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.

oh no oh dear

I'm feeling slightly worthless. set off by my uselessness. less ness use.

Judith (my buddy from India) was in Myanmar with her son and just got out yesterday. The letter she had sent me last week spoke of the struggle of the people living there, and this was before the shit hit the fan. And now the shit has hit the fan, the decrepit fan, the falling apart fan where there are bad sparks when you plug it in and there's not even enough motion to create a wind to send those ribbons attached to the cage flying. i can't imagine or understand the struggle of those people and this was before the cyclone.

Oh no, here we go - i feel worthless and existentialism is telling me to go and do something significant and give some meaning to my life. aim, design, end goal, intent, mark, pint, purpose, target, view. WHY.

I'm feeling guilty because i cried over stupid king kong when he died in that stupid movie that cost a milliondy dollars to make. I feel guilty because i want to buy new shoes. I feel guilty because i want to help people for my own selfish reasons. but doesn't everybody? mother Theresa was totally doing it for her own reasons.

I sound 19.

time to stop being 19 and figure out a solution. that's being at least 21. but my problem is that i don't want to spend time inside of myself. I don't know how. that's why i love distraction. give me a good ol' distraction any day. so, how do people self-reflect and move on and change and all that shat? make decisions about life. figure it out. or do they just get drunk or fall on their head and suddenly "get it".

probably not or i would have REALLY gotten it by now.

anyway, this disaster will fade and the flowers on my windowsill will die and i will feel this way time and time again (unless i just get up now and run away).

this here is a distraction for both you and me. me and you. and you and me.