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

Exploring Songtan

  I have lived in this town for more than a year now, and I regret to say I actually haven't explored it much. I just walk the some tried and measured tracks and don't really try anything new. I eat at the same places and order the same things.... Until recently. It's all part of my "see Korea" mentality, and what better way to see Korea than to start with my own town? I have wandered around Seoul more than Songtan!!!

  Milky and myself went for a walk yesterday, and can I just say, Fall is such a nice time to explore. The weather is pretty cool here, but the place looks amazing with all the colours. Some trees are still holding onto their leaves with a death grip, and some are even still green! So in my area I have a lovely mix of leaf colours - green, brown, yellow, orange, red and all colours in between. No purple or anything like that, which is unfortunate.
  Anyway we walked up the street and I decided to go to the park off to the right instead of the left where we usually walk. I like to go to the left because there are a shit load of stairs on that side, and I tend to walk that path with intent (my idea of exercise). Seeing as we were just strolling on Sunday, I figured we may as well check out a new route. And I am so glad we did.
  The park on the right has the same things as on the left, in terms of exercise equipment strategically placed around, but the thing I right away preferred about it was the distinct lack of path. Its as if this mini park/hill/forested place is trying to be a mountain and you can trek and hike it. We trekked in and followed the track up to the top, past all the oldies doing their routines in the bars and leg swingie thing (it can't possibly working any muscles, I have no idea what the deal is) and up to the top. I saw a clearing through the trees and came across some burial mounds.
  WTF BURIAL MOUNDS IN THE MIDDLE OF SONGTAN??? Yes, thats what they were, complete with little grave markers and trimmed grass. It was weird, I never knew that it was up there... On one side was the park/forest and then a clearing with graves,

and then a house! And a bathroom :s TOTALLY WEIRD! I am not sure what the deal is with taking pics, so I quickly snapped one and went on my way. We continued strolling through the park and I decided to take us down a slope which opened up into another clearing. Ahead were new buildings, apartments and a new road. To the right of me was another grave, but this one was bigger, like a full on shrine. And it was recently tended to, there were fresh flowers there. And to the left was a cleared hill with more grave mounds at the top. Now, I have so many questions about this so I need to get asking, but are people just allowed to buy their family members anywhere they like? Are there people in there? Or cremated people? In jars??? And, the land around here is pretty hard to get at the moment I would think. There is always a new building or something going up... So do the families own these plots? Or does the council? With so many people living in Korea it seems unlikely that everyone would have their own little park for graves, so is it only rich people??? Sooo many questions!
  Either way it was a peaceful place, out of the way of other houses and the road, and away from the park too. I want to include the area in my walks now...

  The next place I want to talk about is the new cafe that has opened basically across the road from my apartment. Me and Jess went there the other day for coffee and decided it was the best, and then I went with Ben on Saturday and we ate. The food was amazing, its all organic and they cook it all there and you can tell that it tastes better than the usual fare. The price kinda reflected that, Ben's salad was something like 13,000 and my pasta was 15,000 but it was sooo tasty. AND YOU GET FREE BREAD so bargain!!!
  Its also a gallery, and whoever the owner is has put pics up from around Songtan, and I liked trying top guess where the photos were taken. The photographer has also been to Paris and taken some fab photos there, and the Paris pics are all on display upstairs. Its really trendy and looks like the whole place would fit in better in one of the trendy Seoul areas, not in Songtan. But I am glad it is there and I am totally gonna eat there again!!!

The free bread (eaten lol) and Ben's huge
salad.
And the cool coffee :)

 
It makes being in Songtan more fun, going and finding new things to do and see... I a few weeks I am planning a mini trip to another province to see some more interesting things. To be honest I was feeling a bit stuck in a rut of late, and I needed to get myself out. I mean, I have great and fun friends so they are always handy but you need to be able to get yourself out of a slump too. I think it was the initial change in weather - it is getting really chilly. And I felt like I didn't do enough with my Summer... I spend too much time doing the same things. So first I started planning other things to do. And then decided to explore my area. And I plan to continue my adventuring! Time is going by soooo quickly and I don't want to look back on my year and feel like I have wasted it.

  So I am mega saving... After I get back from Aus I want to put cash aside for a trip to Hong Kong, and of course I want to see more of Korea.

The cheesy pasta - 15,000 won

  Hope everyone is having a stellar day, and not freezing. Even though outside it isn't too bad I am in my classroom with a blanket wrapped around my legs. No lie. And I forgot my lunch. And looking at my food pics is killing me.

Sigh.

xoxox