Vomit Berries, Bin Juice and Other Tales

  I have had such an incredible last few months, I can't even begin to write about it. Both good and bad things have happened, but as I am feeling reasonably joyful tonight I will touch on only nice things... And Other Tales.

Vomit Berries

  What the hell? 

Its amazing to me how smells can trigger memories you forgot you had. 

  Here in Korea they have these trees, and the look a little bit like mini-oak trees. No idea what they are called... Anyway there are a heap of them living in the side street right near my building. There are also a heap of them in Pyeongtaek, but not many in Seoul that I have seen. They are green for all of Spring and Summer, then fade off in Autumn and look completely dead in Winter. Pretty standard for a tree in this part of the world. the weird thing about these trees are the fruit they drop at the end of Summer - when they open the smell dead set like fresh vomit. Total spew stench. I remember when I first smelt that awful stench... It was a weekend, one of my first in Korea I would imagine, and I thought that there must be fresh spew somewhere. But the smell was everywhere!!! It wasn't until a friend pointed out to me that these small orange fruits were squished everywhere, and maybe it was this I could smell. 

I said to her "Can you not smell the puke smell?" 

She said no, not really, it was just a sort of off fruit smell. Nope, I replied, I can smell spew. So basically I think I must be the only one who can smell them this way. Strange but whatever.

  I got back from Malaysia on Sunday around 11:30, and I am strolling down the road with my bags in tow and I smell this vom smell. Its a Sunday morning so this is def not out of the ordinary in my area. I start paying closer attention, as I don't fancy rolling my bags through someones old dinner and drinks regurgitated. Of course, as you probably guessed, there was no spew to be seen. And then, as I near my building, walking down the street with the weird mini-oaks I see all these squashed fruits littering the road. And I remember. Its the Vomit Berries. Almost instantly I remember the feeling of being excited, fresh and alive. It was just over a year ago I first caught scent of this gross fruit, and now when I smell it, to me the fruit smells like freedom and adventure. Its strange that a sniff of vomit can create this sense. Yet here I am, remembering. I walked around the corner back to my house and thought about it a bit. Not much, because I was so fucking tired from the plane/bus ride, but thought enough to know that I actually quite like the smell of Vomit Berries. Not because I want to turn them into a perfume and wear it, but because it makes me re-live those first few weeks I came to this strange country. I remember being nervous, excited, grossed out and lonely. And I love it. 

Speaking of bad smells...

  Some asshole has left what smells like bin juice in the elevator. It fully reeks, even Milky didn't want to go in there. Its like someone has had fish or something, and binned it and dripped it everywhere. Or something equally rotten. My other big issue (apart from the smell) with this is that I am worried someone is gonna blame it on Milky, and suggest that he peed in the elevator. Which he NEVER has done. So someone better get rid of it. This is probably the reason why we have bugs in our building... If I discover who the jerk is who is not properly managing their wastes I am gonna go all Hulk on them and pitch them off the building. Actually, its going on my list of things that annoy me... #6 for sure (if thats what I am up to). End rant.

Travels

  In the last 2 months I was lucky enough to visit Japan, see new parts of Korea and also visit Malaysia. Let me sum up these places briefly:

Japan

  The Land of the Rising Sun was not what I expected. To be fair to Japan I was sick the whole time I was there - my wisdom teeth were killing me so I couldn't really sample the yummy food. My sinuses were blocked to the point I couldn't breath through my nose, and my head felt like it was full of painful cotton wool. I was feverish and on pain killers the entire time. And to top it off we were there in probably the worst time to visit - high summer. It was so humid and sticky we could hardly be bothered doing the sightseeing we did let alone adding on more things. Coupled with one hectic night in Kyoto where we got shitfaced and consequently hungover the next day, I think we did the best with what we had. BUT Japan did not leave a lasting impression on me. 

  

 

Osaka Castle

  I didn't really like Osaka (at least the parts I saw), I thought it was dirty and the stations grossed me out. The best part about it was the fact that everyone there seemed to ride pushbikes. It was adorable. 

  I liked Kyoto much more, it had a sense of history that I had not experienced anywhere else. Asian castles are something else all together, and although we saw one in Osaka (Osaka Castle) I still preferred the shrines we saw in Kyoto area. I would have liked to have spent at least another full day there. Night life was also funnnnn.

Deer selfie in Nara

Some Shrine... Can't remember its name but its famous (I am hopeless)

Me, Jess and Nay -
high school sweethearts!

  Tokyo was all over the place. It was huge, and we def needed mroe time to explore. But I felt disconnected from the city, in a way that I haven't felt in other cities. It felt kind of... unfriendly and false. Like it was lying to me about its intentions. I don't know how else to explain it... Anyway I would like to go back and see Tokyo and Kyoto, and also maybe go up to Sapporo one day.

  In all, the best part of Japan was seeing my friends from Australia. They made the trip. Oh, and also discovering my new favorite author Haruki Marukami. Read his books, please. They have kinda changed my life.

One of the temples

Penang

  I went to Penang, Malaysia over Chuseok with mum. It was totally uneventful, which was just what we both wanted. Sun, pool and good food. Penang has it all in large doses. We both we looking forward to the break, and also catching up after nearly 12 months of not seeing each other. I mean, we Skype all the time but its not the same. So it was so great to just hang out and do nothing but chat and catch up. I am already excited to see her again at Christmas!!!

Hotel was amazing - Hard Rock Hotel, Penang

Beach right outside. Water was beautiful

I love temples... Mum doesn't share my enthusiasm for them :s

Wow. I really didn't mean to go on like I did. It's nearly 12am and I need to sleep, but I am feeling all reflective... I could go on all night the way my mind is ticking right now. I won't though, cos lets be honest - most of what comes out my mouth is nonsense anyway. And its always worse when it's late night rambles.

Sleep well, citizens

xoxoxo

Camp Again

I realise that I do most of my blogging during camp time, but it's because there is not all that much else to do.

I wish I was more on top of blogging and keeping everyone up to date, because I have done so much lately but it feels weird to go back in time and write about it. So here is what I did today -

Summer Camp

  I am super lucky this year to have only 5 days of camp, from 9-12 and its with the grade 3 and 4's. I had a grand total of 9 kids sign up and yesterday 8 came and today 7. Numbers are dropping but its cool I don't mind. 

  Yesterday's big activity was making cute paper craft puppet things, which we then used to do small skits. The girls had their introduce themselves, the boys decided their puppets were all ninjas. Whatever.

  Then today we had a fun day throwing eggs out of a window... They were supposed to be parachutes but none of them really worked. Kids didn't care much because they were allowed to throw something from the 3rd floor. Thats all they needed for entertainment.

Tomorrow I am planning on making sandwiches and thats about it, and then Thurs will be good because I am making Flubber and we can watch the movie. So tomorrow's plan will be trying to download subtitles. So annoying.

And then next week the fun really starts. Japan. With Jess and Nay, who I haven't seen since I went through to the International Departures Terminal in Melbourne nearly 1 year ago. I cannot believe how fast this time has gone... And here I am planning on staying another year. WTF who does that??? Oh, nearly everyone. This next year though, I am setting myself some goals. And I think they are all achievable.

Goals for 2013-2014 in Korea

1. Learn WAY more Korean.

  I cannot believe how slack I have been with this. I used to go to Korean class twice a week. What happened to that motivation? I want to find it again for sure. When the classes start up again I will join. Problem is, I don't even know what level I am. I know I am not a beginner any more but I don't know if I am intermediate either. I know such random phrases, like "i'm busy" or "I have a crush on you" or "can you charge my phone"... Practical things. But I still need a lot of help with sentence structure and all that.

2. Try and get my credit card debt down.

  This one is tougher than you think it would be. If I want to save money (which is number 3) then I cannot pay this off. I am now fully aware of this and it hurts but its my own fault for spending so much money. 

3. Save more money.

  I need to make sure that I have a stash at the end of the year to get the dog back to Australia. And so that I have something to live off when I go home. 

4. Actually go home at the end of my next contract.

  My family will be devastated of I stay another year on top of these 2. I need to think of them as well. It is just so easy and fun to stay here, I am already dreading going home and the second year hasn't even started yet!

And the standard I WILL LOSE 10 KILOS. That one is always there.

Plans for the rest of this year???

  Yes, I have a few. Apart from Japan and Busan, I will go to Malaysia with mum over Chuseok, and then I will be back in Aus for Christmas and New Year. 

  In there somewhere is Halloween, which I want to make a complete mess of. I already have my outfit picked out, and I am very much looking forward to the night.

  I am also trying to get my hair pink but so far its not working. Watch this space.

  Another important one for me personally is getting my YouTube channel more updated. I had so many projects planned for last year and didn't do any of them so thats going to be a big driver for this year. Time to get creative!

xoxoxo

Mum in Korea - Day 2

To Busan

We left Seoul this morning to head to Busan, which is in the south of the country in the Gyeongsangnam Province. 

We took the KTX fast train into Busan, and the trip took about 2 and a half hours. The time went really quickly, the train was very comfortable and smooth. I would totally recommend anyone travelling across Korea to use the KTX for long trips. Totes worth it. 

Mum was funny this morning when we were leaving the hotel in Seoul... There were 3 stations between Seoul Station and Chungmoro (where the hotel was near) but she wanted to take a taxi as we had heavy bags. There were NO taxis around at all because of Chuseok, so eventually I talked her into the subway. It was super easy, although we did get a little lost on the platform. Lets just say that Seoul Station is freaking huge and we had no idea where we were going... And the signage is not awesome so we were really confused. But we made it in the end. There were plenty of super helpful people around, from the bag porter to the police officer, to the local citizen who had decent English. 

We got of the KTX at Busan Station and asked around for the subway, as the next hotel was apparently very close to Bujeom Station. But no, mum STILL wanted a taxi, so we went and found a taxi. We jumped in, and to mum utter shock and horror the driver spoke no English. By then the bags were already in and he was driving away so we were kinda stuck in the car. My teachers at school would be so impressed - with my VERY limited Hanguel knowledge I managed to write a garbled Korean version of the station we were after and we got there ok. Mum was panicking, neither of us knew for sure where the driver was taking us so we were not relieved when we saw the station we were looking for. We thanked him and off he went. So here is a tip for anyone travelling to Korea - the taxi drivers do not really speak English. So get your hotel to write down where you are staying so that you can pass it to cab drivers. Or better yet, have it prepared before you head off...
We then dragged our bags a few hundred meters down the road to the hotel - there was no way I was going to try and write the name of the hotel down. When we got there, I looked across the street and gestured to mum... We were literally across the road from the subway enterance. It would have taken us 5 minutes or so on the subway and brought us to right in front of the hotel. 

Let this be a lesson to you - if anything is near the subway station, IT IS EASIER TO CATCH THE SUBWAY. I know at home taxi is easier, but honestly, unless you have some degree of Korean then its just not fun trying to get a taxi.

We stayed at the Ibis Ambassador Hotel Busan. I would totally recommend this hotel to anyone wanting to visit Busan. Apart from the fact that is was so close to a good subway line, the staff also speak pretty good English and are super helpful. The food wasn't amazing for dinner but the breakfast was good.

ANOTHER TIP - Don't bother to pay for the breakfasts at the hotel... Seriously just find a Paris Baguette, they are the biggest bakery chain in Korea and the stuff is tasty. And will cost you under 5000won for breakfast rather than the 15-30,000won it will cost at the hotel. Its totally not real bacon.

Haeundae and the aquarium

We were both kinda grumpy by then, and I needed a nap so mum went for a walk and I had a short kip. Then we rallied ourselves for the afternoon. It was probably about wish when we went to the subway (win for me) and ran into some people from the hotel that mum had met earlier. They were an American couple, but the wife was actually born in Korea so she spoke the language but hadn't been back in years. We ended up joining forces and went together to Haeundae Beach for a look, and then to the Busan Aquarium. I LOVE aquariums, and I thought this one was pretty good. They had decent sized sharks, no seals but they did have otters and some finless porpoises which were kinda like dolphins but smaller and without fins (hence the name I guess). Entry was something like 18,000won and they were open from 10am till 10pm or something. Basically you go to Haeundae Station and walk towards the beach and go right. The aquarium is right there... If you ever go to Busan check it out.

www.busanaquarium.com

After that we wandered around and got some dinner, we had chicken and salad and both mum and I thought it was pretty delicious. It cost about 17,000won for the 2 of us, and we got some beers as well so all up dinner was 23,000won for 3 massive plates of chicken and 2 beers. So I thought that was pretty good. 

We then got back on the subway and came back to the hotel, skipped Georgia and here we are. I am hella tired, I feel like I have been non stop since last weekend so tomorrow is going to be a sleep in day.

View from the room

Haeundae Beach

Haeundae Beach

Because keeping off this bit of grass will totally help the porpoise :s

Giant crab!!!

Some of the cool sharks - mainly grey nurse sharks

Tourist shot!

Something different? Or not?

While we were at the aquarium we were acting the tourist and taking a heap of cheesy photos, as was everyone else. There were 2 young guys that were there having a day out and were taking pics of each other, so mum offered to take their pic together with some sharks in the background. They were super pleased and thanked her a heap. One of the guys then asked if he could have photo with me... I said yes but felt like a big dickhead, like some sort of try hard celebrity. The friend was super jealous so he had to have a photo with me too... I really hope they turned out ok, I would hate for them to be showing ugly pics of me to their pals.

Then when we were on the subway an older Korean guy started talking to me, I said the usual 'hello' and he asked where we were from. I now know enough Korean to understand what he was asking and I was even able to answer him, but the rest of the conversation went straight over my head. Lucky our new American friends were still with us and the wife had a chat to he old bloke and just continued the conversation for us. He ended up not he same train and we chatted on and off through out the trip home. Before we got off the train, the old guy said something else to me in Korea - I have no idea what - and gave me an apple. It was a perfectly good apple, so I will probably eat it tomorrow :)

Anyway, thats about it for tonight. Again, this post will go up after the fact, as I want to add the pics so all this has happened today (being Sunday).

Oh, and Happy Chuseok!!!

xoxoxox

The Slipping Mask

As I have started writing this tonight, this post is unnamed. Looks like this is going to be one of those rambling posts... Apologies in advance, Citizens.

I constantly fluctuate from surprise to disgust to awe to amazement to gratitude to so many other emotions at the different things we humans do. What we do to each other, ourselves, nature, animals, etc etc. the list is eternal.

I have just come back from a 3 day conference held by GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program In Korea) which is the government body in charge of the English Program in my province. The Gyeonggi-do province in South Korea is the largest province in the country, has the most schools and the most students. And consequently the most native teachers. So they put together this program for the new teachers to attend in order to better equip them for teaching in ROK. Did it work? Not really, I don't think I feel any better prepared than before. Did I enjoy it? Yes, I did actually. But for different reasons.

I am a known people watcher (polite term for stalker maybe?) and I really like to see how people interact. And I always lol at myself after these things, because I notice the change that happens to myself when I am around people I either don't know or am not comfortable with. I am always a slightly different person.
Are all these other people the same? Are they being themselves? How long do you need to know someone before you actually know someone???
An analogy I have used before is my Mask Theory. I think everyone wears a Mask pretty much all the time. Every person we come in contact with sees a slightly different version of ourselves. is this a good thing or a bad thing? Neither, I think. Its just how it is. The thing is, though, is that eventually the mask will slip, and the real 'you' will start poking through. I know for myself, I always pretend to be cooler than I really am. In truth, I am a big nerd who is bad at sports and likes reading, anime and Game of Thrones. But as far as new friends are concerned, I am a super cool person who loves to drink and party and all that. Or maybe thats not how I come across? I have no idea, but thats certainly the image I want them to get. I want to seem fun and exciting... Because fun people make friends, not boring people. Right???

While on the conference I could see certain groups forming. It indadvertedly happens, people gravitate towards certain people. Now, we were all adults who attended this event. Yet, when people get together childish events still occur. There was someone who was picked on (without his knowledge), someone who skipped out on class, a group of boys making noise, a group of girls talking about everyone else... it just goes to show you can never escape high school.
I had made it my goal to try and talk to everyone. I wanted to meet lots of people and hopefully make new friend. I think I did ok, I got a few new FB friends out of it, and was able to build on current work in progress friendships. But I do wonder what other people got out of the even. And I wonder what people thought of me... Will I ever be able to shake my insecurities about making friends? Probably not. And its storage that I feel this way - its not like I had a hard time at school... People may even say I had it easy at high school compared to others, I had a heap of friends and never really got picked on. But I made a huge effort. I picked my friends carefully and stuck by them.

So whats the go here in Korea? How do you make friends and keep friends? How do I know if my mask is slipping? Will people still want to be friends when they see my nerdy loser side???
Yes, i think so. Because most people have a nerdy side, I think. I hope anyway...

You can't hide who you are forever (Maddie - remember when we tried to be cool in New Zealand???) so my new goal for this year is to try and be more myself. Stop trying to be cool, and stop labelling! Just be myself and if people don't like me then thats fine. They wouldn't have been a real friend anyway. So then, i will know I have true friends here on the other side of the world.

I didn't think this post was going to be about me, but there you go.

In other news...

Please, PLEASE get into the K-drama "To the Beautiful You". I am going mental for it, especially now I know what's going on (shout out to Jeong from school for explaining it to me haha). 

In brief - 

The series centers on Goo Jae-hee (Sulli), a Korean girl who lives in the United States. One day, she sees a track and field competition on TV, and becomes inspired by a gold medalist high jump competitor, Kang Tae-joon (Minho). She begins to idolize the young athlete but Tae Joon suffers an accident that could potentially end his career. Therefore, to see Tae-joon jump again, Jae-hee disguises herself as a boy and attends the same school as Tae-joon. 

(Thanks Wikipedia!) 

But of course there is a love triangle - Kang Tae-joon knows she is a chick, and they both like each other but can't admit it because she doesn't know that he knows, and he doesn't want her to get into trouble. 

Then there is Cha Eun-gyeol who thinks she is a guy, but has admitted his feelings for 'him' and is totally confused about his sexuality. 

The whole thing is ridiculous but i'm hooked. It also starts a heap of K-pop stars, so go celebrity spotting :)

MUM IS NEARLY HERE! She is coming to visit for Chuseok (traditional Autumn festival here in Korea) and we are visiting Busan and Seoul. I haven't been to either of those places yet so stay tuned for some pics and some interesting information! I will try and remember everything so I can tell you about it. I am super excited to see some of the country, and also to have such a great travelling partner. my mum is super good to travel with, she is up for anything and loves travel. She is open to other customs and likes to see sights. Except temples... She gets sick of temples pretty quickly. 

I have also recently found out a certain family member is a full on jerk. Just because someone is 'family' doesn't mean they have to be your friend. 

Anyhoo, i will leave you with some pics of the KSA Centre where the GEPIK conference was held. It was a nice area, kinda farmland kinda mountainous. And it wasn't really far from home - still in Pyeongtaek! 

 Our room - I was lucky enough to be roomies with Shanda :D

Till next time!

xoxoxo

Wanderings

A sound week in Korea

Its hard to believe I have already been here for longer than a week, yet at the same I can't get over that it has ONLY been 1 week! I feel like I have been here so much longer. The weekend is flying past too, and even with internet and t.v woes I am still having a great time.

Friday

After school finished I went home and got changed. I was meeting Tyler and Mia at some point to head into Suwon with them to go out to the opening of a new bar that a mate of theirs owns. They were held up at the AB (Air Base) having some secret army meeting so we were a bit later than expected by the time we got on the train. We headed off to Suwon and went back to their place which is MASSIVE compared to mine! Their bedroom is bigger than my apartment haha. They also have the most adorable dog in the world, he is a mini something and is tiny! I am seriously thinking about saving my pennies and getting a tiny dog. I hadn't realised how much I was missing my pets until I was cuddling Mia's... Its nice to think someone will be waiting for you when you get home. 

We went out for Galbi - Korean BBQ for all those playing at home. It was so delicious!!! I swear to God I have eaten more meat since coming to Korea than I have ever eaten in my life. 

NB 

I was actually vegetarian for years (not really strict, but enough) and used to take iron supplements and all that. In Australia the most meat I would eat was chicken breast, incredibly crispy bacon and beef mince. And thats it. It wasn't so much that I was anti-meat from a ethical point of view, although I am fairly vocal about the treatment of animals for slaughter. It was more that I simply didn't like the taste. I don't love a roast, and I cannot eat sausages (keep your dirty thoughts to yourself). So this whole 'meat eating' thing is a big deal. Ask any of my friends.

After Galbi we went out to Bulldogs, which was the bar that was opening that night in Suwon. The owner, who is a good friend of Mia and Tyler's, was celebrating by offering free beer, and all other drinks 5000won. I was drunk in no time, and didn't notice I had missed my train home. 

Luckily Mia has an epic huge couch so they offered to let me stay at their place which I gladly accepted and kept drinking. We went to another bar after that, and then finished up at a norae-bang, which is karaoke. Yep, big night.

I was soooo seedy the next morning, and the only thing that helped was pizza. 

Later that day I finally left Mia and Tyler who were probably so sick of me hanging around, but I just really like hanging with them lol. I got lost on the way to the taxi rank and had to call Mia, and then got a taxi to Seryu Station and finally made it home around 2pm on the Saturday. It was a big night, but I had an awesome time and met some really nice people. Hopefully I will see them out again another night :)

 Mia and Me (I got rained on, ok?)

 View from Mia and Tyler's awesome apartment

 Yep, you saw right. Domino's!

Socrates, the adorable doggie

The rest of the weekend...

...has gone by slowly. I was knackered on Saturday so just bummed around, wandered up to the strip to get some food later, came home, ate it, skipped Dad and Sue then Georgia and Rohan and then went to bed. 

Today I tried to sleep in, did some cleaning (Sunday is my new official cleaning day) and went out for a walk. I am trying to find an ATM, but I can't locate one yet... Oh well. 

Came back here, the internet was miraculously working (I am totally stealing someones wifi again) and they Skyped Mum. She had to go, and here I am blogging.

Oooo! Mum has booker her flights! She is coming to Korea on the 27th September and staying until the following Sunday. The Sunday and Monday are National public holidays, its Chuseok which is like memorial day of something from what i can gather, or Thanksgiving... Either way I don't have to go to school on the Monday. The Wednesday is also a public holiday, maybe this is Memorial day? I really should find out. In fact, it can be the theme of the next blog :)

And because there is a holiday on the Monday and Wednesday I get the Tuesday off too! Yay for public schools!!! So mum and I will go to Busan for the few days, go on Saturday and come back on the Wednesday, stay in Songtan for a few nights then on the Friday night we will go to Seoul for the weekend. I will go home Sunday, and I think mum flies out on either the Sunday night or the Monday. I am so excited to see her and to do some sightseeing together! Its perfect timing with the days off school, it means she only has 2 days where I am not around and even then its only for a few hours and there is plenty to see around here. She has brought a rail pass so she can just have a play around Pyeongtaek. 

Anyway, thats about all for now, here are some pics of my area so you can have a look. I did a sneaky video of my walk to the Highway Mart, it literally takes 3 minutes to walk there. I always get stopped at the lights and they take FOREVER to change. 

Talk soon friends!

xoxo