The Adventures of Haircuts and Noribangs!

Last weekend was my first experience at getting a haircut in Korea. Wow, what a production! I went with my friend Maria and we were really nervous about the whole deal. I hadn't gotten my haircut in a really long time as I just finished taking my dreads. We walked around the downtown of Gwangju for about an hour running in and out of hair salons. Our way of judging whether we thought it would be a good place was based merely on aesthetics and vibes. We finally settled on a cute one with lots of hairdressers and people. Maria went first, I almost died laughing! She has super curly hair, and in Korea that's just not normal. So at first they just went at her head with a comb (after just a few sprays of water) and then went wild with the scissors for about two minutes. Once they had cut a decent amount of her hair they got the straighteners out and started straightening like mad. After about 45 minutes of 4 different people straightening and cutting her hair we weren't sure what it would look like once it was curly! My haircut was a lot less eventful then Maria's I only had two people working on my hair and it went fairly smoothly. Although, at one point I thought she was going to give me bangs, that was a little scary! Once we were finished we were both a little shaken up by the whole process because in the end Maria had about 6 people staring at her while 2 others straightened. Maria loves her new haircut and I'm still a little unsure however it was worth the experience. It's so wild how the language barrier can turn a normal day-to-day situation into a wild adventure.

With our fresh haircuts we then proceeded to 80-FY ourselves for an 1980's theme Birthday party! It was sooo easy to turn some normal clothes into eighties wear (I think it's because we are both children of the eighties so it's in our blood). A couple hours into the party the birthday girl decided that she wanted to go a Noribang (Karaoke). I was pretty excited about this as I had heard so many good stories about these singing rooms. About ten of geared up in our eighties wear headed to the Noribang. If you see the pictures it gives a good depiction of the fantastic time we had. Basically you rent out small rooms and get your own personal Karaoke sound system plus you can bring in your own drinks and food. It was a hilariously funny night!

First Blog! Woohoo!!

Hello Everybody!

I'm so excited to finally join the 'blog' world! My very own little Internet spot! I hope that this message finds you happy and healthy!

I'm about a month and a half into my South Korean English teaching adventure. It's been quite the trip...with many highs and many lows! I feel like every day I learn something new about kids and about dealing with people who have no idea what you are saying to them. I'm slowly picking up some of the Korean language and hope to be able to read it within a month or two. So far I can say- Thank you, please, left, right, straight, my address, be quiet, read, repeat, bad, really bad!, hello, goodbye, and my favourite Cheers!! (kombae).

So, I've settled into my cute little apartment pretty nicely and I'm adjusting to everything fairly well. My school life has been very interesting and frustrating all at once. I'm working at an Academy otherwise known as a Hagwon. This means that it's a school where parents pay for their children to come and learn English. I teach 4-7 year olds in the morning and 7-14 year olds in the afternoon. You would all have a laughing attack if you saw some of the crazy things I come up with to keep these kids entertained and learning.

I teach from Monday to Friday from 10-6:30. Outside of those hours I've found lots of fun things to do. I'll give you all little run down on what I've been doing and I'm going to do it bullet form (because I can..hehe ) :

• Found the local foreigner hang outs (I have a few bars in my city where lots of other English Teachers hang out)
• Visited Buttah! One of my fellow UCers from Laurentian. I went to visit him for New Years. He lives about 5 hours north east of where I am. It was great we partied it up Laurentian style and I got to see the Sea of Japan via an amazing beach.
• Hiked two mountains. One is super close to my house and only takes about 30 minutes to get to the top. From there I can see a great view of the city! It's pretty wild most people live in huge apartment buildings that all look the same. Plus, you can see the big World Cup Soccer stadium (in the spring I get to see a game!)
• The other one is called Mount Mudang and it's the third biggest mountain in Korea. A big group of us went last Saturday. It was really nice to get out of the city and into some fresh air (see pictures for more of a visual).
• I've been on many walks were I've been entertained by the daily life of a Korean city. For those of you who know me well I'm such a people watcher. Well, this is one country that I could just look for hours on end! So, many random things to see!

In a few weeks it's Lunar/Chinese New Year which is one of the 2 bigger celebrations in Korea. I get about 5 days off so I'm heading to a small island of the coast of Korea with a group of great new friends. I'm buying a camera real soon ( I know I've been saying that for awhile but I'm serious this time!) so I will take tonnes of photos and post them.

I miss everybody at home a lot but know that this year will fly by and I will be back with many stories and a better idea of what the hell I want to do with my work life in Canada!

I think of you all often and wish you all the best in 2008!

Peace and love from Korea