"We're gonna have..."

the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny fucking Kaye!!"

Annyong everyone. Hope your Xmas was merry and bright. I managed to get into the spirit and have an excellent Christmas despite being stuck in the land of kimchi. I was all too happy to have four days off and no plans of leaving the city over the break. On Christmas Eve I cooked and cleaned and organized for about 9 hours and then went to the foreigner bar downtown to see some friends and have a few cocktails. The most Christmassy drink we could get really was a white russian which went down smooth but promised that we would all be that one drunken asshole at the Christmas celebration. I'm not complaining. Then I went home at about 2 am and opened my Christmas presents while drinking tea and Baileys (the Baileys was a Christmas present to myself!). I now have more chocolate than I know what to do with and tons of food to eat up in the next two months.

Then, I woke up slightly hungover on Christmas day and started preparing dinner for 11 COWORKERS! We had roasted chicken, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, squash with maple syrup, peas, carrots, broccoli, baguette, baked brie, cake, clootie dumpling (courtesy of our Scottish coworker Steve) and a lot of alcohol. It was an endeavour to cook so much in the TINY kitchen that I was using but I had two small ovens so we cooked two chickens at a time. A girl I work with helped me cook so I didn't stress out too much. I even decided to splurge on dollar store decorations and table favours since many people didn't have any presents to open. All told it was a total success. Most of my food was cold by the time I ate it but it was delicious and I had TONS of leftovers. We were in a very very small apartment with three computer tables set up and people sitting on the bed and couches to eat but we all got to sit at a table instead of eating on the floor like they do in Korea! No, Christmas wasn't the same, but it was pretty close to anything that I would get back home. I love the holidays and am used to doing hours and hours of work for them so being in Korea didn't affect that at all. I'm off to Seoul for New Year's and then have a whirlwind two months left here since I can't quite bring myself to sign onto teaching 5 year olds for 6 more months even though I love my life here and want the money! More updates to come soon. I'll try to post some New Years pics.

Hallelujah. Hooooly shit.

Greetings all. I've still neglected my blog but will update soon I swear. Just pulled a Christmas tree out from under my bed and decided to spruce up my apartment a tad. Will deck the halls more over time but the initial stages have begun. No need to mail any trees my way since I am set in that department! hahaha. Just mailed half of my xmas presents and have one more EXPENSIVE box to mail on Thursday. I might as well start using my won as fuel for heating my apartment...

C'est L'Alloween

Hello again. More pics are to come but I thought I would drop a quick line. Last Wednesday was Halloween and the school had a special day for the Kindergarten kids. I was co-organizing it with another teacher which meant that I was very busy for days before Halloween. The kids were really cute in their costumes and I have some pics of them. I wore a kimono that I bought in Tokyo (it's not actually a kimono because it's the summer version but you get the idea). To the pub I went as "the Boob Tube." My whole life people have made comments about my boobs and this place is not different. I decided to go with it and give people something to comment about. I made "dials" out of peanut butter lids that ACTUALLY TURNED!!!! and used a frame with a glow stick wedged in my underwire as the TV. Turned out alright! Too bad I was so drunk that I don't remember the night...

Tea for Two and Two for Tea...

Yesterday I went on a trip to a green tea farm with some co-workers. Our boss decided to be nice to us by offering one of the work buses and a driver to us for two trips of our choice around the area. I had wanted to go to the tea farm for a while so I jumped at the chance to go, despite having to get up at 9am on my day off. It takes about an hour and a half to get to Boseong from Gwangju but it was a pleasant trip as the massive bus only had about 10 of us in it. The farm was small but very picturesque. The tea grows on the mountainside in long rows of bushes that are a very rich green colour this season. We didn't need much time there to get the idea but still it was a good experience. The strange thing to me though was the burial mounds within the plantation. The thought of tea growing in close proximity to dead bodies seems odd to me, even though it is inevitable everywhere. We also went to the beach area as well which is dreadful this time of year, not to mention very cold. We also went for lunch at a Korean restaurant that serves green tea-fed pork. Everything in Boseong is made from green tea. Hope you enjoy the pics as much as I do.

Will Teach For Food...

I was delighted to discover yesterday that the astronomical price of broccoli in South Korea has gone down. Hooray. It used to cost $4 for a head of broccoli half the size of one in Canada. Now, my favourite vegetable only costs about $2 for the same amount. I'm goin' to be green with energy while this wonder of a veg is in season. I hope you Canadians know how lucky you are. Koreans seem to consider mass quantities of vile radish, various indescribable grasses (probably snipped from the lawn out back) and bizarre looking "twigs" to be vegetables. It's a bleeding shame, I say.

I went to Mokpo yesterday on my "vacation" day from work. My school seems to consider a day off due to scheduling conflicts to be a "vacation" day for us...even though it's a Thursday. If you ask anyone about Mokpo they will tell you that there's nothing there and it's the place you go to when you want to catch the ferry to Jeju-do (Honeymooner Island). We went up a small mountain and saw many pagodas and "bauis" (rocks) along the way. It was scenic but very frustrating as our maps were second-rate and basically lied to us. Then we went to the "beach" which was literally (LITERALLY) 20 metres of sand in the middle of a wharf. It was so bad it's comical. I'll post the pics as soon as I get them. I still have to get a cable so that I an charge my new camera. sigh.

Gyeongju, South Korea

In September I had one of the best weekends that I've had since being in Korea. I went to Gyeongju in the North East of South Korea. Gyeongju was the seat of the ancient Silla dynasty in Korea. The town is a haven for tourists who are both western and Korean. It was the first town that I've been to in Korea that really felt like a touist attraction and somewhere that had been planned or at least groomed in a thoughtful manner. Even the gas stations there have rooves that look like ancient temples. The town is quaint and wonderful for renting a bike or strolling down the boardwalk through the lilies. There are lots of ancient tombs that basically look like giant grassy hills and there is one that touists can walk right into. You can take a carriage ride around the area or decide to shop in the bustling downtown area. The town had the perfect mix of old and new to me and it was a lovely change of pace from the aesthetic monotony of Gwangju or Seoul.