New Blog/Website

Hey all.

Thanks everyone for reading at my blogger site. I now have my own webpage, bonniespawprints.com up and running, so please stop by and check out everything I have there. Its a work in progress, but please leave comments and give support.

Thanks again for reading and looking forward to seeing you at the new site!!!

xoxoxox

Bonnie's Pawprints

Gyeongju Escape

Plenty of history and foreigner friendly Gyeongju

  A couple of weekends ago, myself and 3 other girlfriends went on a weekend escape to Gyeongju, which is located in Gyeongsangbuk-do province, South Korea. We caught the KTX down on the Friday night and stayed at a cute hostel for the Friday and Sat nights, returning via KTX on Sunday morning. All things considered the trip was great - brilliant weather, great company and fun things to see and do. Let me break it down a bit more...

Gyeongju

  Gyeongju is old, and has a heap of UNESCO sites all over the place, as it was the capital of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC - 935 AD) and so has a heap of well preserved ruins and tombs of old kings and generals. This period in Korean history is special and important as during this time its people went from small tribes into a large Kingdom taking up much of the Korean Peninsula. Buddhism was the practiced religion during this time, and it is reflected in the temples and artefacts that are from this period. In Gyeongju there are a shit tonne of Buddhist temples around, the most famous in the area being Bulguksa Temple, about a 40 minute bus ride out of town. 

   This temple was beautiful, and I honestly think we went at the best time of the year. The autumn/fall colours were to die for, and everywhere we looked there were people taking pics of the beautiful trees. This temple is a UNESCO site, unfortunately basically the whole thing is a reconstruction. From what I could gather from the scanty information available, the original temple was destroyed during Japanese occupation of Korea (the first time) and they have been kinda rebuilding it ever since. They are doing a great job though, the inside looks great as well as the outside. In the courtyard they were doing more restoration work of some of the stone carvings. Entry to the temple was 2,500 won.

 

   At the bottom of the temple, where you catch the bus from is a huge eating area, where there are many different resteraunts. We ate at a place pretty much at the front, the lady didn't speak a lick of English but there was an English menu. The whole area had really great signs, in many different languages. The bus timetable was easy to read as well once we figured out where to go.
  At the bus terminal in the city there is an information booth with maps, and also English speaking staff.

  That evening we ate an awesome meal with other guests from the hostel, made more fun because the power kept going out and we were sitting in the dark. The food was traditional, being basically a million side dishes. I cannot remember for the life of me what it was called (karma for not keeping an updated blog) but it was fun to share with so many people.

Sideways pic, but you can see how much food there was!

Anapji at night

   After dinner we wandered up to visit Anapji pond. We were told to visit this place at night, and I am so glad we did. It was amazing. The area was originally one of the detached palaces for the royal family, and had exotic gardens and exotic animals housed there. The structures there now are again reconstructions, but you can still get a true sense of what the place must have looked like originally. There are plaques all over the place saying what they believe was originally in a certain area (based on scanty written records) and there is kinda a mini museum there too with some relics and cool royal things. To enter Anapji was 2,500 won for adults, and they stop letting people enter at 9:30pm. Like I said, I would say go at night to see the beautiful reflections, but if you wanted to go during the day it would also be beautiful because of the gardens.

  Also dotted all over downtown Gyeongju are the royal tombs. These are literally everywhere, you cannot catch a bus into town without looking out the window and seeing them. They are park of large park areas, and are free to go wandering around. Unfortunately all the plaques are in Korean so I didn't have any idea which person was in what tomb, but it was still amazing to see. Actually, surreal was more like it. Korea itself never ceases to amaze me, but these were something different. Its like, this amazing bit of history just hanging out opposite the 7-11. Even thinking about it now I can't wrap my head around it. If this was Australia, and these mounds were some ancient Aboriginal burial ground there is no way people would be able to just wander around all over them. I guess it comes down to people in Korea generally following rules and having respect form what culture and history they have left. Anyway out of everything we got the chance to see these tombs were my fave, mainly because of this weird vibe I got from them... Just hanging out in a park. BIZARRE!!!! 

Thats me, standing about 5 feet in front of the base of a large mound.

    There is a tomb somewhere near by that you can actually go into, but these ones you can't. Inside, both Kings and Queens were buried, and in the smaller ones other high status people and members of the royal families were buried. Inside were places things like crowns, jewels, horse equipment and paintings. And bodies of course. There is a room type thing in the middle where everything is placed, and then the whole thing was covered in dirt and made into a mini mountain. Amazing huh?? There guys are also UNESCO sites^^

Getting there

  We took the KTX, but foolishly didn't book in advance. When travelling south ALWAYS BOOK IN ADVANCE or you will be stuck standing the whole way. It happened to us there AND back again. We caught the fast train from Cheonan-Asan KTX station to Singyeongju KTX station. It was I think 28,000 won there the same back again. So all up under 60,000 to travel across the country on the fast train. From the station we got a cab into town to the hostel, with the night tariff it was just over 16,000. 

  KTX doesn't run as often as the normal trains so make sure you are early to the station. You can always stand on the next one of you miss it but like I said, its a long way to stand. In my experience KTX is always late but don't risk it. 

Where to stay?

  We stayed at the Santa Guesthouse in downtown Gyeongju, and they were great. Nice and warm, a good location and they have free breakfast. As with most places in Korea the wifi was also free. There are 2 bathrooms, but they are unisex, so if you are funny about boy germs then this isn't the place for you. There are 3 rooms, all of them are bunk beds and shared. You can request a whole room if you have enough people. There are stairs to get there and no wheelchair access, so please bare that in mind. For travellers like us, 4 adorable young women, we felt totally safe there and had a good sleep. I would stay there again. The price is around 18-20,000 won per night. TOTALLY GOOD DEAL we booked through one of those online booking places and had no problem. 

To sum it up...

  I don't know what else to say really. I want to go back again in Spring and see some of the other sites, we didn't really plan the day too well and I underestimated how long it would take to get out to the temple and it ended up taking the whole day. 

  I have been told that in spring the flowers are amazing, and they have cherry blossoms and other pretty things. The best way to see everything would be to just hire a bike, which you can totally do. There were bike rental places everywhere. 

  For people who don't speak any Korean, this was pretty easy to navigate so you should be fine. As with all of the country, the taxi drivers don't really speak English so have where you want to go written in Korean, or an address they can plug into their GPS. They do know all the touristy areas though :)

  If you have any specific questions, hit me up.

xoxox

Reasonably Well-Dressed Korea Guy (and other tales)

Does everyone recall Mysterious Stranger???

  It was maybe October last year that I first spotted a Mysterious Stranger. I won't go into too much detail, but basically it was an attractive foreign guy who had no business being in Songtan. I say this, because he clearly wasn't military, and I try and make it my business to know all the teachers in my immediate area. And he was off my radar. Stealth mode. Mysterious. 

  I would give daily reports whenever I saw him (always headed towards the station in the morning, I never saw him any other time), things like what he was wearing and what level of interaction we had. He vanished from my life after winter, maybe when it started to get warm again. I remember this because he had gone back to wearing the black trench coat rather than his thick snow jacket. So I am guessing it was maybe March he disappeared, never to be seen again. 

  I pass many people in the mornings, they have become fixtures in my daily life. I give some of them weird back stories, and personalities and all that, but I never really thought anyone was quite as interesting as MS. And I still think this. But as the weather gets colder, I feel the need to add more excitement into my morning ritual of people spotting/watching. I need to start blog-stalking again. I need to write about a person in the morning. And the person I have chosen in Reasonably well-dressed Korean Guy. 

  Let me tell you a bit about our new, unlikely hero. He is approx. 5'5, and had more of a heavy build (which is a bit different from the skinny Korean norm) but I wouldn't exactly describe him as fat. I would put his age at around 30, but you can never tell with Asians. He could easily be just in uni and only 21. He has short hair and small eyes. I would not say he was especially attractive, more just general looking... In fact you wouldn't give him a second glance except the fact he is generally pretty well dressed. For a slightly chunkier guy he wears pretty cool threads. 

  For example, this morning he was wearing a tan blazer over a woolen jumper (sweater for our North American readers), black pants and brown shoes. I know, black pants with brown!!! Most would say its a faux par, but he pulled it off nicely. He looked suave. And here in lies his interest factor - he makes weird fashion choices that work. 

  And so, from here forward, I will keep you all updated as to what RKG is wearing.

Changes to this blog

  I have been doing some reading of other peoples blogs, and just stalking of people in general and I can kinda see a trend... The blogs that are popular and get many hits have more structure, or at least more structured content. You know if you hit up "Jimmy's" blog its a travel blog... Or "Sally's" blog is a cooking blog. I know I have mentioned that mine if more of a random life blog but still, I will try and give it a bit more of a frame by adding in sections. This hopefully will increase traffic to my blog and make more people like me... My life in an endless struggle to get people to like me. I acknowledge this and reaslise this is not what life is about. 

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. And I have one. 

  So I will put different content under School, Life and Thoughts. Hopefully I can still keep a running theme but if not oh well. Shit happens. 

  I have had some questions coming in lately about life in Korea from people reading all over the place. Please, keep them coming to either my email or in the comments section. I am more than happy to help out where I can, and give you my honest opinion. I love getting comments and emails (unless they are mean, keep it to yourself then) its like getting a hug from afar. 

  Some feedback that I have received (regarding content) that I will start adding into the blog is overwhelming regarding my sex life and dating in Korea. I thought about it for a long while and decided that yes, I will share some things with you... Not gonna name any names, and if the story involves someone I know directly don't worry I will ask you first. But I have some mega funny stories that can only happen in another country and at just wouldn't be right to keep these gems locked up for myself. 

- Mum, and the rest of my family, please consider this fair warning. 

 

 

 I also plan on adding more information about places I visit. I have seen some amazing places while I have been here, but you wouldn't know because I never finish what I start. I noticed the other day I never even finished telling the story of when Mum visited and we went to Busan, and I hardly even mentioned Gyeongju the weekend before last. Korea has a rich and colourful history that I talk nothing about, so I want to enlighten you. 

  So I hope you enjoy the future posts, the snow has started here in Korea so photos are on their way! Here is a summary of things I got internet shopping last week to keep you entertained until then:

• hooded short coat (in a lovely blue colour) - Gmarket
• Adidas hoodie for Milky (to match my coat, but it's too small so I will bring it home for Peach) - Gmarket
• black long jacket - Gmarket
• black leggings with fluff on the inside for added warmth - Gmarket
• brown long warm coat - from the recycle group on stalkbook... 35,000 won bargain!
• curry - iHerb
• weight loss pills - iHerb (and useless... took them for like 3 days and didn't get skinny at all)

xoxoxox

  

Deliciously Dangerous

Who doesn't like a slab of meat?

Unless of course, you are a vegetarian :s

In that case you are NOT gonna appreciate this post.

  One doesn't have to go far in a Google search to find out about the etiquette and occurrences for school dinners with your co workers. There are sooo many ESL blogs out there with people's stories of their dinners, what they ate, the shenanigans that they all got up to, instagramed pics of their food etc. In fact, I think I might have even posted one myself. My most memorial school dinner to date was my first one (you always remember your first time, right??) where we went to some fishing village and ate freshly caught prawns. Me, who doesn't eat seafood, was force fed prawns by the head teacher who was drunk on soju. Since then I have come to see that this is entirely normal behavior and I just kinda "go with it" now. 

  Last night was another one of these dinners. It was a little spur of the moment, all the schools in out local area have been participating in volleyball competitions for the teachers and it just so happened that this weeks game was being hosted at our school. So teachers from schools around out immediate area came and played volleyball. It was actually kinda fun to watch, they were so competitive!  

  Anyway, afterwards the participating teachers and some extras (like myself) went out for dinner. We went pretty local, to a samgyeopsal place (삼겹살 - barbecued fat pork slabs) and gobbled it down... I parked myself with 2 of the young girl teachers who are super nice and cute. So it was kinda the three of us and then the rest of the group.All the male teachers got drunk, which is standard, and then around 6:00 the principal called it a night and we all headed home. I quite like that these school dinners don't go late - you get a free meal and get home reasonably early. Usually. 

  There are 4 of us teachers that live literally around the corner from each other - myself, one of the young girls and 2 young guy teachers. We are all under 30, I actually think I am the oldest out of us at the ripe old age of 27. Im just gonna acronym names for ease, and for privacy... PSN is kinda religious, she doesn't drink and she usually heads off to church a few times a week around 6pm. So she doesn't tend to get a cab back to our area. But the 2 boys, who were already well into their beer and soju, are always keen for round 2 after a dinner. So the three of us headed off for fried chicken and more booze. Funny how they are sooo much more chatty and able to speak English when they are inebriated. Regardless, it always ends up making the night for me. They are hilarious, and both speak pretty good English but not to the point where they don't make hilarious slip ups. And the topics of conversation always floor me. Things like - 

- which teacher is prettier, A or B?

- who is more handsome, me or him? (pointing to each other)

- Bonnie why don't you invite us out anywhere? We want to meet foreign girls... (particularly KDA, who has told me that he isn't so concerned on what said foreign girl looks like, but he wants a curvy girl with big breasts)

- Bonnie you haven't had a boyfriend in over 3 years, we have plenty of special Korean words for girls like you

- Do you want to be set up with my friend? 

- Don't you think KYJ has funny eyes?? Like a clock?

  And I always get good gossip out of them too, like who is arguing with who in the staff room and what teachers hang out etc. The more we all drink, the more the conversation flows... Next thing you know we are teaching each other new swear words and using them in practice sentences. The owner of the fried chicken shop was laughing along with us... But my favorite part of hanging out with the boys?? Its a MASSIVE ego boost for me... The more drunk they get, the more they tell me how beautiful I am, how I am the perfect woman, how they can't believe I am not in a relationship, I have a perfect "S" line etc etc. I always walk away feeling awesome. Not gonna lie, I was a little hung over this morning but totally worth it to hear compliments. 

  So, boys reading, if you take anything away from this read, don't think about school dinners and delicious meat. Say something nice to a girl you know, complement anything. Even something like "wow, that is a nice shirt you are wearing today". It will help cheer her all day. I mean, don't be drunk and go overboard so you come across like a creep, but just a kind word here and there can really brighten someones day^^

Sorry kids classes are cancelled today - WE MUST PLAY VOLLEYBALL

xoxox

What do I have in my pocketssssss

Did you used to have weird things in your pencil case when you were in school?

  By school I more mean elementary/primary school, but I guess in general. I think for me, the strangest thing I used to have were things I found outside, like interesting rocks or sticks. There were other more "normal" things like tazos or other collectible cards, and kinder surprise toys. 

I am sure there are other people out there who had more interesting things in their bags and pencil cases. 

  Kids doing and having weird shit is not Korea specific, I have come to believe that children are, in general terms, the same globally. They all tend to like cute fluffy things like puppies, boys tend to also like gross things like squished bugs, and girls like pretty pens. They tease each other, and draw all over their things. They hit each other, cry, and then make up within 10 minutes. Some are sleepy during class, others are full of beans and won't shut up (and different kids fill these sleepy and rowdy roles every day). 

  Some kids like blue, others green, some can't speak properly in their own language, let alone a second one. Some have a heap of friends, some a few. Some have none. You can generally tell a child comes from an unsupportive home, or a bad environment by their behavior or the way they dress. Or the way they associate with other kids. 

All children, all over the world, are strange. 

  I guess some things they will grow out of (like, at some point little Kang Joo Min is going to stop crying when he doesn't get to sit with his friend, and eventually Hye Jin is not going to try to sit in her partners lap during class... 

  Anyway, this isn't Korea specific, as I said, but I want to tell you some of the things I have seen the kids carrying around. Let me know if yours do the same, where ever you are...

• a frog in a jar
• Stanley knives in pencil cases (they don't tend to use a normal pencil sharpener here)
• a watch face, no band on it
• Pokemon cards
• smartphones with cases so big they need to carry them in little shoulder bags
• fluffy pencil cases shaped as various animals (the best was the fluffy blue whale that one of my gr 6 boys had)
• dead bugs - usually dragonflies
• candies
• vitamins (which they eat like candies)
• passes to get them on to the Air Base - I am constantly telling the kids to keep these in a safer place than their jacket pockets. Its like, a national security risk or something
• hot packs
• k pop memorabilia 
• mini slinkies
• play dough and clay
• nail polish
• spare phone batteries
• sand from the sports field
• a hamster

In other news...

  We had first snow yesterday for the season... and its totally early. Last year it didn't snow until December. But, I have been told by a semi-reliable source (yes, that's right, you know who you are...) that early snow can mean new love is on the horizon! So that, coupled with my new found interest in feng shui love charms means that any day now my milkshake should bring all the boys to the yard. I am still the most unlucky in love person I know, so maybe the snow will bring in some romance. Don't think I don't know that you are all waiting for some smutty stories...

  But the snow is beautiful. I mean, it was really just a fly by blizzard of sorts, and although it snowed a little again today its still not quite cold enough for it to settle and stick. I am a crazy person who actually loves this time of year, when the snow starts and its all exciting. If only they would let me have a heater on at school... But this is old news, everyone surely remembers me complaining last year about the cold?? No??? Rest assured, cold fb status updates are coming. 

  Countdown is on for heading home for 3 weeks. We are down to under 40 days... So I best get started on my Gillian Michaels 30 day shred. Which I was supposed to start this morning but unfortunately due to a mistake on my part my alarm didn't go off. I was late for work AND I didn't get shredded. Was so stupid too, I have like, a million cables under my side table at home, and I plugged my phone into one of them over night to charge and the stupid thing wasn't even connected to the wall. I plugged the phone into the camera charger or something... It amazing I woke up in time for classes at all.

Anyway, that's all for now... I want to do a write up of my touristy trip to Gyeongju soon, so stay tuned. It was a great weekend and pics turned out amazing. 

xoxox