Wednesday, March 31, 2010
hhhhmm.....
my perspective on Korea is changing... living here is a cool place to live. teaching kids english and not speaking the langauge however, is a different story... hhhmm.... this program for Taiwan looks pretty good at the moment....
Sunday, March 28, 2010
All your piracy does not exist in Korea
What a beautiful weekend. Woke up to the light of the bright, bright sun today. Thank god there has been sunlight for the past few days and that it isn't dark and gloomy. I think I'm almost used to waking up at 9:30-10:30am now. Hopefully I'll be able to crank it up to 9am soon. Anyways... one thing i have to complain about my building or what seems to be like a common problem for most people is that... THE WALLS ARE SO DAM THIN.
Last night as I got tired... I lay down on my bed, close my eyes and start to relax and fall asleep when...... i hear my "young and in love" neighbours going at it -_-.
I swear to god, they are like rabbits.... this is like the 4th night in a row they've been at it... its ridiculous. Either I gotta start going to bed earlier, or I gotta get earplugs -_-.
Anyways... so, with that thought out of mind. Today! Today was a great day, first time I could wear a thin sweater and not really be cold. Well it was a little incy bit but it was bearable. Watched UFC111 on tv. Yup... just plain ol' cable. Didn't have to pay for anything. Watched the co-main event and main event. This means now... I can watch in the comfort of my own home... eat my own food, drink my own drink and do whatever I want and make myself comfortable.
However... it would be weird to drink at 10:30am though as that's when the fight starts -_- ... even though i've seen people start drinking as early as 7:30am -_-
Regardless... I'm glad I didn't have to pay to watch this event, b/c the matches were dull and boring. Whatever, let's hope the next one will be more entertaining. Now I just gotta find more people that watches the fight as well so we can chill at someone's place or something.
Last night as I got tired... I lay down on my bed, close my eyes and start to relax and fall asleep when...... i hear my "young and in love" neighbours going at it -_-.
I swear to god, they are like rabbits.... this is like the 4th night in a row they've been at it... its ridiculous. Either I gotta start going to bed earlier, or I gotta get earplugs -_-.
Anyways... so, with that thought out of mind. Today! Today was a great day, first time I could wear a thin sweater and not really be cold. Well it was a little incy bit but it was bearable. Watched UFC111 on tv. Yup... just plain ol' cable. Didn't have to pay for anything. Watched the co-main event and main event. This means now... I can watch in the comfort of my own home... eat my own food, drink my own drink and do whatever I want and make myself comfortable.
However... it would be weird to drink at 10:30am though as that's when the fight starts -_- ... even though i've seen people start drinking as early as 7:30am -_-
Regardless... I'm glad I didn't have to pay to watch this event, b/c the matches were dull and boring. Whatever, let's hope the next one will be more entertaining. Now I just gotta find more people that watches the fight as well so we can chill at someone's place or something.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Update!!
Hey guys. So again, just a quick update, i'm alive and well. if i haven't informed you yet, i love the lifestyle here. i love asia's lifestyle in general actually. well... most things about asia's lifestyle. man... walking around here at night is awesome. i feel very safe when i'm walking out here at night, where as in toronto, i feel like something's going to happen to me if i don't get home asap.
anyways... met up with some friends for the weekend in Jeonju. Had a pretty fun time. Last week, with the same group of friends we went to Seoul and THAT was a great time. we shopped around, went to dinner and drank, and then we were suppose to go to another bar to drink, but we ended up at a club instead. there was no cover (sweet!) and it was one of the most fun i've had since being here. afterwards, we stayed over at a jimjjilbang (korean sauna's) for the night... had horrible sleep, woke up at 6;30am to get ready to go to the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) basically the 2km radius of the border between North and South Korea. we went to a bunch of places, saw the tunnels where the North Koreans tried to dig to invade South Korea, saw the border where we can use telescopes to look into North Korea. Saw the infamous 'propaganda town' that NK has. basically a ghost town made of cardboard where it's suppose to show tourists at the SK border how 'Prosperous' NK is. Also saw the small SK town that's established in the NK territory, that was pretty cool. READ UP ABOUT IT IF YOU'RE INTERESTED!! it's actually pretty interesting. OOhh, also read up about the Axe Murder Incident where the American Lieutenant was killed by Soldiers with Axes.
and that was last week... then i had school, and that was a living hell, although this week passed by faster than the first week. wednesday, i took on 35 kids again... ugh, disaster.... gr.2 kids i'm slowly starting to gain control over those buggers... and with 3-4, they're still my WorsT class... and 5-6 are my good class. Friday we played games with the kids... found this website called 'Genkienglish.net' (it works either .com or .net) and it was pretty interesting. Tried out the 'line quiz' game the website demonstrated and it actually worked! so i'm going to study it more and hopefully soak up it's way of teaching.
also, we got our TaLK textbooks. It's f'n... HUGE. All 3 of them put together looks like a thick telephone book. -_-
anyways... so this weekend, thank god there are weekends. was a relaxing one, chilled with friends. SHOPPING!!!! gaaahh!!! i love shopping in Jeonju, so much cheaper than in Gunsan. We went to a place called 'Kaeksa' it's like the equivalent of ... dundas square, but not as big and not as much lights b/c it's a shopping distrct, with restaurants, and its like the place to go if you want to go get some cheap shopping done or if you're just bored and want to walk around.
so i went to my new favourite store in Jeonju, ti's so cheap. i bought a t-shirt for $4... two sweaters just under $10. they're stylish AND cheap! i love it!! xD
afterwards, went back to the hawaii sister's house (hanna and lola) went back, to their place to drink and eat chicken! it was awesome, then we just chilled around and talked. good night, good night... need the weekend to just get away from the kids.
now i'm at a cafe with some friends, attempting to make lesson plans but we're failing at it and we're playing chess right now... like acutal chess, with a board and chess pieces, hahaha... procrastination comes back to haunt me again!!
anyways... met up with some friends for the weekend in Jeonju. Had a pretty fun time. Last week, with the same group of friends we went to Seoul and THAT was a great time. we shopped around, went to dinner and drank, and then we were suppose to go to another bar to drink, but we ended up at a club instead. there was no cover (sweet!) and it was one of the most fun i've had since being here. afterwards, we stayed over at a jimjjilbang (korean sauna's) for the night... had horrible sleep, woke up at 6;30am to get ready to go to the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) basically the 2km radius of the border between North and South Korea. we went to a bunch of places, saw the tunnels where the North Koreans tried to dig to invade South Korea, saw the border where we can use telescopes to look into North Korea. Saw the infamous 'propaganda town' that NK has. basically a ghost town made of cardboard where it's suppose to show tourists at the SK border how 'Prosperous' NK is. Also saw the small SK town that's established in the NK territory, that was pretty cool. READ UP ABOUT IT IF YOU'RE INTERESTED!! it's actually pretty interesting. OOhh, also read up about the Axe Murder Incident where the American Lieutenant was killed by Soldiers with Axes.
and that was last week... then i had school, and that was a living hell, although this week passed by faster than the first week. wednesday, i took on 35 kids again... ugh, disaster.... gr.2 kids i'm slowly starting to gain control over those buggers... and with 3-4, they're still my WorsT class... and 5-6 are my good class. Friday we played games with the kids... found this website called 'Genkienglish.net' (it works either .com or .net) and it was pretty interesting. Tried out the 'line quiz' game the website demonstrated and it actually worked! so i'm going to study it more and hopefully soak up it's way of teaching.
also, we got our TaLK textbooks. It's f'n... HUGE. All 3 of them put together looks like a thick telephone book. -_-
anyways... so this weekend, thank god there are weekends. was a relaxing one, chilled with friends. SHOPPING!!!! gaaahh!!! i love shopping in Jeonju, so much cheaper than in Gunsan. We went to a place called 'Kaeksa' it's like the equivalent of ... dundas square, but not as big and not as much lights b/c it's a shopping distrct, with restaurants, and its like the place to go if you want to go get some cheap shopping done or if you're just bored and want to walk around.
so i went to my new favourite store in Jeonju, ti's so cheap. i bought a t-shirt for $4... two sweaters just under $10. they're stylish AND cheap! i love it!! xD
afterwards, went back to the hawaii sister's house (hanna and lola) went back, to their place to drink and eat chicken! it was awesome, then we just chilled around and talked. good night, good night... need the weekend to just get away from the kids.
now i'm at a cafe with some friends, attempting to make lesson plans but we're failing at it and we're playing chess right now... like acutal chess, with a board and chess pieces, hahaha... procrastination comes back to haunt me again!!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Survived one more day...
Mar. 11 Thursday - took on gr. 2, and gr.3-4 today by myself. The gr.2's were alright, sometimes they would act up, but they are just being kids for their age.... where as the gr.3-4.... yikes.... need some attitude adjustments.... well, they weren't really snapping at me but still... this is a hard bunch to deal with. I read them a book they've already heard me read one more time and then I gave them a crossword with some major words in the book and they were struggling. Heiii.... i read them 'Mrs. Wishy-Washy' and 'It's a Wishy-Washy Day' .... GAAARHHH!!!
So after the day was finally done... i went home to cook some comfort food for the distress. Ramen and luncheon meat! lol... ate that and then me, my co-teacher (Ju-Hyeong) and his friend, Dan o, who we newly met and is also Bryce's co-teacher... we went to Mr. Pizza. Apparently in Korea, pizza is luxury dining -_-. so when you're out eating pizza, you use a knife and fork... O_o ... but eating at home or somewhere else aside from the restaurant you just eat with your hands. lol... weird.
Then we went to Dunkin' donuts, chilled for a bit and then headed up to a bar called 'Garten Bier'... the ones where you can chill the beer in these pod-shape like coolers that will always keep the beer cold at the table. Met up with Bryce, the canadian teacher that teaches at his school, Lindsay, and their friends. A bunch of foreigners, some from Toronto some from California, SOuth Africa, etc., etc. Anyways, so we went there, chilled for a bit and then headed over to the bar 'Thursdays' a pretty chill place to hangout, and i think newfound game is Darts and Pool, haha...
so we played a dart game called 'Killer'. Everybody first take turns hitting the board and getting a number, and once everybody has a number, you start from the beginning again and everybody gets 3 chances. You start off with 5 points. You hit someone's number, you take off a point, you hit your own number, you add a point. Objective of the game is to eliminate everybody and be the last one standing.
So after the day was finally done... i went home to cook some comfort food for the distress. Ramen and luncheon meat! lol... ate that and then me, my co-teacher (Ju-Hyeong) and his friend, Dan o, who we newly met and is also Bryce's co-teacher... we went to Mr. Pizza. Apparently in Korea, pizza is luxury dining -_-. so when you're out eating pizza, you use a knife and fork... O_o ... but eating at home or somewhere else aside from the restaurant you just eat with your hands. lol... weird.
Then we went to Dunkin' donuts, chilled for a bit and then headed up to a bar called 'Garten Bier'... the ones where you can chill the beer in these pod-shape like coolers that will always keep the beer cold at the table. Met up with Bryce, the canadian teacher that teaches at his school, Lindsay, and their friends. A bunch of foreigners, some from Toronto some from California, SOuth Africa, etc., etc. Anyways, so we went there, chilled for a bit and then headed over to the bar 'Thursdays' a pretty chill place to hangout, and i think newfound game is Darts and Pool, haha...
so we played a dart game called 'Killer'. Everybody first take turns hitting the board and getting a number, and once everybody has a number, you start from the beginning again and everybody gets 3 chances. You start off with 5 points. You hit someone's number, you take off a point, you hit your own number, you add a point. Objective of the game is to eliminate everybody and be the last one standing.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
TOTAL CHAOS...
Mar. 10, Wednesday – omg… today I had to teach gr.3,4,5,6 altogether at once in one class!!! I HAD 35 KIDS ALL BY MYSELF!! WITH 97% OF THEM NOT SPEAKING ENGLISH AND NOT UNDERSTANDING AT ALL!!!! It was TOTAL CHAOS!!! Really, without the gr.5-6 there… I would have drowned… luckily they took on a leadership role, cuz I told them to, and they tried their best to keep the kids down…. Gr.3-4, worst grade I have…. Gr.2, alright, decent… gr.5-6… best grade so far, although sometimes hard to get them to understand what I’m trying to say... *sigh*… but whatever... at least they listen.... Afterwards the teachers were playing volleyball in the gym… or rather they were playing already when I was teaching… so I watched for a bit and then after the game, the Principal asked if I play volleyball and I said I can’t play b/c I get off when they’re about done… so he said he might change my schedule for me, hahaha... tonight i was so bored too... I was watching this old cantonese movie, that takes place in the ancient eras... its called "笑傲江湖 II: 東方不敗" ... for those that can read Chinese... you would know this is an old Jet Li film and a classic... for those that don't... search it up on youtube and maybe you'll know what it is!!
but yeah... quiet evening... made rice, ate the leftovers of chicken and cooked up some 'choi'... 菜... alright... stayed up long enough for tonight... goodnights!!!
but yeah... quiet evening... made rice, ate the leftovers of chicken and cooked up some 'choi'... 菜... alright... stayed up long enough for tonight... goodnights!!!
March posts!!
Alright... so now I'll be posting what I have been doing here for the past 2 weeks in my city, GUNSAN! If you want to know where it is, you can copy and paste the following:
Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea.
Here goes! (btw, it's a continuation from the previous post)
Feb. 27 / Saturday – woke up around 11…. Picked up Justin Lee went back to our place, chilled for a bit and then walked around for a while till we finally had lunch… we ate a ta chicken place….. kinda like the one we went to before we left Jeonju. Anyways, after that we walked around some more… found the movie theatre around here…. then we went to a café and just chilled there… tous les jours….. it was called…. And then we went back home….then we chilled for a bit…. i had ramen for dinner…. And then we went out to a bar called ‘TLC’… however, the place was full of G.I.’s and yeah, it was a bit too rowdy. Full of idiots… and then we went to antoher bar, called the Garsten or something.. german bar, but owned by Koreans I believe…. Anyways… we had a pitcher there and hten we went home
Feb. 28, Sunday – we made our way to Namwon, where Trent was living, b/c he said he was bored out of his mind and he misses us a lot. So off to Namwon we go. Justin couldn’t go with us b/c he had some things he had to do with his mentor teacher. Lola and Hanna were with their aunt and they happened to be in Jeonju, and offered us a ride to Namwon. It was a very nice thing their aunt did for us. It was over an hour drive! Or about an hour… and they came all the way from Seoul too!!! That’s like driving from my house to York University (approx. 40 mins), on Steeles, and then driving another hour West, soo…. That would be….. uumm… wherever an hour West will take you, lol…
Anyways, we get to his place, his place is huge, as he’s living in a one bedroom apartment… yes, apartment, not a studio or bachelor’s, an apartment. All to himself… what a lucky guy… after settling down we just chill and talk, then we went to this bar called ‘Wabar’ with his mentor teacher who lives 2 rooms away from him. Her name is Jennifer… she speaks English pretty well and she even drew a map of the area they were in. A very detailed map with every store name listed, where to go buy things, where to go to if Trent was sick, etc., etc., it was amazing! Anyways, so this Wabar, it has like all the beers of the world. Well, most beer anyways, so if I’m ever craving for a Heineken or some other non-korean beer, I go to this bar. But, the nightlife here ain’t cheap, so I don’t think I’ll be going out that often… hhmm…=/
Mar. 1, Monday – woke up, we were suppose to go walking around and go to some garden to check out it’s beauty, however… it was raining and it was just one of those gloomy days and so we decided to call it off and go again some other time when its spring and hopefully the weather would be nicer. We go walking around E-Mart… okay, side lesson here on Korea. Three biggest places they have here… E-mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus. (They have Costco here somewhere, but it’s only in the bigger cities) and basically, you can find any of the first two Mart’s almost anywhere in any city. They are like the wal-marts of Korea…. Okay back on topic. So… we walked around some more, window shopped and went home. There’s nothing to do in Korea when its raining, that’s one of the downsides. So went back home, went to Lotte mart to buy my new bed, as the old one is disgusting and went home, lazed around and tis the end to another day.
Mar. 2, Tuesday – first day of school! Woke up, walked to school, got lost, had to call and see where I was going and finally made it to school for lunch. Went to the cafeteria, sat beside the teachers. Now, I dunno if they don’t like me or its just b/c I don’t speak Korean hence they don’t really talk to me, but some of these teachers seem pretty cold. They don’t bother saying ‘Hi’ (안녕하세요) at all… I dunno… it just bothers me. Whatever… I have other teachers I can chill with. So awkwardly just sat there eating lunch, once that was over with, I went on a lil’ tour with this other teacher who used to be my mentor teacher and then I met the native English speaker teacher, Connie. She’s Canadian, from Brampton, and was originally from Newfoundland. GEOFF!!!! If you’re reading this… which you should be… cheers to you for the Newfies!!!
Anyways… so we talked until it was time to go… oh, yeah, another thing… I have to stay here until 4:30pm everyday, even though I don’t have any kids to teach, just b/c I have to. What a big waste of time!!! I’ve seen my classroom and I know where the supplies are… anyways… back onto topic… talked, school was done, went home, then we met up with the other ppl that were also teaching in Gunsan and is with the TaLK program, we had dinner and then went to a bar for a few drinks and then went to play pool. And my gosh, my co-teacher (Kim), he’s a good drinker! There was this drink called ‘Bbyong Gah Ri’ (뽕가리) there’s a whole bunch of stuff in it. Midori, Bacardi, beer, coconut, banana, and basically, if you want a quick drunk, you drink this and within 10 mins you’ll be buzzed off your mind, lol. Ask Justin Lee, he got a good buzz out of it, hahaha… sorry Justin :P
I think I’ll be picking up on darts and pool. Those seem to be the only things you can do around here. Watch out Jerry :P
Mar. 3, Wednesday – went to school again, talked until end of classes again with Connie, as we both have nothing to do until next week. Went with my mentor teacher to the Immigration Office to pick up my passport, just to find out that its not ready until Friday actually. And I need to exchange money, and I don’t have my passport =(
So I gave the money to my mentor, as her friend works at a bank and her friend will transfer the money into my account, which I hopefully remember the PIN to… yeah I know, fail -_-…
Got home, then went out to dinner with Connie and her family. Met the husband Troy and their daughter Meghan… Troy is a minister and also teaches at a high school here in Gunsan and I met the daughter already the first day I met Connie, she’s more comfortable speaking Korean than she is speaking English and she’s 8. She’s gonna have lots of stories to tell when she goes abroad =)
We went to Pizza Hut… yes, Pizza Hut, it was pretty good and a taste of Home I guess you can say and we got the one with the crust that has the cheese/sweet potato inside and you take it off and you can dip it into this fondue and eat it. It was pretty cool :P
Mar. 4, Thursday – the mattresses arrive today!! Well, the ones that me and Bryce ordered… so got up, made instant noodles, cooked some veggies that look like spinach, not sure if it is and boiled two eggs, b/c I don’t have a frying pan yet to actually cook them. I’ll need to start cooking the rice soon so I can start making curry rice and other stuff. I’m craving rice again =(
The mattresses arrive and now I have a new bed! No more disgusting bed for me to sleep on… hopefully this bed will give me some comfort as I haven’t been getting quality sleep lately. I keep waking up, so I’m pretty tired during the mornings. Anyways… I just typed out the last few days of what I’ve done b/c ppl have been complaining about me not updating my blog. I’m at school right now as I’m typing this on Word… ti’s 3pm!! 1.5hr to go before I’m done today and start again tomorrow. Monday I’ll start to actually teach, I think they have some kind of interview/test here where they interview the kids and if the kids pass, that’s how they get into the afterschool program. Its kinda sad, that only the smarter ones get in but not the not-as-fast or not-as-smart ones. Regardless, I have no control over this, and I’m new to it, so I’ll just play the game as it comes I guess.
Okay… so after school I went to sleep b/c I was feeling sick. I wake up an hour or two later feeling like crap, then I had projectiles coming out of me orally and it wasn’t nice at all.
Mar. 5, Friday – suppose to go to Jeonju this weekend, but since I wasn’t really confirmed and Trent was sick, the girls went up to Seoul to see their aunt and we just stayed in our cities and chilled.
Mar. 6, Saturday – Me, Bryce and Justin Lee we went to have lunch at Lotteria.. its like Korea’s own version of fastfood…. So yes you can find corn as a side here and you can find a bulgogi burger here, just like you can at mcdonalds. Afterwards, we walked around and we found the local market that Bryce have seen while riding on the bus to go to school. We walked around in there for a while, it was kinda interesting, lots of spice peppers, fish/stingrays layed out, vegetables, and oh yeah…. DOG… after that we went to CGV… the newer theatre that’s very close by of Lotte Cinema… whoever owns the chain products of Lotte… is a very rich person. Anyways… so we saw ‘Alice in Wonderland’… it was interesting… but I wasn’t impressed or liked it a lot… it was just…. Okay, lol. Afterwards, we went to eat dinner at this chain store that I’ve seen around often… we also found a Jimjilbang place… hopefully I can go soon, and if nobody goes with me then I might go myself… check it out and see how it is.
Mar. 7, Sunday – went to Lotte mart and shopped for appliances with my mentor, bought my rice cooker, electric tea kettle and microwave! Bought a pan, some bread and a wooden spatula… now I can actually start cooking… sweeet
Mar. 8, Monday – first day of actual teaching! Holy crap was it hectic… I didn’t know the schedule, or rather I wasn’t given anything… the kids all spoke Korean and not even a little English…. They spoke like words and maybe phrases… only a few knew very basic English. Luckily, Connie, the native English speaking teacher that works at my school was still there and doesn’t leave till 4:30pm (when I’m done work) helped me out… I was drowning and luckily she saved me.
Mar. 9, Tuesday – today was slightly better as my co-teacher, JuHyeong, was there and he helped translate a little bit to the kids to explain what’s happening and we continued on. Although, maybe we did a little bit too much translating because the kids weren’t really listening to me, but rather to him. The TV STILL doesn’t work yet… and until they get that problem fixed, I can’t do ANYTHING with the kids in terms of actual teaching and games, etc. as I have them all on the computer…. GAAAAHHH!!!!!!! We’ll see how it goes… oh and yeah… my internet hasn’t been working the whole night before same with all of today!!! Wtf?! Technician coming in tmr, so hopefully that goes well. Justin’s birthday today as well, we went out to a place called ‘The Galbi’… the food was awesome, but it was quite expensive there… friggin’ everything in Korea seems pretty expensive… hopefully we can find another place somewhere next time and it won’t be as expensive. Afterwards, we went to a bar called ‘Page’, a quiet cozy bar. I like it… maybe I’ll start going there… if I can find ppl -_-… but its also expensive, so I might want to start finding different alternatives.
Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea.
Here goes! (btw, it's a continuation from the previous post)
Feb. 27 / Saturday – woke up around 11…. Picked up Justin Lee went back to our place, chilled for a bit and then walked around for a while till we finally had lunch… we ate a ta chicken place….. kinda like the one we went to before we left Jeonju. Anyways, after that we walked around some more… found the movie theatre around here…. then we went to a café and just chilled there… tous les jours….. it was called…. And then we went back home….then we chilled for a bit…. i had ramen for dinner…. And then we went out to a bar called ‘TLC’… however, the place was full of G.I.’s and yeah, it was a bit too rowdy. Full of idiots… and then we went to antoher bar, called the Garsten or something.. german bar, but owned by Koreans I believe…. Anyways… we had a pitcher there and hten we went home
Feb. 28, Sunday – we made our way to Namwon, where Trent was living, b/c he said he was bored out of his mind and he misses us a lot. So off to Namwon we go. Justin couldn’t go with us b/c he had some things he had to do with his mentor teacher. Lola and Hanna were with their aunt and they happened to be in Jeonju, and offered us a ride to Namwon. It was a very nice thing their aunt did for us. It was over an hour drive! Or about an hour… and they came all the way from Seoul too!!! That’s like driving from my house to York University (approx. 40 mins), on Steeles, and then driving another hour West, soo…. That would be….. uumm… wherever an hour West will take you, lol…
Anyways, we get to his place, his place is huge, as he’s living in a one bedroom apartment… yes, apartment, not a studio or bachelor’s, an apartment. All to himself… what a lucky guy… after settling down we just chill and talk, then we went to this bar called ‘Wabar’ with his mentor teacher who lives 2 rooms away from him. Her name is Jennifer… she speaks English pretty well and she even drew a map of the area they were in. A very detailed map with every store name listed, where to go buy things, where to go to if Trent was sick, etc., etc., it was amazing! Anyways, so this Wabar, it has like all the beers of the world. Well, most beer anyways, so if I’m ever craving for a Heineken or some other non-korean beer, I go to this bar. But, the nightlife here ain’t cheap, so I don’t think I’ll be going out that often… hhmm…=/
Mar. 1, Monday – woke up, we were suppose to go walking around and go to some garden to check out it’s beauty, however… it was raining and it was just one of those gloomy days and so we decided to call it off and go again some other time when its spring and hopefully the weather would be nicer. We go walking around E-Mart… okay, side lesson here on Korea. Three biggest places they have here… E-mart, Lotte Mart and Homeplus. (They have Costco here somewhere, but it’s only in the bigger cities) and basically, you can find any of the first two Mart’s almost anywhere in any city. They are like the wal-marts of Korea…. Okay back on topic. So… we walked around some more, window shopped and went home. There’s nothing to do in Korea when its raining, that’s one of the downsides. So went back home, went to Lotte mart to buy my new bed, as the old one is disgusting and went home, lazed around and tis the end to another day.
Mar. 2, Tuesday – first day of school! Woke up, walked to school, got lost, had to call and see where I was going and finally made it to school for lunch. Went to the cafeteria, sat beside the teachers. Now, I dunno if they don’t like me or its just b/c I don’t speak Korean hence they don’t really talk to me, but some of these teachers seem pretty cold. They don’t bother saying ‘Hi’ (안녕하세요) at all… I dunno… it just bothers me. Whatever… I have other teachers I can chill with. So awkwardly just sat there eating lunch, once that was over with, I went on a lil’ tour with this other teacher who used to be my mentor teacher and then I met the native English speaker teacher, Connie. She’s Canadian, from Brampton, and was originally from Newfoundland. GEOFF!!!! If you’re reading this… which you should be… cheers to you for the Newfies!!!
Anyways… so we talked until it was time to go… oh, yeah, another thing… I have to stay here until 4:30pm everyday, even though I don’t have any kids to teach, just b/c I have to. What a big waste of time!!! I’ve seen my classroom and I know where the supplies are… anyways… back onto topic… talked, school was done, went home, then we met up with the other ppl that were also teaching in Gunsan and is with the TaLK program, we had dinner and then went to a bar for a few drinks and then went to play pool. And my gosh, my co-teacher (Kim), he’s a good drinker! There was this drink called ‘Bbyong Gah Ri’ (뽕가리) there’s a whole bunch of stuff in it. Midori, Bacardi, beer, coconut, banana, and basically, if you want a quick drunk, you drink this and within 10 mins you’ll be buzzed off your mind, lol. Ask Justin Lee, he got a good buzz out of it, hahaha… sorry Justin :P
I think I’ll be picking up on darts and pool. Those seem to be the only things you can do around here. Watch out Jerry :P
Mar. 3, Wednesday – went to school again, talked until end of classes again with Connie, as we both have nothing to do until next week. Went with my mentor teacher to the Immigration Office to pick up my passport, just to find out that its not ready until Friday actually. And I need to exchange money, and I don’t have my passport =(
So I gave the money to my mentor, as her friend works at a bank and her friend will transfer the money into my account, which I hopefully remember the PIN to… yeah I know, fail -_-…
Got home, then went out to dinner with Connie and her family. Met the husband Troy and their daughter Meghan… Troy is a minister and also teaches at a high school here in Gunsan and I met the daughter already the first day I met Connie, she’s more comfortable speaking Korean than she is speaking English and she’s 8. She’s gonna have lots of stories to tell when she goes abroad =)
We went to Pizza Hut… yes, Pizza Hut, it was pretty good and a taste of Home I guess you can say and we got the one with the crust that has the cheese/sweet potato inside and you take it off and you can dip it into this fondue and eat it. It was pretty cool :P
Mar. 4, Thursday – the mattresses arrive today!! Well, the ones that me and Bryce ordered… so got up, made instant noodles, cooked some veggies that look like spinach, not sure if it is and boiled two eggs, b/c I don’t have a frying pan yet to actually cook them. I’ll need to start cooking the rice soon so I can start making curry rice and other stuff. I’m craving rice again =(
The mattresses arrive and now I have a new bed! No more disgusting bed for me to sleep on… hopefully this bed will give me some comfort as I haven’t been getting quality sleep lately. I keep waking up, so I’m pretty tired during the mornings. Anyways… I just typed out the last few days of what I’ve done b/c ppl have been complaining about me not updating my blog. I’m at school right now as I’m typing this on Word… ti’s 3pm!! 1.5hr to go before I’m done today and start again tomorrow. Monday I’ll start to actually teach, I think they have some kind of interview/test here where they interview the kids and if the kids pass, that’s how they get into the afterschool program. Its kinda sad, that only the smarter ones get in but not the not-as-fast or not-as-smart ones. Regardless, I have no control over this, and I’m new to it, so I’ll just play the game as it comes I guess.
Okay… so after school I went to sleep b/c I was feeling sick. I wake up an hour or two later feeling like crap, then I had projectiles coming out of me orally and it wasn’t nice at all.
Mar. 5, Friday – suppose to go to Jeonju this weekend, but since I wasn’t really confirmed and Trent was sick, the girls went up to Seoul to see their aunt and we just stayed in our cities and chilled.
Mar. 6, Saturday – Me, Bryce and Justin Lee we went to have lunch at Lotteria.. its like Korea’s own version of fastfood…. So yes you can find corn as a side here and you can find a bulgogi burger here, just like you can at mcdonalds. Afterwards, we walked around and we found the local market that Bryce have seen while riding on the bus to go to school. We walked around in there for a while, it was kinda interesting, lots of spice peppers, fish/stingrays layed out, vegetables, and oh yeah…. DOG… after that we went to CGV… the newer theatre that’s very close by of Lotte Cinema… whoever owns the chain products of Lotte… is a very rich person. Anyways… so we saw ‘Alice in Wonderland’… it was interesting… but I wasn’t impressed or liked it a lot… it was just…. Okay, lol. Afterwards, we went to eat dinner at this chain store that I’ve seen around often… we also found a Jimjilbang place… hopefully I can go soon, and if nobody goes with me then I might go myself… check it out and see how it is.
Mar. 7, Sunday – went to Lotte mart and shopped for appliances with my mentor, bought my rice cooker, electric tea kettle and microwave! Bought a pan, some bread and a wooden spatula… now I can actually start cooking… sweeet
Mar. 8, Monday – first day of actual teaching! Holy crap was it hectic… I didn’t know the schedule, or rather I wasn’t given anything… the kids all spoke Korean and not even a little English…. They spoke like words and maybe phrases… only a few knew very basic English. Luckily, Connie, the native English speaking teacher that works at my school was still there and doesn’t leave till 4:30pm (when I’m done work) helped me out… I was drowning and luckily she saved me.
Mar. 9, Tuesday – today was slightly better as my co-teacher, JuHyeong, was there and he helped translate a little bit to the kids to explain what’s happening and we continued on. Although, maybe we did a little bit too much translating because the kids weren’t really listening to me, but rather to him. The TV STILL doesn’t work yet… and until they get that problem fixed, I can’t do ANYTHING with the kids in terms of actual teaching and games, etc. as I have them all on the computer…. GAAAAHHH!!!!!!! We’ll see how it goes… oh and yeah… my internet hasn’t been working the whole night before same with all of today!!! Wtf?! Technician coming in tmr, so hopefully that goes well. Justin’s birthday today as well, we went out to a place called ‘The Galbi’… the food was awesome, but it was quite expensive there… friggin’ everything in Korea seems pretty expensive… hopefully we can find another place somewhere next time and it won’t be as expensive. Afterwards, we went to a bar called ‘Page’, a quiet cozy bar. I like it… maybe I’ll start going there… if I can find ppl -_-… but its also expensive, so I might want to start finding different alternatives.
Late Post - Feb. Update - Last few days at Jeonju University
Hey guys!!!! I'm still alive!!!! I know I've been REALLY REALLY lazy... but i' updating now... so I hope you guys can take on two weeks' worth of updates!!!!! Well... maybe 3 :P.... I'm gonna post about Here it goes!!!
Feb. 20 / Sunday - EXPLORATION DAY! so today we climbed the roof of the University. Took pictures, but i'll have to post them up later. I'm still selecting which ones I can post up and which ones i can't :P... it was a nice view up there, but i think just being able to go up there and discovering that the doors weren't locked were more amazing... it was awesome , lol
Feb. 22/ Tuesday – Lectures, walked to the bank to exchange money, but only to find out that the bank doesn’t do exchanges b/c it’s a small bank -_- …. performance from elementary school kids…. Skipped class for volleyball… chilled and then watched ‘the ugly truth’ with ppl
Feb. 23/ Wednesday – woke up to go to the gym at 7;30am, breakfast, lectures, finally learned something useful in class like how to play games with the kids, went to the bank to get money, worked this time… took the bus too! Afterwards, we went to the gym, saw the university ppl practicing TKD, they were pretty good… then dinner, rested up a bit, then went to Kaeksa? I dunno how to spell it but it’s like one of the places to be in Jeonju city. Took the bus again, went there for a couple of hours, I bought a sweater for $11 and then came home, … then we went up to nghi and sujin’s room and we just chilled, took turns giving out psychology personality tests and jokes. Good end to the night
Feb. 24/ Thursday – woke up, did not go to the gym… coughing and wheezing like a sick person… but I refuse to believe I’m sick… skipped breakfast… went to lecture, turns out the lecturer was late…. Went back to our rooms, then went back to class again, had a short time on how to tell stories and then next lecture on singing/chants with the kids. Went to lunch…. I’m coughing up and wheezing like mad… don’t think I’ll be able to do much for the next few days… went to go meet our mentor teachers… turns out I have a new mentor teacher now, and I also saw my co-teacher too. Well, one of them anyways…. He’s 18, but 20 in Korean…. And my mentor is 25, 27 in korean, so that was pretty cool. Then packed a bit, then went out for dinner… chicken and pizza!! Drank a bit in there, and then when we went out, Donald and pretty much everybody that was there with us in Jeonju was in the restaurant beside us, and Donald told us to have a shot with him and so we all went in for a shot and then we went back… but then decided that we should go to noraebang…. Hanna and Nghi were battling to see if we stayed or go… they used rock, paper, scissors. Hanna won, hence us going to noraebang, lol… so we went, and the rest of the TaLK ppl went to the same place as well… nearby…. Downstairs…. Ghetto looking but whatever, it was still fun b/c we were all enjoying it. Took a gazillion pictures and some videos…. Will have to go through those later. Then when we the night was done with noraebang, we went back to club211, or bryce’s room… and we woke up Justin lee…. Crashed there for a bit and talked… I passed out for a bit… then they all left, I slept some more and hten went back to my room to sleep
Feb. 25/ Friday – woke up by the stupid alarm they were giving over the p.a. system… so I woke up …. Showered…. Started packing… took forever… but I took out my duffle bag and packed the dirty clothes in there…. And finally I had to rush a little bit, but this time I was more prepared… took everything downstairs and then into the bus. Waited on the bus for like 30+ mins, turns out there were still a few ppl that were still packing, so we were waiting on them. Finally when we got everybody, we went to the office of education and had a closing ceremony…. This was retarded b/c… when we got there…. 5 mins later, the ceremony began…. And when the guest speaker was up…. He spoke for literally not even a minute and htat was it and then our POE declared the ceremony was done and that took….. 5 mins literally…. Stupid -_-
So then we went downstairs to get our stuff, and packed it into this other teacher’s car. She live sin Jeonju but teaches at the same place as mine, her name is Ms. Park. She’s also the same age as my new mentor teacher, Ms. Lee.
So they drove me back here, along with my co-teacher, then we went to the school…. I met the principal, along with the vice principal…. In the teachers office, they were all busy writing away on papers, trying to come up with the school schedule I guess… regardless, they were just busy
Feb. 20 / Sunday - EXPLORATION DAY! so today we climbed the roof of the University. Took pictures, but i'll have to post them up later. I'm still selecting which ones I can post up and which ones i can't :P... it was a nice view up there, but i think just being able to go up there and discovering that the doors weren't locked were more amazing... it was awesome , lol
Feb. 22/ Tuesday – Lectures, walked to the bank to exchange money, but only to find out that the bank doesn’t do exchanges b/c it’s a small bank -_- …. performance from elementary school kids…. Skipped class for volleyball… chilled and then watched ‘the ugly truth’ with ppl
Feb. 23/ Wednesday – woke up to go to the gym at 7;30am, breakfast, lectures, finally learned something useful in class like how to play games with the kids, went to the bank to get money, worked this time… took the bus too! Afterwards, we went to the gym, saw the university ppl practicing TKD, they were pretty good… then dinner, rested up a bit, then went to Kaeksa? I dunno how to spell it but it’s like one of the places to be in Jeonju city. Took the bus again, went there for a couple of hours, I bought a sweater for $11 and then came home, … then we went up to nghi and sujin’s room and we just chilled, took turns giving out psychology personality tests and jokes. Good end to the night
Feb. 24/ Thursday – woke up, did not go to the gym… coughing and wheezing like a sick person… but I refuse to believe I’m sick… skipped breakfast… went to lecture, turns out the lecturer was late…. Went back to our rooms, then went back to class again, had a short time on how to tell stories and then next lecture on singing/chants with the kids. Went to lunch…. I’m coughing up and wheezing like mad… don’t think I’ll be able to do much for the next few days… went to go meet our mentor teachers… turns out I have a new mentor teacher now, and I also saw my co-teacher too. Well, one of them anyways…. He’s 18, but 20 in Korean…. And my mentor is 25, 27 in korean, so that was pretty cool. Then packed a bit, then went out for dinner… chicken and pizza!! Drank a bit in there, and then when we went out, Donald and pretty much everybody that was there with us in Jeonju was in the restaurant beside us, and Donald told us to have a shot with him and so we all went in for a shot and then we went back… but then decided that we should go to noraebang…. Hanna and Nghi were battling to see if we stayed or go… they used rock, paper, scissors. Hanna won, hence us going to noraebang, lol… so we went, and the rest of the TaLK ppl went to the same place as well… nearby…. Downstairs…. Ghetto looking but whatever, it was still fun b/c we were all enjoying it. Took a gazillion pictures and some videos…. Will have to go through those later. Then when we the night was done with noraebang, we went back to club211, or bryce’s room… and we woke up Justin lee…. Crashed there for a bit and talked… I passed out for a bit… then they all left, I slept some more and hten went back to my room to sleep
Feb. 25/ Friday – woke up by the stupid alarm they were giving over the p.a. system… so I woke up …. Showered…. Started packing… took forever… but I took out my duffle bag and packed the dirty clothes in there…. And finally I had to rush a little bit, but this time I was more prepared… took everything downstairs and then into the bus. Waited on the bus for like 30+ mins, turns out there were still a few ppl that were still packing, so we were waiting on them. Finally when we got everybody, we went to the office of education and had a closing ceremony…. This was retarded b/c… when we got there…. 5 mins later, the ceremony began…. And when the guest speaker was up…. He spoke for literally not even a minute and htat was it and then our POE declared the ceremony was done and that took….. 5 mins literally…. Stupid -_-
So then we went downstairs to get our stuff, and packed it into this other teacher’s car. She live sin Jeonju but teaches at the same place as mine, her name is Ms. Park. She’s also the same age as my new mentor teacher, Ms. Lee.
So they drove me back here, along with my co-teacher, then we went to the school…. I met the principal, along with the vice principal…. In the teachers office, they were all busy writing away on papers, trying to come up with the school schedule I guess… regardless, they were just busy
Monday, February 22, 2010
First full day in Jeonbuk
Okay guys... i really don't remember much of what happened so i'm gonna just type in whatever I remember. Bear with me as I demonstrate my awesome story-telling skills -_-
So … woke up for breakfast, i was so tired, as i remembered. Afterwards we had a meeting in the seminar and we were suppose to go there to meet up with our mentor teacher. So i was dressed alright, nothing formal, i thought we were only going to meet our mentor teacher and then we get free time after that. Nope, i was wrong yet again.
Met my mentor teacher and she goes 'let's go'. I get a confused look, cuz i'm wondering wth we're going, but regardless i follow.
I ask her, where are we going? and she tells me that we're going to the city i'll be placed in, which is called 'Gunsan'. So her and another teacher from the school came to pick me up and off to the city we go.
I've noticed that when you first meet a Korean, the same questions keep popping up.
What's your name, how old are you, where are you from and are you korean (if you look asian). It's their way of categorizing where you belong as Korean ppl are obsessed with heirarchy. Anyways.. so far, everybody keeps thinking i'm korean. Apparently I look korean? Anyways... so then i tell them no i'm not korean but i'm chinese and my mentor was really surprised for some reason. she even made like the whole "*Gasp* oh really?! i thought you were korean!" reaction.... -_-
anyways... so we talked for a bit in the car, I would assume the car ride was somewhere between 40-50 min drive, from the university to where I was living/working. So my mentor teacher made a call and then tells me that we’ll be meeting up with our VP…. I look at myself and think ‘fml’… I look like trash with what I was wearing and we’re going to meet the VP… anyways, too late, so off we go, we get to the city and go to the school to meet up with the VP. We go there, and turns out he’s already walking around. So we go meet up with the VP and to describe him…. He looks more Chinese than Korean in my view. He wears dress pants, a jacket that matches the pants… and then inside he’s wearing a polo… and the glasses he’s wearing… are like the old , old ones where your parents would probably wear back in their youthful 70’s. Anyways… so we go to my apartment to check it out… it’s okay, but if I can get a bigger one I would probably want that, but I udnno, we’ll see how ti goes… he was urging me to extend my contract b/c he wanted the landlord of the place to give me the apartment and the guy wasn’t sure b/c I was only going to be here for 6 months -_-
anyways, so we got that over with, asked the questions that needed to be asked…. And left… stupid me I forgot to take pictures/video of the place so the only way I can really describe it is through a rough sketch, lol…
anyways, so we went back to the school, the VP and my mentor took me on a tour around the school… showed me where I’ll be teaching and where I am teaching, before entering it says up above ‘English Zone’, so to say when you enter you gotta speak English type of thing. The classroom was quite nice… I have a 40/50” touchscreen TV to use at my disposal while teaching these kids, and there is always internet in all the schools of korea and it’s not like Canada, where some connections are slow, they’re all the same speed,…. So props to korea for being awesome :P
anyways…. So after that the VP took me, my mentor and another school teacher (he was the one that was driving us from the Jeonbuk university to my city, for lunch. We went into this place where it was like most Korean restaurants, where you had to sit on the floor, cross your legs and eat at the table. I was having trouble as my leg kept falling asleep, so I had to change positions every so often and I was more comfortable kneeling on my knees and sitting down, rather than crossing my legs. It’s horrible… but I have a feeling I’ll get used to it eventually. Hopefully I’ll become more flexible because of that =D
and apparently Soju is like the soda of Korea… so during the daytime you see middle-aged men / seniors just drinking soju while they eat….. some of you are thinking awesome, but in all honesty… soju only tastes good once in a while, lol
but I’ll also be honest…. I’ve encountered my good friend Soju quite a lot while being here…. heiiii, lol
anyways, so … after lunch, they drove me back to the university in Jeonju, which is about 40-50 min drive away. My mentor teacher didn’t come back with me, she said goodbye when we were at Gunsan.
So when I come back… Bryce, Lola, Hanna and Trent were out exploring already and I took a cab, went to go meet them. This was the area near the University and its quite busy in that area. Bryce got a haircut, we tried on some jackets at a clothe shop, I found this pretty nice looking jacket, it looks pretty good, but it was a little tight on the biceps/shoulders if I lift my arms up…. Hhheeii….. so I didn’t end up buying it, but I took a picture, haha….
Then we went to this bar called ‘secret’ and basically there are small rooms where everybody can drink in peace and wouldn’t have to worry about other ppl bothering them. We drank a bit, went back to the school, ate dinner…. Then nighttime came around…
We went down to 7-eleven… bought some drinks, was watching ‘the ugly truth’… and then more ppl started coming in and then we just had a drinking party with cards…. I’m trying to make weight for the TKD match my friend put me in for the weekend, so I didn’t drink -_-…. Well I had 1 shot…. Okay fine, 2 shots of soju…. But htat was it…. Didn’t eat after 6;30… and yeah…. I don’ even have a scale so I don’t even know if I’m losing weight or gaining or just staying the same…
We continued playing the card games and drinking… well I was drinking water… and eventually we all got tired and tis the end to another night. =D
So … woke up for breakfast, i was so tired, as i remembered. Afterwards we had a meeting in the seminar and we were suppose to go there to meet up with our mentor teacher. So i was dressed alright, nothing formal, i thought we were only going to meet our mentor teacher and then we get free time after that. Nope, i was wrong yet again.
Met my mentor teacher and she goes 'let's go'. I get a confused look, cuz i'm wondering wth we're going, but regardless i follow.
I ask her, where are we going? and she tells me that we're going to the city i'll be placed in, which is called 'Gunsan'. So her and another teacher from the school came to pick me up and off to the city we go.
I've noticed that when you first meet a Korean, the same questions keep popping up.
What's your name, how old are you, where are you from and are you korean (if you look asian). It's their way of categorizing where you belong as Korean ppl are obsessed with heirarchy. Anyways.. so far, everybody keeps thinking i'm korean. Apparently I look korean? Anyways... so then i tell them no i'm not korean but i'm chinese and my mentor was really surprised for some reason. she even made like the whole "*Gasp* oh really?! i thought you were korean!" reaction.... -_-
anyways... so we talked for a bit in the car, I would assume the car ride was somewhere between 40-50 min drive, from the university to where I was living/working. So my mentor teacher made a call and then tells me that we’ll be meeting up with our VP…. I look at myself and think ‘fml’… I look like trash with what I was wearing and we’re going to meet the VP… anyways, too late, so off we go, we get to the city and go to the school to meet up with the VP. We go there, and turns out he’s already walking around. So we go meet up with the VP and to describe him…. He looks more Chinese than Korean in my view. He wears dress pants, a jacket that matches the pants… and then inside he’s wearing a polo… and the glasses he’s wearing… are like the old , old ones where your parents would probably wear back in their youthful 70’s. Anyways… so we go to my apartment to check it out… it’s okay, but if I can get a bigger one I would probably want that, but I udnno, we’ll see how ti goes… he was urging me to extend my contract b/c he wanted the landlord of the place to give me the apartment and the guy wasn’t sure b/c I was only going to be here for 6 months -_-
anyways, so we got that over with, asked the questions that needed to be asked…. And left… stupid me I forgot to take pictures/video of the place so the only way I can really describe it is through a rough sketch, lol…
anyways, so we went back to the school, the VP and my mentor took me on a tour around the school… showed me where I’ll be teaching and where I am teaching, before entering it says up above ‘English Zone’, so to say when you enter you gotta speak English type of thing. The classroom was quite nice… I have a 40/50” touchscreen TV to use at my disposal while teaching these kids, and there is always internet in all the schools of korea and it’s not like Canada, where some connections are slow, they’re all the same speed,…. So props to korea for being awesome :P
anyways…. So after that the VP took me, my mentor and another school teacher (he was the one that was driving us from the Jeonbuk university to my city, for lunch. We went into this place where it was like most Korean restaurants, where you had to sit on the floor, cross your legs and eat at the table. I was having trouble as my leg kept falling asleep, so I had to change positions every so often and I was more comfortable kneeling on my knees and sitting down, rather than crossing my legs. It’s horrible… but I have a feeling I’ll get used to it eventually. Hopefully I’ll become more flexible because of that =D
and apparently Soju is like the soda of Korea… so during the daytime you see middle-aged men / seniors just drinking soju while they eat….. some of you are thinking awesome, but in all honesty… soju only tastes good once in a while, lol
but I’ll also be honest…. I’ve encountered my good friend Soju quite a lot while being here…. heiiii, lol
anyways, so … after lunch, they drove me back to the university in Jeonju, which is about 40-50 min drive away. My mentor teacher didn’t come back with me, she said goodbye when we were at Gunsan.
So when I come back… Bryce, Lola, Hanna and Trent were out exploring already and I took a cab, went to go meet them. This was the area near the University and its quite busy in that area. Bryce got a haircut, we tried on some jackets at a clothe shop, I found this pretty nice looking jacket, it looks pretty good, but it was a little tight on the biceps/shoulders if I lift my arms up…. Hhheeii….. so I didn’t end up buying it, but I took a picture, haha….
Then we went to this bar called ‘secret’ and basically there are small rooms where everybody can drink in peace and wouldn’t have to worry about other ppl bothering them. We drank a bit, went back to the school, ate dinner…. Then nighttime came around…
We went down to 7-eleven… bought some drinks, was watching ‘the ugly truth’… and then more ppl started coming in and then we just had a drinking party with cards…. I’m trying to make weight for the TKD match my friend put me in for the weekend, so I didn’t drink -_-…. Well I had 1 shot…. Okay fine, 2 shots of soju…. But htat was it…. Didn’t eat after 6;30… and yeah…. I don’ even have a scale so I don’t even know if I’m losing weight or gaining or just staying the same…
We continued playing the card games and drinking… well I was drinking water… and eventually we all got tired and tis the end to another night. =D
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Last night at the University!! & First Day at Jeonbuk!!
before i continue, if you're reading this and you know how blogs work, tell me how to post up pictures in the blogs. i've tried doing it but its not working for some reason.
alright... So .... Last day here at the university!! so today (thursday), we had some more lectures, then we had lunch and then we all went to the auditorium to the farewell party. there were various performances from each of the 6 groups and they were pretty good overall. This one big guy, that was playing the guitar to Jack Johnson - Sitting, Waiting, Wishing... he was pretty good. Didn't expect it out of the big guy.... as for the rest..... some were good, some were bad, some were okay... but there was this one guy from our group where he sang the acapella of the boys to men song and that was pretty good as well. Anyways, so after the ceremony was done and over with we went to lunch, i rushed to pack up my stuff.... i was so rushed... oh jeez, silly me -_-
anyways.... rushed to get things packed, rushed downstairs with the luggage and then went on the bus, got everybody on, and on our way to Jeonbuk we go!
when we arrived, we got to our rooms and unpacked.... i got roomed with the rowdiest/wildest person on the trip, haha, he's from toronto as well, he's a fun guy to party around with but i dunno about hanging around... anyways.... when one on one with him, he's chills, but in a big group it's kinda too much for me to handle, ahha, but whatever, ti's all good :P
anyways... so we went out with the P.O.E. to have dinner... or rather they treated us to dinner. afterwards, we chilled in the room for a bit, went downstairs to the 7-11 across the street and bought some beer and drank in our room while watching 'Role Models'. It was a pretty funny movie I must say.... not the entire thing but overall funny.
but yeah... so the night ended with that and then tis the end to another blog :P
alright... So .... Last day here at the university!! so today (thursday), we had some more lectures, then we had lunch and then we all went to the auditorium to the farewell party. there were various performances from each of the 6 groups and they were pretty good overall. This one big guy, that was playing the guitar to Jack Johnson - Sitting, Waiting, Wishing... he was pretty good. Didn't expect it out of the big guy.... as for the rest..... some were good, some were bad, some were okay... but there was this one guy from our group where he sang the acapella of the boys to men song and that was pretty good as well. Anyways, so after the ceremony was done and over with we went to lunch, i rushed to pack up my stuff.... i was so rushed... oh jeez, silly me -_-
anyways.... rushed to get things packed, rushed downstairs with the luggage and then went on the bus, got everybody on, and on our way to Jeonbuk we go!
when we arrived, we got to our rooms and unpacked.... i got roomed with the rowdiest/wildest person on the trip, haha, he's from toronto as well, he's a fun guy to party around with but i dunno about hanging around... anyways.... when one on one with him, he's chills, but in a big group it's kinda too much for me to handle, ahha, but whatever, ti's all good :P
anyways... so we went out with the P.O.E. to have dinner... or rather they treated us to dinner. afterwards, we chilled in the room for a bit, went downstairs to the 7-11 across the street and bought some beer and drank in our room while watching 'Role Models'. It was a pretty funny movie I must say.... not the entire thing but overall funny.
but yeah... so the night ended with that and then tis the end to another blog :P
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
2nd last day at the University!!
as i said before in the previous post... i'm falling behind on updating the blog so bare with me on the point form notes :P
• woke up this morning late, the alarm didn’t go through or I slept through it
• showered, went to eat
• chris was pissed off b/c some ppl came back this morning at like 5;30-6am, piss drunk and yeah, the supervisors were pissed off
• anyways, so then we had a full day of lectures today
• they were all done by TaLK scholars that were all previous TaLK scholars in diff generations, but are still TaLK scholars now
• then we had lunch, had 5 mins of it
• rushed over to the stupid office to get ready to go do the bank stuff
• didn’t actually get going until like 1:40pm, and the food today was good, so god dammit
• anyways… oh yeah I forgot to mention, I got a text from Dan saying he wants me to enter a TKD tournament at the end fo the month
• so finally go to the bank , had some dunkin’ donuts that they offered, they also had tomato juice, , but not a V8 fan so I didn’t take it
• after we were done we went back to lectures, continued on, the lectures weren’t too bad, we did a bunch fo exercises with different lecturers
• afterwards we went to eat dinner, by this time it was around 5;40pm
• talked and ate
• then decided to go to jimjilbang (sauna place) after dinner at around 7, let the body digest a bit first
• 7 rolls along, we gather up and walk to the jimjilbang
• me, bryce, trent, lola, hanna and liz go together
• it was bryce and trents first time so I had to explain to them the process, etc., etc., as I went to one several times while I was in seoul
• called it the place to detoxification, to detoxify ourselves from the toxins (alcohol) we put into ourselves, haha
• went down to the jimjilbang (hangout room) after we were done upstairs in the Jacuzzi/hot tubs that were there and the cold tubs, got some food and drinks, got together with the girls and went to the hot rooms
• inside we learned how to crack open these boiled eggs they have
• bryce and I learned it the hard way, haha… you have to crack it open on top of someone’s head…. Well, not really but it was a joke, lol
• then finally I got a turn as liz offered to let me crack the egg on her forehead
• we took some pictures, even though we weren’t suppose to, inside the sauna rooms
• then we rested outside watching tv after we were done detoxifying ourselves, lol
• showered, got dressed, walked back to the dorms, and as I was about ot enter my room, the power goes out for some reason
• so as I was ringing in my card to open the door, everything crashes and the power goes out….. weird
• went downstairs, talked ot our supervisors, asked someone to come help us fix it, the maintenance guy comes in to fix it, finds the problem… and at this point we wanted to know if we can just use ductape and maybe use like a screw to push the button in so that it would work again. Anyways, I didn’t hang around long, so I went downstairs to meet up with the other guys, took my laptop, wrote about the past two day’s blog and then played a few games of ‘sh*thead’, yes, ti’s a british card game, I’ll explain it some other time
• and b/c we had a couple of ppl that were drunk off their heads yesterday at like 5;30am and coming back after curfew time, this time everybody bought soju, got dressed up and partied downstairs in the lounge area, hahaha…. It was pretty entertaining just looking at them all drunk and happy…. It’s okay, we’re going ot go drink tomorrow…. I might group hop with drinking, so we’ll see how that goes
• so then it got too rowdy and they cleared us all out, we went upstairs to our floor’s lounge to play and played until 1am… and now its 2;02am, and I’m still writing up the blog…. God, I hate you guys for making me update all this at this time, lol.
• Alright time to go to sleep, waking up early…. Gudnites!
• woke up this morning late, the alarm didn’t go through or I slept through it
• showered, went to eat
• chris was pissed off b/c some ppl came back this morning at like 5;30-6am, piss drunk and yeah, the supervisors were pissed off
• anyways, so then we had a full day of lectures today
• they were all done by TaLK scholars that were all previous TaLK scholars in diff generations, but are still TaLK scholars now
• then we had lunch, had 5 mins of it
• rushed over to the stupid office to get ready to go do the bank stuff
• didn’t actually get going until like 1:40pm, and the food today was good, so god dammit
• anyways… oh yeah I forgot to mention, I got a text from Dan saying he wants me to enter a TKD tournament at the end fo the month
• so finally go to the bank , had some dunkin’ donuts that they offered, they also had tomato juice, , but not a V8 fan so I didn’t take it
• after we were done we went back to lectures, continued on, the lectures weren’t too bad, we did a bunch fo exercises with different lecturers
• afterwards we went to eat dinner, by this time it was around 5;40pm
• talked and ate
• then decided to go to jimjilbang (sauna place) after dinner at around 7, let the body digest a bit first
• 7 rolls along, we gather up and walk to the jimjilbang
• me, bryce, trent, lola, hanna and liz go together
• it was bryce and trents first time so I had to explain to them the process, etc., etc., as I went to one several times while I was in seoul
• called it the place to detoxification, to detoxify ourselves from the toxins (alcohol) we put into ourselves, haha
• went down to the jimjilbang (hangout room) after we were done upstairs in the Jacuzzi/hot tubs that were there and the cold tubs, got some food and drinks, got together with the girls and went to the hot rooms
• inside we learned how to crack open these boiled eggs they have
• bryce and I learned it the hard way, haha… you have to crack it open on top of someone’s head…. Well, not really but it was a joke, lol
• then finally I got a turn as liz offered to let me crack the egg on her forehead
• we took some pictures, even though we weren’t suppose to, inside the sauna rooms
• then we rested outside watching tv after we were done detoxifying ourselves, lol
• showered, got dressed, walked back to the dorms, and as I was about ot enter my room, the power goes out for some reason
• so as I was ringing in my card to open the door, everything crashes and the power goes out….. weird
• went downstairs, talked ot our supervisors, asked someone to come help us fix it, the maintenance guy comes in to fix it, finds the problem… and at this point we wanted to know if we can just use ductape and maybe use like a screw to push the button in so that it would work again. Anyways, I didn’t hang around long, so I went downstairs to meet up with the other guys, took my laptop, wrote about the past two day’s blog and then played a few games of ‘sh*thead’, yes, ti’s a british card game, I’ll explain it some other time
• and b/c we had a couple of ppl that were drunk off their heads yesterday at like 5;30am and coming back after curfew time, this time everybody bought soju, got dressed up and partied downstairs in the lounge area, hahaha…. It was pretty entertaining just looking at them all drunk and happy…. It’s okay, we’re going ot go drink tomorrow…. I might group hop with drinking, so we’ll see how that goes
• so then it got too rowdy and they cleared us all out, we went upstairs to our floor’s lounge to play and played until 1am… and now its 2;02am, and I’m still writing up the blog…. God, I hate you guys for making me update all this at this time, lol.
• Alright time to go to sleep, waking up early…. Gudnites!
Hello SEEEEEOOUULL!!!! .................... again
alright, so i'm falling behind on the updates, so you'll have to bare with my pointform notes :P
this was yesterdays (Feb. 16, 2010)
- Woke up this morning
- Ate breakfast, now we seem to be eating in the new cafeteria, which seems nicer, but smaller
- got on the bus, it took forever to have our bus come to us, so much for 7 being a lucky number -_-, we were waiting out in the cold for a while
- got on the bus finally, and we were heading towards seoul today for a fieldtrip. It’s stupid, b/c I just got back from there last night -_-
- when we got there, we watched this cooking show called ‘Nanta’, it was pretty funny, there were no dialogues, all done through action so we understood it. Apparently this show is pretty popular and has got mad reviews. Been going on since 2000/2001? Anyways… so that took about 2 hours, it was like a cooking, comedy/musical w/o the singing and dancing combined into one
- yes there were actual ppl that were selected from our group to go up onto the stage to have a taste of the cooking
- anyways, so apparently, there were suppose to be no shows until later in the night or sometime later, I forgot what they said, but they put on the show just for us, so we’re suppose to feel special
- anyways, so we watched the show and it was pretty awesome / funny
- after the show we had freetime, went to get some lunch, and long story short, there were some arguments in the end when we had to pay the bill, and it’s pretty stupid, but if they were more clear with what needed to be paid then there wouldn’t have been any trouble, basically we kept on being short on money and yeah, got into some frustrations so that was a bummer
- afterwards, we went walking around, the malls, some of us went walking around the malls nearby, window shopping
- got back to the front of the theatre, got together with our groups and went to go meet the bus, and once again, the buses were late
- when we got on the bus we went to this place to take our cooking classes and we learned how to make doboki, kimbap
- the kimbap was pretty easy to make, very similar to making sushi and the doboki was a little harder to make
- we also made some soup that goes along with the kimbap, it was basically miso soup
- afterwards we got back on the bus and was on our way back home, took us about 1.5hr-2hrs to get back
- after we got back, basically had our own freetime and then went to sleep
this was yesterdays (Feb. 16, 2010)
- Woke up this morning
- Ate breakfast, now we seem to be eating in the new cafeteria, which seems nicer, but smaller
- got on the bus, it took forever to have our bus come to us, so much for 7 being a lucky number -_-, we were waiting out in the cold for a while
- got on the bus finally, and we were heading towards seoul today for a fieldtrip. It’s stupid, b/c I just got back from there last night -_-
- when we got there, we watched this cooking show called ‘Nanta’, it was pretty funny, there were no dialogues, all done through action so we understood it. Apparently this show is pretty popular and has got mad reviews. Been going on since 2000/2001? Anyways… so that took about 2 hours, it was like a cooking, comedy/musical w/o the singing and dancing combined into one
- yes there were actual ppl that were selected from our group to go up onto the stage to have a taste of the cooking
- anyways, so apparently, there were suppose to be no shows until later in the night or sometime later, I forgot what they said, but they put on the show just for us, so we’re suppose to feel special
- anyways, so we watched the show and it was pretty awesome / funny
- after the show we had freetime, went to get some lunch, and long story short, there were some arguments in the end when we had to pay the bill, and it’s pretty stupid, but if they were more clear with what needed to be paid then there wouldn’t have been any trouble, basically we kept on being short on money and yeah, got into some frustrations so that was a bummer
- afterwards, we went walking around, the malls, some of us went walking around the malls nearby, window shopping
- got back to the front of the theatre, got together with our groups and went to go meet the bus, and once again, the buses were late
- when we got on the bus we went to this place to take our cooking classes and we learned how to make doboki, kimbap
- the kimbap was pretty easy to make, very similar to making sushi and the doboki was a little harder to make
- we also made some soup that goes along with the kimbap, it was basically miso soup
- afterwards we got back on the bus and was on our way back home, took us about 1.5hr-2hrs to get back
- after we got back, basically had our own freetime and then went to sleep
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Hello my friends!
Hello my friends, I am alive and well. I know I haven't been updating in a good week or so now, but I assure you I will recap some of the moments a little while later. For those that want to know what happened, here's a quick summarization:
Monday: went to the NYC, the National Youth Center of Korea. We were basically there to be camp leaders for underpriviledged kids that has family problems or financial problems. We had morning lecture at the University, went to lunch, met our P.O.E. (Province of Employer? I forgot... i know i'm terrible) and then we got ready and went to the Youth Center. Met my roomates, Sean, Paul and Raymond. For you Shanghai guys, remember Ron and Jeremy being roomates? Well, now I have Sean and Paul, haha. Anyways, so we got to our rooms, had dinner and then had the opening ceremony for the camp leaders. I am in Group 5, and all the people in this group are in the same area as me, hence the separation of the groups. Anyways, for some reason we had to separate into only four groups, so instead of there being 6 groups, there were now 4 groups, with groups 5 and 6 being split into group 1-4. Within that we had to separate into 'micro' groups where we had even smaller groups within our main groups. Its kinda confusing, anyways, so once we figured that out we got out camp sweaters and went back to our room. We had to sleep on the floor, it was kinda weird, but the floors are heated. That apparently is how Koreans sleep , and for me it wasn't too bad, b/c I've tried sleeping on the floor before at home also, and since the floors are heated, it feels quite nice actually.
Tuesday: woke up, had breakfast, went to the auditorium to have a brief morning meeting. Learned how to do the morning exercise dance, which we never ended up using with the kids aside from a small exercise. Anyways, so then we went on a tour of the center with our 'micro leaders' and then we had lunch and the kids were arriving. they came to the cafeteria and we greeted them with a loud cheer/WHOOO's, lol. After wards we went to the gymnasium to meet up with our group of kids, I was in group 2, and they were very cute and adorable. Met my kid, his name was Ron, very energetic and jumpy kid, but listens and is a good kid. Not too good with English, so every time i try to talk to him he'll get shy and just kinda laugh and bury his face into his palms and look away, lol. So we had a couple of events, the first one was the mini-olympics, and basically there were a couple of races /competitions we did with the kids. Then we had some free time to get to know the kids and then dinner with them. After wards we sent them back to their dorms and then had freetime for the rest of the night. I spent my night at my friends room and was just chatting with his roomates.
Wednesday: woke up, had breakfast, met up with the kids at the auditorium for opening ceremony, watched some videos and then went off to the classrooms for different activities. today we took the kids and taught them some english through games and activities. afterwards, we had lunch and then we did some more activities and then dinner and then .... okay, we'll have to continue this later b/c i forgot what happened. i wrote it down but i'll have to check it later, don't have the notebook with me atm.
okay.... we'll have to continue this later, gotta go out for more drinking, hahaha..... i'll continue this tmr night :P
Monday: went to the NYC, the National Youth Center of Korea. We were basically there to be camp leaders for underpriviledged kids that has family problems or financial problems. We had morning lecture at the University, went to lunch, met our P.O.E. (Province of Employer? I forgot... i know i'm terrible) and then we got ready and went to the Youth Center. Met my roomates, Sean, Paul and Raymond. For you Shanghai guys, remember Ron and Jeremy being roomates? Well, now I have Sean and Paul, haha. Anyways, so we got to our rooms, had dinner and then had the opening ceremony for the camp leaders. I am in Group 5, and all the people in this group are in the same area as me, hence the separation of the groups. Anyways, for some reason we had to separate into only four groups, so instead of there being 6 groups, there were now 4 groups, with groups 5 and 6 being split into group 1-4. Within that we had to separate into 'micro' groups where we had even smaller groups within our main groups. Its kinda confusing, anyways, so once we figured that out we got out camp sweaters and went back to our room. We had to sleep on the floor, it was kinda weird, but the floors are heated. That apparently is how Koreans sleep , and for me it wasn't too bad, b/c I've tried sleeping on the floor before at home also, and since the floors are heated, it feels quite nice actually.
Tuesday: woke up, had breakfast, went to the auditorium to have a brief morning meeting. Learned how to do the morning exercise dance, which we never ended up using with the kids aside from a small exercise. Anyways, so then we went on a tour of the center with our 'micro leaders' and then we had lunch and the kids were arriving. they came to the cafeteria and we greeted them with a loud cheer/WHOOO's, lol. After wards we went to the gymnasium to meet up with our group of kids, I was in group 2, and they were very cute and adorable. Met my kid, his name was Ron, very energetic and jumpy kid, but listens and is a good kid. Not too good with English, so every time i try to talk to him he'll get shy and just kinda laugh and bury his face into his palms and look away, lol. So we had a couple of events, the first one was the mini-olympics, and basically there were a couple of races /competitions we did with the kids. Then we had some free time to get to know the kids and then dinner with them. After wards we sent them back to their dorms and then had freetime for the rest of the night. I spent my night at my friends room and was just chatting with his roomates.
Wednesday: woke up, had breakfast, met up with the kids at the auditorium for opening ceremony, watched some videos and then went off to the classrooms for different activities. today we took the kids and taught them some english through games and activities. afterwards, we had lunch and then we did some more activities and then dinner and then .... okay, we'll have to continue this later b/c i forgot what happened. i wrote it down but i'll have to check it later, don't have the notebook with me atm.
okay.... we'll have to continue this later, gotta go out for more drinking, hahaha..... i'll continue this tmr night :P
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Sunday, the day of rest
Woke up at 8am this morning…. Woke up before my alarm went off actually….. 7;59am :P… didn’t have anything to do so I went back to sleep…
Friends came over a bit later, woke me up to go have breakfast. Ate, talked for a bit, and now back here on the laptop, catching up with ppl and getting my daily dosage of the internet :P
Prepared to go to the gym with bryce, just to realize when we got there it doesn’t open until after lunchtime. Fail… so back to the dorms we went, and then we’re gonna go eat lunch and then gym probably, lol. So unhealthy -_-
Well went to eat lunch, that was pretty good…. I think a good way to stay full is to mix the rice with the soup. There’s always soup here. Had some kimchi, fish and some potato … then had some salad as usual and oranges … trying to mix in the fruits and veggies into my diet everyday :P
So again, me and bryce went to check to see if the gym was open. Still closed…. We give up. We have finalized that the gym closes on Sunday’s. we went back and I taught him how to use the clock we were given. Now I’m gonna go around campus and take some pictures while there’s still light outside and its not so busy.
Went around the campus taking pictures… failed at that. While walking, saw that the gym was finally opened! However, had to continue taking pictures first and that took about 1.5hrs to finish. Went back to the room, gave bryce a call and hit up the gym. Did about 30 mins of cardio and then 10 mins of weights and then afterwards went to the cafeteria to grab some food :P
We made a trip to ‘Homeplus’ again, as some of us needed to get supplies. I needed to get shampoo and I bought tissue. We had to search around everywhere asking to see if the people at the store would let us use their printer so Trent can print out his contract. Apparently he got it all signed and ready but left it at home. Packing at the moment for our three day trip… we’ll be going to the National Youth Centre to continue our training. Some kind of ‘English Camp’ thing they have setup for us, basically to teach us how to teach the kids I guess. Went downstairs to the basement where everybody goes to use the PC to go online to play some card games. We’ll see how that goes, should be entertaining :P
Okay so the card game was alright… we played ‘s*** head’. Got my first turn in and I beat bryce already, hahaha… but yeah, afterwards, I saw ppl ironing their shirts for tomorrow’s meeting with the P.O.E’s , so I went in and tried to iron my shirt … fail. The iron wasn’t heating up for some reason… ugh, whatever, at least I’ll have my jacket to cover up the creases -_-
Soo… sleepy….. jet lagg is hitting me hard…. At least its 12.... Gonna go to sleep now. Gudnites! Won’t be updating for 3 days now probably
Friends came over a bit later, woke me up to go have breakfast. Ate, talked for a bit, and now back here on the laptop, catching up with ppl and getting my daily dosage of the internet :P
Prepared to go to the gym with bryce, just to realize when we got there it doesn’t open until after lunchtime. Fail… so back to the dorms we went, and then we’re gonna go eat lunch and then gym probably, lol. So unhealthy -_-
Well went to eat lunch, that was pretty good…. I think a good way to stay full is to mix the rice with the soup. There’s always soup here. Had some kimchi, fish and some potato … then had some salad as usual and oranges … trying to mix in the fruits and veggies into my diet everyday :P
So again, me and bryce went to check to see if the gym was open. Still closed…. We give up. We have finalized that the gym closes on Sunday’s. we went back and I taught him how to use the clock we were given. Now I’m gonna go around campus and take some pictures while there’s still light outside and its not so busy.
Went around the campus taking pictures… failed at that. While walking, saw that the gym was finally opened! However, had to continue taking pictures first and that took about 1.5hrs to finish. Went back to the room, gave bryce a call and hit up the gym. Did about 30 mins of cardio and then 10 mins of weights and then afterwards went to the cafeteria to grab some food :P
We made a trip to ‘Homeplus’ again, as some of us needed to get supplies. I needed to get shampoo and I bought tissue. We had to search around everywhere asking to see if the people at the store would let us use their printer so Trent can print out his contract. Apparently he got it all signed and ready but left it at home. Packing at the moment for our three day trip… we’ll be going to the National Youth Centre to continue our training. Some kind of ‘English Camp’ thing they have setup for us, basically to teach us how to teach the kids I guess. Went downstairs to the basement where everybody goes to use the PC to go online to play some card games. We’ll see how that goes, should be entertaining :P
Okay so the card game was alright… we played ‘s*** head’. Got my first turn in and I beat bryce already, hahaha… but yeah, afterwards, I saw ppl ironing their shirts for tomorrow’s meeting with the P.O.E’s , so I went in and tried to iron my shirt … fail. The iron wasn’t heating up for some reason… ugh, whatever, at least I’ll have my jacket to cover up the creases -_-
Soo… sleepy….. jet lagg is hitting me hard…. At least its 12.... Gonna go to sleep now. Gudnites! Won’t be updating for 3 days now probably
Arrived Alive!
Feb. 6, 2010 - Arrival
Alright, so arrived at Incheon Airport at 3:30am, didn't get out of the actual airport till around 4am and got to Korea University (Sejong Campus) at 5:30am. The weather here is pretty chilly, but not as cold as Toronto. Windy though at times, but overall it's bearable :P
Got to my room and kinda woke up my roomate, but apparently he was waking up to go to the washroom so I guess it was alright. His name is Eric, from Atlanta, Caucasian and has a Korean gf. Pretty nice dude, pretty relax about things, so he's a cool guy =)
I couldn't sleep so I went online for a bit, but the lights seem to be bothering him, even though he said it's fine. I went on for a lil' while and decided to go to sleep to not bother him. Slept for like 3hrs and then woke up to go meet up with my Group and prepare for the medical checkup. Talked to some people in my Group and they were pretty cool. Met some girls from Hawaii sitting next to me, and my friend Bryce that'll be working in the same town as me. He's from Illinois I believe... Missouri?? Anyways, he's cool too. My coordinator, Chris, English guy, pretty chills as well. Everybody here seems pretty chills.
Prepared for the medical examination and that took.... forever... I was tired/jeglagged, hungry and just impatient, lol. Afterwards we went to get lunch at the Cafeteria. Food here is pretty decent and it's free!!!!! So I go eat whatever I can and fill up till night time.
Went with a couple of people to Jochiwon (the town we're at) and went exploring. We needed to go to this place called 'Homeplus', its like the Walmart, to get some supplies/snacks. What an adventure! It took us a good 30mins of just walking around and asking people for directions. Luckily the girls I met from Hawaii were Korean and knew how to speak. Finally got to the Homeplus and I must say.... North America's Walmart's/Costco's/Sam's Club/etc.,.... SUCK. Asia's escalators, energy efficient/saving (it only moves when there's someone coming near the steps and when you put your cart on the escalator, you don't have to worry about holding onto it incase it slides down and hit someone. It locks onto the escalator floor! Also, if you enter the escalator from the wrong side, it makes a loud beeping noise to tell you you're going the wrong way, lol. They also had a hairsalon INSIDE the supermarket! lol
Anyways... enough with hearing about my overly-excitement towards asian supermarkets. We got out stuff, went back to the University, ate dinner at the cafeteria and then headed out for a night's out of fun. Went to this bar not too far away and drank a bit. The pitchers here are ridiculous.
The prices for them are still cheaper than Toronto. Good times.... then after some drinks, we all got excited, met some random koreans at the bar and took pictures. Which, afterwards, out of the excitement of intoxication, we proceeded to go to Noraebang (karaoke). Again, good times. Didn't stay long though b/c we have a curfew (I know, it sucks), then we trekked our way back to the University and played some card games with the guys and then went to sleep.
They separate the dorms here between girls and boys, so there are no messing around, lol.
Alright, so arrived at Incheon Airport at 3:30am, didn't get out of the actual airport till around 4am and got to Korea University (Sejong Campus) at 5:30am. The weather here is pretty chilly, but not as cold as Toronto. Windy though at times, but overall it's bearable :P
Got to my room and kinda woke up my roomate, but apparently he was waking up to go to the washroom so I guess it was alright. His name is Eric, from Atlanta, Caucasian and has a Korean gf. Pretty nice dude, pretty relax about things, so he's a cool guy =)
I couldn't sleep so I went online for a bit, but the lights seem to be bothering him, even though he said it's fine. I went on for a lil' while and decided to go to sleep to not bother him. Slept for like 3hrs and then woke up to go meet up with my Group and prepare for the medical checkup. Talked to some people in my Group and they were pretty cool. Met some girls from Hawaii sitting next to me, and my friend Bryce that'll be working in the same town as me. He's from Illinois I believe... Missouri?? Anyways, he's cool too. My coordinator, Chris, English guy, pretty chills as well. Everybody here seems pretty chills.
Prepared for the medical examination and that took.... forever... I was tired/jeglagged, hungry and just impatient, lol. Afterwards we went to get lunch at the Cafeteria. Food here is pretty decent and it's free!!!!! So I go eat whatever I can and fill up till night time.
Went with a couple of people to Jochiwon (the town we're at) and went exploring. We needed to go to this place called 'Homeplus', its like the Walmart, to get some supplies/snacks. What an adventure! It took us a good 30mins of just walking around and asking people for directions. Luckily the girls I met from Hawaii were Korean and knew how to speak. Finally got to the Homeplus and I must say.... North America's Walmart's/Costco's/Sam's Club/etc.,.... SUCK. Asia's escalators, energy efficient/saving (it only moves when there's someone coming near the steps and when you put your cart on the escalator, you don't have to worry about holding onto it incase it slides down and hit someone. It locks onto the escalator floor! Also, if you enter the escalator from the wrong side, it makes a loud beeping noise to tell you you're going the wrong way, lol. They also had a hairsalon INSIDE the supermarket! lol
Anyways... enough with hearing about my overly-excitement towards asian supermarkets. We got out stuff, went back to the University, ate dinner at the cafeteria and then headed out for a night's out of fun. Went to this bar not too far away and drank a bit. The pitchers here are ridiculous.
The prices for them are still cheaper than Toronto. Good times.... then after some drinks, we all got excited, met some random koreans at the bar and took pictures. Which, afterwards, out of the excitement of intoxication, we proceeded to go to Noraebang (karaoke). Again, good times. Didn't stay long though b/c we have a curfew (I know, it sucks), then we trekked our way back to the University and played some card games with the guys and then went to sleep.
They separate the dorms here between girls and boys, so there are no messing around, lol.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Packing anxiety
Well... this is weird. First time making a blog. Hello dear friends from Canada!! Anyways... it's 1:12pm, Feb.4,2010, Thursday and .... yup, for those that know me... still packing :P
Leaving tonight at 11:50pm, so going to be at the airport around 9:30pm or so. The feeling of 'omg, I'm going to be gone for a year' still hasn't sunk in yet. Knowing me... either when I'm on the plane and flying or when I get there, then it'll finally hit me. Regardless, this should be a fun experience :)
Got to get back to packing now.... anhyo! ^^v
Leaving tonight at 11:50pm, so going to be at the airport around 9:30pm or so. The feeling of 'omg, I'm going to be gone for a year' still hasn't sunk in yet. Knowing me... either when I'm on the plane and flying or when I get there, then it'll finally hit me. Regardless, this should be a fun experience :)
Got to get back to packing now.... anhyo! ^^v
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