FINALLY GOT OUT OF THE CITY!

So, as the title dictates, I went on a little trip. PS. I have no idea how to use commas.
So I booked a trip with adventurekorea and went on a caving/hiking/ferry riding trip. It was pretty cool. It was a pretty crazy weekend. Let me start from the beginning.

Friday I got off work at 7, and immediately ran to Olympic Park to see one of my favourite bands in concert....MAROON 5. It was amazing. They were so good. They played for nearly two hours and did an encore of Purple Rain. I loved it. After we decided to move to the back of the floor it was better. Standing room isn't always a good idea. So the concert ended and I head home. I got a drive with Peter and Clint. I roll in around 12:30 and grab some Kimbap for dinner. I really should start eating. So I eat and head to bed at 1:00 for in anticipation of a 5:30 rising to go on my trip.

I wake up at 5:30 and feel like ASSSSSSSSSS. Kimbap was bad I think. Eric was sick. Real sick. Nevertheless I met Craig, get on the subway and head out on our trip. I get to the bus, sit on that for about 2 hours, feeling like death then get on a boat. It was a good time. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was amazing. Little rivers winding through these beautiful mountains. Water was like glass and the landscape untouched by humans. It was really beautiful. Rural Korea is amazing. After a roughly 2 hour boat ride we re-board out bus to head to Gosu Cave in Tanyang Korea. Yanyang is in central Korea. We arrive to this adorable little mountain town in Korea. Of course in Korean style there were businesses upon businessed and a cluster of highrises in this town. Do people here not understand the concept of a house? There was plenty of room for houses.
So we enter the cave. Caves at home are generally in the water. This one was in a mountain. So we go in and I was a little disappointed because it was all path ways and stairs. I was expecting something a little more like real caving. We were in the cave for about an hour and a half. Basically we climbed the mountain from the inside. It was pretty spectacular. It was a bit odd too because the inside of the cave was really hot. It was a sweat fest by the time we got out of there. After getting out of the cave we got back on the bus and went to Three Peaks. We had to climb more stairs up the side of a rock then head into the woods and climb up the side of this hill and over this stone archway about 100 feet above the ground. There really wasn't much room. There was enough room for feet and that was about it. So after nearly shitting my pants from fear and bad kimbap I made it down the other side of the arch and headed back to the bus to return home. I get back into the city around 7:30 and had to head off to a going away party for a friend. I met them....only guy there. That's cool though, that's how it usually is. I had a good time. My friends wanted to go to another part of the city to a bar but I wasn't feeling it so we ended up staying in Itaewon and going to Polly's. I had intended on going home, but I ended up on staying out until 5ish. I am such a moron too. We were hanging out at a couple bars and I met a person. Exchanged some quips and looks, but of course...never got a name. Come home, message somebody on facebook thinking it was the right person.....wrong. I guess you gotta fuck up before you get it right eh? That was pretty much my weekend. Sunday I went to work training. It was the most pointless piece of shit waste of time I have ever had. I have no time for this shit. 5 hours of this woman talking about how great she is. It was a piss off. So after that some co-workers and I went for dinner and just hung out. It was night to hang out with people from work. All in all it was a good weekend. I loved the adventure trip!!! I can't wait to do more stuff like that. And hopefully next time I go out I will have the sense to ask for a name.....fuck!

Stuff going on lately

As usually it has been an eternity since I've written here. Guess that's how I roll though. I feel like there is so much to say.
First order of business is that these past few weeks has been a hot bed for meeting new people. Meeting people in Korea is a task sometimes. I have been quite the introvert so I am quite proud of myself for talking to strangers. I just need a little boost. Leah, who became a good friend of mine since I've been here in Korea is currently on a plane back to Canada. I am sort of sad to see her go, but so happy for her to get home for a bit and out of the Korean bubble although she is going back to the Halifax bubble. But, back to the topic at hand, I have met new people. I went to a party with Leah to celebrate her birthday and return back to Canada. Met some great people. I met her sister and brother in law, as well as a few people from Bridgetown that knew some people I went to Acadia with. Also, there was a girl at the party from Mount Uniacke (in the picture) and we went to the same high school.....HC does the ROK baby. Small world eh? So that party was nice. We went to Geckos and had a couple casual drinks, good conversation and headed home.
The Sunday after, I was feeling fantastic and headed out for a walk. I toured my whole community from Junggye to Nowon to Suraksan and back. It took about two hours, but well worth. I got to walk through some Korean residential areas. Most people here live in high rises, but there are a lot of row house apartments as well. They were quite interesting to see. I went through the fish market again just because it is so different for me to see something like that.
The week was regular. This felt like my longest week in Korea. Not too sure why, but it just dragged on. I got some classes changed at work, which was somewhat of a piss off, but I'll take it. I got my co-teachers worst class and he got my best class. Makes days feel brighter that's for sure (note sarcasm). I also have been going to the sauna, which is amazing. I am addicted. I tried to go to the gym, but I really can't keep myself motivated to go and do the same thing day after day. I with becoming part of the gym going culture had more variety. I think most places do, but I don't know what my gym has to offer. I found another one, but it is 90,000W a month (about 90$) and the one I have now is 44,000W. I am gonna give it one more try....I just think I need to kick myself in the ass to go.
On Friday this week I went to the BR centre in Nowon for lunch with some people from work. I also got my aura photo taken and read. It was quite the experience. Basically what you do is put your hands on this platform that is connected to a computer and it takes a picture of you energy and she reads it. So she snaps a picture and seriously her first sentence was "You have a lot of passion, but are under a lot of stress." Of course. I guess I wear that feeling on my face. So the general read from my aura pictures were that I am stressed, I can't focus on my passions, I need to have a clearer vision of the future and that will relieve my stress. I also need to use my physical body more to balance my energy flow.
I agree with most of it and it made sense so I am going to try and listen to her suggestions and find some sort of vision, use my body more and tap into my passions and realize that passion and talent will match if you want them to and are willing to work toward that. So I am sure I will write a note in here about my future etc etc.
On the weekend I met up with Kate for coffee. Coffee turned into shopping, turned into dinner and turned into a house party then a bar. Quite the cup'a Joe! So after coffee and shopping we headed out with about 25 people to a Moroccan restaurant. It was so good! It was a buffet style restaurant for only 17,000W. I didn't get my money's worth because I have a complex about eating in front of strangers, but what I had was good! I will definitely go back to that place! After dinner we made our way to the liquor store and got out liquid machines for the night. We all loaded into taxis and headed to Paul's house. Paul is a friend of Kate's cousin.....well all the people there were friends of Kate's cousin. So we get there and he had a 2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen, livingroom and big bathroom...quite the novelty for a bunch of teachers. His apartment was nice and made me feel at home. The atmosphere of the party made me miss some parts of Halifax. It was a great time. The apartment had a roof top patio with an amazing view of Namsan Tower and a huge church and even the rest of the Yongsan area. It was just nice to stand up there and look at the view. We had good conversation. Of course the conversations led to cultural differences between Korea and Canada and then it fell into conversation between political differences between Ontario and the Maritimes....good conversation, but usuall conversation haha. It was nice to have that conversation in Korea though. It is a rarity. A lot of the people you meet and the conversations are superficial because you don't know if you'll ever see a person again. It was nice to be in a group of people who could get beyond the small talk in one evening. It was a solid party. I hope I can hang with those people again some more.
I am also planning on traveling...I am hoping for Japan in April and China and Jeju in May. I have to get a lot of stuff done though. Vaccinations, Visas, re-entry permits....I didn't know traveling was so complex. Also, I have been giving some thought on coming back to Korea. It is creeping into my head. I know people will be disappointed at home to see me leave again, but I've realized after high school and university that it is my life to control and I would do myself an injustice if I didn't do everything to the fullest. When I think of the number of people I know who have died from high school makes me even more motivated.
So all in all things in Korea are good! I am starting to make a bit of a home here now that I am over the culture shock, stomach is used to the food, and spring is near! After leaving NS and going to the other side of the world it made me realize that things are within reach so much more than people think.

Lunar New Year

The past few days I've been on vacation. Lunar New Year is a big deal...who knew? So I had 3 days off work plus the weekend and if you can do the math, 5 big days off. Unfortunately I can't budget money for crap and didn't go on vacation. So with sparing prospects, my friends, Joanne, Natalie, and I decided to do the tourist circuit of Seoul.
Tuesday night Joanne came into Seoul and met with Clint, Peter, and I for some drinks in Itaewon. Same ol' stuff really. Drinks then home. The next day Joanne and I set off to take a Seoul City Bus tour. Natalie was sick and couldn't make it. The bus tour was a great thing to do. The basic idea is that you pay 10,000 won to have a bus take you around the city and you can get on and off as you please. Good idea, but we slept too late and only did a couple of things. The first things we did was we went to Deoksugung Palace. It was a traditional palace of some Korean dynasty. It was quite the experience. It was quite funny actually because we only had a half hour there because we wanted to go elsewhere. So here are Joanne and I running around this palace and its grounds snapping pictures like mad, trying to see what we could before we went back to catch the bus. It was fun though. Got some good pictures. This picture is of us in front of a museum on the palace grounds. After that we ran back to the bus, freezing our asses off by the way to head off to Namsangol Folk Village. This little village right in the downtown of Seoul is to show what life used to be like in Korea. It was quite interesting. The architecture was interesting. Very different from classical western buildings. We walked around there for about an hour because by that time most of the places that were on the bus route were closing. After the folk village we went to Insa-dong. Insa-dong is a market is Seoul that specializes in traditional Korean goods. Korea is really hung up on their history by the way. I think in the west we take our history a bit for granted. The market was basically closed because it was the day before Lunar New Year and people were starting to flok to their homesteads to visit their families and pay respect to their ancestors. So shortly dinner, at Subway haha, Joanne and I parted ways and I headed back to Junggye and waited for Natalie to arrive.
Once I got home, I decided that I hated my apartment and tore everything off my walls and started going through my things to throw stuff out, when in walks Clint and Peter in the midst of my mess. I was sort of embarassed because it was like a tornado had hit in here. After they left Natalie came along, and things weren't much better. So we went to work for a bit. Made a thing to cover crayon girl and then just chilled. Did a bit of dumpster diving, but no good finds.
On Thursday Joanne, Natalie and I went off to Myeong-dong to meet with Sarah. We went out for dinner and then headed up to Namsan Tower (Seoul Tower) in the evening to see the lights of Seoul. It was pretty amazing. Going there always makes me a big homesick because in the tower there are places listed on the glass and it tells you how far you are from that place and when I look and see that Toronto is 11,000Km away, it makes my heart hurt a bit. After Namsan Tower, Joanne, Natalie, and I caught the bus to Yong-In City to stay at Natalie's for the night. I love bus rides, you get to see so much. It was nice to see some more rural parts of Korea out of a bus window. All I see is city city city....gets to ya after a while.
We go to Natalie's and watched some movies then headed off to Everland on Friday. It was a lot of fun. The park was really big, we didn't get to see everything, but we have another trip in mind. There is a beer garden there, how could I not go back! One thing I found interesting at Everland was that there was a discount for foreigners. We only paid 23,0o00 won and regular price is 35,000 won. I was ok with the discount though.
After Everland we went to Joanne's for the night. We went to norebang and just had some food and relaxed. Saturday we made our way back into Seoul to do some shopping. We headed to Dongdaemun market. The market area there is huge, but it was so damn cold that we said frig it and came back to Junggye-dong, had some drinks and went out on the town.
Saturday night was quite interesting to say the least. I have never seen so much drama in Korea. There were five of us in our party and all five of us got into some fight or altercation. I left one bar covered in beer to stumble upon a police raid or something. After that we went to another bar and stay there, lost track of time, and got home at 6am. Needless to say, we just bummed around on Sunday and did nothing. On Sunday however, I think the palace I went to burned down. Not sure if it was this one, but there was some palace that burned down today. All in all Lunar New Year was good. I am definitely going on a trip for my next vacation though. I am getting a big cabin feverish! Temple stay in 2 weeks!!!

a bit of this and that

I am actually getting quite excited that spring in Korea is almost here. It will be nice to have the colder weather set aside and be on the way to more adventures in warmer weather. I have so much stuff planned. It is pretty exciting all the things I want to do, but time is going to be restricting. I guess things like China can be done on a long weekend eh? Not much has been going on lately. Work has been work. Sometimes the kids are amazing, and other times they are shits. Same goes for everything though. I have been going out too much. Well, not going out too much, just spending too much money while out there. I am really looking forward to the warmer weather for fact of not doing the same thing over and over again. Like, last weekend I went sledding Korean style. It was very different and it scared them to see white people sledding. I guess western fear of getting hurt is far less than that of our eastern counterparts. I got yelled at for going to fast down the hill and running into too many things. Oh well, I knew what he was talking about, but I just pretended not to and walked away haha.
I have fallen in love with the grocery store lady. She is so adorable. She has taken to speaking English to me. After she tried and failed at speaking Korean to me she resorted to her broken English. It is much appreciated though. She is a sweet lady. Also for the past few weeks I've had a replacement boss. My regular one is working in the USA right now so we have a fill in. I like the fill in so much! Things are so much more relaxed in the teachers' room. There are far less egg shells to walk in lately. It is really nice.
I have also taken to sketching. I suck, and I throw out a lot of paper, but I still do it. It has been relaxing for me so far. I am hoping to put something on my walls sometime. The wall paper is leaving a lot to be desired. Today is my 4th month in Korea. I am glad I've made it this far. It has been rocky that's for sure, but I am settling in well so far. Just transferring my focus to different things I guess. Mindset makes a big difference.
Hmmmm what else has been going on. Not too much really. Just been planning trips and things like that. My friends and I have a little checklist to do while we are here. This weekend I am going to a city outside of Seoul to a party. I am looking forward to it. Also, I found a rifle range near here and I want to give my hand at that. It has been years since I've shot a gun...since I was a child I think. I am really looking forward to it.
Other than that, nothing much else has happened. I am in a good place mentally lately. I like it. I think I am starting to leave some of the stuff from home at home and that is a huge relief. For a while my Asian Adventures had been ones of my mental state, but I think a good mental detox was needed. Hopefully things don't flood back when I get home.

It has been a while

So, as the title of this entry dictates; it has been a while. I figured I might as well write as enjoy the second dosage of Oprah I am getting today. Just a couple things I've done to start with. One day around the holidays I went to the spa. A night in the sauna never hurt anybody. While there I tried out the newest Korea craze. Doctor Fish. Sounds interesting eh? Sort of some OBGYN obsession you're thinking? No. It is this take of tiny fish and you put your feet in and they eat the dead skin off. It was pretty cool. Once you get beyond the tickling, it felt quite nice. My feet felt fantastic afterward.
I also ventured up to Seoul Tower with Craig one afternoon. It was pretty amazing to see the city from the air. This city is freaking huge, but still looks small to me. The way it is set out from what I could see what that there are just a bunch of tiny pockets in between mountains so the largest part of the city doesn't look that big. If you consider the amount of pockets it has, it is pretty huge. I also went shopping some more. Looked at a $2000 coat. That was pretty cool and shopped around Louis Vuitton as well. Over-rated designer....sorry...went there. Sometimes a brown is just a brown bag. Thanks Louis!
Other than that, I don't really have much new to bring to the table.
I have been in a huge slump lately. I am in culture shock. It is easy enough for a person in their natural setting to say they are open minded, but moving to a different country has made me realize things I didn't know I had realized. I am not cut out for an Asian lifestyle. I am far far far too western for that. To all you Canadians who think we are very different from America. Think again. We are more polite, but we get just as frustrated haha. It may be a combination or many things that is bringing the rage. And no, rage isn't too strong of a word. I am furious over the simplest things sometimes. I hate taxi drivers, I hate the smell of this city, I hate the work ethic....and I lately I am just really sick of hearing Korean. All of those things I hate bring appreciation too. I am glad that I can use a taxi in this country now, I am learning to adapt to doing things last minute (work ethic) and I am glad for what I came for. Anonymity. I was asked if I was ready to come home. Without a thought I said no. As much as I miss people at home, I am glad to be away from many aspects of home.
I am searching for a safe haven though. I don't have a place where I can go and feel like I am at peace. The best thing I've found so far is Starbucks. I went there last Saturday and just sat for hours reading a not so good book.
I went for dinner tonight alone. First time I've ever been to a restaurant alone. Can't say I liked it. I will stick to take out I think. While I was at Starbucks I made a list of things that were on my mind. Some of the shit that spewed out I never really thought before. I am gonna do more writing I think. This is making me feel better. These next few months are going to be hard....I will be here more often.