everyone's gonna love you aka things i like

paintings of korea from 1922

patterns

woodblocks

talking to my mum on skype

thimbles and fabrics

Jen Corace

my kindies

chinese festivities in 1922

you and me and me and you.....

because

when i taught at schoooooollllll...

1. excited for this weekend, Daegu and art show.
2. biking home drunk with hole playing loud in my ears. i know. hole.
3. why is korea better this time around, not that there was a time before, but i guess there was? pre march. the time before being
4. i shouldn't write drunk.
5. teri mcneil how great it is to hear your voice. i totally just typed titinstead of it and i found it sooo funny.
6. should be a number six but there aint. too tired.

boring bundang

lately I haven't left bundang all that much. well actually i haven't left it at all. Even though we had days off and I wanted to make plans and go to the city or county, I couldn't. I just stayed at home. Good job andrea.

So it's just been me and Sam sam, my new computer ( i do miss those Hangul characters) and a bunch of bad dates from a recent post i made on Craig's list.  

the schools are going well, or at least going anyway, I've gotten used to this new schedule and the extra piles of work.

I think I'm in love with one of the gym instructors.  he has this tear shaped scar beside his lip on his cheek and all i think about when biking my butt off in front of him, is that i want to kiss that scar away.  crazy i know.  one of the many stupid things i think about when exercising.  

it's raining it's pouring.

next weekend i'm going to be in Daegu. The Chingari kids pictures and my pictures were accepted into a gallery show. I'm tres excited!

xoxo

mr 호박

If life wasn't complicated enough I join this bag of shit.

I click on a profile and this is what I read:

i'll not accept those people:

1. the gays (including lesbians)

2. the people who judge a man by his appearance.

3. the egoists (i can't bear them)

4. over 33 years old.(sorry but nowadays, i feel i'm such old. dont wanna that feeling)

My Ideal Person:if u like travelling, conversation, advanture or u r warm hearted and broad-minded person, we can be good friends.

Favorite television shows: movie chanal Favorite films: man on fire

aaaaaaaaahahahah the gays! They will never accept "the gays"! I'm glad this individual is looking for a warm hearted and broadminded person. idiot. and is the movie channel supposed to be a tv show? I hate you whoever you are!

I've submitted an application to be part of an Art Show in Dageu and I think I've been accepted. My application was quite impressive.

In one word describe what inspires you: LEFTOVERS

What is your favourite thing about Korea: EATING FROM THE SAME BOWL AS OTHERS

What does art mean to you?: STUFFING SOCKS AND SEWING BUTTONS ON THEM.

yup, I'm a winner.

I shouldn't watch

documentaries on North Korea because they make me terrified to live anywhere close to the county. I have no idea what this one I am watching is called but it's mostly interviews with defectors and what they have to say, it's terrible and terrifying.

Now back to my own selfish blabber. this week was totally stressful due to the fact that my school decided to fire the other English teacher (they gave him a whole weekend notice!) because the children didn't like him anymore. This guy had taught there for 4 years! 4 friggen years! No one is Korea stays at the same school for 4 years. Anyway, good bye Pete Teacher, oh and Andrea Teacher, can you take over his class and work more hours per week, and by the way, we aren't going to pay you anything extra. ha....hahahah... hahahah.. what a bunch of fucking idiots.. I can't believe they were actually surprised when I told them that I was "SO sorry" aka go fuck yourselves and don't fire the other teacher!?

This was also the week of seeing Koreans actually biking on the road! Yes, surprise surprise I biked behind someone on the road for the FIRST time ever in my 2 year biking life in Korea.

Maybe drivers will start getting used to seeing bikers on the street and be able to drive by me without honking at me, yelling at me, trying to kill me, telling me to bike on the sidewalk because they are worried about me etc etc.

my cell phone is currently being held together with tape

datum

weekend away in Muuido. sandy feet, sun shine and leaving Bundang is always welcome and wanted. The weekend started too early though, with me meeting Korean Jenny and then western Jenny for drinks Wed and Thursday. Jason came down on Friday and a bunch of us went to eat 참치 (delicious raw tuna) and of course drink kettles of ohshipsayju. Jason and I talked at length about a big trip to Nepal and India come March or April - which leaves me quite clueless as to do come March when my contract is up and I'm free to go or stay and get another job. Now that I'm working hours that most would consider normal but I consider crazy, I'm leaning more towards going away after the contract is up because I know I'll be awfully burned out and dying for some backpacking anyway. When ever dearest Jason stays over, he makes me stay up way too late and drink too much! It's not his fault, I'm easily persuaded - but I always regret it the next day, especially when we have to get up early to go to Muuido. But we got up, and took the airport bus and then a bus to the ferry and then the ferry and then a bus to the beach. whew. thank god transit is AMAZING in Korea. Everything is connected here by buses or subways or trains, and if it's not you can always take a cab for next to nothing. loves it. We meet up with about 20 others and rented little huts on the beach. I love meeting people, but it makes me so sad because these people live so far away that I probably will never see them again. This has happened so many times, with the Chuncheon girls, and other people I've met while travelling. You know seoul isn't that far away , but when you meet someone who lives on the other side of Seoul and you live on the other side of the other side it sure doesn't make it easy to become close friends. We sit around a bonfire with 3 people on guitar and the rest of us singing Bob Marley to our hearts content. One of laura's friends brought her fire spinning thingies so we all got to spin fire (auntie debs you would have been proud!) The beach we went to was called Hanagae Beach and as nice as it was the swimming sucked. The tide went out, wayyyyyyyy out and it was just mud flats for what seemed like miles. Also when the tide was in, the water never went past our knees. But it was fantastical to just get out for the weekend. hoo!) there is still sand in my ears...

remember how much you loved spike from degrassi high?

today was freaking melancholy. listening to modest mouse in the rain provoked the mood for sure. Friday night and I'm home sewing! then after I finish making little sock monkey I decide to torture my poor cat. yup someone is bored. I just want to go dancing.

can't stop the love

today I was in such a good mood and grinning so wide i nearly ingested a dragonfly when I was biking along the Tanchon. but then again it sure is dragonfly season!

garden love

.....Since I'm posting about articles, here is one that I wrote for Alternatives Journal. Just click on the article and it will open up full sized in another window.

the write time

the article I did on the Bhopal kids is now published in Sage magazine.. you can read the magazine and the article here!!

Jeollanamdo time

12 days off is never enough, but it did give us enough time to hit some of the "hot spots" in Korea's most southern province Jeollanam-do. My sister flew over for 2 weeks, and after partying at good ol' dubs and monkey beach in seoyheon, we got a train down to Boseong - green tea land! Julie had her first love motel experience, a lot cleaner than she expected ㅋㅋㅋ a taxi took us to the fields which grow something like 80% of Korea's green tea. they were pretty breathtaking to say the least, but I'm a sucker for symmetry. Well not much else to see in Boseong really, well, maybe there is but we sure didn't stick around. After locking ourselves inside the hotel room - and trying to mcgyver our way out (we finally realized that hey, i have a phone and we can call the hotel and scream 502, room 502 key no, in broken Korean - that someone will come rescue us) we headed to Wando. Wando is one of the many islands dotting the south west coast. I had read in the lonely planet that Sinji-do, a smaller island off the coast of Wando had beautiful beaches. So I'm totally picturing you know, quiet small island deserted beach. ha ya right. After our bus ride which drops you right off at Myeongsasimni beach, we walked into mayhem! Tents, people, people PEOPLE, food, more tents and those yellow swimming tubes EVERYWHERE!!! aughh! but you know, the next day, tuesday everybody disappeared! it was fantastic! Our little tent was seriously one of the hand full of tents that were left, AND the tent adjoshe never came by! camping at the beach was nice and then we met these 3 Korean dudes who were awesome. We had a bbq tent party with them and the next day we all hiked up a mountain to see a temple. My sister couldn't get over the Korean people wearing clothes in the water phenomenon. I actually think that a lot more Koreans were wearing bathing suits and bikinis this year compared to last, but it's still shocking to see a whole mass of people going for a dip in their Sunday best. So off we go back on the bus and another bus and head to Haenam, home of something special (a guy on the bus told me what it was, some kind of bird or something or maybe a reed?) to stay in the mountains of Duryunsan Provincial Park. We went to this beautiful zen temple complex - Daedunsa Zen temple complex -that was really well hidden in the forest and sooooo very huge and we got to hear some monks chanting and more fun temple stuff. When we got to the forest zen temple zone, (after hiking up some huge hills to the hostel we were staying at) we saw lots of people camping in the forest, which we though what idiots we are! we could have camped here, but you know it is cicada season and we probably wouldn't have been able to sleep. 1 sleep later and off to Gwangju (Koreas 5th largest city) where we find another cozy love motel to bunk down in for our last 2 nights away. We travel to the Damyang to see the bamboo forest and bamboo craft fair. OMG what a let down! The forest was beautiful, but so hot and of course there were some nice plastic pandas to welcome us. We did get lost in it though - the red trail and orange trail were basically the same colour. The market was the equivalent of those 3 stores in china town in Toronto that sell all that bamboo stuff made in China. We did eat some delicious haemul pajeong made from bamboo, drink some southern version of makalie and have some bamboo noodles. delicious! Gwangju is sort of like seoul or any other korean city really. We stayed by the bus station where nothing is going on. and thinking the "downtown" was within walking distance (which hey, it could be if you chose to walk to right way) we ventured out to find some nightlife. The shopping area was nearly an exact replicate of Myeongdong in Seoul. We never made it to the bar area which i'm sure would have been another replicate of hongdae or the like. We did norae bang it up though! Our last day it was too hot to do much, we stayed inside and saw the sights of the National Museum (pretty good museum actually) and watched Dark Night. Then the monsoon which had held out for the entire trip broke free and it rained. boy did it rain. then julie jumping over a puddle fell and broke her foot! But somehow we managed to get back home the next day.

Bundang the great

infatuation station

this post could be a million bullet points to sum up the last month of non posting. well not a million because certainly i haven't been doing much. so just a few then. . on my way to school i see a cat on the sidewalk. cats just don't hang out on the sidewalk in korea. an adjjuma wearing a huge visor comes along and pokes it with one of those picking up garbage thongs. now i'm crying because i've realized that the cat is half moving and this adjjuma is poking it with a picking up garbage thong. i call jenny, she can't understand me because i'm crying. i call korean jenny begging her to call the animal rescue service. ha... animal rescue service, in korea? for cats!? you got to be kidding. long story short korean jenny and i take street cat to the vet and it dies. oh poor little street cat. and the vet shows me two little baby kittens hit by cars at the age of zero and well i become selfish and realize that i CAN have a baby kitten if i want and take one of them home (the brain damaged one with only 3 working legs). Jenny takes the other (the non brain damaged one with 4 working legs). .dating a Korean boy who couldn't speak much English sure was hard. and was not possible in the end. frustration station - which made me feel like a bag of shit. .my sister is here! she has now been asleep for 13 hours. we will travel to the south on Sunday and go camping and beaching and relaxing. please no more typhoons and monsoons. I'm so done with the rain. .i've found me another job. with housing. whew! so now I'm excited to be making money and to start actually saving (well paying back student loans). it's also time that i work more than 3 hours a day and stop getting pedicures at noon. i hope my new apartment is as nice as this one. .i've stated actually enjoying my gym, which is great news because now i love going there. before i forced myself to get up at 7 in the morning and go run before making a mad dash for school. now it's all morning for me, (well, me and 3 working legged cat who makes so much shit in that litter box) and i go to the gym at night to join in spinning classes and box fit and some other fit classes that make me pant and sweat like i love. . it's my b-day on the 11th so make sure you send me all packages via yesterday... .폭력배

He shows up at my door....

bearing gifts of morning time coffee, chusock sized boxes of melons, kim chi (that his mum made) and once at 6:30 in the morning with an umbrella. I'm trying to figure out if it's him being uber Korean and having to bring me something each time he comes to my house or if he is just the most amazing person ever.

But the language barrier is strong, and I'm feeling it a lot, mostly because I just can't ramble on and on at a high speed about anything and everything. it's just not possible. If we are together and someone calls me, i switch from slow English for beginners to BFF on the phone with swearing and slang in .1 seconds and his face contorts and he has a different English to study.

But it's really nice having a boyfriend that is Korean (well, I'm saying boyfriend here but really i have no idea!) I get a new view of Korea. Korean people's houses and Korean friends who don't speak English or are not English teachers. Trips to the countryside and places that only Koreans seem to know.



Last weekend was a long one, with no work on Friday. Jenny and I decided to have a little shit show and started our day with a drunken picnic and continued it all day through bars and nori bang.

some eye candy...

look at how absolutely adorable the 5 year old kindies are.

picking blackberries makes me excited! reminds me of the
days as a young lass in the brambles in Ireland

ok this picture is absolute halair, i'm so into it, probably
singing some song (most likely ABC rock) that the kids are
so not into. what i really mean to say is
teaching your children makes me make this face

well no, not really

you know it's going to rain now

and also rain 5 out of every 7 days for the next two months. monsoon season divinely blows. we were supposed to go camping this weekend, another long weekend, but it's been raining (and i mean RAINING!) everyday since urm maybe last week sometime. I also keep on biking to work and other various places hoping that I'll be biking through those 1 hour no rain blocks that sometimes appear. today made it - dry pants and all! the last 3 days, not so lucky!

So I'm really into owls. why? i dunno, big eyes and the twisty head thing and maybe because of the word hooters? i think it's mostly that 70's feeling of brown and orange colours and memories of crocheted and knitted owls for years ago.

nothing much today, prattle and ramble and bramble bee me.

last week we took the kids to 양방 for a picnic at a cottage that my boss owns. we had a wonderful time picking blackberries and eating watermelon and I just couldn't help thinking how wonderful it was that this was my job.

outta touch

with a large group of misfits that i call my friends and that i clearly belong with. It's like I've forgotten that the phone and the post exist. I like writing letters but now i'm lazy and maybe slightly depressed or just not wanting to do a lot of things i used to really enjoy. Anyway, this out of touch-ness has got to end because really one day i will show up at your door and I would like it if we remembered each other's faces.

but enough of that. It's monday. should we talk about the weekend? I haven't posted on here in awhile, mostly to avoid talking about my life

but this weekend, fantastical. 1st Hong Il and I had a day date planned (this is pony tail boy) where we scooted all around town on his little scooter. being me of course i was terrified the moment i got on the thing, i really really REALLY don't trust people driving me on any kind of two wheeled vehicle. I won't sit on the back of your bike unless i'm drunk and it takes a lot to put me on the back of a scooter. but by the end of the night i was like, holy shit i've never had so much fun. We biked to this huge market (like the food terminal down in etobicoke) and i met his brother the fruit wholesaler. then we went to Lotte Dept. Store , which is just a giant mall, to go ICE SKATING! yay! thank god i went with nash and brock in Amsterdam because I was totally not scared at all and didn't fall once! and ice skating on our first "date", really, best ever. then 2nd, kim and alex called on friday and they come to bundang for the weekend, so i meet kim and we run around town to bars with friends and then end up in Hongdae (the cool area to go and party) and dance at seoul's version of the dance cave until maybe 7 in the morning.


here is a picture of me on one of the 20 hour train rides in india. i love it because i want it again and again and again.
it's june now and life is ever changing.

i'm really happy for a bunch of things this month.

ponytails included.

my students are all wonderful and it's a long weekend AGAIN!

let's just hope this early monsoon we are having will not last forever.

ciao bellas and different fellas

and another one bites my ass

well, no I don't even know you, so no, I don't like you, no matter how drunk and nice and flirtatious i seem. Maybe i shouldn't act like i like you if i don't. but i have no idea how to turn off the nice sometimes.

You on the other hand, I really like you, I know you and love you and you are my life. and by the way I miss you.

And then there's you, and you don't know i like you. but i do and make me some more animals please. And that ponytail is cute. cute as fuck.

weekends spent away from home

are wonderful and make me feel like I'm traveling again, even though guess what aj, you're not really, but you can pretend, well until you get to school on Monday morning.

But let's just pretend for the moment that Monday morning doesn't exist.

1. i am obsessing with the mid to late 90's, especially by watching a million videos on you tube where bands are running through the streets of Toronto
do i actually miss snowy days on bloor street? ack! i miss snowy days on bloor street, when i was 16 and waiting outside of lees palace to see a million bad bands that i was in love with.










2. Japan for 6 days wasn't long enough. le sigh. I love it there, the people, the environmental responsibility that is practiced by the country. The small streets, with small wooden house and garbage cans, and no one staring and temples and bicycles and this strange sense of total normality even though it's Japan. And they make the best sushi. and they have shoe dryers when you come in from the rain with wet shoes. We stayed with a little man in his wooden house/hostel and felt like a quirky family for 3 days. biking all over Kyoto, the most beautiful little streets and giant gorgeous gardens surrounding temples. Off to Osaka which for some reason reminds me of Toronto? There are homeless people, there are stray cats, and bicycles and a little dirt on the streets. I met a dude when i was buying traditional Japanese work boots in the seedier area of town and we went out for lunch and beers and he took me on a bike tour of the city. randomness makes my life better

3. I went with Justin and Jagz to Wonju for the weekend. An hour or 2 outside of bundang. We went to visit friends Kim and Alex who have moved out there now for university jobs.


it's raining a lot.
drip drop.
drip drop.