Breakdown...NUMB

Perhaps I maybe a little insane for this, and do apologize for the lack of coherence...but here's a conversation I had with myself a few days ago.

-poke, poke....hello? Wake up!! It's time to be a little more aware of yourself!
-Oh, hey.

-Self, what's going on with you lately?
-I'm not quite sure actually....I got this weird and strange sensation about some things.

-Well you know, you're certainly nowhere near home, not even close...do you think that perhaps it has to do with this weird and strange feeling you're having?
-Thanks for the reminder...but I think it may be the lack of sleep, and the being out late till 5:30or 6:30 in the morning....

-Right, sure it is. I mean there's no doubt that sleep is making you feel unlike yourself....I get the sneaking suspicion though that it is more than just...
-Yeah, yeah. So, I broke down a few days ago. It's 'cause I was in a drunkin' stupor and feeling a little frustrated with this whole being around people I can't understand their language, and just the desire to talk to people instead of them being scared of "wagukans" (foreigners).

-Oh.....well, it's going to take a little time before you settle, and you're friends are right. You reached the month mark of frustration where you just busted. Listen though, to be fair- you haven't even had time to recoup from the exhaustion of coming here, and the excitement it brought upon you. The people here are far more different than you can ever imagine....


So this goes on for a few days...maybe even weeks. However, at the same time, not having the comforts of home is all to bizarre. On top of that, school....oh right we'll save that for another time.

Anything Can Happen

Shel Silverstein

Listen to the Mustn'ts,child,
Listen to the Don'ts
Listen to the Shouldn'ts
The Impossibles, the Won'ts
Listen to the Never Haves,
Then listen close to me --
Anything can happen, child,
Anything can be.

January Review In Busan

A few places and cool eats I'd like to share over the past month...I wish I had more time to post.


Here's a little bit of a description of a the few things I've seen while in my first month here;


Chamchi gimbap is made up of seaweed paper(gim) and rice(bap). The chamchi is tuna!! I love it because they add a whole wack of veggies and a little bit of mayo.


The fresh farm veggies are brought in by farmers from nearby districts and are generally cheaper than most supermarkets.


Haeundae is an area and Jangsan is within this district. Jangsan is New Town and has been all newly built within the last 5 years or so.


KJC is my place of work- the school name.


Beijing Story is the best restaurant ever! Tons of food for so little price, but you need to go in a huge group to make it worth the while; however, the weekend after we went it shutdown because they lost their chef. Too much work for such little pay!


The story about the cow- it's meant to be used on your shoulders, and you can tap your shoulders with this pillow like object to relieve stress in your shoulders. It was found in Seomyeong, and the lady told me "No American cow, Korean cow". It's been huge deal about having North American meats here, to the point of having protests about not buying NA beef. Yet, they have McDonald's...
I called the cow cot-so because it is Korean for cow. The O in the cot is prounounced like the U in sun. I can't find the symbol to put on top of the O to demonstrate this.

The rest is self-explained...

Few words can mean the world...

Lately, something inside was making me feel blue,
but then I Stumbled Upon a picture that reminded me of you.

I sent a few words to let you know you're deep in my heart,
and never thought you'd show the world what I thought.
Every time I look at your golden page it makes me feel bright,
and when I see those words that ring so true-
it makes me want to hold my Angelite so tight
...thinking of you.

StarChild, no matter where you are in the world,

no matter how far away or nearby
you still teach me to cry.

I still am learning not to trap my heart,
and to feel less guilty for the thoughts that I start...

when I cry I release these emotions..

heavy or light...
When these tears start to roll down my face I know that it is truly right.

I can't believe all this time I kept these drops of freedom within,
it kept making me weak and so very thin.

It's funny, the more I do it- the more I realize how much freer I've become...

free as a bird on an endless horizon.

xox
Merci mille fois, merci.
C'est un mot que l'on dit, meme tous petit.
Je t'aime avec tout mon coeur- forever and for always!




click on the title above for the link to StarChild's page

Wonder Girls Addiction

Hehee...still chuckling to myself. I almost forgot to share this....

The most popular and most overplayed song here in Korea at the moment belongs to the Wonder Girls, among a few other bands. However for some reason this particular song of theirs stuck. Yes, it's corny, and pop-ish, but I can't say exactly why it amuses me- it just does.

It's one of those songs that is annoyingly addictive, and I just couldn't get enough of it. I couldn't get it out of my head once I had heard it somewhere, and that was pretty much the first two weeks of being here. It's not only the lyrics, but the finger twirl, the knee lift and the double clap of the hands, and just to annoy my fellow foreign co-workers I'd sing it every once and a while at work!

A few nights ago while Heather and I were walking down the subway terminal she pulled the ol' phone out and played the already downloaded song, and then we pulled out the ol' moves for a brief moment.
Yeah, for some odd reason it's the only time we weren't being started at....

So for a sneak peak at some Kon-glish here are The Wonder Girls with 'Nobody But You'

Arrival into Busan, South Korea

A place where street signs and street lights are merely a suggestions....
I won't get killed by gun shot, but mopeds on the sidewalk may be the cause. What the...

Alright, so here's a little note updating you on my whereabouts. As I have just recently found a strong connection I cut and past a journal that I have been keeping...somewhat. I tried to keep the journal as short as possible when editing; A) just 'cause it's less to read and less risk of it being boring, and B) I had/have no brain power left after the flight and staying out late and working early mornings. It took me hours to set this stinkin' slide show and type up this post because of the internet or lack thereof, but finally it's done.

It's a doozy...enjoy!

Monday 22^nd, 2008

Departure 10am:

I drove myself to Ottawa on the most beautiful and sunniest day anyone could ever ask for. I arrived 4-5 hours later and relaxed in a cozy restaurant to eat dinner before driving up to the airport. Once I arrived at the airport I saw that it was packed solid with oh so many pitiful East Coasters who were stranded all weekend from the horrible snow storm we received over the weekend. Approximately 40cm in total dropped over the span of two days, and luckily for me it all dried up by Monday. This herd of people were sleeping on mats and were crowded together forming a massive sphere of stress. It was not a pretty sight by any means.

The line up was ridiculously long, but I got through it quicker than I had anticipated. I waited in Ottawa to catch a one hour flight to Toronto only to wait there for three hours before my international flight departed. Yet, because of the long line up and delays that had occurred in Ottawa I no longer had to wait in Toronto. By the time my flight arrived into Toronto I soon boarded my plane at 11pm.

Already 12 hours of traveling and still I hadn't even left Canada. Another 17hours to go! Roughly. Yay! [A bout of sarcasms flies through the air]

Tuesday 23^rd, 2008

Not much to say, as I was still in the air all day Ontario, Canada time until 8ish. I slept on and off, and watched or rather attempted to watch a few movies. Succeeded in watching one, but do you think I can remember the title. Nope! It was a great one though, honest! It was the one where the evil doer dies off in the end and where the good prevails. God I love those movies. [heehee]

One thing that I can remember is how beautiful the flight attendance were. Honestly they were like plastic dolls they were that gorgeous!

Wednesday 24^th, 2008

Arrival time into S. Korea 10am (8pm Tuesday Ontario time)

I called Davey J, since my recruiter was almost worried sick that I was going to be alone on Christmas day, and he was the only person I knew here in Busan. He came over around noon and we ate lunch. He brought me to an Indian place, and it was my first taste of it. It was delicious! However, I think it was much spicier on the way out than it was coming in, if you catch my drift. Great food nonetheless.

Davey J had to leave for work by 3 o'clock and so I sent myself to bed for an extra long nap. I slept from 3ish till about midnight, and when I woke it was time for another meal! This time Davey J took me to eat the real deal...Korean food!! We had Sam jyup sal, which is pork/bacon and a few side dishes such as; huge pickled yellow radishes and kimche (pronounced Gimche). Kimche is pungent and is a fermented dish made up of cabbage or turnip seasoned in salt, garlic, green onions, ginger, red pepper and shellfish. Most kids have told me they eat it for breakfast; needless to say it's a side dish for almost everything here.

We had beer called Hite [pronounced Hite-euh. Haha Konglish makes me laugh!!] Also, SOJU!!! It's like vodka and is the cheapest booze ever!! With my being jet lagged and a light weight it is easy to figure out the booze hit a little harder than expected. By the time we were done eating it was at 1:30ish in the morning, and Davey J asked gave me a few option, one of which was to head to the Casino. Seeing I have never been I decided to try my luck.

From 2am till about 9am we spent most of the time playing Black Jack and drinking free whiskey and coke. Sigh! I was about to walk away at 6:30 with probably the same amount I began with when I decided hit the Roulette table at the last minute. I don't know how many times I chose the exact number, but by the time I looked back down I had too many chips I didn't know what to do with. I felt as though I shouldn't try my luck anymore, and a few fellow drunkin' Americans asked me to play for them. Believe it or not I was actually winning some of their money back! Talk about beginner's luck, eh?

I ended up walking out with four hundred thousand Wons! Equivalent to about four hundred Canadian!

A picture of my temporary tour guide; Davey J.

Thursday 25^th, 2008

Once again, not much to say here as I slept most of the day, and spent Christmas with Davey J eating Domino's pizza for dinner. Yes, I was too exhausted...correction, I was too comatose to even formulate a thought let alone a sentence, or move to go to a restaurant and eat.

Domino's of all things, believe it or not....I still chuckles at the thought.

Friday 26^th, 2008

My first day of work and they were late on picking me up. I was to be picked up at 3o'clock and was picked up almost an hour later. I stayed until 9:30. I met all of my co-workers and met most of the children I'd be teaching. Unfortunately for me the teacher prior to me has no disciplining skills and often let the children run the show. I saw how much work I had cut out for me. How lovely!

I went out for a few drink with Davey J, and he took me to a foreigner's restaurant/bar called Thursday Party. For the first time in my entire life I was locked in the bathroom stall. The lock case broke off, and as I attempted to climb onto the wobbly toilet I felt insecure and jumped back down. When I did a sense of claustrophobia set in, and so I stood back onto the wobbly toilet and ended up getting my dandy long legs over over the stall. Yes, I climbed over the bathroom stall since there was only a few inches of space at the bottom of the door. Besides, who really wants to crawl on a bathroom floor!?

Saturday 27^th, 2008

I moved into my new pad, and as you can see from the slide show there are windows like mad!

So I am slowing but surely recovering from this jet lag. I can honestly say it was actually probably the most embarrassing thing to have, and I am glad that I didn’t have to teach during the worst part of it. Constant severe brain freeze where words from my thoughts could not make it out of my mouth, and the more persistent I would be the more difficulty I would have speaking. It was a major case of the stutters and dementia- no word of a lie. Often I would completely forget that I was even talking- right in the middle of a sentence!!

Moving on....

Sunday 28^th, 2008

Davey J took me on a tour to the Nampo-dong fishery and VIPS restaurant. [Not said in acronym style] We'd say V.I.P, but it's called VIPS in huge caps too! It was certainly crowded and smelt like the Maritimes when I lived on the East Coast of Canada.

Thursday 1^st, 2009!!!

My first few days of work have come and gone and I can honestly say am liking it thus far, but perhaps it is because everything is bran spanckin' new.

Last night was New Year's Eve and so I start anew today in hopes that I will have interesting and monumental explorations in and around these areas!

In getting to know a few of my co-workers they took me out to Thursday Party (the place where I originally got locked into the bathroom stall) and we stayed up until the sun came to greet the new year! There was a huge gathering at Haeundae (pronounced Hay-unday) beach where crowds of people joined together to cheer as the sun came up. You'll see the pictures in the second slide show.

My co-worker Heather ended up going to another co-workers friend's house, and there we waited in warmth for the sun to welcome up. The guys took out the Australian musical instrument, and Heather blew the didgeridoo so loud the ship called back! Honest. It had to be the funniest thing I witnessed!

I believe I have written enough for now, that and I don't know how coherent this is even though it will be three weeks tomorrow since I've been here. I will try and keep you posted more often than none, and hopefully I will receive internet service sooner than later.

This week I recoup, therefore more messages are underway as I relax in my apartment.

As an aside...The slide show may have some typos, but I can't fix them as the widget is no longer found on the site I created it in. The net is not the greatest at the moment...well until I actualy get the net, and for some reason I grabbed the widget in time, but the slides were not saved, oddly enough.

Further explanations of a few of these pictures seen in the slide show: The VOV motel is known as a Love Motel. You can tell by the the frayed ropes at the parking lot entrance. These are meant to hide any licenses plates form suspicious wives/girlfriends from their cheating husbands/boyfriends. Inside the garage area are lifts that raise the car up to either further hide the vehicles or have another car underneath...I am not quite sure, but it didn't seem like another car could manage to fit underneath. Here I received internet and cable tv with Korean television- which is quite entertaining if you ask me. Bathroom shoes are a must, and most showers I've heard are open as you can see in the slide show. Also, the bath seen in the picture is the first and last bath I will ever see for a while. It's the norm to see street vendors all over the city, especially in the afternoon until late at night. Well, I suppose the remainder is self explanatory....

New Year's Eve:

There is more to come, but the net is slow, and this is becoming tedious over time! Perhaps I will head to a PC bong for my next blog, as I don't have any pictures to show for my last weekend.