Korea Life Blog 9 -- Suwon and Daejeon

Hey, hey. Still alive~ sort of! haha

God I'm missing real food. The school food is starting to make me sick... but I made a crap-ton of miso soup to take in, so I just have to remember it.

Anyways, last week was Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving), so I had a little break finally!!! I really needed it too. Was hoping to go to Japan, but put it into action too late. Sad day that.

But, I made the most of it... once I stopped being sickly sick. Love that, when you start a vacation stuck in bed... great time.
But yeah, only let that incapacitate me for one day.
Didn't matter much, it was still raining. Three-four days straight, but the weather has been darn nice since.

Wednesday went on a "not-date" with a random guy~ hahaha. I met him online in March or April? First time we met though. He's nice... enough... maybe. haha
We went to Outback Steakhouse to see Daniel Henney... but though he was on the menu, it didn't say how much. XD
Then we walked around and had ice cream. Thought about seeing a movie, but for some reason he didn't think I could watch movie that had no English or subs. What's that about? It's a moving picture... I'll get something anyways~! hehe
Then he dropped me at home and I took the subway to the grocery... which was closed. Then walked back by the river... which had apparently been so high while I was sick that it took out parts of the crossing bridges and most the plants nearby.

Thursday, I took a trip to Suwon to visit a college friend. She, however, was in Seoul most the day, so I was  left to amuse myself. Told the bus driver where to let me off, love when they are helpful! Especially since I was getting off near a large supermarket and we went by like 3 of them from the same chain!

Did some window shopping and went to see the new Ghibli movie. Sadly it was in Korean, didn't want to wait until 7pm for the Japanese one, since it was 2pm. But I was happy that I understood 90% from the moving picture and about 5% from the little Korean I know! :)

Did more window shopping and walked about taking pictures and being an escaped zoo animal for people to watch. Even saw some cute guys ;)

Once my friend came we went to dinner, Korean BBQ first time I had ribs at one~ Pretty good mind you. Then we drank, then some pool, and finally it was "home time".

Friday not so exciting: Went to the bank and transferred my money home. Maybe even made a new friend, but not sure yet. Have to see if she calls :)
Was supposed to meet my Korean "little sister", but she was visiting her Grandma. She left for 9 months on Saturday to study abroad... sad, sad day. I miss her already.

Saturday went out at night to meet my Suwon friend in Seoul. I went drinking with her, her boyfriend, and a few of his friends. Within two hours (and after drinking a bottle of Absolute alone--but not knowingly) I was drunker than I ever have been, and hopefully ever will be even close to again. It majorly sucked. I felt bad being the drunk who needed help... other than the friend who was completely passed out.

*The bf called his sister, who came in time to help me (it was the first time I'd ever been so drunk I got sick, and apparently I only speak Japanese when drunk ;) and the drunker guy to a motel. She spoke some Japanese, so we conversed: me drunkenly and her shyly. Great time that.
Once they found a motel, I didn't sleep much and washed my clothes in the sink and took a looooooooong hot shower! Then left after the trains started at 5:30am.

Anyways, I promised to go visit my friend in Daejeon that day. So I went home--2 hours on the trains, took a short nap, then got up and ready. Took a bus--another 2 hours, but this time a great nap time because I didn't need to worry about stops or transfers!

Daejeon was fun. We walked around downtown, and ate some Japanese food for lunch. Then we had some ice cream and went to see "Despicable Me" (or "Super Bad" in Korea) in 3D. It was great.
Then we had some funky-style fries and walked and talked a bit more before my return bus. Another great nap followed.

So ended my awesome vacation. :d

Korea Life Blog 8 --Pensions

Pensions!

So, apparently a pension isn't just the Korean version of a tax return, it's also a place to go on weekends and holidays.

Going to a pension, is like renting out a condo for a few days. They have them in different places, the country, the sea, so on...

I went with some friends to a pension in the country. It was rather close to "Ocean World" but we didn't go. Which was fine with me, since I've heard it's expensive. Our 'condo' had two bedrooms, a living room with a kitchen, huge bathroom, and a large deck. At night we had BBQ and there was the option of karaoke in the next building.

Then there was the countryside itself. It was really beautiful. There were fields, mountains, and a huge raging river that was bulging from the recent rains.

Though there wasn't much to do, I didn't see it as a problem. It was a great place to relax and breath.

August Update

I know it's been about a month since I posted, and I left off on a bad note, so let's get to work.

Last month was ridiculously stressful for me. During my vacation I realized that my work owed me money for orientation that I never received and therefore had to speak to my boss. I find that I can't talk to my boss about anything work related without my face twitching, which makes it really hard to talk nicely. (I don't know what that is, it's new.)

I also had to attend TTC (teacher training courses) for 3 out of 4 of the Saturdays in August from 9am-5:30pm, which it took over an hour by train and bus to get to and from. So I really didn't have any time to wind down and relax last month.

The second week we got a new foreign teacher. No one had time to take out her out and introduce her to the area. Since no one had time when I came either and I was pretty lost and bothered. So, I took it upon myself to take her out. Not that I'm that nice, but if you can remember your first weeks in a new country, you know you need some to be helpful.
That Friday I went to a Korean classical concert. It was amazing! I really want to go again. There were guest performances and a comedian, who is apparently famous but I didn't understand at all, so no point in me caring. :-p Still it was great.
After the second TTC, I found out on Sunday that my grandfather had died. It was incredibly sudden for me and a huge blow. I have a rather busy schedule on Mondays but I really needed some time to sort out my feelings, so I asked off for Tuesday. That didn't really work out. My boss told me that no one could take my classes, but that if someone had a free period they could teach, but that I still had to sit in on the classes.
So I taught two classes and didn't find out until the passing period that there was someone scheduled to teach each of my classes for the rest of the day. If I had known ahead of time, I'd have left. Meanwhile, I sat through another five classes with someone else teaching and my students not paying any attention because they were trying to figure out why there were TWO teachers in the room.
Then my work deducted 70,000won (app. $70) from my pay for "missing" one day when I was not allowed to leave. Mind you, that’s WAY more money than I make in a day…

The last week I had phone teaching (calling the students at home so they have to speak in front of their parents), it went well.
My friend had an art exhibition which I went to as well. It was fun and interesting. It was a merger of Korean and Japanese student’s works.
Then was my birthday party, which was an interesting night full of food and karaoke! Then I rested for a day.

The last Monday I went to E-mart (the big grocery store) and was sadly disappointed and annoyed at the outcome. The outcome being that I went in search of lettuce to make salad, and while I found about 20 different kinds of greens, none were the plain lettuce or romaine that I wanted. I paid 6,000 (app $6) for good American spaghetti sauce only to come home and hear no *pop* when I opened the lid and some crusty sauce around the outside. People, don't open the jars in the store and put them on the shelf!!! Seriously!
I also had two huge bags of groceries and could not manage to get a taxi to come home! I looked for a bus, and finally asked an older woman, who luckily was helpful. When she found no buses there that went to my stop, she hailed a taxi for me.
So, it's not all bad. :)
End of my August Update--Sorry, no pictures this time...