Angie's Amazing Adventures! :) !

My Mom and I rock the Olympics :) :) :)

2010-02-16T14:18:00.000-08:00

Way, way back when Vancouver one the bid for the 2010 Games the thought of achieving a life long goal was brought to the surface. I've always wanted to attend an Olympic games, at one point I wanted to be an athlete in the Games but as time goes on I know now I was meant to be a part of it....as well I knew then that my Mom would absolutely love to go to the Games. So, after 3-4 years of planning, wondering, having phone interviews, wondering whether I sill even wanted to go, then getting the opportunity to go here I am. Not only am I here my mom is here as well!!!

My Mom is volunteering at the Athlete's village doing different jobs at the entrances where the athletes and dignataries come in. I'm working as part of the anti-doping team and it's been going well.

My Mom went to the opening ceremonies and loved every minute of it! I got to go the rehearsal which was also amazing! We've been down to 'Concord Place' where they have all the different provinces pvaillions set up. The other night we headed to BC Place for the Award ceremonies where we saw Bilodeau get his gold medals.

We went to a woman's hockey game together at UBC and also up to Whistler to watch a day of biathlon.

It was such a wonderful experience and I'm so happy I got to be apart of it with my Mom :) :) :)

Oz and Hawaii! Amazing!

2009-07-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

Hello from rainy Ottawa :) :) :) :) (Written in October)

As per usual it's been a real long time since I've wrote on here...but hey I'm back :) Life is going great for me...pretty standard routine I've got going...work, play, freak out a bit about where and what I should be doing with my life....and then get over and realize that all is good :)

I'm home! It is true, home is where the heart is! I've had the chance to spend lots of time with my niece Molly and my nephew Gabriel. They are absolutely amazing! I love them both to pieces and can't get over how awesome it is to watch them grow and learn. Very cool! I'm actually on a bus that has WiFi heading to Toronto to meet the new man of my life :) Yup, I'm shacked up and it's wonderful! His name is Tim and he's absolutely amazing :)

I've been all over the Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec area for the past couple months. Visiting and catching up with friends and family. I'm teaching English at the moment to children/teens in Korea via the wonderfull world of the internet :) I get up super early to teach kids that are at their homes. It's an extra bit of English a day for those kids.

My travels prior to getting home were awesome! Australia was really good. It was almost like a mini-vacation within a long extended vacation. Yeah, I know I"m pretty spoiled! I stayed with two of my friends that I had met in Banff years ago. They were the hosts with the mosts!

I went to every type of rugby game invented, drank beer at a few local watering holes including the bowling club and a golf club. Laid on the beach, read, went beach fishing, caught no fish...Went on the look out for kangaroos, saw sooo many roo's! They are wild to see in the wild! They move like no other animal, using their tails to push them along. It was raining when we were supposed to go beach fishing for the first time, so instead my friends took me down the coast to find kangaroos. I thought maybe we would see one, maybe! Nope, I was so wrong! We pulled up beside a cricket field and boom Kangaroos everywhere!!! It was spectacular! I can only imagine what it would be like to be on an African safari and see all those wild animals in their natural habitats!

Not only did I go to two amazing zoos, I got to join my friends on a 'seal experience'. My friend Lara that I was staying with entered this contest to name the new baby sea lion at Toranga Zoo. Well, turn out she won with the name Nala (after girl lion in the Lion King). It was fantastic, we got to have a private little one on one session with this grandpa of a seal!

After my wonderful experience in Australia I headed home via Honolulu. Honolulu as it lies right out there in the pacific was the cheapest way to fly home through. The way it was suppose to happen was that I would land in Honolulu around 8am and then fly out that night around 11. As at the end of most backpacking trips I had very little money. So, I had planned on walking around Waikiki and checking out the beach. However, just before I left Oz I found out I could go snorkling (snorkling, bus and snorkle) all for the bargain price of 15 US dollars! So, I did!

Wowoweee!!! Haunama Bay is this ::::

I saw so many wonderful fish and many sea turles it was the best ever! I saw Dori (didn't catch Nemo though) and mostly I floated about the sea turtles. I was astonished by the big, slow beautiful animals.

I also had time to catch the beach strip in Waikik and check out some awesome surfers! After a long day of laying on the beach and snorkling I headed back to the airport. Boarded my plane only to have it basically stall! Yup, there I am chatting with this nice guy about our trips and Vrooooom, plane dies! Crazy, I know! Turns out there were problems with the auxillary power (back up power) and when they went to test it, it failed. Long story short, we waited forever to end up being put up in a sweet hotel all expenses paid for 24hrs until we could catch another flight out the next night. It was great cuz I had my own room, free food and a luxurious hotel with a view of the ocean! I was super ticked though! Yup, prooves I'm a bit of a princess! hhaaha really though, all I wanted to do was get home....nonetheless I did take full adavantage of another day in Waikik.

Since being back I can truly say I love my home :) I love having so much of my family and friends withing driving distance. I will travel again, probably sooner then later but man it's nice to be home :)

Sending everyone so much peace, love and smiles for their fall season!

MUAH!

2009-05-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

G'day Mate! Put another shrimp on the barbie!

It's been a long time since I've written but I'm pumped to be finally getting down and updating my blog. Life is pretty cruisy at the moment. I'm in Cronulla (Sydney), Australia at the moment and it's gorgeous! It's about an hour south of the heart of Sydney on the train. My friends Nick and Lara that I met in Banff live here and they've been super sweet with me staying with them. The day I flew in we went to an Aussie league football game. It was the Sydney Swans verses a team from Adelaide and we schooled them! It's a pretty cool game, kinda like a mixture of rugby, football and soccer. Since then I've been down to the Sydney harbour and had a good look at the Opera House....Wowoweeewowoweeee! It's pretty stunning! The same day I did a tour of the botanical gardens, this sweet older lady showed me and a few others around. I got to learn about tonnes of cool Aussie plants!

The tales of how it's a lot more relaxed and slow in Australia and New Zealand are true! The time seems to stand still. I can get up, watch the news, have a coffee, go to the beach, take a yoga class all before noon! I know, I know I'm living on a bit of a cloud over here....I'm going ride it out as long as possible!!! :) :)
In my last blog I had written up to when we were leaving the South Island of New Zealand. Well, it took us awhile but we managed to make our way up to New Plymouth on the North Island to volunteer at the WOMAD festival (http://www.womad.co.nz/new-plymouth.htm ). It's a festival of music, art and dance. The musicians were amazing! They were exactly that world class! Courtney, Mahal and I were volunteering at the information booth for the festival which was perfect for us. We got the inside track on what was going on, not to mention we got free accommodation in the Maori, Marai beds. One of the biggest highlights was seeing the Kiwi famous Fat Freddy's drop!!! Not only did we get to see them once we got to see him twice! Plus Court talked to the lead singer, which left her with trembly knees! Their music is real good, check them out- http://www.myspace.com/fatfreddysdropnz.After the festival was over we knew we needed to work asap! But, as fate would have it we would end up in a van soon to be known as the P-Bus...Party Bus that is! Our friends were on their way out of New Plymouth so we jumped in with them. They were also wanting to find work, but they were not at all in a rush to do so. They were more concerned with finding a good beach. The three of us with our rubber arms being twisted were easily persuaded to join them on their beach mission. It took us over 2 days to get about 60km.....let me tell you that we saw some nice beaches! hahaha! Not only that but we got real stuck finding one and then ended up getting pulled out by this amazing Maori man who told us where we could go to camp. We ended up staying by the ocean with a view of a gorgeous Mountain called Taranaki. It was a sweet night! The man came back with his son and we had a great chat about the history of the land and some real good laughs!We ended up having to bail on the P-bus once we got to the town of Wangonui as we could tell they were going nowhere near work any time soon. We were super lucky to get to Wangonui as my friend Steph's mom (I lived with her in Ottawa) lives in Wangonui. We called her up and she let us stay with her for a couple nights. She was so sweet, she gave us a tour of where Steph grew up and took us out to see her horses. Another great example of how sweet people are down here.

We made a clean break from Wangonui and went straight across and a bit north to a town called Napier. We were assured that we would find work around this area as it is the 'fruit bowl' of New Zealand. Unfortunately, like everywhere else in the world jobs were scarce. We were real discouraged as we found out that the fruit was late and therefore there were NO jobs. AHHHH!!! Getting a bit down on ourselves we managed to find a sweet hostel and we headed to a few beaches to cheer us up! In the end we got real desperate and called every single number we could find that may have had apple picking or packing jobs. I got through to one man named Phil and he ended up being our Angel and in the end a bit of a devil for us. He had a small orchard and they were starting to pick on the following Tuesday. So, we got ourselves some jobs and place to live. We stayed in our sh.&%^ ass tent outside of the house on the orchard. It was great though because we had a hot tub, full kitchen, clean bathroom and a freaking sauna! Sweet az bro!

We picked and picked and picked some more. It was real tough but we managed to make enough money to get by and do some fun stuff. By fun stuff I mean I went SKYDIVING! Yeah, Courtney and I jumped out of a plane from 12,000 feet and free fell for 45 seconds! It was f-ing unreal! The entire experience was pretty wild. Court and I weren't sure if we were actually going to do it as we drank the night before for our bosses son 18th birthday. In the morning they woke us up at 8:30 (we stayed at our bosses summer home in a town called Taupo). They were so hyped up and ready to go...they convinced us that we should really skydive as we may never have another chance...so we went for it! We were still half drunk and so I think that made the decision easier!
It was so seamless as it's tandem, you basically get into a small plane and sit as crammed together as possible. The views from the plane were amazing and once again I could see Mount Taranaki! We got to a certain elevation and you could feel the buzz of all the flight instructors getting ready to go. So, the guy I was with says ok, sit on my lap!!! To which I replied 'wow, didn't know we were getting this intimate' (he got a good kick out of it). I asked him to triple check that I was attached to him! I wasn't really scared until the thought went through my head that I would just pop off the guy and go plummeting to the ground! That thought passed quickly and then all of a sudden it was time. The door slid open and BOOM out the camera man was hanging on the edge of the plane and then BOOM one of our friends was gone down....I was 4th in line and when it came time I asked the guy if we could do as many flips as possible! Ha! He was like 'Is this your first time?' to which I said 'Yes, and probably my last so let's make it good!'.
Then it happened we scooted over to the edge and on the count of three we were out. We free fell for about 45 seconds. 45 seconds of pure exhilaration! It was such a rush! I loved every second of it! Then he grabbed me around the waist and shhhwoop, he pulled open the shoot! We soared down the rest of the way. He did some loops around which were a bit of a thrill but mostly it was super relaxing! (If you know Courtney you'll have to ask her about her experience, oh Miller...Miller...Miller...Miller...)

After our wild weekend we picked apples for a few more weeks and then decided we should head all the way north as that's where the next fruit and jobs would be ready. A side note here would be to mention that yet anohter one of our electronics got messed up here....you would not believe it, but a tractor ran over Mahalia's purse and her cell phone, which at the time was like our life line!!! It all worked itself out, but what a freaking nightmare!

On to the next fruit on our journey and how appropriate that right before we leave we come into the world of KIWI FRUIT!!! I've never seen more of one fruit in my entire life!!!

We headed North stopping in Taupo for the long weekend to do one of the New Zealand famous walks. The Tongariro crossing is one of the World Heritage Sites. The trek included the volcano "Mount Doom" that was in the "Lord of the Ring". Not to mention 3 gorgeous blue sulphur pools and a huge lake. Just when we thought that we saw the most beautiful thing on the hike something else would be over the edge!

Taupo was great we went out after the hike and ended up meeting some awesome guys and partied up big time. We dominated one of the bars dance floor as we later noticed we were the only ones on :)

North bound also lead us to Auckland for a night. We were lucky to stay with one of Mahalia's friends, Erin. We hung out and checked out little India and ate some wicked food!

The last leg of our trip as I mentioned brought us almost to the top of the North island. We went to a small town called Keri Keri. We were promised by the owner of a hostel that he could get us jobs and accomadation. PERFECT! So, we rocked up to a semi-sketchy backpackers and within about 5 days got work. The place was ok at first but after awhile it was just plain dumpy! But, on the first day of work we ended up getting a ride with these girls from Auckland. Nina and Serena would soon become our best mates in New Zealand. They are super funny and having them around saved us from bailing on the entire situation.

On to the packhouse....oh the pakchouse!!! Unfortunately (or fortunately), we couldn't get kiwi picking jobs but instead we got kiwi packing jobs. Basically, we showed up at this big packhouse (like a kiwi factory) and it was luck of the draw of what position you got. Court, Mahal and I huddled together to make sure we were on the same job. However, somehow both Court and Mahal got labelling jobs and I went to the kiwi line. Courtney was in charge (actually she's still there and I fear if a cute kiwi boy sweeps her off her feet we may never see her again) of the machines of kiwi lables that went on each individual label. So, she would be known as the 'label supervisor'. Mahalia was in charge of putting the bar code stickers on the kiwi boxes after they were packed. Serena, Nina and I were among the many that were in charge of putting the kiwis in the boxes!!! So, picture this- a converyor belt of kiwis going down a line and they get spit down a shoot where then you have to put them in a tray or in a box. Sounds simple, Yes, it's very simple! BUT...it's so hard on the body and it's super brain numbing! I cried after my first shift. I was so sad for all the people in the world that work in factories on lines day in and day out.
We powered through two weeks of twelve hour days before we decided to start on the night shift. That meant that we were working 5-1AM. It was perfect! Not only did we get off twelve hours but Nina, Serena and the three of us moved out of the dumpy backpackers we were staying in to a gorgeous pagoda! Our friends told us about this place that normally never lets backpackers stay but because it was the off season we were allowed to stay there. It was like being at the ritz considering the place we had been staying at!

The other great things about going to the night shift was that we all got better jobs and we got to really know the people of Kerikeri. We were working with some real interesting characters that made for some real interesting stories!

Our time in Kerikeri was pretty good in the sense that we were making money, meeting cool people and living in a sweet pad! Not only all that but one of the weekends our friend Daniel (Steph my old roomie from Ottawa, her boyfriend) came up to take us on a tour of the Northland. He's from a town called Kaikohe that was only 30 minutes from our town. It was such a treat to have him show us around up there. It was a locals tour for sure! First we went to the site where the belief is that the first Mauri's came to New Zealand by. It's this huge cliff out cropping where the sea comes into an inlet. Then we went to his mom's house for some traditional fried bread, his mom was super sweet. After that it was onto see these massive indigenous Kauri trees. They were so big!!! We also got to some beautiful beaches, his families land on the ocean, the best fish and chips in New Zealand, the site of the Rainbow warrior, waterfalls, a traditional murrai and to spot where they signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Pretty good for two days eh!

The other sweet thing that happened was that my friends Jess and Pk who I had met in South Korea, came to New Zealand. They ended up coming up and staying at the pagoda lodge as well. The first day they got there I called in sick to work and took them to this wicked Reggae show (http://www.myspace.com/1814official). It was a sick night! We met this wicked guy Mark and danced our bums off all night! We would then go back to that same bar again the next night only to win a dance competition! Good times!

It was hard to leave Kerikeri in the end. I thought it would be easy as the work at the kiwi packhouse was at first real daunting. In the end though it was great. We finally had a sweet home, a decent enough job but the clincher was that we had some good friends!

I left Kerikeri a few weeks after Mahalia had left. I flew out of Auckland but before that I finally had the chance to visit with Steph. Steph is the wicked kiwi chick that I lived and worked with in Ottawa. She was one of th reasons why I went to New Zealand. It was a perfect end to my time in New Zealand. We really just hung out and she showed me around Aukland, brought me to a rugny game and some other really nice spots in Auckland. It was so great to see her again!

Sigh, wow that was a mouth full! I'm going to end this here and I'll write another update about my Aussie adventures!

I'll be home in less then a week and I can even wait! Both my sisters have babies now and I'm so excited to spend some time with them and the rest of my family! As well, the week after I get home is the OM festival so I get to catch up with all my friends in the forest! WOOHOO!!!

Peace, love and smiles from the land down under!

New Zealand...a.k.a the land of many cool sayings! (Choice bro, No drama, You aright, F.....unnnnnnreal!, I reckon we sell the car?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!)

2009-03-05T16:35:00.000-08:00

After much consideration and so many mind changes I decided to join up with two of my bestest friends Courtney and Mahal in New Zealand. I can tell you that I've made an excellent choice!!! It was so great to see Court and Mahalia waiting for me on the other side of those airport doors. I don't think that small airport in Christchurch had ever heard such loud screams before. It was pretty surreal to be standing there and realizing that the three of us were together in New Zealand...sweet!
They picked me up in our very own 1998 Mitsubishi and we headed straight to a music festival. The festival was near a small town called Twizel and it was all New Zealand bands. SOOOO FANTASTIC! There was tonnes of music but for the most part was reggae, dub and hip hop. One of the big things I missed when I was in Korea was live music, so this was an excellent way to start off my first week out of SoKo.

We volunteered at the festival and all we had to do was take tickets and hand out sun screen. It was such a sweet deal! I got a chance to meet all Court and Mahal friends that they had made the month before picking cherries. I had no idea that their were so many people from around the world travelling and working in NZ. Leave it to Court and Mahal to find some sweet people to hang around with! I love them!!!

After the festival a bunch of us headed to a small little lake to chill out and relax for a few days. Week two of my NZ adventures brought me to the adventure capital of the world, Queenstown. This is where they have all the bungy jumping, para-sailing, kite surfing, base jumping, white water rafting and many many more adrenaline seeking sports. We stayed with one of Mahal's friends from Whistler. It was so great we had a hot tub and a pool along with a bunch of super cool peops. We watched a sweet bike jam with tonnes of boys doing some crazy ass flips and stunts on their bikes.

Day three of Queenstown was the day that I dared to go over the edge!!! Yup, I jumped off a cliff!!!! I did what they call a canyon swing and let me tell you it was absolutely mind blowing. You basically go to the edge of a canyon (on a platform ) and then get harnessed in and then jump any way you want down into a canyon. (http://www.canyonswing.co.nz/index.php) Court went first and did what they call a pin drop which means she stepped off sideways. After Court I took the plunge. I chose sitting in a plastic patio chair as my way off plummeting into the great unknown. So, there I was sitting in a chair as one of the guys working there harnessed me and started to tip me over the edge. At first they were just toying with me and pretending to drop me and then bringing me back up. It was so freaking scary!!! Once they were done toying with my emotions they told me that I had to push myself off the edge. Picture this- me, sitting in a chair with my back to the canyon having to push the chair and me over the edge. It took me awhile of hemming and humming and then I counted to three in my head and push!!!!! Over the edge I went and I dropped like a freaking brick!!! I did two backwards flip before just dropping straight and then swinging way over the canyon! It was absolutely mind blowing! Then they pull you back up and you get to sit tight and enjoy the view. It's similar to bungy jumping except the harness is around waist instead of your feet.Mahalia went next and she decided she wanted to jump straight off the edge. It took her some time and then she did it! So great to watch! Court and I decided that because it was cheap to do a second jump we should just go for it. So, this time we did what they call the 'Bin Laden'. What that means is you go head first with your feet over your head. Yup, they harness you in, hang you over the edge and tell you to put your legs up around the rope and then to swing your arms back into the super man position!!! There I was staring straight down at the canyon!!! Let's just say it was exhilarating and I suggest it to anyone who likes a thrill!!

After Queenstown we did a tour up across the south island and then up the west coast. It was absolutely beautiful and then I knew why they film so many spectacular movies in this country. The mountains looked like fern gully and the forests like The Lord of the Rings. No joke, it was absolutely stunning!!! We didn't stick around the west coast to much as there were tonnes of sand flies and it was raining. We booked it to a small town called Motoueka to find some apple picking jobs. That is where I am now.

We couldn't find jobs at the beginning so we went and did some WOOFING. That means to work on an organic farm. It was a great experience. The farm we went to was called 'Go Lightly' and it an older couples organic farm. It was full of cows, chucks (chickens), sheep, walnuts and tonnes of other fruits and veggies. We got to pick mushrooms, plants trees, pickle mushrooms, make sherbet and we ate A LOT! They milked their own cow and had eggs from the chucks so we had some yummy eats!We are outside of Motueka in Tasman at the moment. When we were at the farm we decided we need to go to the North island because we couldn't find jobs on the south island. So, we had a few things to do in Motoueka before heading out of town to the ferry. We took a Scottish guy (Martin, who is one of the funniest people I've ever met) he was also helping out at the farm to town with us. On the way everything changed...we were joking around that we were going to sell the car because we couldn't afford the gas for it and all the joys that come with having a car. To which Martin replied 'I'll buy your car, how much???'. So, last minute decision we sold the car. Now you see we had already booked our ferry tickets and we're scheduled to leave the island that night. Instead, we were going to get Martin to drive us to Nelson and then we would get to the ferry from there. BUT, on the way to the ferry we saw a sign that said 'Apple Pickers Needed'.....ahhhh, there is a money god!

I've just finished day three of apple picking and am slowly getting good at it...but woweee!!! It's not an easy buck to make, I can tell you that much!!!! We are all working very hard to get to the next destination. WOMAD!!!! Which is a festival of music and art.

I hope that everyone is doing fantastic. I'm not near a computer EVER these days so I'm sorry if I haven't written. I hope that you know that I'm thinking of you and that I send all my love to everyone. A special note to my sisters and their new beautiful babies. Love you guys sooo much and look forward to being in the same country again :) :) :)

Peace, love, smiles from the southern hemisphere :) :) :)

P.S. If you want to call me that would be great it's 001-64-21-113-7757 (i hope that works!!!)

Back to SoKo for a one month stint!

2009-03-05T16:34:00.000-08:00

I'm so pleased I did a one month winter camp teaching position in Daigu. It rejuvenated my faith in teaching. The camp was fairly well organized and I actually felt like I was teaching!!! I mean I did at some points feel like I was teaching at my last job, but this time I felt like it all the time. I had a big TV in my classroom with access to the Internet which was absolutely fabulous! If I couldn't explain a word in English I could just look it up..sooo great!

Home IS Where the Heart truly is!!!!

2009-03-05T16:19:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hay Hey Hey Hey Hay,

Well, well, well, it's been a really long time since I've checked in here and so I've got lots of stuff to update on...but no worries it won't be as long as that Japan post I did back in the summer. December was a month of lots of visiting and catching up with all my loved ones in Ontario. I was somewhat worried that I wouldn't have enough time to see everyone and spend good quality time with my friends and family at home...however, as proved to me once again as long as I set my mind to something it will work out. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before in another blog, but within the first few weeks that I was in Korea I had these day dreams about how it would feel to fly home and get to the Ottawa airport and see all my family and friends on the other side of the sliding airport doors. The feelings were not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting to start crying and be completely overwhelmed by seeing everyone...however, it felt very 'normal'. I came down the escalators and after some well overdue hugs I couldn't help but feel completely at ease normal around everyone. In saying that though I was semi-culture shocked at the western world for awhile. It took me a couple weeks to get use to understanding everything. One of the best parts was the ability to order something on a menu and know exactly what I was getting (what a concept eh!!! hahaha)

Home was filled with lots of good stuff. My first weekend back we had a welcome home party both for myself and for my new (now 4 months old) niece, Molly. Meeting her was so great! She is so sweet and I'm so happy to be Auntie Ang :) . I was lucky to see most of my family at that party right away. Lisa Haddow graced me with her presence at the end of the party and we decided it was a great idea to drink our faces off (Glenfedeck! YUCK!!!) and meet up with the third of our group Kristen at the good ole billy town pub! It's funny and so clichéd but some things just NEVER change. I walked into that pub and I swear the same exact people were sitting there that used to be there over the passed at least 10 years! We managed to keep our reputation alive by drinking the bar out of a few types of liquors before retiring to Kristen's gorgeous new home!

I headed up to Ottawa that week to deal with my Visa and all that other real fun stuff!!! That week I got to see my Ottawa friends and spend a few nights with my sisters and the baby. The other cool thing was that I got to hang with my sister Kim who was at the time nine months pregnant. Since that time she's had her beautiful little boy named Gabriel. I'm so happy to be yet again an aunt and this time it's a boy!!!! WOOHOO!

I covered a lot of ground in one month and a bit of that was in the Toronto area. That's where I got to reunite with a bunch of Uni friends. Not to mention the road trip with my friend Jaime. Now the thing with Jaime and I is that when we get together is that something completely random and sometimes unfortunate happens. But, no matter what we always have a great time and laugh our heads off! So, in T. we had a great time partying it up with my friends Gen, Brooke, Cobb, Pj, Kristin and some of their significant others. It was so great!!!!! It was such a tease though to see them and then have to leave them...but it was good to see them and know that our friendships are still so strong...I'm so lucky to have such great friends!

My Ottawa Tribe decided that we should have a cottage party so that we could spend two nights in the middle of nowwhere with no interruptions to catch up...it was great we had a meeting for the small festival we put on every year, we danced, we played and we just enjoyed being around each other. Not to mention the few that when snow swimming!!!

Montreal was the next target on my hit list. My beautiful and dear friend Meaghan drove us back from the cottage party. Montreal is definitely somewhere that holds a special part of my heart. It's just so full of great energy and cool people! Rhea, Wil and I went to a party in the complete dark! Yup, we had a pot luck at this girls house and for most of the night it was in the dark. Sounds pretty weird eh?!?! It was so fun! They put an emphasis on music and singing. So, they turned the lights off and played instruments, sang, recited poetry and told stories.
Being that the lights were off people were not shy to sing or participate. This allowed for such amazing creativity and so much participation!!! Genius!

Christmas with my family was nice as we all got out a few times for some nice walks in the bush behind my house. It was definitely a full house at my Mom and Dad's with the new baby. It was so great though we got to bath the baby, hold the baby, play with the baby and hold the baby some more ;). Molly loves to be held and she also loves reggae music!! YEAH! If you listen to reggae and dance with her she stops crying...yeah!!!! Next step is dreads for that baby ;) ;) ;) heheh!!! Seeing my sister Kim pregnant was also such a treat! She was such a cute prego lady!

It was good timing for me to be home not only for Christmas but also for my friends Gregg and Allison's wedding. Gregg is a friend from high school while Allison is one of my sister's good friend and so now one of my friends. The wedding was great! One big party! It was almost like a high school reunion as people kept coming out of the wood works...every time I turned around BOOM there was someone I haven't seen in a real long time! It made for such a great night and lots of good reminiscing stories were told.

New Years of 2009 was spent with a crew of peops from Ottawa. A bunch of the boys had a party at their house and I rocked out it with some friends as Choopie played some wicked acoustic stuff and then Adam layed it down with a bunch of great tracks.

I flew out on the 2nd of January feeling really torn about leaving again. I had a tough time saying goodbye to my family. With the new baby and Kim pregnant it was really hard. However, I knew that I would be back withing at least 5 months so it was all good!!!

On to the next advntures!

MY MOM IS AMAZING!!!

2009-01-28T03:14:00.000-08:00

My mom is absolutely wonderful! For years now I've made many a friends jealous with my unbeatable care packages. Starting in University she would send something for my entire floor. I thought she had outdone herself when she sent jujube Christmas candy trees but this time she has really done it! I arrived home from my year in Korea to find that she had scrapbooked my entire year. She took all my pics off of my picasa and turned then into two absolutely beautiful scrapbooks. Although, I wanted to bring them with me to Korea and everywhere I go from here on in, the planes won't let me because of their weight! So, I (actually, my Mom helped me as I was packing to come back to Korea) took pictures of it so I could put them up here. I didn't have time to put them all up but you can go to my picasa if you want to see them all. She takes the cake this woman! I love her to pieces!

My Adventures in Korea! (Part 1)

2009-01-19T02:33:00.000-08:00

I've been really wanting to write a summary of my year in Korea, however, it's taken me a long time to actually take the time to do it! So much time has passed that now I'm back here!

Better late then never eh?!?!

I've compiled a list of my greatest experiences in the land of the morning calm. I can't seem to pick my number one experience as they have all been so special so here they are in no particular order:

DJ festival weekend: The Seoul DJ festival was a great musical experience. I got to dance under the stars and in the rain. It was the first time I ever spun fire in public and also the first time I heard live Korean music. One of the bands I was exposed to is a great Korean band called 'Windy City'. It was the first good round of live music I got to see in my year!

Gosapo beach camping: All the camping that I experience in Korea was great. Gosapo beach sticks out in my mind. My wicked friend Chris went out on a limb and decided we should check around an ocean bend and boom! There was a deserted beach with our name on it! It was so nice and relaxing plus we had a group of a bout 10 people there to enjoy it with. I got do some beach yoga, walk in Maria's labyrinth, watch as the boys decided to find the biggest pieces of wood they could possible carry and watch the tides coming in and out. I learned all about hermit crabs and very cool little eco-systems!

Bigeum-do camping: OK, so I thought that Gosapo stuck out specifically but so does Biguem-do. This was my first camping experience in Korea. On a wimb (most things for me in Korea were just trial and error), we met up with some other foreigners from Mokpo and jumped on their camping band wagon. It was a great idea! We took a slow ferry to this island and it was paradise! Our taxi ride from the ferry to the site was along the beach. The people we met were wicked and the people I went with will be friends for the rest of my life. I'll never forget being 5 waygooks in a 5 man Korean tent! I thought I was going to be ill so I had to move around a lot to get comfy and so I yelled 'alright everyone, SPOON RIGHT!!!' and quite literally everyone spooned right! So good!

Morave festival: This festival claimed to be on a desesrted beach on the west coast of Korea. After a very long bus ride we ended up at a beach that was densly populated with Korean families. Much to our surprise we were litrally sandwiched between families! This picture describes the way Sarah and I felt:
It was a bit hard to stay positive after the bus ride, but after a few glasses a wine and some conversations with the organizers we soon realized that this was going to work out just perfectly. I ended up doing all the things I truly love doing- dancing, swimming, chatting with amazing people, spinning fire, getting my face painted, trying out a new instrument (didgeridoo), and many more groovy fun things!

Korean culture in general: Being that Korea was my first country to travel in Asia many of the cultural differences contributed to my favourite times. The 3-4 hellos I got when riding or walking down the road (sometimes small children would chase me down the road yelling 'How are you?'). The food in general has been great. Bibimbap and side dishes are my favourite! The Bus system! You can get anywhere in Korea very easily and for such a reasonable price. As well the cost of food is so cheap!

JAPAN!!!!! I can't even say enough about my trip to Japan. It was mind blowing, spirit lifting and all around fantastic! The Zen gardens, Tokyo, the Fuji Rocks festival and much much more!

My new found friends: The people I met in Gwangju and in Seoul will forever hold a special part of my heart. In no particuliar order they are- Jenny, Sarah, Chris, Lindsay, Whit, Maria, Ethan, Jess, Pk, Zoe, Anna, Lucy, Zaid, Prya, Lisa, Catie, Hannah, Anna, Vicky, Jessie, Richard and so many more!!! I know all of our paths will cross again one day and am so happy to have had the opportunity to meet everyone.

My school kids: Although, I found it very challenging and sometime frustrating to teach at my hagwon the kids made it worth it. Yes, they were at times very trying on my nerves but all in all they were great. I feel and hope that most of them learned some English but above all I know they had fun while learning. I"m happy that I could bring some fun into a society where school can sometimes be very tough!

Project Warm Hands: This amazing group was started by one of the coolest people I've ever met, Hannah. She decided she wanted a group where both foreigners and Koreans could meet to eat, learn, play and experience each others culture. I attended many monthly dinners as well as made some really great Korean arts and crafts with the group.

I feel like I missing many moments in this year in review which is great in itself. To many good moments to get them all!!

I can't even believe how much I've learned about the world and myself in one very short year abroad! I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to travel and work in such a great country as South Korea. I look forward to my next steps, stay tuned for Angie's Adventures in NEW ZEALAND! That's all I'm saying.... ;)

My Farewell Party in Gwangju :(

2009-01-15T03:01:00.000-08:00

I wrote this post way back in November and never finished it. So, now I'm back and have some time so here it is:

My farewell party in Gwangju was absolutely perfect! I got to do everything that I would have wanted to do before leaving. Hike, play, sing, dance and spend time with awesome people!

The day started with a hike on Muduang Mountain. This mountain is beautiful anytime of the year but on that Saturday is was stunning. Most of the leaves had turned or already fallen off but there was still tonnes of colour contrasts with the dead grass and the green pines. A small group of some of my best friends and I went on the hike. We had such a great time climbing trees, rolling in the long grass and taking wicked funny pics! Not to forget about one of the best parts which was getting a ride on my friend Whit's motorcycle!

For dinner I met up with a big group of my friends and went for my favourite food (shabu shabu, which is actually Japanese). The soju train decided to pick us all up at shabu shabu. My friends Jess and Pk (from England) came down from Seoul for the night. They are this absolutely amazing couple who I'm going to miss to pieces.
In my head I had decided that all I wanted to do was go to a Noraebang (singing room) after dinner. A few peops were resistant to the idea as they were barely hanging on to the soju train and hadn't fully jumped on yet. However, I along with a few others were riding with the conductor all the way!!! CHOOO CHOOOO!!! So, we convinced everyone that the soju train was the best idea. We headed off to this huge Noreabang. The room we ended up getting was wicked! It was like a VIP room with huge long tables. From there things got pretty messy. I went out to buy some more beer and soju but then had forgotten something in the room so went back to Whit having everyone practice the song 'Angie' by the Rolling Stones. At that moment I was hit by such a feeling of dejavu it was wild. At my going away party in Ottawa before I left my amazing friends there also sang me that song and so it was so heart warming to hear all my Korean friends singing it.

It's hard to describe how fun the night was but if I could some it up with a few key points it would be the following:

1-Prya dancing on the table and then jumping off to about 4 glasses smashing, but she didn't notice and kept on going wherever her mission was at that moment.

2- Whit's insistence on playing Angie for the third time (I love you Whit!)

3- Lindsey whispering in my ear 'let's dance on the table to Dancing Queen' to then have about 6 other girls join us and or dancing queen routine turning into the Kan Kan.

4- Sarah's I'm going down down.

5- Chris and I doing Oasis as a reminder of our first noraebang experience together way back in January.

5- Me telling everyone that we need to get the hell out of dodge as we were in the entrance of the norabang because the staff went into the room. The room looked like a bunch of rockstars had just gone through it.

6- Everyone's' drunken smiles of love at the end of the night as we stumbled to find our ways home.

I'm so thankful to have met so many great people in Korea. Upon my first couple weeks in Korea I feared that I would not meet any like minded people. I thought that I would do my year and leave no strings attached. I was wrong, I've made bonds with people that I will cherish forever. Also, the best part about making these bonds is that I will see these people again and it will be in a different part of the world :) :)

I see a light shinning bright...country roads take me home :)

2008-11-07T01:57:00.000-08:00

Annyong, hello, bonjour,

Well, well, well, what can I say? My time here in Korea is almost over. I'm finding it very hard to believe that I only have 2 weeks left in this wild and wacky country. My feelings are all over the road map as well as my plans. It's taken me 27 years to actually realize and acknowledge that I hate making decisions on what to do with my life's path. I feel like I'm full circle all the time with the old question 'So, Angie what are you going to do after- high school, university, living out west, joining the real world and now Korea'? As I've said to a few people lately, I don't really care what I do as long as I'm happy, and I'm super lucky because for the most part I'm always happy.

The one thing I'm sure of is that I will be landing on Canadian soil on November 26th at midnight! I'm so happy to be going home! For those who I haven't told yet my sister Amy had a beautiful baby girl!!! I knew I would be happy to have a niece or a nephew, but I didn't realize it would be this exciting!!! Not to mention that my other sister Kim will be 7-8 months pregnant while I'm home!

As far as what I've been up to the last month. Well, I've been to Seoul for a drum festival. It was great they had drum groups from around the world performing as well as tonnes of traditional Korean drums out that anyone could play or take a workshop. As well, I got to play the garbage can with this super cute Korean garbage can band!!! It doesn't sound as cool as it was...honestly!

I've also had the opportunity to participate in Seoul's first ever Zombie Walk! Zombie walk you ask??? Basically, a group of people get together and dress up as zombies and sludge around the city they are in scaring the shit out of people. It was pretty wild! Because Korea doesn't celebrate Halloween people were really shocked to see a group of about 30 zombies approaching them.

I also finally got the chance to go to the ever so famous 'Kimchi Festival'. It was everything you would expect from a kimchi festival. It had kimchi making, kimchie contests, kimchie dolls, a kimchi museum and tonnes of kimchi!

Halloween weekend was also a good friend of mine Chris's 30th birthday. Two of my super good friends came down from Seoul to celebrate. Four of us went as the elements! It was sooooo good! We were earth, wind, fire and water. I being earth was a tree, Anna being water was a sea goddess, Zoe being wind was the mother of air and Sarah was exactly her role- hot, hot fire! I think we could have one some serious prizes if we had tried!! We had a call for each other all night 'Elements Unite!!!' Unfortunately that night saw the death of my third digital camera :(. I'm not sure what the deal is but I can not keep one for long then 6 months! It's turning into an extremely expensive occurence! Therefore, no pics of the halloween night (facebook has lots though).

This past weekend a big group of us headed to a wicked mountain called Naejangson. It's peak season here for the leaves. So, we saw so many beautiful trees with vibrant reds and yellows and then some random bright greens still holding out. It was a really nice relaxed day. What made the day even better was that we had a little baby with us. A new couple has arrived from Canada (Kenora and Thunderbay!) and they have a beautiful little baby boy Kaylex. It was great to have them and their baby along for the trip. Usually as foreigners we get a lot of looks and random 'hello's' but this trip we might as well have been Korean. The baby stole the show! It was so funny, people pretty much stopped in their tracks to see the baby. At one point an Ajuma (older Korean lady) came over to where we were sitting and asked to hold the baby. The next thing we knew she had taken the baby back to the circle of Ajumas sitting nearby. It was hilarious and pretty cute!

So, this will probably be my last update before I leave as it's starting to get a bit busy with packing and planning. I'm going to miss everyone here in Gwangju and Seoul so much, but I'll be back for a bit in January and I'm sure that our paths will cross again one day. To everyone at home, put your party pants and hats on I'm coming home :) :) :) !!!!!!

'Country Roads, take me home, to a place where I belong...Summerstown, Glengarry, river valley..take me home'

Peace, love and big big smiles!

A morning with my Yoga Instructor and a Monk

2008-09-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

A couple Saturday mornings ago I had the experience of a life time. I've been taking yoga lessons for about 2 months from this amazing Korean woman. At the beginning she only spoke a little English (random words like achilles tendon and fish pose, both of which she learned studying yoga in India). When I joined the class there were 3 foreigners but now there are about 6 of us so she has decided that she wants to learn more English. She is a super fast learner and she can now say all these really important words for yoga like, inhalation, 100 times and my favourite- sphincter up!

She has been wanting to take some of the foreigners out to her hometown or to a temple for a while but no one could find a day that worked. So, I ended up just going on my own and it was absolutely amazing.

I was quite worried about the lack of communication, as I know very little Korean and she knows very little English. However, keeping a conversation going wasn't the problem we somehow talked the entire time and I have to admit probably only understood each other for about 25% of the time! It was pretty funny to the both of us.

I met her super early and we headed out to what I knew at the time as a 'Flower Festival'. Korea has many flower festival and you never really know what your getting into. This one was in honour of the 'Spider Lily'. They are these beautiful red flowers that grow like asparagus straight out of the ground without any leaves. In Korea they are known as the heart ache flower because once they lose their flowers and the top falls off they grow their leaves. I don't really get the logic behind it and I feel as though I've lost a lot of it in translation. Nonetheless they are pretty cool looking!

I knew that we were going to a festival and to have lunch with her friend. But, in fact we went to this festival that was at a Temple and then proceeded to have tea with her friend, a monk! When I say we had tea, I mean we officially had a tea ceremonies. It was amazing. The chief element of the Korean tea ceremony is the ease and naturalness of enjoying tea within an easy formal setting...and that's what we did :)

The monk was beautiful and completely relaxed he just exuded this feeling of Zeness. He was sat in the middle of an open window area of a temple like structure and his back was to the mountains. So as I sat there I could see gorgeous mountains. We sat there with him and they chatted in Korean, every once in awhile looking at me as if I should add something because they were talking about me. I just smiled and kept saying thank you. Then she told him that I had a bad back and he immediately grabbed my hand and told me to breath. I did and I focused really hard and I could feel all this wild energy flowing in and out! After that he got up and went around to my back and did all this stuff, once he was finished I had a sigh of relief it was pretty wild!

After our tea ceremonies we took a walk around and headed back down to where the actual festival was happening to watch some of the drumming performance. We left the festival and it seemed like she wanted to take me to this other festival, or maybe it was part of the same, but there was a huge line of cars. So, instead we drove out to the ocean near her hometown (I think) and for a drive around the countryside. It was so nice to be in a car, it's been 9 months since I've been somewhere in car that hasn't been a taxi.

We then went to eat at this special restaurant with tonnes of side dishes! It was so good! She's such a fantastic lady and is so nice to everyone in our yoga class. I'm so happy to have met her and will definitely miss her classes when I leave.

This picture above is taken on one of my many random field trips. It was so cool!!

On the leaving note...I'm about 45ish sleeps away from departure! So wild! I can't believe my contract and year are up. So in saying that, see you soon everyone :) !!!!!

Happy Chuseok and lots more!

2008-09-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

Well Hello Everyone!

Sending big smiles and hugs to everyone back home!!! I've been busy over the past month with lots of great adventures!

Three weeks ago I went to this wicked mountain in the interior of Korea, Songnisan. I went with a group of my friends along with 2 English bloaks who were hear visiting my friend Chris (the guy I went to Japan with). We had a great time! The park was surrounded by 600 year-old pine trees and had many Temples. The most extravagant of the Temples was Beopjusa Temple on Mt. Songnisan. It was built in the 14th year of Silla King Jo-Heung's reign. Here I saw the biggest standing Buddha ever! It was wild, I found it a bit much as it seemed a bit goddy...

After we visited the extravagant statue and Temple grounds we headed up the mountain to find our lodge. We stayed an hour in from the main entrance. It was great we were hiking along a fairly rugged path and then boom there was our little lodge. It was a really beautiful setting with a stream running through the area. That night the owners served us up an all veggie dinner which was delicious. The next day we hiked up through temples, streams, beautiful trees to the top of of Songnisan Mountain. The view was amazing and the rock formations were really wild! On the way down we were so hot and sweaty that we found a great stream to swim in and a natural waterslide!!!

The weekend after that was my really good friend Maria's birthday. So we had a birthday bash for her on the rooftop of her and her hubbies apartment. The next day I got up fairly early and headed out for a beach that's only about an hour away from my city. I went with 2 wicked friends and all we did was sit around, sing, drink wine and swim. What I call a perfect Sunday!!

Last weekend was one of the 2 biggest celebrations in Korea. It's called Chuseok and is basically their Thanksgiving. Unfortunately for everyone the holiday fell on a Sunday so everyone in the entire country only got one day vacation! (They work way to much in this country)For the vacation I went up to Seoul to meet all my friends from there and head to a beautiful island of the island of Incheon (that's where the International airport is). We took a fast ferry and where there within an hour. We weren't the only ones with the idea of going to an island though. When we got there we soon found out that almost every English teacher from Seoul was there! Well, maybe I'm exagerating a bit, but still there were more foreigners there then I've seen since I got to Korea. At first it was almost an annoyance that all these foreigners were at the same place, but we found a perfect little camping area and had an amazing time all together.

The highlight of the weekend was meeting a family of Koreans who sat down with us late on Saturday night. We all just sat around drinking soju and talking Konglish, so good!

Most recently it was my friend Sarah's birthday so in her honour we headed back to the beach. I've been to more beaches this past summer then I've ever been to! I love it! It was a great low key weekend :)

Morave Beach Gathering...so great!

2008-08-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

Hello, Hello, Hello,

What's shaking everyone??? I swore I would write this as soon as I got home last last weekend but I didn't. I wish I was better at blogging...but it's just one of those things!

I went to this great Beach Gathering last weekend on a beach close to where the oil spill was in December. It was really nice to go back to the area and see lots of life back in the place!!

This gathering was pretty amazing. It was a really good mix of fun Koreans and Foreigners . This made for great conversation and really good partying!!! Friday was a bit rough as we got stuck in traffic from Seoul to the beach (They don't have many national holidays in Korea so when they do they all hit the pavement!). We were on the bus for over 6 hours only to arrive to this 'secluded beach' to find that the beach was actually full of Korean families! Yup, we were sandwiched between a Noraebang tent (karaoke) and a bunch of families. My friend Sarah and I started to set up our tent only to be informed that we were about 4 feet away from the DJ booth area! We had a good laugh opened a bottle a wine and went ahead with it anyways as the flat available terrain was scarce! In the end our location was perfect because we always had front row view of everything that was going on :)

Saturday was a full day o'fun. The organizers were fantastic and planned all these super interesting and artsy workshops. I got a dread put in my hair by the cutest little Korean Rambo, my eyes read by a Tibetan eye reader (which was scarily dead on), my foot Henna tattooed (no, Mom it's not permanent ;) ), learned how to play the didgeridoo (which I'm in love with and want one, but it's super hard to learn the main technique- circular breathing), and the last thing I did was one of the weirdest things I've ever done with a group of strangers. It's called Tibetan Pulsing Yoga. Everyone was super psyched to do some yoga, you know maybe a few Sun Salutations, some triangle poses the ususal..NOPE! Tibetan pulsing yoga is a meditative combination of sexual energy with the pulse beat hearts creating the gentle power to dissolve blockages in the bio-electrical flow which runs through our nervous systems. Basically you lay down head to toe with people and have to raise your hips up and down.....it was pretty interesting and slightly uncomfortable..in saying that I think with a group of people you know and trust it would be a great exercise!

Saturday night was full of good stuff as well. We barbecued, checked out lots of cute hermit crabs, danced and sang. Plus I got to spin fire :) !!! Their were lots of fire spinners doing some really cool stuff along with a few staff twirlers.

One of the funny moments came when this guy walks out holding a sign that says 'OPEN BAR'! I was like 'NO WAY!!!' But, then I continued reading to find that it meant 'the bar is open'. Nonetheless my friends and I found the bar along with the tequila shots! It's been since my going away party in Ottawa that I had tequila...and it still proves to be the devil!

It was one of the nights where you just talked and danced together with everyone. I made tonnes of new friends and as the sun came up (some unmentionables went skinny dipping) and we helped clean up the garbage. As the bongos played I crawled into my little tent and driffted off into dreamland!

On the way home we ended up hitching a ride to the bus station with a super nice retired Navy sergeant. It was great I got to ride in the back of the truck! I felt like I was home :)

Well it's official, I'm into my last 3 months here in Korea! Wild eh! My last day will be around November 25th! I'm in the midst of figuring out what in the world I'm going to do next. I'm coming home for a month and then I have a few options- I can come back to Korea and teach for a few more months and then go traveling (I"m thinking India or South East Asia) and then come home for good in the summer, go home and get a job, go home and go back to school...sigh...I feel like I keep coming full circle with the question 'What do you want to be when you grow up?'. Am I grown up? hahah I guess that depends on who you ask!!! Sooo, I have lots to think about and will keep you all posted on my decisions :)

I'm sending lots and lots and lots of love from the hot and sunny world of South Korea! MUAH

My Wonderful trip to the Zen World of Japan :)

2008-08-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

Japan- The trip of a lifetime! (You might want to take a bathroom break or read this in chunks 'cuz it's kinda long :) :) )

I had some pretty big expectations for Japan as many people had told me how wonderful it was. My expectations were met and blown away!! It was AMAZING!!! I can't get over how great Japan is....everything about it was interesting and wacky and wild! The people were wonderfully friendly, the trees were absolutely gorgeous, the Temples had the most amazing energy and the food was scrumptious!!! I traveled with two great friends from here in Korea both of which happen to be from Manchester, England. We all had such a great experience and want to go back!

Tokyo- Highs: Meeting a Samurai Lows: only having one night in such an amazing city!
We landed in Tokyo on Saturday afternoon with the intentions of being on a somewhat of a budget. We had to pay a lot of money just to get our Rail Passes (we traveled through Japan using the Shinkensan (bullet) trains...they are the fastest trains in the world and they are super efficient and comfy). As well we spent a lot on our tickets for the Fuji Rocks Festival so we had all decided to be very careful with our money. However, once we got into Tokyo we headed up to ASASAKA to where they were having a huge Fireworks festival on the Sumida river. Once on the subway we started noticing many people wearing Kumonos (actually Ukatas for the summer). Chris the British guy I was traveling with made a few comments about how great it would be if we could wearing them as well....sooooo after seeing the first group of foreigners in Kumonos we stopped in a shop and started trying them on...needless to say after being in Japan for only an hour we were walking around in Kimonas (so much for the budget!)

It was great to see so many people dressed in traditional clothing. I soon realized that Japanese men are GORGEOUS! I didn't realize that there was a big difference between Korea, China and Japan, I was wrong! We spent the afternoon walking around in awe at the Japanese people, architecture and cleanliness.

In the evening we gathered around with thousands of Japanese trying to get a good spot to watch these famous fireworks. They were really good but the amazing part about them was that they went on for over an hour!! They just kept going and going and going.....

Our accommodations in Tokyo were pretty wacky! We stayed in a capsule hotel. So what that means is they have separate little cubby holes for each person. In each little capsule you have your own tv, radio and alarm. It was pretty sweet as the also had a bathhouse (hot tub) on the top floor with a wicked view of the city.

Because we only had one night in Tokyo we decided we had to do it up right. So we got some advice from some American guys we met about where to head out. Once on the subway we met a group of wicked Japanese people, one of which walked us right to one of the coolest bars I've ever been to. It was in the Shibuya area which is where they filmed some of the movie Lost in Translation. The strip that the bar was on was full of little tiny bars. They were literally holes in the wall with anywhere between 5-15 people crammed into them. We met this guy who I can't help but compare to a Samurai (see the picture with him and Chris). He was so wise and just oozed with charisma. The bartender gave us welcome 'sochu' shots (sochu is a distilled beverage which dates back to the 14th century making it a latecomer in comparison to sake which plays a part in Japanese mythology much like wine does in the bible. Unlike sake which is only ever made from rice, shochu can be made from a variety of different ingredients such as barley, buckwheat, sweet potatoes and sugar. The alcoholic content of shochu varies, though it is usually 25%, although sometimes it can be as high as 42% or more..there is a little lesson for you).

After a couple minutes it happened....one of the most beautiful men in the world walked up. I'm serious!!! He should have been a model! Not only was the man beautiful he was soooo nice (sadly he has a beautiful Mexican wife..hahah)!! We sat in the bar for awhile talking about music and our lives in Korea. The Samurai guy then invited us to go to a Birthday party with him. Without a second thought we were in a taxi heading to a Japanese party. We walked down into an artsy bar where the party was and I was immediately floored by the contrast of Korean vs Japanese culture. The Japanese women were dancing and everyone was having a great time. Not to say that Koreans don't have a good time but it was just different...it was nice to see woman having as good a time as the men (something you don't often see that often here in Korea).

So we partied to the wee hours of night, dancing, drinking, chatting and laughing. It was great and at 4 in the morning we had to pry ourselves away as we knew we had to get up early to get to the Fuji Rocks Festival.

Fuji Rocks Festival @ Naeba Ski Resort, near Nagano.

This festival was super expensive but super worth it! I want to go back and do all three days. It's nestled in the mountains and had over 6 stages of music varying from rock, blues, reggae and much much more. It also had tonnes of side areas with wicked art, food and randomness.
I would have to say that one of the highlights of the festival was seeing Micheal Franti and Spearhead (not to mention standing front row and touching him as he dove into the crowd). As well Jenny and participated in the biggest drum circle I've ever seen which ended with a huge thunderstruck!
We watched some Japanese blues guitarist, Rodrigo Y Gabriella (amazing female/male guitar duo-mind blowing), Lee Scratch Perry (old school reggae legend, kinda of reminded me of seeing Bob Dylan in concert...it was great to see him but he's definitely lost his oomph!). After all the live music stopped we somehow ended up in a small restaurant tent where we were given free beer and had a Bob Marley sing along with these wicked Japanese people. The late night part of the festival was all around two stage areas, one which was in an arena and the other made up of all this wacky art. We all wandered around dancing while Chris passed out in a chair covered in his poncho and beside a generator (to keep warm) it was way too funny...the festival was fantastic!! I would recommend it to anyone who is ever in the Japan area!

Mount Fuji

Our trip was pretty short so we didn't have time to climb Mount Fuji. Instead we just got as close as we could and relaxed in the small mountain town that is nestled close to the beautiful dormant volcano. We were really lucky because at this time of year the mountain can stay cloud covered for days but on our arrival we got a clear view. It was surreal how perfectly shaped Mount Fuji truly is. We stayed at a really nice hostel in the town of Fujikawaguchiko which is at the base of Mt.Fuji. Jenny and I went to an Onsen. An Onsen is basically a spa full of indoor and outdoor hot tubs, saunas and just a really beautiful building with gardens. It was just what we needed after our all night party at Fuji Rocks. On our way back to the hostel we spotted an India food restaurant and we couldn't help ourselves even though we had already eaten. I know India food in Japan sounds funny but coming from Gwangju, South Korea it was heaven!!

The next day we headed up a cable car to get a better view of Mount Fuji. Unfortunately it was cloud covered :( ...I wish I had taken more photos the day before...thems the breaks...at least I got to see it. We took a path down the mountain and saw some of the most beautiful flowers and trees. I couldn't stop taking pictures!!!

Kyoto

Kyoto was definitely the most spiritual and mind blowing place I've ever been. We were only meant to stay there for 2 days but in the end we ended up staying for three and left without really skimming the surface of all it's wonders and beauty. In saying that we managed to visit lots during our time there.

We went on a tour that was lead by an older Japanese man named Johnny Hillwalker. He was super cute and quirky. He took us on a 'behind the scenes tour' of Kyoto. We went to Higashi-Honganji, the biggest Buddhist temple in Japan. Then we went to three Shinto shrines, Ayako Tenman-gu ,Ichihime shrine (a shrine for women) and Toyokuni shrine. We learnt a lot about there 'factories' which all tend to be mom and pop shops where people are sitting on the floor making art. We saw pottery painters, fan makers and jujubead creators. I kept thinking 'hmmmmm..I could do this...I could sit here drinking green tea while making Asian art ;).
We ate traditonal sushi and Japanese cookies as well as walked through the old Geisha district and saw one of the few Geisha administration buildings (Gojo rakuen). Oh yeah!!! We saw the birthplace of NINTENDO!!!!!!!!! Did you know that nintendo actually started as a card game? It was pretty wild to be standing beside the building that Mario Brothers was created in!!!

The end of the tour brought us to the area that most overwhelming for me that day. It was the Kiyomizu Temple which is surrounded by other Temples and gorgeous scenery. It is a Unesco World Heritage site. The Temple belongs to the Tendai sect of Japanese Buddhism, and is one of the oldest temples in the city. Everywhere I looked I could either see beautiful Temples, shrines or gorgeous Asian trees.

My sister told me I had to eat enough sushi for her while I was there...I think I completed the task very well! That night we hit up a sushi bar (one where it's a train that goes around in a circle so you can just grab whatever you want). It was DELICIOUS! I ate way too much of course but I just couldn't stop myself (Amy I kept thinking of you). We then managed to find a reggae bar that was run by this super chill guy. We drank lots of good cocktails and listened to Sublime, Bob Marley and many more of my favourite music...sooo good!!

I had read that the people of Kyoto can sometimes be a little cold in comparison to the rest of Japan. We found this out first hand when we tried asking for directions to get home that night. This guy jumped back and gave me this frightened looked....I guess no where is perfect :(

The next day we rented bicycles to hit up the places that we knew we absolutely couldn't miss. Just a side not about bikes in Japan- they are everywhere!!! It's what I imagine some European countries to be like. They have biking lanes, parking lots and no bike parking signs everywhere. It's wonderful to see so many people using bikes instead of cars. This would also be a good place to mention how clean Japan is. You could seriously eat off some of the streets it's so clean. They have recycling cans instead of garbage cans as well as wind powered vending machines!!! Also, you are not allowed to smoke and walk and can only smoke in designated smoking areas...pretty cool!

Another side note---VENDING MACHINES!!! You can get anything from a vending machine in Japan. It's great they are everywhere so you never go thirsty. They also have alcohol vending machines...yup you can get a beer and walk down the street....does it get any better then that???

On our bike tour we went to another highlight of my trip (I think the entire trip is a highlight..hehehe) the Bhuddist Zen Gardens. One of them was the Daisen-in Zen Garden which is Zen Buddhist contemplative garden, within the Daitoku-ji temple complex. One part of the garden is an allegory; the other is designed for meditation. Rocks symbolise mountains. Quartz stones symbolise a river. A boat-shaped stone represents a human journey through the the troubled waters of life (symbolised by quartz) and towards Nirvana. It was unbelievable the amount of thought and intent went into these gardens. It was pristine, before entering we had a cup of green tea prepared for us by an older Japanese woman. Once inside they gave you a map and description of the meaning of everything. Every placement of rock and tree had a special meaning. It was mind blowing!

After the Zen gardens we headed to the world famous Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion Temple) is the common nickname of the Rokuonji (Deer Garden Temple). It's actually painted in gold flakes! It was pretty wild and beautiful. Although it didn't have the same affect on me as the other Temples did which I think is because it seemed overwhelming with all its gold! I did however discover a little turtle that I watched for a very long time...he was super cute...

Osaka

Well because we wanted to spend more time in Kyoto we only got to Osaka around 11 at night! Osaka is known for it's food and for it's party scene. You can imagine that we found the party scene pretty quickly. We had been drinking casually all week but holding back because we knew we had to get up early every morning to go sightseeing. However, as Osaka was our last stop we had set our intentions of drinking the night away....and that we did. Throughout the trip we kept meeting up with another friend from Korea, Colin. We met him that night and he had managed to get a group of people together from his hostel, ironically some of them were Korean. We went to the downtown area only to discover that all the crazy lights we had been expecting had already been turned off :( (In all reality I think it's great that they were turned off to conserve energy) . Instead of wild lights we found WILD FASHION AND HAIR! Oh my god you would not believe it! The guys in Osaska looked like they had just come through a ninety 80's time warp. There were tonnes of Whitney Houston's meets David Bowie's and then some! It was really hard to get pictures as these guys were also pretty pretentious. After we were done staring we found a relaxed bar and sat around with our new Korean and English friends playing Korean drinking games. I thought us Canadians had some good drinking games but now I think Koreans have us beat! The rest of the night gets a little but fuzzy....

That's pretty much the end of my whirlwind tour of Japan. It was probably the most expensive trip I've been on but it was worth every penny. If you ever want to go to Asia and have a little bit of extra money to spend GO TO JAPAN! I guarantee you will love it!

I'm so happy that I've had the chance to go and I now look forward to researching all the new things I saw and experienced.

I hope that everyone at home is having a great summer and that you are all living it up in the sun! I love you all and think about you everyday...peace and love from the wacky world of Korea...MUAHH

Getting Real Muddy!

2008-07-14T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

Last weekend I went to one of the dirtiest festivals I've ever been to! But this was a really good dirt??!?! It was the Boryong Mud Festival on the west coast of Korea. (http://mudfestival.or.kr/lang/en/index.jsp) WOWEEE!!! Let me tell you that I've always wanted to roll in mud and that's just what I did! You could have rolled, slid, wrestled, massaged, or danced in some of the most nutritious mud around. The mud in Boryong is famous for its nutrients and so they've developed an entire festival around this! For two days I walked around covered in mud along side thousands of Koreans and foreigners doing the same thing. They had lots of entertainment on the beach as well as on the water. On the Saturday we watched some of the best fireworks I've ever seen. All the fireworks were connected to one major fuse so they just kept going off rotating from high to low ones. A couple of the highlights included one that was heart shaped, a willow tree looking one and ones that were floating on the ocean!! It was a great weekend that left us all with smooth but very sunburnt skin!

In other news I'm heading to Japan in less then 2 weeks!!! I can't believe it's almost here! I'm going with two of my friends and we are hitting up a huge festival called Fuji Rocks and then were heading to Fuji Mountain, Kyoto and Osaka! It's going to be very jammed packed but I can't wait!!!

Hmm, what else do I have to say...let's see....I think that's it hahah...I always think of great things to blog about when I'm not sitting in front of the comp!!! Ok to all those heading to Blue Ball this weekend have an amazing time, I'm thinking of all of you and wishing you a wonderful time in the woods, dance your hearts off for me!!!!

Lots of Good Stuff from June!

2008-06-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

HAPPY CANADA DAY EVERYONE!

HEY HEY HEY! I hope that everyone has enjoyed all the B-B-Qs and Canada Day parties! Canada Day just isn't the same in Korea ;) !

I'm doing really good (minus the cold I have). I feel like a broken record when I say this but it amazes me how fast time is going over here. I guess because I really haven't ever planned to do something for one complete year. It feels a bit like a count down. In saying that I'm making the most of my daily life and having a great time doing it :) Oh yeah an today is my 7th month anniversary!!!! Wowee!

I've been up to lots of great things in the past month. My friends and I decided we wanted to find a beach of our own. So we set out on one of the long weekends at the begning of the month to see what we could find. We did really really well!! We found this empty beach with only a few fishermen on it. It was amazing as the tides on this beach go out and come in really fast! I would have to estimate that it goes out at least a kilometer in an hour. Because of the quickness of the tides the marine life that appears at low tide is unbelievable. You could walk for hours and see everything from hermit crabs, anemanies, jelly fish and STARFISH! Beautiful Starfish! My friend Maria is from Florida and knows a lot about all those cool sea creatures so I learnt some really fun stuff. As well she taught us how to race hermit crabs!!! SO FUN!!! All in all we had a great time exploring, playing games, reading, doing yoga and just relaxing!

Also, in the past month my school had our open house for the parents. So on a Saturday all the kids and mostly their Mom's came in to take a look at what we've been learning. We had 4 classrooms set up and each had a theme. My classroom was the English classroom (obvioulsy ;) ). I had decided the best way to show off what the kids were learning was to play a game (surprise surprise coming from the Phys.Ed major). I designed this game that had everything from your standard A-B-C's to the kids and their Mom's having to sing one of the more famous Korean songs 'Tell me, Tell me...'. My game was a hit- everyone loved it!
Last weekend my friend Chris and I headed to Seoul to meet up with our group of friends from there for the 'Next Floor' music festival. The festival was based on an area of Seoul called Hongdae which is a big bar/club area. So all the bars were there set up selling drinks and showcasing their music and specialties. On top of all that they had one huge stage (same as the DJ festival I went to) and a smaller one. It was pretty sweet as they had a range of music from funky jazz to hardcore rock. On the Saturday afternoon my favourite Korean band played 'Nirvana Flower'. They have a great reggae vibe about them.

On another note I started a yoga class a couple weeks ago. I was reminded of the communication barrier once again when I came out of a move to find out I was doing the pregnant version of the move. :) :) I was watching the girl beside me (as I don't understand a word the instructor says) and it turns out that she was pregnant and does all these modified versions! Only in Korea!

I've got a few things coming up in the next month. I'm heading to this 'Mud Festival' in a couple weekends and then at the end of July to Japan. I'm really pumped for Japan because I'm going to the Fuji Rocks Festival. Michael Franti and a couple other great bands are playing plus I'm just excited to go to a big festival :)

Last off I want to wish one of my greatest friends and amazing Birthday- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAHALIA!! I LOVE YOU! MUAHH!

2008-06-01T07:14:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody,

What's shaking peops? How's everyone doing? I feel like I haven't heard from a lot of you in awhile so don't forget to send me messages :) otherwise when I get back on Canadian soil they'll be some bum whipping!!

On a wild note the first of June was my 6 MONTHS ANNIVERSARY!!!! Yup, six months team, as I give myself a big pat on the back! I've said this before but I have to say it again- TIME IS FLYING!

I had a great time last weekend. On Friday night a group of my friends and I headed to our now favourite Gwangju Bar, The Guitar Bar. This bar is fantastic! I've talked about it before but just as a re-cap the bar has a band made up of 4 guys who play many of Korea's favourite songs. The best part about the band (in my opinion) is that one of the guys (who I have a mad crush on) sings and speaks a bit of English. Check out the pic! Also, the atmosphere in the bar is great and all the people there are always having a good time.

Saturday a group of us headed up camping to Mudungsan mountain. It was perfect as it only takes 30 minutes on a city bus to get there. We found this amazing little clearing in the woods and managed to set up our tents just as the night set in. Not to far away from our tents was this amazing stream running down the side of the mountain. A few of my guy friends set up a fire pit pretty much in the boulders of the stream. So as we watched the fire we could hear the gushing sounds of the stream. It was a great night filled with lots of stargazing and good times :) The frog picture was taken with a flash at about 12 at night. Isn't he cute! The other picture with all the bottles is our fridge in the rocks.

In other news I've officially booked my plane ticket for Japan. I've been deciding on my vacation for about 4 months! I really wanted to go meet Meaghan and Jay in India but it just isn't going to work out. So as a consolation prize I'm going to Japan (I know not toooo shabby of a consolation prize). My friend Jenny from England and I are going to go together. We found this festival called Fuji Rocks. It looks amazing! So were going to try and get there for at least one night. Michael Franti and Spearhead are playing!

Alrighty friends this week is a short week! WOOHOOO! I have Friday off so I'm heading to the beach!!! Going to go camping for a couple days on the west coast of Korea.

Hope that you are all having a wonderful day. Miss you all so very much! My good friend Mark just put it to me in a really good way 'you have less days ahead than behind you'.

Dj Festival and Beach Blast

2008-05-14T03:16:00.000-07:00

Hey Hey Hey,

What up friends? I hope that you are all having a great day and that you are all happy and healthy :) I would like to send all my love to my Mother with the passing of Mother's day. I love you Mom, thank you for all the amazing things you've done for me over the years. Just to mention a few- attending 98% of my soccer games (the only ones she missed was because of emergency situations-seriously!), taking the liver off my plate when I was five and Dad insisted we eat it, and the many care packages over the years (my friends are also thankful for these :) )

I've had quite the past couple weeks. I've just come off two long weekends in a row and happy to report I've taken full advantage of the mini-vacations. I wish I could describe so much of it as it's been hilarious. I've met many new friends and we've shared lots and lots of laughter.

The first of the two weekends was the World DJ Festival held in Seoul. I might have to put it out there and say that it was my favourite weekend so far in Korea. I'm not sure what my expectations of it were as you just never know in this country. But, whatever they were they were surpassed big time. I arrived in Seoul on Friday night with my friend Chris and we met up with a friend that I met during my Reiki course named Jenny. We went to a sweet Reggae bar and just chilled out for the night. The festival was Saturday and Sunday all night, and we partied both Saturday and Sunday ALL night!

It took us about an hour to actually find the festival. There we were a group of Waygooks (foreigners) walking around aimlessly picking up other Waygooks and Koreans for that matter, in search. We finally found someone who showed us the way. Upon arrival at the festival we were all pleasantly surprised to find out that there were 4 stages. A big main stage and then three smaller ones. One of the smaller ones had reggae/dub and the decor was super earthy (so you can guess where I spent most of my time :) ) We ended up being about 8 people from both Gwangju and Seoul all hanging out.
The Saturday afternoon of the festival was sunny and gorgeous. The music varied from HipHop, rap, reggae, dub and techno. I could go on forever about all the funny things that happened but you'll have to check the pictures for a visual description. One cool thing that happened to me was when I went to go to the bathroom I noticed a bunch of belly dancing happening at one of the smaller stages. So, I wandered over to watch and as I got there it turned into more of a lesson for everybody. I joined in the lesson and then a competition started and I got dragged on stage. Turns out I won and got a $5 voucher for what I think is an amusement park. It was so fun I never thought I would be belly dancing in Korea!

Mom, you'll be happy to know that I just didn't party all weekend. On Saturday we headed down to Insadong where the Lotus Lantern festival was happening. It was part of the week long celebration for Buddha's Birthday. We visited the main Temple called Jogyesa temple it is the chief temple of the Jogye order of Seon Buddhism, and as such it is a very important temple. As the center of the largest Korean sect, it plays a leading role contemporary Korean Buddhism. It was beautifully decorated for the big Birthday Bash. I took a few minutes inside the temple just to sit and take it all in...wow...it was overwhelming. The energy that was inside that Temple was moving.

The big event for the day was the Lotus Lantern Parade. The parade displayed over 100,000 paper lanterns, floats with elephants and dragons and many happy people walking in celebration.
That night we headed back to the DJ Festival in the pouring rain (we were troopers!). We had yet another night of great music. I got swing fire poi on my own and then with another girl it was a blast!

Ok, so on to the next long weekend. After having such a great time together the group that I hung out with in Seoul decided that we wanted to go camping. After some research I found another group heading camping on an island close the city of Mokpo. Chris, Jenny, Sarah and I were suppose to meet up with our other friend Mark at the Ferry station in Mokpo on Saturday afternoon. But when the time came to get on the boat Mark was nowhere to be found. We got on the boat all feeling as if something was missing. We opened our 'ferry beers', lemon CASS and felt guilty as we looked at Mark's lonely beer. Chris however didn't feel that guilty because after awhile he decided to crack the beer we had bought for Mark. Minutes later we hear in a thick British accent 'what are you guys doing here?' and it was Mark!!! We had somehow missed each other in transit. The group felt complete!

We sat in the sun the entire trip to the island it was gorgeous out. Once we got to the island we realized that this wasn't your typical touristy island as there was only 2 taxi for the entire island. We met a bunch of friends on the ferry and we all headed to the beach. Our taxi ride was great as we took the 'beach' as the road to where the group from Mokpo were staying.

We had a great couple days camping, singing, dancing, rolling around in the sand and swimming (well actually I was the only one to go swimming, must be all that training I did in the St-Lawrence 'cuz i was able to handle the cold water).

We came up with a few quotes on the weekend based on actual events. The first one being 'Drink while you think, it only makes you Smarter!' and the second which makes me laugh every time I think of it was taken from when the 5 of us went to sleep in our 5man Korean tent 'Ok, Everybody SPOON left, ohhhh much comfier!'. Good times!!

Sorry, for the very long blog! That's it for now, after the past 2 weekends I'm taking a breather and saving some money this weekend. So, I hope to talk to many of you soon :)

Peace and love from the land of the morning calm.

Chaotic Field Trip!

2008-04-29T04:41:00.000-07:00

Annyong Haseo, Bonjour, Hello,

Hey friends, sorry I haven't blogged in a while! I'm back in action though :) So, life here in Gwangju has been going fairly smooth lately. I've been keeping busy and school hasn't been as brutal as it has been. I think I've finally gotten a few of my horrible classes under control. Of course I still have about 3 classes that pure CHAOS tends to break out. However, I'm learning how to gain control a lot more quickly. At first I thought it was all about candy and stickers (and a large portion of the time it is) but now I've realized that it's all about my energy level. If I'm super excited and jumping around, making funny noises and my favourite sticking my bum out for the hokey poky, I can keep the attention of most small children. I know this seems pretty obvious but it took me awhile to get into the groove of it...so in saying that some days it's all about coffee, coffee, coffee!

I had one of the strangest experiences with my school last week. We brought our kindergartens to the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival. If I was asked to explain it in one sentence it would have to be this 'I felt like I was in a mosh pit of 4-16 year olds'. I wish I could tell you many other schools were there, it was completely insane! The kids were corralled through this amazingly beautiful display of flowers and bugs like cows. I must have said 'Bali Bali' about a thousand times (it means quickly, quickly in Korean). We got on the bus at 8:40am to head to the festival, we turned around at 8:50 because they had forgotten the kids name tags. It was about an hour drive outside of Gwangju. Once we got there we pushed our way to get through the gates. Then we pushed our way through about 6-7 green houses/buildings and had a snack/lunch break. After that we went to our last building which was the 'bat building' I didn't see any bats though. After our last building we hurried back towards the parking lot where we stopped to take photos (every child had to have their picture taken at least 2-3 times). Then we rushed off to find the bus in the sea of buses only to get half way there to realize that we were missing two kids. One of the kids was actually the daughter of my co-worker! One of my bosses ran back to find the two kids who were stuck in the bat museum. They must have gotten lost when we pushed our way out of the building, literally! To be honest I'm surprised we didn't lose more. So we got back on the bus around 1:30 completely exhausted. My head was spinning and couldn't help but think 'did these kids see or get anything out of this ridiculousness!'.

In other news my friend Catie is leaving as she is done her contract. I'm sad to see her leave because I was just getting to know her and she is wicked. The only good thing about her leaving is that I bought her bike! It's wicked! I'll post some pictures soon. It's cherry red and it has a basket!

Alrighty, well I'm going to sign off now. I'm heading to Seoul this weekend for a "World DJ festival" and Buddha's Birthday celebration! Can't wait! I have Monday off as well.

Peace and love from the wacky world of Gwangju, South Korea

Green Tea and Rain drops = very funny afternoon

2008-04-10T05:50:00.000-07:00

Hey Hey Hey,

Yesterday I got the day off because of an election here in Korea. It was so nice to have a break mid-week. I took for granted all the random days I use to take off, we are lucky to have 'mental health' days at home. My favourite excuse was from Courtney Miller 'Just tell them your not feeling well', and at 7:30 in the morning after only a few hours of sleep I technically wasn't feeling well, so technically I wasn't lying. :) :)

In Korea sick days are unheard of. Every time I think of calling in sick I picture my Director showing up on my door step to take me to the hospital. Many Koreans believe that if you are sick you go to the hospital or get medecine on the asap. Therefore, I haven't attempted a sick day. So, in saying all that I was super appreciative of a Wednesday off.

I decided joined some friends for a trip to a Green Tea plantation outside of our city. It was kinda of a crummy day as it was raining, but being the optimist that we were we kept hoping that it would clear up. Plus, my friend Lindsay insisted that our pictures would look great with the overcast sky. Well, the weather only got worst but the laughter grew strong despite our soggy feet. Once we got there we decided that we should eat first with hopes that the rain and now crazy wind would die down. We ate some green tea Bibimpab (a rice and veggie mixture with fresh green tea leaves) and tonnes of yummy side dishes.
The rain didn't stop nor did it slow down. It was however well worth the trip as the fields were amazing. Rows and rows of green tea on the sides of small mountains. Very cool to see! We took all the pictures we could despite the sideways rain coming in on us and then got the hell out of dodge (or at least tried to).

As we were leaving my friend Lindsay was again insistent on one more thing -we were not leaving the plantation without green tea ice cream. Whit (Lindsay's husband) was having nothing to do with cold ice cream as it was not ice cream weather). So we picked up some ice cream and headed for the bus stop. Well, the bus stop was only on the one side of the road that we were dropped off on. Hmm, we all thought, we saw a young Korean couple standing there and asked if they knew where we should stand to go back to the town we needed to get to take our bus home. They directed us across the road. There we were ice cream in one hand and umbrellas in the other looking like wet dogs. So we waited and waited and the wind did not let up! To the point where it had flipped my umbrella the wrong way, and then Sarah's as well. Lindsay or Whit then made a comment about how great their umbrella was as Sarah and I had to stand in strategic positions as to keep our umbrellas the right way.

Cars, trucks and tour buses were flying by us, the couple across the road were laughing at us and then it happened, the funniest moment of them all. Whit's umbrella had taken one to many gusts of wind and blew to pieces! It looked like a wacked antenna ! We all died laughing, to the point where I almost peed my pants! Way too funny!!

At this point we started to wave down cars to find out if a bus was actually coming. We managed to find out that we had to walk up the road. We all dispersed trying to find out where the bus stop really was. Then I heard Lindsay yell, lets go we've got a ride. I looked down the hill to where she was only to see the Korean version of a clown car. Two girls stopped to see if she needed help and they offered her a ride, so she told them that we were 4 and they agreed to take us :) :) Into the back of this small car we go, these girls didn't speak very much English, but enough to have some small talk. We got home safe and sound and the the rest is history :) :)

Cute Pink Bikes and Gorgeous Flowers

2008-04-01T05:23:00.000-07:00

'For homework please do pages 21-35' I say as looks of complete horror and disgust appear on my Middle school girls class. "Happy April Fools!" I smile as they all kill themselves laughing. They were the only fools I got today but it was a good one!

It's officially April and again not to brag to all those still under snow, spring flowers are here and they are amazing! Here are a few:

On the weekend I met up with my amazing Korean/foreigner group 'Project Warm Hands' to go for a bike ride and make pottery. It was fantastic we borrowed free pink Mary Poppins bikes from one of the subway stations here and biked out to this cute Traditional Culture Village. The on-site Artist makes pottery, silk dyed fabrics and gives lessons on doing proper tea ceremonies. As mentioned we did pottery and I made a really funky plate/bowl.

After our ceramics lesson we biked by a bunch of Korean farmers fields on our way back into the city. Once back in the city we went to the "Sangmu Flower Festival" . As we approached the "Festival" I was again reminded 'expect the unexpected'. I was thinking that the festival was going to be a bunch of cherry blossoms and Magnolia trees.....nope! It was an entire convention centre filled with every type of plant/flower you could imagine. I'll I kept thinking was 'my mother would be in heaven!' Outside the flower arrangements looked like the Macey's Day parade. A bonus was that they had an Ecuadorian band playing great music. My camera battery died so I don't have to many pics though :( .

That's my update from the weekend, hope everyone is well.

Check ya later alligators!

Level One Reiki in Seoul

2008-03-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hey Pals (Oh I just reminded myself of Jen Flynn!),

Well, last weekend I went to Seoul to take my level 1 Reiki course. For those who don't know what it is Reiki is a Japanese term that means 'Spiritual Life Energy', it uses a hands-on healing system. It was super interesting I learned and felt a lot. My instructor was this very passionate Australian man who is full of amazing knowledge and experience.

Along with taking this course I got to stay in a Hanbok in the old historical part of Seoul called Insadong. A Hanbok is a traditional Korean house. It was so cute!! The downer of it all though was that it rained all weekend. But I was in my course for most of the time and Korea really needed rain. It's wild I can count on my hands the number of times we've had precipitation since I've been here, that's including snow and rain.

I met some great girls during the course one who filled me in on a bunch of great music festivals that are coming up in the next months. Hearing about the festivals was so energizing. I've been feeling somewhat lost without the many concerts and shows I'm used to having in my life. Apparently there is a world DJ festival in May.

Other then that life keeps on trekking. Spring is here in full force and the Cherry Blossoms are out. I'm hoping to get out this weekend and check them out, I have a few wicked trees around my house but apparently complete mountain sides are filled with them.

Ok dokey smokey pokeys, hehehe, I'm outti, sending lots of hugs and kisses!

P.S. This is a pic of one of the new kids we got a few weeks ago, he is the cutest thing in the world, and he listened to me!!!! So that makes him even more adorable! You should hear him say his ABC's, I'm going to video tape him to show all of you!

My Korean Birthday Celebration - I'm 27 and 28! (read to find out why?!?)

2008-03-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

Thanks to everyone for the amazing Birthday wishes and presents. My emotions were mixed heading into my Birthday week as I was looking forward to my big day however I wasn't looking forward to being by myself. It was silly of me to be worried about it as the day and the weekend following were amazing. I'll admit at midnight on the 12th I was super sad, I don't think I've ever been by myself before at the stroke of midnight on my day. However I had my good friend Lauryn online in Ottawa to talk me through the sad period.

On the 12th I woke up to my parents on the phone singing Happy Birthday it was the perfect alarm clock. Then my oldest sister called and then I talked to my friend Bracken and we sang the 'Banana song'. Singing that song was such a treat!!! (for those of you who don't know the banana song it rocks, ask me one day when you see me in person)

My school day was 'same-same' except I was surprised by gifts from my co-workers and then a mini birthday party at the end of the day. After school I met up with some of my friends and we went to a vegetarian buffet and then to this great bar called the 'Ethnic Bar'. The "Ethnic Bar' is super cool. You walk down into it and it's super dark with candles and funky material hanging from the ceiling. You get your own little space for your group where you sit on pillows and get served fancy drinks. So far I've been to two different ones and both have been amazing, this specific one even has a shallow pool in the middle with goldfish.

On the weekend I went for a great run/hike near my house. I discovered all these amazing trails and I felt like I was in a Ontario forest for a bit. It was super hot and sunny! I could smell the pine and the air was so ffresh! As I was jogging I ran up and saw a pink Hoola-Hoop hanging in the tree! So you can imagine what happened next-there I was in the middle of the forest with a few random Koreans walking by hoolahooping :)

On Saturday night my friends Maria and Ethan had a rooftop B-B-Q. We drank and played a game very similar to the washer game from home (Ethan built it, it was pretty good, not as good as my Dads though ;) ) . We had a great night of games, drinking and eating! Three of my fav. things!

I slept over at Maria and Ethans's so that we could get up early-ish and go to a Bamboo Forest. Despite being pretty shmamered the night before we managed to get up and be on the road around 11. The forest was fantastic, it was my my first time in a Bamboo forest and I can truly say I was impressed. I learned that Bamboo is closer to the grass family than the tree family and that Bamboo is super bendy (as I tried to shimmy my way up one). I managed to swing from a couple but didn't get to far up. Ethan did the best as he got about 10 feet up. It was great to get out of the city for the day as I had almost forgotten what complete silence is like.

Now to talk a little about this 'Am I 27 or 28' business. In Korea they believe that when you are born you are a year old. Therefore by Korean standards I am in 28 years old. However, I don't buy it for one minute I'm going to stick with my western age of 27.

It's mid-week now and I'm looking forward to next weekend. I'm heading to Seoul to take my level one Reiki course from and American Reiki Master who is living there. I'm really excited about it as it's been a long time since I've looked forward to learning something new. Again thanks for all the amazing messages and gifts, I'm so lucky to have so many great friends and family.

Hugs and kisses from Gwangju!

Spring has Sprung (sorry to all those under 50cm of fresh snow)

2008-03-09T06:50:00.000-07:00

Yo Yo,

It's Sunday night and another weekend has come to end. I am so amazed how time seems to be excelerated here in South Korea. The weeks fly by and if you blink you'll miss the weekend!

On Saturday I went for a run/hike near my apartment. It was a gorgeous day with lots of sun and no clouds. I'm so lucky to live near a part of the city that has many smaller mountains and tones of hiking/walking trails. As I was running I stopped to take some pictures of the view and looked up at a tree branch to see my first bud of the season. I couldn't help but smile and think of how beautiful it will be once all the trees are in bloom . So of course I took some pics! :) :) :)

Also this weekend I went to a Kendo Martial Art exhibition. 'What's that?' you might ask. Well, its what they do in the Last Samurai and officially : Kendo (剣道, kendō?), or "way of the sword", is the Japanese martial art of fencing. Kendo developed from traditional techniques of Japanese swordsmanship known as kenjutsu. It was wild and semi scary! We watched the kendo Students and Masters as they practiced and then saw a few actual fights. We then got to borrow our own bamboo swords and give it a go. It was pretty tough and a good work out if you really got into it. At the end we got to hit our instructor (no worries he was fully armored) over the head! It was a great experience to watch and try although I think it's a bit to aggressive for me :)

Today I went to a soccer game at the World Cup Stadium right beside my apt. The teams that were playing were from the Pro Korean League (I'm not sure what to compare that to though, my American friends said it might be a bit like the American Soccer League). It was a good game not super thrilling but nonetheless a soccer game on a Sunday afternoon is never a bad thing in my books.

I hope that all of you who are buried under 50cm of new snow are surviving. I can't believe that I'm missing this snow! Last year I had a snowboarding pass and we didn't get any real snow until the end of January and it was gone by mid-March.

Thinking of you guys lots and sending big hugs and kisses!!

P.S. For some reason the spacing on my blog never goes the way I put it, so please excuse the random space and non-space.

My First 10k Race :) :) :)

2008-03-02T16:24:00.000-08:00

Bonjour mes Amie,

Saturday was my 1/4 year anniversary here in South Korea. It's hard to believe that I've been here for three months already. Although when I talk to my friends and family at home it feels like I've been gone forever! So, that means 9 months to go and as I described it to some of my close friends in Ottawa the other night it just like having a baby, 9 months of good and bad!

So on Saturday I ran in a 10km road race. It was part of a bigger run involving a marathon, 1/2 marathon and a 5k. It was such a cool experience. The week leading up to it I was super paranoid that I wasn't going to able to do it. So I set and attained the goal of finishing without walking. The course was fairly easy with a few up-hill and downhills but nothing to serious.

I've ran all my life for soccer or just to keep in shape (oh yeah and the couple years Lisa Haddow and I ran x-country, purely b/c our coach was cute..hehehe) but never have I ran under the scenarios of this passed weekend.

The race started and finished at the World Cup Stadium 15 minutes from my house. It was so exciting as the full and the half marathon took off before the 10 and 5k. The races were started with fireworks! There were probably about 10-15 foreigners running in the race and I ran with a Korean and a American friend for most of the time. When it was time for our race we got ready at the start line by everyone giving one another massages. I got the best 10 second massage to turn around and see that is was from a sweet older Korean woman.

Once into the run we were greeted by many cheers mostly Koreans yelling 'highting' which is fighting and sorta like us saying Go - Go - Go . They had marching bands all along the course as well as water/tomato/joe louis stations!!! The Joe Louis looked so good but as I ran by them trying to grasp my breath I could not fathom putting a chocolate cake into my mouth! It was neat as I ran with friends at the beginning of the race and then finished by myself. I felt well most of the race until the final uphill which was at about 7kms. I just kept thinking left foot-right foot-left foot-right foot and then the urge to stop passed. The last 500metres was a loop of the World Cup Stadium track and that was the most exciting part of the race for me. Running into a huge stadium felt really good and seeing the finish line and my friends on the side lines was sweet.

I had written on my msn before leaving home 'off to run my first 10k I hope someone is at the end with cold beer' and in no way did I think the cold beer would be there. BUT, two of my guy friends had come to cheer on our group of friends and they had BEER!!!! It was fantastic! Plus, they had a bunch of massage stations set up so we all got free leg massages! I ended up doing the race in 1:04:51 so now I have a time to beat for the next run :) :)

A Fun Filled Weekend in Gwangju!

2008-02-23T06:52:00.000-08:00

Hey Friends,

First off, I want to congratulate my sister Kim and her new Hubby Lorenzo who got married this past weekend! I’m so happy for them and super sad I missed the occasion. So, in order to keep the sadness away over the weekend I kept myself super busy.

On Friday night I went to a 'Guitar Bar' which is in my neighbourhood and only a short walk away. It was fantastic! They have a folk/cover band there that plays both Korean and English music. They were amazing and the bar was full of fun loving Koreans. It was such a good night for me and my appreciation for Korean grew stronger. For those who know me well know that I love live music and so I hadn't really heard any since I arrived and this is just what I needed. We ended up meeting up with tonnes of great foreigners and had some hilarious interactions with some really drunk Koreans. I ended up closing the bar with a few other stragglers and when there was only four of us left one of the band members played a few more songs while sitting at the table with us.

I've found this wicked group that a Korean girl named Han Na has started. It's called the Warm Hands Project and her mission is to bring Koreans and Foreigners together. The idea of it is that the Koreans can practice there English and the Foreigners can get help deciphering the culture all the while doing fun things like dinners and art classes.

As part of the Warm Hands Project Saturday afternoon I went to a leather working class. It was super cool! It ended up being a small group of 5 girls and we had a ball. We each got to pick what we wanted to make and then had to decide on designs and colours. I picked to do a wallet. It was all very overwhelming for a few of us because of all the decisions and the amount of people in the little workshop. Plus, I don't want to generalize but from my personal experience when Koreans do things they do them fast. I sometimes have a hard time picking my socks in the morning so picking designs and colours out takes me some time :) :) So, basically you have metal stamps/stencils that you use a hammer to embed the designs into your leather. Once that’s complete you use cotton gloves to brush your paint on and you can combine colours if you’re daring! We all had moments of frustration and feelings of failure however, all of our projects turned out well and we laughed a lot while doing them.

After our workshop we met up with the rest of the group to go out for dinner and drinks, it was delicious!

On Sunday morning I woke up early to call Quebec City to wish my sister and my new brother in-law all the best. It was so nice to talk to them and hear that all was going really well and that everybody was having a great night.

On Sunday afternoon I met up with some friends to go ice skating. HA! It was pretty wild and reckless. The skating rink was packed with people flaying themselves all over the rink. People were kamikaze, but somehow nobody seemed to be getting hurt (except the one guy I saw do a face plant into the open rink door...yikes!). You were not allowed to skate in the middle of the rink as it was dedicated to young figure skaters and speed skaters who were training. I have no idea how any of those athletes managed to stay focused with the small space and the chaos happening around them but I guess they are use to it.

So, now I'm back at school for another chaotic week of teaching English to young children! All I have to say is thank god they are cute!

The Pros and Cons of a Canadian Country Girl living in South Korea

2008-02-20T06:34:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hey!

Hope everyone is well and living it up! I'm into the middle of my 2nd month here in Gwangju and life is all in all pretty good. I'm still unsure of many things but have managed to stay happy and positive while dodging the weirdness. Everyday I'm faced with things that I really like about this culture and things that leave me wondering 'why oh why would they do that?’ With that in mind I've put together some funny and not so funny differences from my life in Canada to my life in South Korea. This picture on the right is from the Liberty Bell in downtown Gwangju.

The Bad:

I have to put this one first as it is the most annoying to me- the consistent smell of car/truck fumes wafting down most streets

Some enjoy eating cute little doggies!!! When I first got here I noticed a dog living in a small cage around the corner from me. My first thought was 'I hope that is a pet'. But, with time I noticed that nobody really played with it and feared that it was going to get eaten. I tried not to get attached and only gave it treats from time to time. Upon my return from Lunar New Year he was gone! I was fairly devastated.

The packaging! For some reason they love to individualize everything they sell. For example, if you were to buy your standard soda crackers in the sleeve like form they would actually come in about 15 little packages.

When you go to a grocery store it’s as if you are going to Wal-Mart the day before Christmas except that it’s that busy every day. So I tend to stick to my small local chops.

The following can be good or bad depending on what kind of day you are having:

The inquisitive, curious, glares/glances you get most of the time when in public. A girl described it once to me and I think it is the best way to say it -‘Some days I feel like a queen and other days I feel like an animal at the zoo’.

The Goods:

Cheap healthy/unhealthy food! Kimpab is one of my faves. its Korean style sushi and you get a roll for a buck!

Heated floors everywhere as most people sit on the floor. My apartment has them as well so when I do yoga it's like my very own little hot room yoga.

The random people who cheer you on when you are running like you’re in a race! It gives you a real boost!

Cheap Cabs! You can get anywhere in the city for under 8 dollars but usually only about 5!

I'm drawing a blank now as I sit here and write so I'll stop there and as things come to me I'll post them on here.

Peace and love from Korea MUAHH

The picture below is of the cute Vegetarian restaurant in my neighborhood:

Lunar New Year Korean Style

2008-02-10T01:27:00.000-08:00

Lunar New Year for Koreans is one of the two biggest celebrations of the year. It is a time for all to return to their hometowns and spend time with their families. As well they go to the graves of their ancestors to show their respects by bowing to them. At my school I got the opportunity to dress up in traditional clothing (Hanboks), play traditional games and eat traditional food. It was super fun and really interesting. All the kids wore their Hanboks, they were soooo cute!!

Because of this celebration I got a few days off. In Korea you don't get many days off so you have to take advantage of every minute. So, five of my friends and I went to Jeju Island. It's the furthest South you can get in Korea although that doesn't mean that it is hot but definitely a little warmer.

It was fantastic!! We took the Ferry from a small town called Wando to the port in Jeju-Do. The islands along the way were beautiful and the water was that really nice blue that I love so much! The Ferry experience was great as the waters weren't too rough, but I've heard that if you get a windy day it can be pretty terrible.

Once we arrived in Jeju-Si (the biggest city on the Island) we found a Mexican restaurant!! I haven't been eating too much western food since I arrived in Korea so this was a nice treat. Once we had filled our belly's we took a city bus for about 45 minutes to our resort. We scored big time! Our accommodations were right on the beach with tonnes of beautiful nature including palm trees, a small stream and a really wicked rocky shoreline. The first night we stayed at the hotel and rocked the Nori-Bang (Karaoke) rooms.
On our second day we had a driver with a minivan to tour us around the island. I had been reading lots about the island so I got voted as the team leader for awhile which meant I got shotgun (yup still winning shot gun across the world Court, Mahal and Meag! :) ) Here are some of the highlights:

Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak- an extinct volcano from about 100,000 years ago. We climbed to the top were we saw an amazing view! It was interesting as I had never thought about what the inside of an extinct volcano looked like. It basically looks like a big shallow field that you would want to frolic in (well I would).

Random Korean grocery store- We were hungry after the hike so we wanted to get some food, but as it was the actual day of Sollal (New Years) everything was closed. We managed to find a grocery store that was open and decided on Ramen (noodles) which sounds boring doesn't it? However, we ended up eating in the back of this grocery store and the grocery store worker made us rice and gave us kimchie and other side dishes! It was delicious she even handed us some bananas as we left. Koreans are so very accommodating and caring (sometimes).

Lava Tube and more random things- We walked through a really big cave where lava had once been flowing. In Korea they tend to take something really natural and add more things to make it more of a tourist attraction. So at this same place we saw an amazing cactus exhibition (I took lots of pictures for my aunt who loves cactuses), crazy ostriches, wicked trees and many more randomly cool things.

Orange Farm- We stopped at an orange farm where we were able to pick oranges from the tree and wander around.
2nd Volcano Site- It wasn`t on the tourist map so we had the entire volcano to ourselves. We were inland and we could see to the coast where we had climbed the original volcano. We walked up the side and then around and finally down into it. It was really cool.

Mystery Road- Basically some taxi driver was trying to find an address a couple years ago and he noticed that although he was going up a hill he appeared to actually be going down! It's pretty wild! We poured some water on the road and it worked it should have been going down the hill but it was going up! Wild!

The next day we took it real easy and went to the beach. We collected seashells, played a little football, threw a Frisbee around and just took in everything around us. We then returned to our hotel and had a Barbeque and then a campfire beside the ocean. It felt like home for awhile with everybody just sitting around the fire shooting the breeze. Hearing the ocean waves come in at the same time as the fire was amazing!

For our last day we were going to rent scooters but that didn't work out so we went back to the beach to play some soccer and take in all the sun. It was so nice out!! Then we left the boys for a bit and went to the saunas for some girl talk time J. We ended up meeting four other foreigners which was a nice surprise. That night we all went out for a great supper and then out for one to many drinks ;) .

It was a great trip balanced with both adventure and relaxation. Thanks for checking out my blog, love you all and sending you smiles wherever you are in the world! MUAHH!

Helping the world one Pebble at a time!

2008-02-04T05:49:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I had an experience of a lifetime. On December 6th an oil tanker was punctured off the west coast of Korea. 66,000 barrels of crude oil spilled out into the ocean and washed up along 35 kilometres of coastline. Most of the people who live along that coast are fishermen or are supported by the tourism from the beaches. However, with the spill all of these people have been devastated. So, in hopes of helping in some way I went with 3 of my friends to volunteer with the clean up mission.

It was an adventure. We woke up on Saturday morning around 6AM and made it just in time to grab the 7:20 bus headed north. We weren't really sure where we were going as we all forgot our guide books (I know sounds like my home friends!) which made it more interesting. The bus we were on was definitely the milk run. We had one transfer were we managed to find a huge dollar store and got some supplies. We then arrived in Taean. We knew we had to get to the city hall in order to get to one of the cleaning sites. So we got a cab and we knew we were in the right place when we pulled into the parking lot and saw tonnes of relief supplies like water and food. We managed to find a few people who spoke a little English and with many actions and laughs we got across that we wanted to help and that we had rubber gloves and masks but that all we needed were boots and a bus to one of the sites. We met this one guy who was amazing! He was so funny we managed to figure out that he was a forest firefighter. So he hooked us up with this other guy who spoke English really well and he took us in his car to one of the amazing beaches that have been devastated. For a minute we thought we might be heading there in the back of a huge truck and were pretty psyched!

The drive from Taean to the coast is about 20 minutes and is covered with Ginseng fields. They are wild to see, they look like huge fields of lean-to black tents. We discovered from the guy who was driving us that 17,000 volunteers were helping all along the coast on that day and there was 16 different sites where volunteer missions are set up (were not sure that we got all these facts straight as there was still a slight language barrier, so don't quote me :) ). Once at the site we were set up with boots and coveralls and managed to book a 'convention' which is another word for a bed and breakfast for the night. Once all the logistics were figured out we headed down to the beach. It wasn't as shocking as I was gearing up for but that's because a lot of the oil has been buried by the tides coming in and out. However, the entire coast line is stained black and the smell of oil was unavoidable. The most shocking part of the entire experience was when we were showed what to do to help. Basically, we were given a bag of rags and showed to where you dig up oil covered rocks and then start cleaning each rock/pebble one at a time. It blew my mind that with all the technology in the world that this was the way to clean up this mess. Because of the tides coming in and out all the oil has been covered up or pushed back out to Sea. Although, in more murky areas in the bays you can see the oil sitting on top of the sand.

So, we found a good spot on the beach and in the sun and began to scrub rocks. We were surrounded by hundreds of Koreans doing the same thing. Many people came up to us as we stood out like a sore thumb. We were four of the few people wearing white coveralls and everybody else was in blue (representing Seoul) or yellow (representing Incheon). We met some great guys who we are going to stay in contact with and posed for many pictures with curious Koreans. After a few hours of this we were greeted again by our driver and told that we had to get going as the day was over.

Back on the road we travelled down a few sea side roads to our amazing beach house. We had a cute Korean style bed and breakfast. The owner made us and everybody else staying there some great soup and other essential Korean food like Kimchie and rice. It was fantastic! So tasty! We settled in for the night and managed to buy some Soju, beer and some mystery meat that the boys insisted we get as we had a BBQ.

The next day we cleaned right outside of where our bed and breakfast was. So we just walked down to the volunteer site and got geared up again. It was another gorgeous piece of coast with cliffs, huge rocks and an amzing blue colour to the water. We were again greeted by many amazing Koreans who were very thankful for our help. We packed it in around one in the afternoon and started our journey home.

It was a great experience and although I know our contribution was so very minor in the grand scheme of things I know we made a difference.

The Adventures of Haircuts and Noribangs!

2008-01-29T06:01:00.000-08:00

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!!

2008-01-23T05:09:00.000-08:00

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

Christmas and New Years

2007-12-12T04:39:00.000-08:00

(Written on Christmas Day)

Annyong haseyo! (That’s hello in Korea),

First off, I hope you are all having an amazing day and an even better Holiday season Merry Christmas! I’m on week three of my adventures in Korea and it’s been a roller coaster of good and bad emotions and events. Everything is still going well but I’ve had some moments where I really miss home and hate the private school systems here. But then it passes and all is good again! I’ve been discovering just how different it really is. I’m at an English teaching Hagwon (private school) that offers programs in the morning for Kindergarten (kids from 3-7) and then in the afternoon its Elementary kids so anywhere from 8-14. So, basically parents pay for their kids to come to my school and for most it’s about hour 8 of their school day. Lots of them go to school from 8:30 until 9:00 or later...its wild!

Besides school I’ve started to meet some really great people and have been doing some fun stuff. Last Wednesday was a national holiday because it was their election day...so I went for a little hike. There is a mountain super close to my house that’s about 2 hours to go and come back...I got to see the view of the city and the World Cup soccer stadium...which is very interesting and wild! All you see is a sea of huge apartment buildings surrounded by mountains.....My camera is not letting me upload my pictures onto my computer (it’s super old) so I’m buying myself one as a Christmas gift as soon as I get paid...so I will send pictures very soon.I’ve been to a few Christmas parties...the first one was a Philippines Christmas party (my co-worker is from there)...it was awesome and really funny...it was in the afternoon and we ate a whole bunch of traditional food and then played games...but get this ..the games we played were Musical chairs, telephone and a spot dances (so everybody had to dance and then they stopped the music and whoever was moving was out of the game) So it was 2 in the afternoon and I was dancing with all these people sober with bright lights! HAHAH it was great! And yup, you guessed it I WON AT MUSICAL CHAIRS!!! Hahahah my soccer skills came in handy! Then on Saturday night this American couple hosted a Christmas party for a bunch of foreigners...it was so nice it felt like a party at home...they made tonnes of food from home...like hummus and stuffed mushrooms (almost like yours Kim!!! I was so pumped) I met some really nice people who I think I will stay friends with! So that is super exciting because it’s been a little bit hard to meet people who I really get along with...so last night was amazing!For Christmas eve I went to sing Christmas Carols it was nice...it was a candlelight service.

Today was Christmas for me and I went to what I thought was going to be an English Church but in fact the service was in Korean and we got headset translators...pretty funny! It was super interesting and the choir was amazing...they made all the foreigners stand up and presented us with a gift...a really nice agenda....then for dinner I went back to the American couple’s house and it was great they cooked all the North American traditional food and we had pumpkin pie for dessert!!! We watched National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation so for a bit I felt like I was at home. Besides that I’ve gone out to eat a few times with the teachers at work, people are so nice here they want to pay for everything and I always get little gifts from the students and teachers. For example as I left school the other day one of the teachers gave me a bag with oranges, yogurt and an egg...hahahaha...funny eh!

So, I get a few days off coming up for New Years. I think I will be heading to Seoul to visit some people and maybe go snowboarding! Miss you all very much and wish you all the best holidays and an amazing 2008 filled with much good health, love and laughter!

Love, Angie

P.S. I will be requesting some serious care packages real soon!

My first days in Korea

2007-12-11T04:30:00.000-08:00

(This was written and posted on Facebook on December 12th but I thought I would post it on here as I know lots of people don't have Facebook)

Hi Everybody!

I hope your all doing fantastic!! I miss you all already! I'm doing really good, I arrived last Sunday night in Seoul, South Korea and then took a bus to Gwangju. It's about 4hrs south of Seoul. The school director picked me up at the bus station and took me to my apartment. It's super cute! It's actually pretty big considering what people had told me....The the next morning she picked me up and brought me to school...after a really short tour of the school I was put into one of the kindergarten rooms and was told to sing songs and make them talk english....let's just say that in about 5 minutes I was singing 'I'm a little tea pot' yup...picture me in front of 6 or 7 Korean kids singing the only song that came to my head...they thought it was entertaining....So now I've finished my first week and everything is really good (I'm hoping the novelty doesn't wear off).

Everybody has been super nice to me, I didn't have to go to the grocery store until about the 4th day because people kept giving me food (weird stuff like pickled cabbage called Kimchie and black beans) I also got a lesson on how to make rice a couple nights ago! It's so easy because everybody has rice cookers (even I do in my apartment). At the grocery store I had three little girls following me around trying to ask me questions in english...they actually guessed that I was from Canada. As well last week I went on a field trip to a theatre play. For those of you who know me well know how much I love the movie Little Orphan Annie, well it took me the entire play to figure out that the show was the Korean version of the movie!!! I died laughing in my head once I figured it out.

I had my first night out in Korea on Friday. The downtown is pretty funny! They have lights and writing everywhere...and you can pretty much get any kind of deep fried food on the street that you would want! (the sweet potato is amazing) I went out to this foreigners bar where most of the people spoke english...

So, so far so good! I think that I will be able to save lots of money here and see some cool stuff!I have an address and a phone number for those of you who want to call or write...it takes about a month for me to get something though....(wink, wink, nudge, nudge) Send me a message and I'll send it your way!
Love all of you! Keep smiling!!!Angie (big hugs!) PS. I got served ocotpus soup for lunch today!!!!!! (yup you guessed it I didn't eat it!)