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
Monday, February 22, 2010
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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