. This is when they say the weather is the best for the climb; this is also when the different station’s huts are actually open. We got to the airport around 2pm. We didn’t know it at the time but a Korean television star, from boys before flowers, was on our flight. Getting out of immigration we arrived to a giant paparazzi mess, along with hundreds of fans. After realizing what was actually going on we went with it and acted like celebrities as well. We originally thought we would have enough time to check into our hostel, drop off our stuff and then head off to the mountain to begin our climb around 10pm. We soon found out that would be impossible. We needed to take a bus to a central location within the city. Then take a bus close to the mountain, then another bus to the 5^th station where the majority of people begin the climb. We started our journey there in good spirits. The buses were on time and we even had a bit of time in the Shinjuku area to grab some KFC – where in Tokyo you can get a beer with your set –visit the local electronic markets and arcade and then we were ready to get going. Upon arrival at the next bus station we discovered the bus up to the 5^th station didn’t exist yet. We were too early, one week early to be exact. We tried to get as much information out of the lady at the help desk as possible but the only English she seemed to know was “no”. No to train, no to car, no to bus. They had those toys that you can write on with a magnetic pen then erase saying if you had language difficulties this would help you out. She did not find our “we need a bus, like no” message amusing. Luckily there were two other travelers that had not done their research either. We managed to grab a taxi and paid $128 dollars (split) to take us up to the 5^th station. We had a few friends that had climbed Fuji the year before so we went to them for advice. They told us that it was cold and at some points in time very hard in the dark. We thought we were good to go with our new headlamps. At the 5^th station it was already about 10 degrees. We were in shorts and t-shirts. Walking into the main building we definitely got some funny looks from those decked out in full out winter gear.

After we changed and unloaded some of our excess weight we were ready to go. We decided to purchase some walking sticks more for entertainment value at first but later on discovered they were an important part of this journey. After putting on a few more layers we were ready to go. We started off on what we thought was a good start, until we discovered we had not turned where we were supposed to and started our descent down. After back tracking and getting on the right trail we were golden.

We were not the most unprepared people on the mountain that night. We ran in to an American boy, a junior at a school in Japan, who was way worse off than us. We called him DuPont. We first saw him at the 6^th station wearing only jeans and a sweatshirt. This was also all he had packed for the entire trek. He told us he thought it was an hour, two-hour max leisurely walk up winding paths and stairs. He had no idea what was in store for the next 8 hours.

Getting up the volcano is divided into stations. As I mentioned before you typically start at the 5^th station. This is out of the bush and already about half way up the mountain. The stations range from one hour to almost 2 hours apart, and there are 9 main stations. There are also random shops selling anything from water to snickers to beer up the mountain. There are also many huts that people who want to shell out 50 dollars to sleep sardine style to break up their hike. We opted out of staying in the huts mostly for economic reasons. Also to make us feel more hard-core about the whole thing.

We ran into DuPont every hour or so. Some of his best lines were “are we back to this back and forth shit”, “this better be the 8^th station” (said just after the 6^th, the 8^th was about 4 hours away) and the best…just “fuck”. Some of the trails were make shift stairs, or just the rocks that had been walked on enough that they formed stair like structures. The other parts were either loose volcanic ash and rocks or steep, jagged rock. I don’t know which one was worse. The lose rocks had zero traction. With each step you would slide back an inch or two, which starts to add up over the hours. And the other rock defiantly made this an adventure. When out friend told us at time you have to use your hands I thought she was just being funny. She was not. The walking sticks came in handy in these parts. As we were going up we all were thinking how awful it would be to come down this way as well. More of those thoughts to come later…

We were making good time, stopping at each station briefly to catch our breath and acclimatize. We couldn’t stay still for too long though, it obviously was getting colder as we were getting higher. We would huddle together sharing body heat until we were ready to keep on going. Around 2am we reached the 9^th station. This was about the time when I was seeing imaginary squirrels running around the rocks, and Katie had taken a power nap in the bathroom. We got to a hut that was serving food and drinks. This was another one of our blessings. We all shared a 7-dollar ramen noodle bowl – they can clearly charge what ever they want 3000 feet up – and stayed warm for about an hour. We did not want to start our climb up to the summit because the whole point to get up there is to see the sunrise and that wasn’t going to happen until 4:30. We chatted with some other people, met up with DuPont again and then around 3 took off to finish our climb, well the climb up. Around this time was the flood of people trying to get to the summit to see the sunrise. Many people had started their climb the Saturday afternoon and were just waking up from a warm sleep and going up. There was a gridlock for the last hour of the climb. I could not imagine how busy it would be during the peak times. What could have taken one hour was almost 2.

We made it up to the summit finally 10 minutes before the sunrise was supposed to happen. Although, we only saw it for about a second. The clouds were too thick and it was snowing up there so the sun was not visible, actually nothing was visible. But it was still a release to be up on the top of the volcano. After celebrating for about 10 minutes we all agreed it was time to get the hell off the top and down to the warmth. I’m guessing it was about 10 below at the top. Not at all comfortable for someone in just a few layers of clothes. On the descent down from the summit there was another gridlock. The path is wide enough for about 1.5 people. This is difficult for those wanting to come up, as well as those rushing to get down. So we had to wait in the blizzard inching down one at a time.

So another part that we did not research was the fact that the train down would not be open for another two weeks. That meant that we had to go down the exact same way we came up. Scaling rocks is not so bad. Trying to climb down them after scaling them for 8 hours is not so fun. The descent was by far the worst part of it. We were bailing all over the place. Because of the volcanic ash it was extremely slippery and I'm not the most coordinated to begin with so I was falling a lot. After watching some of the Japanese passing me for the first 4 stations I learned that if you sort of trot and keep the momentum going you will fall less. So I began to trot down the rest of the way.

We finally made it back to the 5^th station around 10 am. We were guessing our old friend DuPont may still be up on that mountain somewhere. I can only hope that he did not need to be airlifted off of Fuji. That made it about a 14 hour round trip for us. Looking back it was an awesome experience and something I’ll always remember, but you could not pay me enough money to do it again.

We were fortunate enough to grab a bus back into the city directly without having to transfer 3 times. Japans subway system is rather confusing and it took us a while to understand just how to get to where our hostel was. Being new to the hostel experience I did not know what to expect. We showed up at the building with a piece of paper taped to the wall with the name written in yellow highlighter. That was our first cluing it was not going to be pretty. The owner was by far the sketchiest person I've come across in my travels. After a quick shower and rest we wanted to see a little bit of the city. We all really wanted to go to the harajuku district to see some crazy stuff. We walked around and found some interesting outfits and had some photo ops with some of the girls, and boys there. We then found another park, which was the complete opposite of Korea. People were out enjoying themselves and living without conformity. It was a nice change. At the entrance of the park there were these Elvis impersonators who were drinking and dancing. Nothing too impressive but entertaining at least. At this point we were all exhausted all we wanted to do was find some sushi and get some sleep. It was surprisingly hard to find sushi place, but when we did it was amazing.

All in all Japan was awesome. Imp sure ill be happier about it when I can walk properly again. But here are some tips for those attempting the climb

1. Do you research? Looking up what to pack and expect 20 minutes before leaving for the airport wont cut it

2. Make sure there is an actual bus going up there, taxis are ridiculous expensive

3. Make sure the descending trail is actually open. It may be fun going up the rocks, but going down is torture

4. Pack accordingly. Its cold, not its July at night cold. It’s as cold as the dead of a winter’s night cold. A sweatshirt and jeans are not going to cut it

5. Headlamps are the greatest invention ever

april 1

2009-04-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

st patties was a while ago but id thought i would share what happened here. most kroeans dont celebrate it, but there was a huge gathering in heywa which is close to where we work. they put together a "parade" which was basically us walking around the block. but the koreans loved it they were taking as many pictures of us as we were of them. there was a green snake at the beginning of the parade and a few other things liek a giant guinness balloon and the "pope" after that we gathered in the square for some free guinness - ceeps never did that one - and watched some performances by an irish band and some chinese dancers. later that day still a bit buzzed i made my way over to olympic park to watch sarah brightman perform. it was such a good show but i was subject to many stares considering majority of the people attending that concert were korean, and i was all decked out in green, complete with green leg warmers. i did pass by one other girl in green and we kinda did the sympathetic head nod to eachother knowing that everyone else in the venue thought we were crazy. after the concert i went to iteawon for some more st patties day fun. the wolfhound here felt a little like the ceeps, packed tight, full of green only instead of a band they had the rugby game on. all in all an amazing day

the next weekend i went to my first korean baseball game. it was amazing! first off it was free admission because it was an exhibition game, the beers were 3 dollars for tall boys and we got front row seats. i have no idea who was playing but it was actually a good game in my eyes. i think the feild is smaller than at home because everything seemed to happen a lot faster. also its very entertaining to listen to the koreans screaming stuff at them that you have no idea what they are saying. all up to your own interpretation

my korean lessons are going well. i can now read although its at a kindergarten level. it takes a long time for each character but apparently i have really good pronouncuation. theres one vowel that i was having trouble with and through trial and error i said y'all very fast and thats right, so i stick with that. because its my kroean friend yahoo - yes his name is yahoo like the search engine - is doing it for me we go over a korean lesson for about an hour then switch and usually have talks in english or if he has homework i help him with that. one time i talked about twilight for an hour, he told me we are never allowed to talk about that movie again. we also got on the topic of fan death. and it actually turned into a heated argument. "fan death is a south korean urban legend which states that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room can cause the death, by suffocation, poisoning or hypothermia of those inside. fans manufactured and sold in korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set numbe rof minutes which users frequenty urged to set when going to sleep with a fan on" rediculus right? well yahoo swears his friend uncle died of fan death. i told him he probablly had a heart attack or something along those lines in his sleep, a fan just happened to be in the room. he told me they think they fan uses up all the oxygen in the room and you get poisioned. he also said that it cools your body so much that you suffer from hypothermia. first off if you were getting that cold your body would wake up and turn off the fan. its just not possible but he will argue till the end that its true. another fact in most dramas or scary movies in a death scene or where hostages are held there are fans present...as if they are a type of torture. i was watching this drama in a cab once and a guy had kidnapped a girl, in the room where she was there were many close ups of a fan.

march

2009-03-15T02:50:00.000-07:00

so sorry for the late post..my internet was down for a while there and then i just got so busy...this is part one of two for march...enjoy!

time has been flying by the past few weeks. the weeks are packed full with teaching, going to the gym, meeting up with friends etc and weekends with going out, which typically turn into late nights.

some things about the past few weeks:

apparantly my students think im a psychopath. im one of my older classes - the kids are about 15 year old - they get these texts all the time with quizes on whether or not youre a psychopath. they always test them on me, and each time they scream "ahh psychopath". its awesome.

we had a teachers dinner a few weekends ago. this was to welcome the new teachers - we got about 9 new ones, and saying bye to the ones that were leaving. it was awesome. such good food and drinks...and it was all paid for my carol our director. we all went out afterwards to a noribong - the singing rooms and had a blast there. from there we headed out to hongdae, i was in a cab with 2 other new teachers and they were looking to me for directions which was a hit or miss situation but we ended up there in one piece which im thankful for.

that sunday i went on a hike with two other teachers at bukansan - the mountain right near our house to try to sweat out the hangover. we took an intense path up the mountain, but had such a good view of the city. when youre at the top of some peaks you can see so much of seoul, but this city is so large that you cant see the edges of it all which i find crazy. we could hear a cowbell and chanting going on towards the top of the mountain and wanted to check it out. but at the top there was this huge temple but the chants and cowbell were just on a loud speaker. i was half expecting to see this old monk rocking out on the cowbell, but the architecture of the temple was so amazing. i didnt bring my camera that time, the next time ill have to document as much as possible because it really is amazing. on that treck we also saw a wolf/dog roaming about the mountain which was sweet as well as a group of 5 or 6 girls with this old guy. they were walking in a single row up the path, but not using their arms at all and stepping so gracefully it was very odd. at one point they all stopped in a circle listening to the old guy, he clapped as to say lets go....then they all proceeded one at a time clapping and following in line, again wish i had my camera for that one

one thing that ive noticed about koreans is that they are very vain. on subways, buses, even sitting on the street they always are looking at their own reflections or taking pictures of themselves with their phones. even guys are doing this regularly, people back home are vain too , we jsut hide it and do it in the privacy of our home

i finally got a cell phone, i went to the place 3 times and the third time the lady was finally there! within the day i had a charm on it and had texted a bunch already...it was werid not being connected with people wherever i was. because i had been there so many times without getting a phone the chick gave me this electromagnatic sticker to put on my phone, apparently this is supposed to stop the waves from reaching my head while talking on the phone. i put it on but not sure if i believe it or not.

koreans are obsessed with tv. you can basically watch tv anywhere. they have antennas on their cell phones so many people watch on the bus and subway. they have portable tvs that look like portable dvd players that are also carried around. you can watch tv in the taxis, its everywhere.in fact they have one show - called boys like flowers or soemthing along those lines - based off of a japanese cartoon - and on monday nights everygirl and most guys are tuned into it. i got to watch a bit one night on the bus with a girl beside me..she even offered me a head phone. nice, but obsessed

i got a class of new kids and on the first day the foreign teacher has to give them english names...i listened to their korean names and tried to find something similar...while still picking ones i liked. it was awesome like naming kids or pets only 10 at a time. so my 1-1's are now, jude, kimberly, patty, maia (i miss her!), rose, chelsie, dommy, layla, gale and charlie. they are very cute but very confused at the same time. we sing lots of songs and go over colors for most of the class. its good times, they especially enjoy my rap version of head and shoulders, complete with running man at the end

february...

2009-02-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

its been about two weeks since i last wrote, ive been super busy and in my down time i like to sleep so i applogize for my lateness. some things that i experienced in the last little bit were:

ladies night in itaewon: every thursday night in one of the forgien districts a bunch of bars have ladies night. what that means is you go in drink as much as you want and leave...without spending anything at all. i think between the bus there, drinking all night, chicken on a stick and the cab home i spent about 3 dollars. i love korea

i also went to a brewery, actually its from canada, big rock brewery in alberta. the beer was more expensive there but much tastier than the cass that ive been drinking.

the post office: canadian post office workers have a lot to learn. here they will pack your parcels, bubble wrap and everything, and because this is a culture focused on packing alot into little spaces they really do it best. they are so nice too, ive made a few visits already sending post cards to all of you....and its super cheap! so expect many

so teaching has been going well, but seeing as im not exactly trained in english or in other areas that im teaching in...there have been a few hiccups.

i had to teach how to talk about the weather. tomorrow it will be .....in....... today it is ..... in ..... and i had a unlabelled map of europe i was dealing with. i may have made up most of the countries, and overlapped a few, but they dont really know that - i hope!

english was not my forte back in middle school. and i seem to have forgotten about some things, or perhaps never learned it. i have an advanced class that is learning about grammar and tenses etc. the lesson was on gerunds. adding a ing onto a adjective or something to make it a noun. i still dont really understand it....and i was prouncing it g-rund. not a ger-rund as it is supposed to be called. so my bad on that one

i mentioned about the valentines day and white day. well we went out on valentines day to make some pottery - super fun - and then shopped and grabbed some dinner. we ended up at a little italian resturant and no joke along one side of the wall sat the girls....and the other the boys. there was about 20 couples lined up in a row. and all the boys had their pretty chocolates wrapped up with them. being in a relationship is very important here. and couple centered holidays are taken seiously aswell. one holiday that goes along with v-day and white day is black day. this is for the single ladies, and on this day you are supposed to go out and eat black bean noodles because you are alone. sounds very depressing to me. i suppose they should play beyonces song as they are drowning themselves in noodles

this past weekend jason mraz was in town. he was starting his asian part of his tour and i was begging people around the office if they wanted to come, but the only tickets left were the super expensive ones. the night before the concert my friend offered me a free ticket from her friend. we get to the concert and we were on the floor! it was amazing, about 10 people back from the stage, for free....jason mraz.....just amazing. if you look on his website he took some pictures from the stage. i can almost show you where my hand was.

after the concert i met up with some teachers in iteawon for bob marleys birthday party. it was good times. i stood out a little bit, expecially because i was singing jason mraz songs all night.

sunday i really wanted to find this art park i read about in a magazine here. so i took the 90 min subway ride. to the station i thought i had to get to looking for exit 4. i got there and the station had only exit 1 and 2. so i was a little lost. but i decided to wander around anyways. found the han river and took in the scenery.

we have about 11 new teachers - 9 foreign that just came in this and last week. its sad because all the teachers that ive just come to know are leaving but means more new friends at the same time. 4 of which are from western which is pretty sweet. we talk about the ceeps and weldon...its good times.

one culture tidbit for today is the clothing

they find it shocking when i wear a tank top around the office - apparently its very risky. but they have no problem wearing super small mini skirts around the office. very different from back home.

anyways thats it for now. i promise not to wait too long again! miss you all

first time teaching

2009-02-09T18:00:00.000-08:00

so i am offically an ESL teacher. some may find that hard to believe considering my lack of communication skills at times, but i think im doing a pretty good job so far. Wednesday was my first real day of teaching, on MWF i have 6 classes with kids ranging from age 8 to 15. then on tu/th i have 4 classes (1 hour though). working at a private school i nice because i have no more than 10 kids in one class, some only have 4. for each level there are sample lesson plans already made so you are given exactly what you are to teach each day. there are also many worksheets already made up so although the prep takes alot of time its not hard work at all. the kids here have stamp books that they fill up and get prizes for finishing a page etc, so i work on the basis that everyone starts out at 3 stamps a lesson then take them away for speaking korean, not doing homework or hitting another classmate (which has only happened once so far). i had one challenge the other day, trying to explain what it means to say eh on the end of a sentence. it was in a reading book and they stopped and asked why there was no question mark if it wasnt a question. I told them it was a Canadian thing and to make fun of us for it haha.

this weekend was relaxing, although on saturday morning i was about to jump in the shower when i heard katie calling for me...i go to her apartment and her kitchen cubboards had fallen compleatly off the wall and she was holding them up. so we had to maneouver them into the hall way these are not light by any means, and were only put onthe wall with 5 little screws, oh i was also in a towel during this whole thing. saturday I went shopping with a friend in meyong-dong one of the shopping districts and found many cute things...only made for people with no chest so could not fit into any of them without looking vey unprofessional. so ill have to keep searching for the place that will accomodate my chest. afterwards i went out to another party district to one place called mikes cabin - it had actual bunk beds in it and then to pooh bar. which looked like winnie the pooh had thrown up over everything.

sunday was an interesting day. katie - a coworker - was in what we thought was goin to be a fashion show. when we got to the place it turned out to be some sort of middle school talent show with many acts that went up that did not really know what they were doing. the hair part was good - what katie was actually there for - but sitting through 2 hours of earwrenching singers was not so fun, there is a video of one on my facebook, check it out.

more korean culture tidbits

valentines and White day, here they have two couple holidays, valentines is the 14th still but it is a day that the girl gives a gift to the guy, then white day comes a little later and the guy gives a gift to the girl. hallmark makes double here

fourth versus 13th floor, here they are not superstitous about the 13th floor, but th 4th floor. some elevators you may see go 1, 2, 3, f, 5, 6, etc. not all have this but ive been in a few. im not quitesure why its the 4th floor that gets them. ill have to look that up

i think i may have realized that im actually in korea....sort of

2009-02-02T06:22:00.000-08:00

Well, the past week went by super fast. i had more training at the school wed to friday and im starting to prepare lesson plans etc for my own classes. still getting the hang of it all but there are so many resources and eveyones willing to help it make the process a heck of a lot easier.

because i dont funtion properlly when im not working out i joined the gym. sarah - one of my co-workers - came with me and my first korean gym experience started out with a little spin class. actually i shouldnt say little. it was a killer. and the guy who lead it was the most peppy, spandex clad trainer ive ever seen. picture brad pitt as the personal trainer in burn after reading - only asian and wearing much more spandex. at least it made the class a little more enjoyable. the gym is pretty standard with the exception of a few old school machines. did you ever see those vibrating belts that women used in the 30's or so? well they have them here, and the old ladies love them! it makes no sense, you arent getting any sort of work out if anything a sort of massage but everyday theres someone on them. they also have this rotating bead table. and they start out with their feet on it and slowly cover all body parts. its quite amusing - i have a picture of it, and will post it later. oh the outfits at the gym are quite different as well. they have shits and shorts that you can wear for your workout - orange for the ladies, blue for guys. pretty sure they came from some prison or something. so most people there are dressed alike. i can proudly say i am the only one in the whole gym wearing lululemon! for those who arent clad in orange or blue they are wearing what looks like came out of heidi montagas music video. tights, leg warmers, and booty shorts, velvet crop tops...all of it at once. its quite the sight. tonight i went to another class with sarah, it was a step class. now i find step class hard enough in english. in korean its a whole other story. but we survived and got a good workout and a few laughs out of it. the music they play in the gym is from the late 80's and 90's, as well as anything benny benassi - they love him here.

on friday night a few of us went to hong-dae - the "party zone" it was a sloppy night. first off i must say that korean streets are slick. i was slipping all over the place in my shoes - and had a few memorable wipeouts inthe middle of the sidewalk. we went to bar boom. 10 bucks all you can drink. nuff said about that place. after which we went to another bar which was far more crowded than the first. full of club hoppers from all over. quite the party. i like hong-dae. although in that bar there were people dancing on the tables. well typicaly you do that when you know your bits and pieces are not going to be on display. this one girl had not heard of victorias secret, or at least was putting it all out there....literally.

sat morning was rough. at 830 - keeping in mind i didnt get home till about 5 or 6- i was woken up by craig. i forgot i had to go to the hospital to get checked out for my alien card. it was not fun. starting out with the blood test. now typically im used to going into a private room for something like that. here was like a take out food line up. wait for your number to be called sit inthe row of 7 other people getting it done at the same time and watch the tube go in a container with about 50 other peoples. i didnt handle this sight too well and had to lie down inthe middle of the waiting room. after i didnt feel like passin gout anymore we had to give our urine samples. easy enough? not here. the toilet was non-existant, basically a hole in the wall, and not even handles like there were in france. that was also not fun. from there a quick chest x-ray and youre good to go.

sat evening i climbed up the mountain near out apartment. now i was wondering how koreans are still so tiny when they eat basically empty carbs all day. well its because they hike like crazy. and they take it seriously here. they have the full gear on, huge back pack, poles, shoes, north face jackets - everything. they look like they are about to treck across europe when really its just a little stroll up the mountain for a few hours.

sunday i spent in iteawon with some teachers and found the foreign food mart - 28 bucks for peanut butter!! and the foreign book store and other little landmarks. went to the open mike again whcih was better than last week and called it a night.

its weird that ive only been here over a week, but feels like at least a month.

korean culture tidbits...

Sars masks - now back in the day when i was taking the 510 spadina streetcar to u of t track i would see many people walking around china town with the sars masks on. and when ever someone got on the street car i would hold my breath in fear of contacting SARS. here they wear them all the time! at first it freaked me out a bit thinking that so many people here have sars or soemthing. but its the opposite. they wear them for two reasons. the air here can get really cold so it makes it a little easier to breathe and also the pollution is awful so it helps in winter time. they have fancy ones with little animals on them to make them more fashionable.

the double handshake. to all those goodlife people - patch did not invent this. koreans have been doing this as a sign of respect for ages! by shaking someones hand and placing the other one somewhere on their forearm you are showing respect.

man purses - while on the subway i started seeing alot of guys with purses. and i thought that they were simply holding it for their girlfriends or something but they are actualy a fashion statement here. mostly leather handbags. again dont really see this trend coming to the west

the guys all seem gay - to go along with the man purse, most males here seem to be gay or very questionable at least. they walk down the street with their arms around each other, carry purses, dress up for simple tasks like going to the market and dont seem to have that personal bubble that western men have. but...thats just the way they act here.

delivery. most everywhere here delivers. including mcdonals. its dangerous. you can order a single coffee and this guy will come to the teachers lounge delivering a single coffe..wearing his mcdonalds gear and helmet. i was very amused when i found this out.

no tips - there is also no tipping here. for anything. so that same guy who delivered that single mcdonalds coffee which costs about a buck, will get nothing. i like this concept alot

dressing up your dog - most dogs, actually all that ive seen so far have had some sort of clothing on them. although most were simple sweaters or something along those lines some people go overboard. dressing up your dog as tinkerbell, or a princess is very common here. in face in iteawon there are a few stands of people just selling outfits for dogs. its quite sad, i feel bad for those animals

alcoholism - on the streets here there is a lot of puke. i found out that alcoholism here is a major problem. its disrespectful to turn down a drink. so if your boss or someone else offers a drink, you take it. if someone offers 10 soju drinks, you have 10 soju drinks and are most likely going to puke somewhere on the streets of seoul. its quite discusting, but put in perspective most people when they have had too much are taking a cab home or are along the free way - which you dont see. here eveyone walks or takes public transit....so its quite visible. and not pleasant.

my address! so you can all send me peanut butter - seriously!

SLP sungbuk c/o tara koenig

3rd Floor, Heonghwa Brown building, 75 Dongsomoon-dong-4-ga

Sungbuk-gu, Seoul, Korea

136-033

and if not peanut butter little bits of canadian love! miss you all like crazy but wish you were here to experience it all at the same time!! xx

a few pics...

2009-01-26T02:14:00.000-08:00

lost in translation....

the view of seoul (a very small part of it) from my apartment
at the korean barbeque the first night
the very first picture i took in korea
this cute woman was on the plane next to me...she either sat like this or was lying down the whole flight. very good posture for someone her age. although she was a little sneaky, i went to the washroom and when i came back she had taken my pillow and blanket from me

getting to know the city...

2009-01-26T01:37:00.000-08:00

Hello all! so ive been here a few days now and still adjusting to all the new things, but its been really good!

yesterday Jacob - who is the head of all the foreign teachers - took the other new teacher and i around the city to the places we would use the most. starting off with the shopping district. it was huge! good thing i didnt pack too many clothes because i plan on spending some time there. they have "western" music playing all the time but because the majority of store owners there dont really know our profanities you can walk by stores playing hard core rap music only to find this little old korean woman trying to sell you socks with kittens on them. they also had an abundence of street food there. most of which i couldnt make out what it actually was but it all smells delicious.

one thing to note about korean fashion is that couples tend to dress alike here. so in displays they would have a bra and pantie set for a woman....and matching boxers for the man. and most come in this set that you are to wear with your beloved. i dont see that trend coming west anytime soon.

from the shopping district we went to a place wher eyou can find anything electronic that you may need, as well as many many pirated dvds ranging from disney cartoons to soft core porn. after that place (already forget the name - they all still sound the same to me) we went to itaewon which is one of the two foreign districts here. theres a hardrock cafe, many starbucks, burger king amoung many other european, thai and greek food places. i quickly learned in the resturant that we ate at that sometimes they confuse push with pull. and after almost breaking my nose going for a push i always test the door out now. we had some pad-thai which was good but no bigdoor thai like back home, ill have to see how it compares when i go to thailand and test out the real stuff.

we headed home after that and i had a few hours to rest up before i went out again that night. a few of the teachers and i went back to iteawon for an open mike comedy/music thing. it was full of foreigners which made me forget yet again that im in korea. im looking forward to spending more time in that area because there are so many people from all over here doing the same thing i am. we took a cab home - which is super cheap here, actually all transit is. taking the bus costs about 70 cents depending on how far you are going, where as in oakville it was 3 bucks!

today - monday - everything is pretty much closed because of lunar new year so i just wandered around my area again, got lost a few times but found some amazing places along the way. there was one playground which was constructed on a hill and just massive which is impressive because of the density of the city. also found a bakery which is apparantly a chain here "paris baugette" which is the only place with brown bread. but its super expensive, about 3 bucks for 5 slices of bread!

a few of the teachers and i are going out for korean food again which i believe may be the barbeque again. this week ill have to get on joining the gym, im feeling a little soft from all the food so far!

korean culture tidbits...

4. age here is kinda messed up. when you are born you are 1. there is no 2 weeks, or 6 months. youre one year old. and on new years (jan1st) everyone turns one year older. so technically your korean age could be 2 years older than your chronological age. you still celebrate your birthday but you dont actually age.

5. suicide rates here are super high. on most of the subways they have suicide plates which make it so that unless there is a train there you cant get onto the tracks. there is apparently also a mountain or cliff in busan (a city down south) that is famous for suicide deaths. here is it usually because of money or if you have disrespected someone. again could be depression but they dont recgonize that here. ... i should have brought my thanatology course book here and taught them a thing or two

6. every male in korea has to serve inthe military for a minimum of two years. they have no choice in the matter.

7. couples. as i mentioned before couples here tend to dress alike. they also give each other couple rings after the first 100 days of dating. some start this trend within the first few dates with things such as matching cell phone charms and later on go on to matching panties and tshirts.

8. cell phone decorations. i dont really remember seeing many people over the age of 12 with those things you loop though the hole on your cell phone. here i have yet to see one person ( other than a foreigner) who has one. and they arent little. some are these huge stuffed animals. even the old ladys who are texting on the subway have some sort of trinket on their phone.

9. since space is valuable here in the city they have many space saving things for cars. one is this rotating drive way out side of my school. it makes it so you can back up your car and then it will rotate your car around so you can drive out. they also have this sort of ferris wheel for cars. a car drives in then it will rotate it around so another one can get on and so on...

getting here and the first few days

2009-01-24T02:57:00.000-08:00

the trip here was quite the journey. from toronto i went to washington. the airport was insane!! ive never seen a check in line go as long as the united air one was. (this was because of Obamas inauguration) and the line ups for security afterwards were crazy aswell, i barely had time to grab a snack and water before my flight. from washington i went direct to korea. instead of going west we went north up towards the north pole, and then down again. it was not short. The flight was about 15 hours but one of the nicest airplanes ive ever been on. so much leg room and they were constantly trying to feed me. i was advised not to sleep too much on the plane because i was landing in the evening korean time so i watched tonnes of movies and read the magazines from court.
after landing and going through immigration i got to the luggage carousel and saw this bin with my name on it going around. turns out one of my bags had been left in washington. not the end of the world because its here with me now and made getting around the airport a little easier at the time. carol - the schools director - had a van arranged for me. i felt like a celebrity having my name on a board waiting for me, a little lame but still i enjoyed it.
the ride to the school from the airport was long, mostly due to rush hour traffic. it didnt feel like i was in a different country then, acutally it still hasnt sunk in yet, i felt like i was going through toronto or something. the only werid thing was my driver had a gps/tv in his car and was watching the news for most of the journey.
i got to the school and met the director, and many of the afternoon teachers. from there we went to the apartment building and i passed out for about 13 hours.
the next day, friday, one of the teachers who has been here for a while took the other new teacher to school so that we could get used to the bus's here. its about a 15-20 min bus ride whcih isnt bad at all. i was taken out for chinese after arriving and was given the biggest bowl of beef noodle soup ever. i got through less than a quarter, and it still only cost about 6 bucks!
from there i spent the day at the school shadowing the teachers im most likely going to replace. my school is an SLP school, basically a private english school. kids are here for only 2 classes a day (about 80mins) to practice their english. and the classes are small, i sat in on one with only 2 students and the biggest class had 8 or 9 students in it. its nice working in this kind of school because in some public schools there are usually only 1 or 2 foreign teachers where mine has about 20 or so...and we all live in the same building which makes it feel a little like frosh year.

that night it was one of the teachers birthdays so most of us went out to a korean barbeque resturant. it was a bit different. first you sit on the floor, and take off your shoes. and inthe middle of the table are hot coals and you cook giant slabs of meat on there, cut it up and take what you want. it was delicious although ours may have caught fire towards the end of the meal - shocking i know haha. after dinner we went to another bar within walking distance. i suppose it would be equivalent of a pub here. sit down at a table with friends etc. the only difference is that the table had these doorbell like things that you ring when you are ready to order or need something, and the servers come super fast once they hear that. also smoking is permitted everywhere here and koreans smoke alot! thats going to take some getting used to. that first night the other canadian teachers and i had some soju cocktails - when you order a cocktail here it doesnt come in a little plastic cup with a straw. its a large pitcher and how ever many small shot glass like cups you need. needless to say i got pretty wasted off of the soju. we also go some potatoes with cheese, which were basically mccain crinkle fries with cheese and vegtables, super tasty especially at 230am. from there we cabed it home and called it a night.

the next day the new teacher and i went walking around our part of town for 2 hours of so just trying to familarize ourselves with the area. most of the people you pass on the street just stare at you, and since i still dont know any korean i cant really say anything. i picked up a few things i needed and went to the market for some food. i came at a good time because this weekend is lunar new year here. so i had to work friday then get sat, sun, mon, and tues off which i need because the jet lag is starting to catch up fast. although this also means that most of the teachers have gone away on little trips.

thats it for now...ill add some pictures when i get unpacked and can find my cord.

korean culture tidbits
1. never write a name in red: this is like a death wish on someone or saying that they will die a tragic death in a few days, apparantly kids dont take this one lightly
2. saying someone or something is crazy is also a big no-no. it has something to do with the fact that they have no mental disorders here, or at least they will not diagnose them. so saying someone is crazy is the ultimate diss
3. never pour your own drink. and when someone is pouring your drink you hold it with both hands. something to do with respect.

random obama facts
he was elected as president the day before i moved home from halifax....he was sworn in as president the day before i left for korea.