Woo hoo!! I got a camera!! (sort of)

The teacher that I am taking over for (sort of) at SLP sold me her cellphone --and cellphones here are AWESOME--like, a million phones you have never and will never see back home, and SO cheap in comparison, and so cool. Mine has a built in subway map and schedule, day planner, korean-english dictionary (and an app to quiz you on your "weekly vocab"--like it will literally generate "tests" and "quizzes", cool!), a 2.0 megapixel camera with a little wide angle mirror (and i mean LITTLE--this thing is like a grain of rice in size) that shows you what you are taking a picture of--so you can self-take cutesy couple photos with your korean BF and know that you are always in the shot! haha). So expect lots of those soon (minus the Korean BF... and probably the cutesy-ness).

Oh! and everyone has these cutesy little dangly charms hanging off of them. like EVERYONE. Grown men will have like... a full sized teddy bear with a pom-pom outfit that folds out into a hand mirror hanging off the end of their phone just walking down the street. I haven't got one yet, but I have my eye on this rhinestone-encrusted, hand-mirror-converting plush kitten that has a real fur tail and a clip-on rape whistle. We'll see. It's three dollars... so a LITTLE pricey. ;)

I went boxing day shopping--NO SALES. how disappointing. Well, i shouldn't say NO sales, but they were sales that just happened to coincide with boxing day and the two were in no way related. There was a sidewalk-sale-type-thing at this awesome book store at COEX called well... i always think "Barnes and Noble", and i honestly think they probably just tried to make their name sound like that even though it isn't--a lot of things are like that: faux-American names and "looks", even though they aren't. Anyway, it's about as big as a Barnes and Noble, but I got the COOLEST stationary. So cool. I can't wait to send people letters with it. Oh, and I bought a puzzle-- a really pretty one! Lisa, I'm bringin' it back: puzzling is cool.

Koreans LOVE stationary, like there is a stationary store, or a sticker store, or a pen store, on every corner. I think I'm going to buy an "Elite Banana" pencil case, but I haven't decided if i want the tin one, the big, locking tin one, the plush one, or the regular but chocolate-dipped-with-sprinkles one. Elite Banana, from what I understand is some... Korean thing (comic? show? who knows....) that basically depicts an actual Banana, doing "elite" things such as golfing, picking up chicks, having massages, going to cocktail parties, dining out, etc. Basically the funniest thing i have ever seen. Soo.... yeah. SO far I have just seen this elusive banana character on pencil cases, white out tape things, pens, agendas, memo pads, clipboards, stationary, and mugs, but I will search out his original location and report back soon.

Mmmmm.... and I just finished my from-powder Caramel Machiatto... so I'm out!!

A Korean "Five"... some first impressions and observations

Well, since it already feels like i've been here for MONTHS thinking about all the stuff i've seen, tried, and experienced in the past 14 days, i thought i would try to organize my thoughts a little and post this as a "top five".. er... well not really a "top", i suppose. Let's just call it a "five" :)
So, here's five things about my first week(s) in Seoul, South Korea:

1) Everyone lied to me about what they DON'T have here: South Korea HAS EVERYTHING, or at least Seoul does. Chocolate, shower curtains, tampons, thongs, bigger sizes of clothes, kraft dinner, EVERYTHING. and anything you can't find in your local grocery store (where you can find pretty much everything) ---such as super-american snack foods and things of that nature--they have at Costco!! We went last week, and although during Seoul rush-hour the ten-minute cab ride took us a full hour, I think it was worth the trip. Sara and Kelly got some really cute out-of-the-ordinary snacks for their kids' SLP christmas parties on Friday. I bought two massive bottles of Kirkland Signature "all purpose moisturizing lotion", sketchy, i know, but for some reason the only lotion I have been able to find is a $23 bottle of imported Aveeno--which I don't even like that much at home where it's $7, let alone for more than double the price. I haven't seen sheets or towels yet, or deodorant (though I havent looked since i brought more than a year's supply).

2) Itaewon: A short trip to Itaewon, the foreigners area of Seoul, last week was a little less exciting than I expected. Super touristy, and all overpriced. They had a lot of BAaaaddd looking knockoffs of the weirdest stuff that you'd never find at home--tons of fake like... Dooney and Bourke, and Ralph Lauren and Anne Klein and brands like that--weird! But obviously a lot of fake Coach, Gucci, Prada, Chanel and the typical ones as well. Lisa Barbieri (shout outs pickering high!!) was looking for a medium-sized purse, and I was looking for a bigger bag, but everything was just WAY overpriced for what it was. Like, I'm sorry, but im not going to pay $80 for a plastic knockoff of a bag I could get at a Coach outlet at home for only a little more. Especially after seeing how the Chinese do fakes on Canal Street in New York last Easter--I was not impressed. That said, there was a lot of cute souvenier-y Korean stuff--beautiful mother of pearl inset hand mirrors and jewelry boxes, tons of amazing amathyst jewelry, and many other very "Korean" items, so i think it would be worth a trip back near the end of my stay here, or maybe for presents to send home.

3) Oh! and I got that citron tea that I tried at Aunt Sandra's house before i left in Itaewon--as delicious as I remember. It's like orange peels (or possibly the peels of some fruit called a "citron" which I have yet to actually see whole) marinating in honey in what looks like a jam jar. You add a teaspoon to boiling water and voila! orange-tasting sweet tea! I love it. and with flu season in full swing, the vitamin C will hopefully help me fight it off a bit. Other than that stuff-- Koreans don't drink tea!! Well, i shouldn't say they DON'T, but i expected a lot more i think. Tea is apparently a Chinese/Japanese thing. Here the only tea I've been able to find in mass quantities is this stuff with corn cobs on the box--and considering i've never seen it served anywhere, i don't trust it yet.

4) They seem to be really into coffee though, and I've been having Americanos from the local Paris Baguette most mornings. At $2,500 won, they don't come cheap, and without cream, I have taken to having my coffee black-- but they are definitely nessessary to wake up in the morning. they also have a CRAPLOAD of bottled and canned coffee beverages like those Frappucinos from starbucks that you can get back home (in fact they sell those too), and they also love Nescafe-esque coffee "powders". However, as I know from Elisse aka miss coffee-obsessed, there is NOT NEARLY ENOUGH caffeine in that stuff to do anything effective, and most of the canned ones are powder or syrup-based, so they aren't too exciting. BUT, you can get them hot in this little like "hot fridge" in all convenience stores--which is cool. AND, there is a surprising amount of stuff here for under a dollar (1000 won). Many of those coffee drinks are like 80 cents, and most vending machines have stuff in them that costs like... 30 cents. wooo hoooooooo!

3) Korean Sushi: It's called "Kimbap", and it is tasty!! Essentially it is 'futomaki' from back home, but with spam and like... other stuff in it. I get something called "chim chee kimbap" which has like tuna salad in it. It basically tastes like a tuna sandwich (the pickled radishes in the kimbap reminiscent of the sweet pickles you put in tuna salad), mixed with sushi. aka: AWESOME. and it's super-filling, quick to grab and go, and costs a mere $2. I am set for life. Everyone at the school says they kind of got turned off of it because that's the lunch they pack for field trips and it is always like warm and squished by the time you eat it... but I haven't had that yet!!

4) Adventures in food: I have had more mexican in Korea so far than I had in MONTHS back home--and it's delicious! Dos Tacos for Kelly G's birthday on Thursday, Dos Tacos in Hongdae last Thursday after some brutally freezing outdoor shopping, and Les Amigos Burritos in Itaewon with Lisa last Sunday. That aside, I've had Korean food for everything else (ooh! except last night christmas eve tradition of Chinese food, but that experience could be described by this as well.... --> ) Everywhere you go to eat out has menus written only in Korean. Luckily I have gone out with Kelly quite a bit, who happens to take Korean lessons and understands some of the writing, but other than that--everything is pretty much a crapshoot. Since I'm not too picky, I have been pleasantly surprised by pointing to random items and getting a surprise meal... Kimbap I have actually learned to say thanks to Kelly, and honestly, the lady just says "cham chee kimbap" when I walk in the door now... (i;m a regular i guess). But one thing is true--they love pickled stuff. Every meal comes with at the very least a plate of kim chi (fermented spicy cabbage), most also come with some kind of broth-based soup, and often you'll get something else thrown in, like these yellow pickled radishes, or cucumbers, or a little salad, or shrimp chips, or... something. They all eat with metal chopsticks--which is new, but i'm no stranger to chopsticks, so it's fine-and big long-handled metal spoons. I love the Korean food book from my Aunt Sandra that just says over and over and over "Korean Food--Pleasing to the Eyes and Mouth"... but it really is!

5) Shopping: So far the most exciting shopping trip I have been on was with Sara to the Express Bus Terminal "subway shopping". It is essentially a tiny hallway... well, two tiny hallways, probably like a 3 kilometre underground loop of like, street stalls of clothing, purses, shoes, boutiques and all kinds of stuff. Like junk for sale as far as the eye can see. Korean sizing is... ridiculous, triple zero, double zero and zero. I walked into this one store and the lady was all excited -- we have size 80!!--obviously acknowledging my bigness. HA! it was MAaaaayybe a Canadian small, or a really tiny medium. That SAID, a lot of the clothes are "One size", which sounds sketchy, but most Korean style can be summed up by the image at the left: leggings (one size--they literally stretch forever), something big and droopy on top (one size--and made of literally the strangest assortment of fabric I have ever seen, but never cotton), and a plethora of cutesy accessories (mainly over-the-top headbands, furballs, or ENORMOUS scarves right now). I think Rebca would love it here--because a lot of it is her kind of vintage-flowy kind of chic outfits. The other things is: there are NO BRANDS ON ANYTHING, except for the BIG brands, but that is mostly purses from what i've seen so far. Like every store looks like a winners or.. well more like a Goodwill. A lot of REAL weird tacky sweaters and furry godawful things... but definitely cool in a way, and different. and a TON, like i mean TON of fur everywhere. Probably 1 in 4 people on the subway is either wearing a fur coat, a fur scarf, or a fur vest. So... yeah, Rebecca, come here you baby seal killer, you.

Korean insanity -- Parking

okay, although the above picture does not fully represent the insanity of the parking here in Seoul, allow me to explain. People double and triple park as part of the normal parking procedures. How do the cars behind them get out? (ie: all those ones on the upper right) WELL... guess what? They have to physically roll the other cars out of the way. That's right.

When you're parking your car, you leave it in neutral, and look around on the ground to find stray bricks (they are everywhere), to prevent your car from rolling away. THEN, you are also required to leave your name, address, and phone number on your dashboard (they actually sell cutesy little suction cup things with Hello Kitty , etc for this express purpose), so if there are any problems with moving your car, they can call you and you have to come back and move it. As Rhys said, if you were in Canada and you found a bunch of stray bricks on the ground near a parking lot, you'd be like "fuck, someone is going to smash those through a car's window", here? No way. oh, and by the way, allow me to have all of my personal info posted in a public place at the same time... man these people are crazy.

Airplane food!

okay, check this out!! This is the meal we got on the airplane! my first taste of korean food: Bibimbap. its a very popular Korean dish... kind of like a bunch of delicious crap mixed together in a rice bowl.

i just couldnt get over how tasty it was though--especialllllyyyy for airplane food. okay, to to break it down (clockwise from upper left)...
- upper left garbage pile: so the rice was separate, it came with instructions telling you to put it into the bowl, and then a little like, toothpaste tube of garlic-chile sauce that tasted like siracha. mmmm
- deeeelishhhh fruit salad, freshly chopped watermelon, melon, and pineapple.. mmm
- coffee or tea afterwards
- korean beer! Max is probably the most Canadian-beer-esque one ive had so far (last night i did a bit of a sampler), and it was the first one i tried!
- seaweed salad-- tasty, but basically like broth and seaweed floating in it. but i love seaweed--so hey!
- my remote for my mini console/tv/"sky theatre"/EVERYTHING screen on the back of the seat in front of me. so awesome.
- bibimbap: so... its like this marinated green leafy stuff, ground meat of some kind, cabbage (marinated also), mushrooms, and possibly other stuff arranged all nicely in a little design in the bowl, and then you dump rice on top, and then put this chile-garlic paste in, and then mix it all around. yummy!
- kimchi: hahaha... i almost laughed out loud. airplane kim chi = Bick's yum yum pickles mixed with siracha and chile flakes. it tasted... interesting. but it took me a while to figure out it was yum yums, but then i laughed.

some thoughts from the airport...

I wrote this stuff while i was sitting in the chicago airport waiting... sort of mid-travel blog entry, but i couldnt post it because no internet until now...

december 9th -- canada time 10:55

so ive arrived in Chicago. a surprising lack of security considering how much random shizz i had in my carry on, and in every pocket of my coat, and strategically arranged in my purse. im enjoying the showballs mom bought for me on my last night in pickering--though even if i consume the entire package its not even going to make a dent in the chocolate mountain she gifted me yesterday. -sigh- does it look like i need chocolate? ha. but i will enjoy it nonetheless (I'm enjoying it right now!)

so im sitting across from a half-korean girl who looks strangely like my younger sister. but half korean. maybe its fate, or maybe i subconciously sought her out. i did find myself going over the Courtesy Parking Guidelines on the monorail between terminals with a bizarre sense of nostaligia. i feel like i have to cling to everything english... it's like seperation anxiety--okay, its not like, it IS--from a culture and a way of life. I filmed my last minutes of Canada. -sigh- But i did happen to find a small pocket of white people with whom to sit in the airport. it's the next gate over, but their flight to Grand Rapids (could it sound more white American?--reminds me of somewhere Sean would live) is leaving at around the same time. My side is a sea of dark hair, glasses, and laptops.

wait... why do they ALL have glasses??? okay, i count 4 people out of about umm... 50 that i can see that do not have glasses, and these are SEERious glasses too. Big thick-framed, statement-making eyewear. what gives? ***NOTE: i found out... glasses are a serious fashion statement here. many people wearing them dont even have lenses in them. weird!

i tried to get internet a few seconds ago, but it wanted me to pay $7 for one-time access. seriously? i guess people will pay anything if they're desperate. it was going to let me log on to skype for free, but i don't have any Skype credit, so it wouldn't let me do anything, and i couldnt buy any. GEEZ. i can't win. so now im typing this into wordpad having promised so many people to give "frequent" updates... plus, i feel like it will be kind of funny reading this in six months.
I really regret not buying a camera or bringing my old, huge, beast of a Sony so i can take pictures. i realized my first thing i forgot--my camera charger--but i dont think it will even work (well, dad bought me that voltage converter at the last minute, but still...). so now if i keep taking videos with my canon (pictures= not happening, they all show up totally white except in complete darkness due to an...unfortunate incident.) I will run out of battery forever!

ooookayyyy... canada time 11:30
i decided that since i havent eaten anything yet today, i would go buy a sandwich, the lady next to me started eating one, and it smelled like heaven. OKAY. so i approach the sandwich counter expecting to be gouged out the ass for one of the worst looking smooshed pre-wrapped sandwiches ever. TEN DOLLARS. 9.99 for 2 pieces of bread, a slice of ham, a piece of cheese and a package of mayo wrapped on the side. TEN DOLLARS. okay, im trying to figure out what kind of exorbitant pricing i was expecting, maybe 5.99, 699 even? TEN DOLLARS!?! i guess..back to the same topic, desperate people will pay anything. there were all of these delicious deep-dish pizza places earlier and hotdogs, and mcdonald's.... of course i get to the only place with not a food stall in sight, and then decide im hungry. okay, so i look around... chocolate, chocolate, jellybeans, gum... trail mix (meh)... peanuts... okay 3 for $10 is not BAD... but i pretty much hate nuts, and i certainly don't want them. ah... beef jerky. okay. it's been a WHILE since ive had beef jerky, and its like still breakfast time, but how much is it? $8 a bag. okay, still a rip off, but that size usually goes for around 5 at the store, so its not BAD. and they have different kinds. Maple? Sure, a last taste of canada, should be good. ive never heard of this brand, and i could go with jacks links, but no, ill do the maple. OH GOD WHAT A MISTAKE. its in a package so i can't see, but turns out its like this vaacuum sealed, greasy/sticky like... meal? its like 6 beef "fingers" in a foil package inside the bag, and they look all misshapen and dark and... yuck. ogh great, it comes with a wet nap. wonnnnderful. okay, so needless to say: it was disgusting to NO end, and the last food I will eat on this continent for an entire YEAR. how disappointing.... but im not hungry any more!

KOREA: My First Full Day...

Well, the flight was good, i watched about 8 movies (or parts of movies) on my mini personal TV (which has games too!! so cool... anyways..) and slept for about an hour TOPS... and my plan on wearing my largest most bulky clothes was... probably not a good one, but its in the past, and after my shower this morning, i feel wonderful!

Last night was actually REALLY fun (despite the zombiness), Rhys/Taylor picked me up at the bus terminal (my one hour bus ride after my flight that took TWO hours because of traffic), and we taxied home. He also bought me a metro card, which was super nice, so now I'm good to go for travelling all over today!! Anwyay, then we got back, i changed, and we took me out for "Duck Boolani" I think its called? Which is actually chicken, and they basically throw a crapload of ingredients onto this tabletop BBQ (like korean bbq back home) and then you can just mow down on the food with your chopsticks right off the grill, or put it into little lettuce wraps, or... we ordered rice to throw into it near the end, so it became like a "pilaf" Rhys said... haha. it was delicious.

THEN, we went to these girls' house for a "kimchee party" aka make REAL, legit kimchee on the kitchen floor on a big plastic mat and everyone grabs gloves and joins in... quite fun. and i tried all the beers of Korea (or many of them). Max (how sketch is that name), Bite, and BC. I opted out of soju, but I'm sure there'll be time enough for that soon enough...

we also stopped at the convenience store on the way home and i tried 2 new korean things, freeze dried octopus, which is essentially like calimari beef jerky (60 cents a package) and this AMAZING yogurt drink that tastes like egg nog. mmmmm

im at the school now, i walked over with Rhys/Taylor This morning i unpacked/organized my stuff (less unpacked, more.... organized since i wont be staying in this apartment for very long). and i feel a little more "at home" now that i have my stuff sort of together. SO MUCH CHOCOLATE. thanks mom, but seriously its a bit extreme.

we stopped at this place called "Paris Baguette" which is supposedly like their Tim Hortons, and OH. MY. GOD. you think premiere moison in montreal is good? this place is like 3X the size, 1000 times more pastry varieties and like... to die for. plus, the pastries are like a dollar each and all individually wrapped in cutesy little packages. and the coffee is awesome, though they dont have cream, so im going to be getting used to black... anyway, so today i had a "maple pecan twist", which was mindblowing, and an americano. Specialty coffees are the norm, they literally dont have regular i dont think. maybe instant... oh well, we'll see.

its like 12:55 in the afternoon on saturday here... and after sara is finished her marking she is going to take me to this place called "technomart", which is a apparently a massive like 12 story flea market type place for only electronics. and also, Rhys told me, that haggling is like, the norm, but girls dont do it so they get ripped off... dont know if im going to be comfortable with that, but we'll see. i need a hairdryer and straightening iron... and it pisses me off because dad bought me a voltage converter at the last minute which i brought, but i basically have nothing to plug into it. it says its specifically for hair dryers and curling irons, etc, but i LEFT MINE AT HOME. and my laptop only uses one of the little pluggy things it came with (out of about 6 different ones...) Anyway, i air-dried this morning, and Sara says my hair looks "fine" ... personally i think it looks like a flippy, wonky mess... but whatever. also, i ran out the door and didnt put on makeup today.. hm. so yeah. but the shower i had this morning was blissful--definitely needed after that 14 hour flight.

I am so aware that i am writing this from the future right now--i think its friday night there? weird... haha, Lisa said "what are the winning lottery numbers??" hahaha

Tonight Rhys wants to go to a santa-hat pubcrawl (???), though most of the other teachers are going to one of the Korean teachers' weddings. Weddings, they said, in korea are all sort of Vegas-style with people wearing jeans, etc and like, talking through the ceremony...and then getting wasted and pigging out at a buffet. it would be interesting, but i think its TOO weird to show up without knowing the person. and then TOMORROW, Rhys heard about this thing called a "german christmas festival"? Who knows.. well, I'll report back when I have more to say. Just killing time right now...