I blame genetics...

Not only did I inherit Grandma Teddy's name, I think I may have inherited her love of "bling." After an eye-opening trip to the DMZ I reached an awesome height of shallowness by purchasing a dinky amethyst ring at this Amethyst museum place. Apparently the amethyst is the stone of Korea and I was excited by all the colours in the store and blew 50 bucks on a tiny ring. Well at least it's not a plastic pig or a buddha mug or something like that.

Cherry Blossoms...

Last weekend I got to go out of town to see the cherry blossoms. One of the Korean guys that we work with drove us in one of the school's vans to an area where there are tons of trees as well as a Buddhist temple. It was a 3K walk to the temple which was a bit much by the 6th kilometer! The trees were gorgeous and the temple area was everything you would expect Asia to be.

rubber food rubs me the wrong way....

One of the most bizarre features of restaurants in Korea is the display cases of plastic meals outside the restaurants. They have mock meals made out of plastic so that you can see what you will be eating and choose based on the look of the dish. It is really weird when you first see it, especially when it's for a burger joint. I don't know about you, but the picture on the board generally gives me a pretty good idea of what my hamburger and fries are gonna look like. They even have fake fruit drinks at Dunkin Donuts and fake scoops of ice cream sitting by the register in Baskin Robbins. Honestly, I find it kinda disturbing and it actually kills my appetite a little...only not as much as all the squid and octopus around--that's just edible plastic food.

I went for lunch to a fusion restaurant downtown yesterday. It was beautiful inside with a water wall and big comfy wicker chairs. The restaurant serves what they call "Omurice" which is an omelette with rice inside. You can get a chicken curry omurice, shrimp omurice, sweet and sour pork omurice, sauteed chicken and veggie omurice, etc... Basically it's the meat served over top of an omelette with lots of goopy sauce completely covering the plate. I got the Beijing Duck Omurice which was pretty good. AND it only cost 7900 won which is approximately $7.90 Canadian!!! In many ways it is cheaper to eat out than to cook at home in Korea which is really strange. I stupidly forgot to take a picture but I will snap one of some plastic food some time soon. My Omurice lunch made me realize how much I miss omelettes and breakfast food. I'm going to go to Seoul next weekend and have breakfast at this Canadian bar called "Rocky Mountain" that apparently serves a really good Canadian-style breakfast. Can't wait! I'm also going to go to the foreigner grocery store to buy some food that I can't get in Gwangju!

Skip to the loo my darling...

And now for a short word on Korean loos. One of the most annoying "problems" for foreigners in Korea is the squatter-style toilet which is just wrong in my opinion. On my floor at work there is only one "regular" toilet in the bathroom that teachers have to share with students. I have yet to attempt to use a squatter toilet and don't really plan on it. Luckily, the toilet in my apartment is western-style. The other little gem that has happened to more than one person is the problem of getting sprayed by the toilets which have buttons on the side that are oh so conveniently labelled only in Korean. They are part beday, part seat warmer, the cadillac of public toilets, named "LooLoo" by a very smart company. But dare not test the buttons to see what they do as you will no doubt emerge from the loo with a soaked shirt only to be mocked by your peers who know that alcohol is not the excuse. I have to say that the heated seats are a wonderful addition to my public toilet-going experience.....or at least I thought so until I considered how many more germs linger on the hot bottom-warmers than the cold, wet, north american seats that we are used to. Another amusing thing that I saw was the "etiquette bell" on my DMZ tour. It's either a bell to get paper from the attendant or perhaps something to disguise the sound of you micturating from the girls nextdoor. Oh, how modest the Koreans are. I also laughed when I saw the jar of toothbrushes in the restroom of a soju bar. Koreans are very serious about the hygiene of their teeth and keep toothbrushes in sterilizers at work for a quick brush after lunch. Even my students have toothbrushes in the classroom that they use after lunch. Now if you can explain to me all the rotting teeth that I keep seeing I'd appreciate that. I was also a bit shocked by the fact that I don't have a separate shower in my apartment. Basically the bathroom is a wet room which is fine I guess but if you have to brush your teeth after you shower you are stuck walking on wet tiles or standing in your wet shower shoes. Although, the fact that you can sit on the loo and take a shower is quite great, especially when hungover, over-tired, or just too damn lazy to stand up.

The Yellow Sand Storms....

Something called the yellow sand storms has begun in Korea. Dust from the Gobi desert blows all the way to Korea and covers everything that it lands on. Ok, "covers" is not the best word. Basically it just makes everything look sort of dirty and can be harmful if you inhale it. You can't *really* tell that anything is THAT different except that cars look like they are covered in silt and there is a strange smell in the air sort of like the smell of fresh sawdust. The cherry blossoms are also out on the trees now. I will take some pics when I get a chance. Our trip to go see them in the country was cancelled on Sunday due to rain but hopefully this weekend the guy I work with will be taking a few of us to see the blossoms before they fall off the trees for the season. In Pungam (the residential area that I live in) they are breathtaking in front of all the shops as it makes it look at a quick glance like the trees are covered in fluffy pink snow. I am dreading the hot season and the hard rains. I am also dreading the rain when the yellow dust is still around as I fear it could be extremely messy...

Photos!!!

I have set up a Flickr account so that I can post all of my photos for everyone to see in a better format than blogger allows. Go to the following link to keep up to date on the news and I will slowly blog about the pics as I get around to all of them:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7596248@N07/