Dog & Chips

Leaving Korea

2009-06-03T12:35:00.010+01:00

It's been 6 months, a great adventure full of new experiences and friends and I'm ready to pursue what I love most... Horses. I have missed them dearly. My plan is to take my BHS (British Horse Society) Exams which I have been putting off. I need the education and Certs to back up my experience, most legit horse jobs require BHS. So fingers crossed I can look back on this year and know I made the right decision.

I'm gonna miss Korea, even though Korea & I have a love/hate relationship. Mostly I'm gonna miss Shane who will be here until November and then coming to Ireland for a short European adventure with me before he heads home to Texas for Thanksgiving, which he is already extremely excited for!

I don't want this to be a sad post! I want to reflect on my great adventure with Shane, know I'm gonna see him again very soon and look forward to MANY MORE adventures with him, which no doubt we'll have!!!

A slight rip off from Ashley's Blog but I feel the same so here goes:

Things I WONT miss about Korea:

Hagwon life

The communication fails

Language Barrier

The nasty beer

The price of cheese

Scary Adjumas

The smell of fish everywhere

The smell of sewerage everywhere

Squid

Everything is last minute & mandatory

Being sick after eating anything

People parking wherever they feel like

Speakeasy

The noisy cats from the cat castle

Living & breathing in TIGHT Asian spaces

The lack of horses

Things I WILL miss about Korea:

SHANE (but I'll see him soon enough..wohoo)

The cute kids I teach

Shabu-Shabu (Favorite meal here)

Cheap drinks

Cheap food

Cheap health care

Cheap everything

Crazy cab drivers

There are No traffic laws

There is No copyright laws

There is No open container laws

How safe it is here

Riding bikes by the river

The transport systems

Twilight & wine nights with Kelly & Kelsey, the Cullen Sisters

Songs & the Irish girls & Co.

The Ridge

All my FRIENDS!

Maybe I'll be back someday. Not to teach.

But to once again experience the crazy culture it has to offer.

Bye Korea!!!

Woah Beefy Koreans!!!

2009-06-01T03:59:00.008+01:00

Yesterday, Shane & myself attended a Bodybuilding tournament in Gwangju. One of our instructors/friends at our gym was competing. It was ridiculous. Beef Beef Beefy Beefcakes!
They were like an ARMY of muscle!

Nice panties boys!

There was a half time show that I know Aine would really enjoy as she is the 'Spinning QUEEN', also... Mam you might pick up a few cool moves for your spin class at Westwood! ha!

(See Video below!)

This is our friend 'Jay' doing his thing... beefy!

(Video below!)

Sinji-Do Beach Trip

2009-05-27T07:24:00.017+01:00

Last weekend, ten of us... Shane, Justin, Caitlin, Matt, Ashley, Kelly, Kelsey, Jesse, Lucas and me went on a beach trip to Sinji-Do beach. We got a 2 hour bus ride to Wando which is on the south-west coast of Korea and then a local bus over a bridge to Sinji-Do Island (Follow the link for a map). From the beach you can see some of the thousands of Islands that dot the Korean coast line. It was a really pretty view! Saturday was a little overcast but still nice enough for shorts and hanging out on the beach.

Myself & Kelsey enjoying the sun chairs

We stayed in a Minbak which is basically a room which you can share with a bunch of people and they provide sleeping pads and blankets. Ours actually provided a bed and a small kitchen area. It also had a great view of the beach and there were a few small local stores dotted along the boardwalk to buy beer, supplies and of course fireworks. ha!

View from the Minbak

Beach of dead bodies

Korea apparently has a strict beach season of June to August, so the beach was mostly bare. There were a few families hanging out and a few groups of Koreans having relay races.

We grilled on Saturday night, which consisted of sausages and buns, veggies, dips and chips. Then we shot off some fireworks.

On Sunday, the sun was out. Justin cooked us all toast and scrambled egg breakfast sandwiches and then we all lathered up on sun lotion, packed our belongings and headed down the beach to set up camp for the day.

The Boys - Shane, Matt, Justin

Shanes flying catch

Ashleys Korean Beach Pose
Some beach reading - Caitlin & Kelly

We attracted 3 Italians who hung out with us on the beach and another Canadian guy, not to mention the random Koreans that came over to get their picture taken with us. Later that day we headed back to Gwangju, just in time for a pizza dinner with Shane. Great Weekend!!!

My adventure in Korea is nearly over, only a week & a half to go.

Gonna miss my Shane...again. x

Jimjilbang - The Naked Truth

2009-05-26T08:51:00.009+01:00

For my Birthday... Ashley, Caitlin & Kaisa brought me to the Korean Jimjilbang which is the naked hot-tub & sauna spa. A tad arkward at first, it ended up being a great way to nurse my Sunday hang-over. Once you excepted the nakedness, it was perfect, so relaxing and refreshing.

The Jimjilbang is such a huge cultural thing in Korea. Mothers, Daughters, Aunts, Grandmas, old, young and ladies of all sizes partake in this spa. It all begins where you pay approx. 5,000 Won ($4/3Euro), you are given your locker key, two towels and off you go, into the unknown.

You head into the locker room where there are little concession stands, you can buy all sorts of body scrubbers, snacks and different random toiletries. The when you reach your locker, you strip down, you may as well forget trying to cover yourself up, as the towels you are given are tiny.

Then you take your toiletries and head for the shower area. You must scrub before you enter any sauna or hot-tub. Korean ladies of all sizes are hanging out, scrubbing each other, scrubbing their children and socialising, all naked, all very comfortable in their surroundings. If you were on your own, no doubt they'd offer to scrub your back for you. They gave us the odd glance, no more than when I'm walking down the streets in Korea. I felt like they gave us less notice in the Jimjilbang which was a relief, we were just more naked bodies hanging out. If took a little while to get used to the idea.

As soon as your clean, your ready for the baths. You may choose from several different baths of different temperatures and types. There is a green tea bath and I've heard of Jade baths and charcoal baths. Some are freezing cold, some are scalding hot, some have power jets and others have fountains. You can also visit the sauna and steam rooms where the ladies all sit on the hot floors chatting to each other. You can also order a large bowl of ice coffee to share with your group. Perfect!

If you want a massage, mud mask, full body scrub or hot stone treatment, you can pay extra Won for this. The ladies giving the massages in the back look scary. They put you on a bed, straddle you and then pummel every part of your body. I did not partake in such torture, although I was tempted.

You can spent hours here and in most Jimjilbangs there is a room with a heated floor that provides blankets and sleeping pads where you can spent the night for no extra charge. Amazing!

I don't have pictures for obvious reasons... and yes, where there is a ladies Jimjilbang, there is always a guys equivalent next door.

Special Lockers @ E-Mart

2009-05-12T11:39:00.004+01:00

So even though I've been here 6 months & I've shopped in E-Mart weekly, I've only just noticed the special lockers by the door. There is a line of lockers where you can put your bag while you shop (which I've used) BUT as you get to the end there are "special lockers" with transparent doors and airholes. With closer inspection they have pictures of puppies on them and some Korean writing.

Dog Lockers for when your shopping!!!

I could just imagine Americans trying to shove their labradors in the tiny lockers if Walmart had them! haha!

Tigers Korean Wedding

2009-05-12T08:32:00.011+01:00

My experience of a Korean Wedding KICKS everything elses ass I've seen in Korea. It was by far the most cultural shocking event I've attended!

It was Tigers Wedding, he works at my school. Yup...that's his English name. Aaaand I named him... haha! Seriously... He was wearing a Golf shirt when he asked for an English name, we couldn't remember or pronounce his Korean one, so I immediately though "Tiger Woods", although no matter how many times I correct him... he's positive I named him after the animal and growls and paws at me DAILY!!!

I don't even know where to start to explain this Wedding and I know I'll never do it justice... it was a "you had to be there" sort of experience, but I'll do my best!

So Koreans get married in a Wedding Convention Center or a "Wedding Factory" as we called it. There is several rooms with several Weddings all happening simultaneously, AND Weddings back to back in each of these rooms, one after the other. They just pump them through every hour. Everyone from all the separate Weddings congregate in the large hallway connecting the rooms waiting their turn. The groom and family are hanging out there too but the Brides have their own special poka-dot decorated small room, where they sit for pictures. The Wedding guests line up outside these rooms to go in and congratulate and take pictures with the Bride.

Tiger was a General in the Army so he had some Soldiers as an escort for him, lining the aisle the Bride and Groom walked down... with SWORDS!

(Check out the fake smoke above)

The Mothers (wearing Korean Traditional Hanbuk Clothing) were escorted in first by these girls I can only describe as air stewards dressed in pink and black. (below)

Then the Soldiers did their march and positioned themselves with their swords making an arch for the Groom to enter alone and then the Brides entrance with her Father. When Tiger walked in... they played some "Eye of the Tiger" pumping background music for his entrance and the Bride had something similar but more of an electronic beat. Strange!

The once they were at the stage/alter (I don't even know what you would call it) the Korean man/Priest??? waffled on in Korean for a while, while fog machines blew out fake smoke every now and then... giving the illusion that the Bride and Groom were standing on a cloud. Tacky and jaw-dropping!

Then some Korean guy sang them a love song, followed by a ten minute slide show of the couple, all professional taken pictures, all pretty much the same. All of this must have been part of their wedding package.

At this point the Bride was balling crying (I would have been too!). Then the Soldiers returned for their exit walk, which began with the Wedding March anthem and quickly changed to an electronic version which trailed off... As a planned joke, each of the Soldiers would put their swords in front of the newly wed couple as they walked back down the aisle and made them do a task so they could pass...The Wedding guest were all laughing! They made tiger do push-ups, they had to hug and then Tiger had to speak into her boobs??? Seriously!!! The Bride is still crying hysterically at this point.

To top if all off.... WE.. as in the foreign teachers, there was probably 10 of us invited, were in the Wedding photos. I don't think any of us even knew Tigers Wife's name?!!!

In the audience for this Wedding... people were answering their phones, kids were playing their Nintendo, people were asleep and I even saw one man attend in a pair of sweat pants.

Following the Theatre performance/Wedding, we were handed meal tickets where we went to a huge Buffet dining hall along with all the guest of all the other Weddings taking place that day and found a table to sit down and eat!

It was the craziest, most impersonal Wedding I've ever attended.

Korea YOU WIN!

Baseball Game.:.Gwangju Kia Tigers

2009-05-12T08:06:00.008+01:00

On Sunday I attended my first ever Baseball game. I was told there are a few differences between Asian baseball games and the rest of the World. Firstly, in America they check your bags and you can't bring alcohol into the stadium. In Asia we arrived with bags full of beer and a lot of the Koreans had huge boxes of fried chicken to snack on (when the fry chicken, they fry the WHOLE chopped up chicken... necks, feet...etc! Gross!). Secondly, they told me that Baseball games aren't generally as packed, we had to stand because the stadium was teeming with people. Apparently there's no fire codes in Korea so they just keep selling endless tickets and letting more and more people squash in.

I perceived Baseball as more of a social event rather than a sporting event, despite peoples best efforts to explain what was happening on the field, I hadn't a clue... and didn't really care, I was busy hanging out with everyone, enjoying a beer (well that's an over-statement, Korea's beer is crappy!) and taking in the sun. I think I'd like to experience my next game... post-Asia.

Rock Climbing at Gurye.:.Trip1&2

2009-05-11T08:13:00.020+01:00

This was our second trip to Gurye (pronounced Goo-Ray). We hopped on an hour bus from Gwangju, then a 10 minute cab ride which dropped us off at the side of a mountain. After a 10 minute hike in, we reached a rocky area, a narrow valley of two mountains where we were enclosed in rock walls, it is beautiful. On our first trip there was Myself, Shane, Ashley and Matt. The boys were rock climbing and Myself and Ashley had a few beers, listened to music, read books (I finished book 3 'Eclipse' of the twilight Saga!), Ashley did some stitching, I did some writing, we sizzled in the hot sun and then we had as Ashley called it "a mini Epic" where we got lost on the side of a steep mountain when we attempted a hike in sandals.

The boys checking out the surrounding climbs

Matt "Gushing the Nar"

Ashley stitching

The view from the top of the mountain, prior to getting lost & sliding down on our asses. Mini Epic!

Ashley doing some hardcore bouldering trying to impress the boys with her skills, although I think they are more interested in their next climb.

On our second trip there was Myself, Shane, Matt, Justin, Kaisa, Kihyun and Lucas. This time I attacked one climb, darting up the rocks like a professional, yeah right! I "Gushed the Nar" as Matt calls it, in his rock climbing terms. Matt, who headed both trips to Gurye has just got a job as a rock climbing guide on Cat Ba Island, Ha Long bay, Vietnam. Ashley will be accompanying him as the local English teacher, friend of the monkeys, Island bum and beer drinker. With 3 weeks 'till they leave, Matt has already begun to grow his Island man, rough beard, so he can fit in with the local Island bums of Vietnam.

Trip2: Justin, Shane & Matt doing some major "spotting" for Charlie. Yes... they are joking.

Here's some shots of me climbing, compliments of Justin :)

Hampyeong Butterfly Festival

2009-05-08T07:10:00.017+01:00

On Sunday the 3rd of May... Myself, Shane, Justin, Joey & his wife Chloe went to the 11th Annual Butterfly Festival in Hampyeong. The weather was HOT and HUMID and as usual, since we're in Asia.. it was packed with people. The whole town had a year-round Butterfly theme, check out the side of their mountain.

Justin, Joey & Shane in front of the Festivals mascots.

During the whole day we saw more dead butterfly exhibits than live ones and many other strange cultural happenings.

I bumped into two kids I teach who were there with their family, obviously a perfect photo opportunity for their Mother!

Look... an Ajuma (Older Korean Lady) ladybug!!

Shane & Myself in the LIVE Butterfly exhibit. There was also bees, frogs, crabs, fish and crazy looking water beetles on show... why not... the more the merrier! Shane loves Butterflies. haha!

There was also a fun park where we went on the Viking Ship! Poor Chloe was terrified! haha! Here's Myself, Justin & Chloe going for a gallop. This is the closest I've come to a horse in South Korea. haha! Sad Day :(

We sat underneath these sweet "flower trees" for a few minutes of shade, where we watched loads of Korean kids run through water fountains, and then one little boy ran right over to us and peed about a foot away on the grass... A little Korean old man nearly fell off a step laughing at the little boy peeing.

Another activity to get involved in: These kids (below) are in a mud pond searching for mud fish. The mud fish are leech looking creatures. Nasty. They could buy special buckets to bring them home in when they caught a ton of them. I'm pretty sure I know what they were having for dinner that night! Gross!

The next activity we passed was an enclosed field where the kids had to run around catching piglets and rabbits. PETA could have shut this place down for sure! If they caught an animal, they had to carry it back to the pen to collect their prize... which was none other than a bag of rice!

Last but not least there was a 'Cow & Milk' activity... you went around and had to do several tasks, for each task you received a stamp and with a full book of stamps you got to make your own ice-cream and then collect a prize of a pencil, or if you are Shane... beg the girl for the cow pencil sharpener! The tasks included, answering questions about milk, which we didn't understand cause it was all in Korea, they were nice and gave us stamps anyway... then you had to bottle feed a calf, then feed hay to some cows and then milk a cow.

All in all... it was a rather strange and wonderful day, with another look into Korea's Culture. It was a great day to be outside.

Ooh I forgot to mention, I got picked out twice to do interviews for a Newspaper and for the Korean News Channel. They just asked me where I was from and what I thought about the Festival. I'm Famous... In Korea. haha!

Work Sports Day

2009-05-06T04:33:00.011+01:00

So my School Avalon, our sister school Avalon Kumho Campus and Shane's School Reading Town had their staff Sports Day. These three schools are run by the same management, a husband and wife. On a mandatory Saturday, we were picked up by buses at 8am, probably in and around 100 staff. We made sure to get kitted out in sweatbands, sweet hats and wigs. On the bus they fed us DODGY breakfast, "toast" as they call it (toasted sandwich with egg, cheese, shredded cabbage & spicy sauce) and then brought us to hike a VERY steep mountain. Apparently in Korea, this sort of physical activity is known as staff bonding time. Each campus had their own color T-shirts which we had to wear. I'd say 30% of the staff bailed after a five minute attempt at the hike, at the top they counted how many of each color shirt had made it. After millions of photo ops where all the Koreans made their usual peace sign with their fingers, we headed back for the buses to see what torture was next.

After some stopping and starting of the buses, a few u-turns and a lot of indecision as to where we should go, they opted for a large school hall because the weather turned for the worst. We ate a Japanese lunch on the floor and then began our sports day.

Sports day consisted of a balloon popping game, balloon popping race, dodge ball, jump rope and taboo. It was a strange and hilarious day, full of new cultural experiences and we even got to learn a new set of rules for dodge ball. Yay! ha ha!

Korean Easter. Assah!

2009-04-21T12:37:00.007+01:00

For Easter, Justin & myself printed out 100 easter egg pictures & decorated the school. The kids were VERY confused as to why the place was decorated so. On Easter Monday, the Korean teachers handed out hard boiled eggs to the kids as an Easter treat. They were all real excited. I dunno how kids would react to hard boiled eggs back home.... I think they'd be annoyed they weren't being handed something chocolate. You know it's true!

Kelly invited the girls over to hers for some Easter crafts after work on the Friday of Easter weekend. She's very arty & apparently it's a tradition for her and her friends to do Easter crafts. We painted and decorated hard boiled eggs & iced a whole load of cookies. While drinking red wine... of course!!! Happy Belated Easter!!!! ooooh also my Mam sent me a big package with "real" easter eggs from Ireland. What a legend! xo

.:.Seoul Sistas.:.

2009-04-21T12:14:00.006+01:00

Can't believe 2 weekends have flown by since I was in Seoul with the Irish Girls AND the rest of that crew. Claire, Charlene, Edel, Vicky, Molly, Jocelyn and Elise. Was a great weekend. We headed up to Seoul on Saturday afternoon, on the train, beer in hand. We got 2 rooms in the Hamilton Hotel, ate goooood food in Geckos (huge juicy burger & chips) & headed out that night. We went to a few bars and ended up back in 'Janes Groove' where they played some sweeeet 80's music where we DANCED our faces off. On Sunday, we shopped, ate good food (mmm.. Lasange) and spent most of the day hanging out, chatting and having a great laugh in Geckos, while drinking frozen Margaritas, until the bus that night. GREAT girls weekend!

Edel & Vicky. I told them "If the wind changes, you'll stay that way"!! haha!

Charlene & Me . I don't think I have one "normal" picture from the weekend! They are all generally along the lines of us pulling faces, crossing our eyes & looking cRaZy ;p

:.Korean Punishment.:

2009-04-17T13:46:00.004+01:00

We... fortunately can send our kids to Detention when they show up to class with no homework or misbehave, some schools don't have this luxury. Although... it's more fun to make them stand against a wall with their hands up in the air for 15 minutes.

Here's some of our Middle School kids under the rath of Fiona, as she enjoys her ice-coffee:

Sucks to be you right now.

.:.Fire on the Ridge. Party. Deux.:.

2009-04-15T08:00:00.005+01:00

Last weekend we had our second Fire on the Ridge. There is a ridge on top of the mountain behind our apartment block, this is where the Secret Ajuma trail is, but when night falls it becomes a ghost trail, dotted with playgrounds and beer pagodas. By pagoda, I mean a small wooden hut, where we can sit, hang out and drink. We chose a perfectly placed pagoda which overlooked the lights of Gwangju in all its glory. This time we were minus Eagle Scout Matt so Shane stepped in with his 'man skills' and whipped up a quick fire. One by one people hiked up the mountain after work. By midnight everyone had arrived. We sat, drank, told stories, listened to music, I played some Guitar and we watched the city lights. As much as I like heading out on the town, I miss sitting round a fire, singing, story telling and having some banter.

At our last Fire on the Ridge party, Corey entertained us all with a rap as I gave him a backbeat on guitar. Sorry for not warning you about the treacherous hike Tiff, but you know it was worth it. As they say in Korea... "Assssah!!!"

.:.BOXES.:.

2009-04-15T07:49:00.005+01:00

I go from my box apartment (Windows with views of walls).

To my box Teachers Room (No Windows).

To my box classrooms (No Windows).

I live in BOXES.

Korean Vampires

2009-04-07T11:30:00.012+01:00

Spring has arrived & Summer is sneaking up quick, the sun is here and it's starting to finally get warmer. For us in the Western world... this means: take it all in, tanning time and wanting to be outside 24/7. For the Koreans on the other hand, they value their pale complexion. A tan means you work outside and you're lower class. Pale is beautiful. They usually cover EVERYTHING.

They even have face BLEACH products...... Geisha wannabes:

Whether it's a mask, a HUGE visor or even a towel, their skin is covered, from head to toe. Here is the infamous UV Protector mask also known as the 'Duck mask' as it makes them look like they have a pink duck beak:

Shane & myself spotted two young girls the other day running for the shade, holding their school folders over their faces, shielding themselves from the unforgiving sun. It's as if they are afraid of the sun. They may turn to dust. So I have come to the conclusion...

VAMPIRES.:. Definitely Vampires.

Ajuma Power.:.

2009-03-30T08:20:00.008+01:00

Ireland has it's mystical creatures, Greece has it's plentiful Gods, America's got BigFoot, Scotland's got Nessie & I guess Korea has the Ajuma... with herAjuma Power. An Ajuma is an older Korean lady, Ajuma means "Mother". They rule this land. You can see it in their eyes & Ashley told me, if you look enough of them in the eye you gain some of this power. They are NOT ladies to mess with. They work the land. Control the men. aaand are greatly respected. The Ajuma.

Ajumas roam Korea in packs. The high class ladies wear visors over there faces when the sun is shining down on them or any means to shade their precious skin. The whiter your face, the more beautiful you are in Korean culture. It's a sign that you don't work the land and are rarely outdoors.

They are not shy about giving you the once over either. There is nothing like a disapproving stare from an Ajuma to make you feel uncomfortable. You can try to stare them down, but prepare to be sorely beaten. They can also elbow like a Thai fighter. Don't go downtown shopping on a Saturday afternoon if your not prepared to stand your ground when the herd of Ajumas invade the shops. They show no mercy. Bumping into you and pushing people out of your way is just a way of life here.

The working Ajumas work the fields or any plot of land they spot. Most are bent over permanently from working on crop fields. They are a force to be reckoned with.

Beware of the Ajuma.

P.s None of these pics are mine, as I'm afraid to take a picture of these scary creatures.

The Tables have Turned.

2009-03-27T15:39:00.003Z

I spent the past week covering classes for Justin. Friend, runner, artist... on top of my own classes. Himself & Caitlin have gone to Bali but should be flying back as I write. We don't have substitute teachers here, everyone picks up the slack. I had to cover classes of which our eldest kids attend. Named the Nok-Ji-Won classes. They are mainly 16 year olds. I had to remind them that I also went to school once upon a time. So I know all the tricks.
The earphones up your sleeve & into your ear trick. Check. The pretending to write with my left hand while my right hand is busy texting on my phone trick. Check. The "if I put my hand over my face, she wont know I'm sleeping" trick. Check. My Dad actually taught me that last trick at Church. Catholic Church was never very inspirational. As for class tricks, I could go on.

Teaching the older kids made me miss my Elementary classes. Where I tell stories & they hang on my every word, where I joke, make amusing faces & they are not embarrassed to speak English. Not at that awkward, insecure, self aware stage. Where I can be stern & funny at the same time & they learn English in a fun atmosphere verses a lecture. I am NOT the lecturing teacher type. One of the Nok-Ji-Won kids told me "I feel like I'm in a game show. Your like a game show host". I guess that's the energy that works with my younger kids.

I love teaching kids. Kids are kids wherever you go. Whatever the culture. I love kids. But I also like giving them back to their rightful owners at the end of the day. I love teaching kids about what I'm passionate about. I miss sharing my horse knowledge with them. I feel like I've accomplished a lot more when I help a kid overcome a fear, create a bond with an animal, gain a sense of trust and make a lasting memory. I don't feel like I have achieved anything teaching children the different parts of a bicycle in English.

The classroom is too confined for me but I'm glad I have had a chance to experience it.
By each life experience, I edge closer to the realisation of what I want to work at and what I want my life to be. I change my mind regularly. Chronic Dissatisfaction. Boredom of routine.
I have come to accept that there's a lot more to experience on my journey until I stand still.
By standing still I'm referring to staying in one spot. One place. Satisfaction. A sense of continual accomplishment. Daily. I will find it.

St. Paddys Day in Korea

2009-03-17T12:44:00.007Z

I'm pretty sure there's millions of people in the world today celebrating St. Patricks day, but I wonder what percentage of these people actually know who St. Patrick is or what he did. I had to write down the story of St. Patrick in simple English to give out to the teachers at my school so they could read it to the Korean kids. I knew the general idea, but definitely had to research a little for the exact details. The Korean kids weren't too bothered by the first half of the story, except for the fact St. Patrick was stolen from Wales by Irish Pirates. I knew there was a reason Pirates talked in mumble like they did... they were Irish... duh! Anyways, the kids loved the 'banished all the snakes away from Ireland' part. My elementary kids asked me "Is this a real story?", "Did the snake really talk to him?". aaaand of course I told them "yeah, we love St. Patrick, cause we hated those talking snakes, they never shut up!!"

So since I was working late on the official Paddys day, I had my Paddys Day party last Saturday night at the 'Irish Girls' apartment. It was great craic! We sang and danced to the best Irish music, none other than Westlife, Bewitched, Mark McCabe and The SawDoctors (Kate, I sang SawDoctors in your honor!). Then when we had wrecked the heads of their neighbours enough we headed downtown to 'Songs' the German Bar, and then onto 'Fish & Grill' till 6am.

[Me, Charlene, Edel & Claire]

[We even had the owner of 'Songs'... Mr. Song, full of Irish Spirit]

[Me, Charlene & Kelsey (who is the newest addition to Avalon English)]

Last night, for the official St. Paddys Day celebration we went for a few local drinks to 'RedMonkey' where Kelly brought the green food dye for our beer!! Yay!!!

I hope wherever you were in the world you had a GREAT DAY!!! xxx

Cheerleading Ninjas

2009-03-09T05:12:00.013Z

So before I explain the title of this post, I have to give you the rundown of this weekend!

Firstly Shane headed on a boys camping weekend with Justin, brokeback mountain style. It was a great "ME" weekend. I was in need of some 'Me' time. I love hanging out with Shane but it's definitely difficult to have your own time and space when you live with someone in a two bed open plan apartment. Were working on it though! So I needed some fast greasy food, so I called up Jesse, who I knew wouldn't say no to an unhealthy lunch. A few burgers and laughs later I headed for a cycle (the weather was beautiful this weekend), then watched a chick flick and got some writing done. Later everyone came over to JoEun Villa 101, that's my place, had a few drinks, went downtown for some Galbi (grilled pork, goooood!) and then headed to a German bar, Songs. I got to hang out with the three Irish girls, Claire, Charlene and Edel.

AND for the Saturday night finale all the girls plus Jesse headed to 'Club Vanilla'. You pay a tener in and it's all the beer you can drink! It's FULL to the brim with stylish Koreans, who stand around the dancefloor until a song they know comes on, then they don't freestyle dance like normal club goers, they all have certain routines to certain songs. It's hilarious! We just danced our faces off 'till 5am. There was a dance competition at about 3am where guys breakdanced etc... and then one Korean girl (i'm pretty sure the Club pays her) stripped off.
Completely. Knickers 'n' all. On stage! It was very akward! Hilarious but akward. The music stopped and she ran off stage. Very random!!!

So, on Sunday... after a long morning of recovery, Shane returned from his beach camping trip, cold and sandy. A load of us headed to the Gwangju World Cup Stadium to see the free!!, first football (Soccer for you Americans) match of the season. Gwangju versus Daejeon. Gwangju kicked their arses, of course. It was a gorgeous day, we had some beer (The cure!) and
strawberries and sat in the sunny stadium stands with a great view of the game!

Sooooo... I should have known that instead of the usual cheerleaders, we are in Asia after all, they had CHEERLEADING NINJAS! Brilliant!!!

Here's a video I took of the Cheerleading Ninjas BRINGING SEXY BACK!!! (Warning it's loud!)

Since when do I have big feet?

2009-03-04T04:13:00.009Z

So I headed shopping with Tiff & Kelly... SHOE shopping. I have already had 4 shoe fail shopping days. There is A LOT of shoes. Korean girls are very girly and mostly wear mini skirts and high-heels on an everyday basis. This is too much hassle for me. I'm more of a t-shirt and jeans girl myself. Although I left all my pretty girl shoes in Ireland, for what reason, I do not know. To make a stupid long story short.
I bought a cute pair of shoes although I have to shop in the 'girls largest shoe section' as there isn't any high heels bigger than a size 5(Ireland)/7(American).
I KNOW!! Crazy. Those Asians & their damn small feet. My mate Caitlin has been turned away from some shoe stores as they tell her "no, no, feet too big".
My arse also doesn't even fit into the extra large skirts over here. Koreans don't have booties. Waaaay to give me a complex Asia!!! Also on my shopping trip we saw this realy sweet t-shirt.
If anyone has the guts to wear this back home, I'll buy you one! haha!

I would also like to point out, there are NO copyright laws in Korea. So you can use whatever picture you like, of anyone, and put it anywhere. Like the sign for our new local bar 'Redmonkey'. Hey look, it's the Coyote Ugly girls. But alas... there is no-one dancing on the bar in here. Unless my Mam and her best friend Trish come over to Korea. They are famous for such shananigans in NYC!

We have started a new semester in our school. It's Spring Semester! YAY! I have a lot of the same kids and a lot of newbies. Here's a few pictures I took of my Winter Semester Classes.
The Elementary kids are great fun!

[This is Jack (above), he's a little devil]

[This class is crazy, especially the boys, and especially 'Tim', the one infront]

[This is my fave class, of mostly boys, there's one girl, poor Melissa, the kid that looks like the Omen (infront) is Ben, he is probably my fave kid, such a little legend!]

Dralle Drama

2009-02-24T04:29:00.013Z

David Dralle (aka Dralle Drama) finally called and it was great to see a familiar face. We met up with Dralle & his friend Nick and headed for dinner. We had some pork stew thing and laughed at each other everytime we spoke any Korean. It was funny to see Dralle but not be at Frost valley! After dinner we went to the boys apartment, had a few beers and then headed downtown in Daejeon to some Christmas themed bar called 'The Santa Claus'. Yes I know.... VERY random! It was a pretty sweet bar, with free pool, free fuze-ball, free darts and free X-Box. Oh and all the free popcorn you could eat! I played lots of pool, ate so much popcorn, we drank a few pitchers of beer and we hung out with some of their Korean friends. It was a great night!

[Mr. Dralle himself]

[Bezzies!]

[I'm pretty sure I beat him in pool, several times!]

[Nick & Dralle]

[Shane making friends]

Later that night we headed back to the boys apartment and they serenaded us with a few songs and then I repayed the favor! They had been busking on the street, singing and playing and made a ton of money!! Well done boys! The next day, we had coffee, lunch, a good chat and then headed back to Gwangju on the bus (2 hour bus ride).

Daejeon Zoo FAIL

2009-02-23T04:10:00.012Z

This weekend we headed to Daejeon to visit DAVID DRALLE from Frost Valley/Tennesse.

When we arrived, alas, our phones would not work, typical. Dave was at the Zoo with his friend Nick, so we decided to head there and hope to spot Dralle, the tall blond boy, who we were sure would stick out like a sore thumb. Plus we were sure he'd call us at some stage that day!

So we headed into the Zoo, didn't spot Dralle, but saw some cool and some dodgy looking animals. They had pictures of Elephants and Giraffes but we didn't see them. Apparently you needed to pay extra to go on an "African Safari" to see the coolest animals.

So why this post is named "Daejeon Zoo FAIL" is because it was a rather strange Zoo. Big and spacious, but with no staff or security floating around. None. Most of the cages, bar the tigers and other cats, you could easily get into. I'm surprised half the animals hadn't escaped, as it looked quite easy for them to do so. PETA would also be all over this Zoo. Lots of the animals had dodgy legs and looked kinda sketchy healthwise. It made me kinda sad :(

If this was an American/European Zoo the cages would have been full of stupid people poking the deer or hugging the bears. Koreans are waaay too trustworthy. We also witnessed alot of older men banging on glass or wire cages to get the animals attention. Isn't that was little kids do? I wanted to knee cap the ignorant old men.

[If any of the animals wanted the escape, it really wasn't that hard]

[This mountain lion was eyeing up an Asian kid for dinner. I secretly wanted him to escape cause I felt sorry for him. Check out those humongous paws. He would have torn that kids face off]

[The Koreans were hand feeding this Camel crackers. There was no security to be seen]

[This guy had no space to hop around :(]

[This is Shane's fave type of Penguin. The Jackass]

[Love this picture. I wanted a go!]

[No comment needed!]

[I think the "Old & FEEBLE people" are supposed to take the ramp & not the stairs. Yet another brilliant Korean sign!]

[I miss horses alot. I guess a lion will have to do]

Then finally.... Dave called! Another post is on the way!

I gotta go to work :(

The Dog & Cat Cafe

2009-02-16T04:06:00.018Z

So for Valentines Day Shane brought me to The Dog & Cat Cafe in Downtown Gwangju. I have never seen such a bunch of ugly animals in my life, but at the same time they were really cute and loved to lie all over you and chew the buttons off your coat when you weren't looking.
Shane described the place as animal hell. It was pretty hilarious. They were all taken care of but had to wear ridiculous little animal clothing daily. I felt kinda sorry for them. Anyways, we sat at a sweet window seat overlooking the street, drank hazelnut coffee and played with the little feckers till I only had one button on my coat left. Here are some pictures of the "uglies":

[This is the official button eater]

[I'm pretty sure this little boy is having a gender crisis]

[The cats just lay around in their stylish outfits]

[These two pups were having a disagreement]

[The fox pup, he was my fave, I want to steal him]

[Even the kittens are pimped out in highstreet fashion]

[The big bear dog was behind bars, he was too big to be lying on customers]

[He was nay impressed]

[This old dog loved Shane & would growl if any other dog came near him]

[This dog is the stoner of the bunch]

[The lanky dog]

[She owned the Cafe]

[This one didn't move much, he hid under his hat]

[I'm pretty sure she had A.D.D]

Later that day, I forced Shane to watch a terrible chick flick at the cinema, which is always entertaining. There are Korean subtitles on the American movies and the Koreans laugh at random times when nothing funny is said. The cinema is an experience and a half.

After that we got some 'Outback Steakhouse' which just isn't the same as America, my stomach was nay impressed with the random switch to heavy Western food.... naaaay impressed!!!

I'm not a huge Valentines Day fan, but it was a good start to the weekend! The weekends go by too fast here... back to work :(

Konglish

2009-02-12T11:06:00.008Z

I seriously think my English speaking is deteriorating being here. I talk so much Konglish daily, trying to explain where I want to go or what I want, half in English, half in broken-Korean. I have definitely noticed myself falling over my words, mumbling in-coherently or using excessive body/sign language during normal conversations to native English speakers. Save me from my Korean madness. Even though I have my 'I hate Korea' days now and then, I really feel like I've accepted Korean life, not that I plan on staying here any longer than I have to, but it does have it's perks. One of them is NOT the exchange rate, the Americans think they get skrewed... I get completely fecked on the change over to Euro!!! Better just save my Korean Won so and change it over to some sweet currency that has an equal or better rate of exchange like ummm..... the Australian Dollar? That means that maybe I'd have to go there on my NEXT adventure right? Sounds like a good plan to me!!

So all my Elementary Classes had their final speaking and writing tests last week for the Winter semester. One of the Korean teachers managed to grab a few photos of me & them in action. haha!

[This is me interviewing one of my students James for this speaking test]

[I'm known as 'Lisa Teacher' round these parts :)]

[This is one of my classes doing their written test, these are some of my fave kids, the girl looking at the camera is Kate!]

[Interviewing Rachel, she's a great little artist, she always draws pictures on her essays and writes little notes saying 'Love you Lisa Teacher']

[Tiffany, Nikki & Lisa Teachers]

I'm seriously considering going back to basics and dying my hair back brown while I'm in Asia, I have admitted defeat by Asian highlights. At the rate they keep bleaching me, my hair shall fall out. They do a sketchy job!

Fan Death??

2009-02-04T06:44:00.015Z

So Fan Death Eh? I heard this mentioned a few times randomly in Korea and thought it was a stupid Korean myth, which it is, but obviously alot more important than I previously thought. I researched Fan Death, it's quite bizarre. From Wikipedia:

Fan death is a South Korean urban legend which states that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can cause the death of those inside. Fans manufactured and sold in Korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes and the label above which urges users to set the timer when going to sleep with the fan on.

It's obviously an urban legend but the Korean media and esteemed professionals (Scientists & Doctors etc..) say Fan Death causes numerous fatalities yearly.

There are many theories as to why:

The electric fan chops up all the oxygen in the room, leaving only toxic carbon dioxide to breathe in, causing death.

If the fan is put directly facing a persons face, it sucks away all their air, causing death.
Fans cause hypothermia in the user, the wind expelling fan results in the lowering of body temperature, causing death.

The fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed room, creating a vacuum, causing death.

As crazy as all of this sounds, the Korean Government plus the Korean Consumer Protection Board both issued a warning stating "asphyxiation from electric fans and air conditioners" was amongst Korea's five most common summer accidents or injuries in 2006.

It's hilarious, I can think of several other ways of being killed or injured here in crazy Korea: (not to scare you Mam!)

Being knocked down by a crazy Korean moped/scooter rider
Being knocked down by a crazy Korean car driver (The traffic lights are legally only a "suggestion" here! Seriously!)

Eating fish, which turns out to be blow fish/fugu, which has to be made by a specialized Fugu chef, but isn't, therefore it's poisonous and can kill you.

Getting in a taxi (terrifying), usually the cab drivers are driving, watching TV and talking on the phone at the same time, now that's multi-tasking!

Catching some disease from coming into contact with raw meat, as Koreans are big into using the same utensils for touching raw meat and then touching everything else. They are also big into sharing dishes between several people, all using your grubby chopsticks. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying!

So yeah, It might seem like I have alot of time on my hands, maybe I do, but I like to think I'm educating myself further with all this non-sense. haha!

I just came back from dinner there, which was rice, kimchi (as always) with a spicy salad, miso soup and a vegetable omlette. The old lady who cooks our food in the staff kitchen knows NO English at all but just told my Korean mate Simon that she thinks I look like a cute little doll. haha! I call her 'Emo' which apparently means Aunt. She loves it. Also I've been screaming "OY" at the kids in my classes to get their attention when they get all hyper, they always giggle but I have thought it's because I'm raising my voice, but I just found out "OY" means "cucumber" in Korean. Great! Typical! I've been shouting "CUCUMBER" to my kids!!

Anyways.... Hopefully you'll see some more posts on my blog soon.
If not... assume fan Death!

I got Seoul.:.Part Deux.

2009-01-29T01:45:00.020Z

Monday was most definitely more productive. We checked out of our motel and had donuts 'n' coffee for breakfast. After yet another subway ride we ended up at Gyeongbokgung Palace, where we left our bags in the subway lockers and headed into the Palace. There was a ton of people there, and lots going on. Gyeongbokgung served as the main royal palace of the Joseon Dynasty, with Mount Bugaksan to its rear and a city of skyscrapers facing it. It was built in 1395 by King Taejo and was a densely arranged labyrinth complex of 330 buildings. Now... there's some history for ya!!! It was beautiful and in such a crazy location, right on the outskirts of Seoul.

There was a ton of guys/guards in their Korean warrior outfits, we thought they didn't move like the guards at Buckingham Palace but we were sorely mistaken as one of them picked his nose.

[Shanes warrior face]

[Inside the Palace, the Korean throne, Ashley stuck her arm in too far to take a picture and set the alarm off... mwah ha ha ha!!]

[The view of the City from the front of the Palace]

[Two cute Koreans dressed in the warrior gear]

[Two cute foreigners guards! haha! We had a stick fight!]

The water that surrounded sections of the Palace was frozen over and the Koreans were all over it playing random little games. This was a spinning top (that Matt is playing with), you hit it with this stick n string combo to make it spin. The little kids were going crazy for them. Also, there were tiny sledges on ropes floating around the ice, the kids parents were dragging them around. We waited around to get our hands on one but they were like golddust.

[Mwah ha ha. Caught this kid Mid-Fall!]

[There was also a circle of animal statues which represented the year you were born, mine was the year of the Ox but I prefered the horse statue]

Then we headed into Insa-dong market, which was really sweet. I bought lots of little trinkets!! The boys headed somewhere to find a bathroom, so Ashley and Myself checked out some little shops and stalls. Then we witnessed a "bum fight"! There was one of those preacher guys with a huge Religious sign on his back, carrying a microphone and speaker. Out of nowhere this homeless guy comes up and starts kicking him and slapping him in the face. After about 30 seconds of abuse from the homeless guy, a random Korean guy intervened and pushed the bum away. Then this American bloke walking down the street minding his own business got a kick and slap from the bum, although he retaliated by kicking him back and then walked off. Ashley and Myself were in complete shock, it was pretty hilarious. The boys were real pissed they missed all the action! haha!

So one of my favourite parts of my trip to Seoul was this really cute 'Old Bird Tea Shop' which was down a tiny alley off Insa-dong Market. The tea was expensive enough, 6,000Won for a large cup. Although it was totally worth it as you were paying for the atmosphere and the tea was spot on. I had a sweet dew tea and our table came with little sweet treats which I can only describe as sweet spiderweb inside a crunchy sweet coating. Very random. Anyways why this place was so special is that when inside there are all these little song-birds that fly around and sing (no they don't poo on you, they have a special tree they poo on). They are pretty quiet too, so it's not a bunch of horrible noise. At first I was a little nervous like I was in a Hitchcock movie but after I relaxed and drank my tea it was such a nice atmosphere in there. We were up near the roof-tops so the Song Birds were flying by the window teasing the roof-top cats.

I got Seoul.:.Part 1

2009-01-27T11:01:00.032Z

I don't even know where to begin. Seoul is a huge City with 12 million people, yes that's right... do you know how many people are in Ireland... 4Million in the WHOLE bloody country!!! We might be small in numbers but by hell we'll kick your arse. I'm also pretty sure the Seoul subway system is bigger than Manhattans. Luckily for us, it was Chinese New Year and the majority of the Seoul population headed to their families in the countryside. We all had a brilliant weekend. I feel like this could be a LONG READ because we did ALOT in Seoul. So I'll try condense the experience, without hindering it... of course.

Let me just start by saying... we did ALOT of Subway-ing. Which was a great change from our constant crazy taxi rides in Gwangju.

[Another awesome Korean warning sign]

The only set plan for the weekend was to go to the 'Killer Party of the Year' as advertised, on Saturday night. Oh and also the weekend was set around eating our fair share of GOOD food that is not on offer in Gwangju, this included Mexican, Indian and Thai. My belly was spoiled rotten this weekend. So Myself, Justin and Matt got the train on Saturday morning. The rest of the crew had a day off on Friday so were already there. We then hopped on the subway, headed for Hongik University Area, walked around forever, met everyone, ate some Burritos and finally Caitlin used her magical powers and found us a cheap and decent motel right down the road from the club. We made our rounds, checked out the area, ate Mexican again for dinner (why not?!) and then headed for 'Four Rooms', the club. One room had live bands but they were pretty lame, so we headed for the room 'Janes Groove', it had a lingerie show, a big-screen-wii, a dance floor and some crazy Korean DJ's playing Pop and Rock, my brother would have kicked their asses on the decks!!

[Waiting on the lingerie show]

Following the lingerie show, which was quite amusing. Jesse chatted up some girls by challenging them to wii boxing, how romantic, although it worked! Then I kicked Ashleys arse on Wii boxing, mwah ha ha *evil laugh* (We were both very sore the next day, we blame Wii boxing!) We eventually headed upstairs to the 'Owl Bus' room, my favourite of the Four Rooms, it was small, retro and the DJ was playing some breakbeats and funk. Most people in the room looked very "Kate Nash". (Elizi and anyone who knows Rayanne from FV will agree... she would have LIVED in the Owl Bus Room). I felt like I was back in Phoenix, Arizona.

Just before we left we checked out the final room, which was the 'Psychedelic Zebra' room, there was a giant pillow fight in this tiny room. Ashley poked her little head in for a look and got hit smack bang square in the face with a sequent pillow, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry, it was hilarious!! In the wee hours of the morning, we left and headed for a tiny, closet sized nook bar called Vinyl, where we got cosy and drank cocktails out of plastic bags, kind of like giant Capri Suns.

[Then we left as I had eaten all the crisps provided on our table and was falling asleep]

On Sunday, it was the official Lunar New Year Holiday so there wasn't too much open. We managed to entertain ourselves anyway. We headed for 'On the Border' a Tex-Mex place. Yup MORE Mexican food, I was in my element!!! Loving it! We checked out some really random places which were closed on the back streets. We wanted to check out Dr. Fish but it was closed, it's a foot spa room. You put your grubby feet in a warm aquarium and little sucker fish eat the dead skin off your feet. How delightful eh?! I defo have to try this next time I'm in Seoul.

[An example of Dr. Fish]

[A good example of the Koreans terrible translation to English]

[Our donut friends @ Mr. Donut]

[Really sweet looking Brewery that was closed]

We decided to head to the Seoul National University and check out a William Blake Art Exhibition but we had yet another "Museum FAIL". It was closed! The boys lay in front of the doors in protest. We had a fair hike to get there and it was COLD this weekend. VERY COLD!!!

[Ashley consulting the map for our next destination]

After our 3rd Museum Fail since being in Korea, we hiked back to the subway and headed for a market, which was almost done for the night. We ran around a bit and then headed to the "foreigner area" of Seoul, Itaewon. Following a gorgeous Indian Buffet we found a Mexican joint called 'Amigos' where we threw back a few Margaritas and listened to 2 Mexican dudes, I'm pretty sure one of them was gay, sing Western songs. Day 2 in Seoul wasn't too productive but the 3rd day MORE than made up for it!

[I feel like this picture I found depicts perfectly how I feel in Korea, except for maybe Seoul, because the City is full of foreigners]

There will be a Seoul Part 2. ASAP!

Face-Masks & Animal Hats

2009-01-19T03:54:00.008Z

So I'm officially here in Korea two months. I've overcome the dreadful culture shock, not too much about Asia can shock me anymore. Well... I am heading to Seoul this weekend so I may eat those words. I have seen alot of wierd shite here so far though, on par or maybe stranger than NYC. Shane & I spotted the "Seal people" downtown, I was gonna take a picture but Shane said it would be rude, so you'll just have to imagine them. I'm pretty sure they can't walk, instead of wheelchairs, they have a seal suit made out of grey rubber and they roll around on wheels horizontal on their bellies. Also they push a small money box, which is also on wheels infront of them, which has a Korean sign (obviously I can't read it), which probably says "... Seals need money too..". I know I know I'm going to hell.

So lets start with facemasks. They are my favourite. Koreans, both young and old like to wear "face-masks". They wear them if they're sick to keep their germs to themselves, which is very polite of them, haha. But they also wear them to protect themselves from everyone elses germs. Someone needs to explain how a thin piece of cotton can't possibly save you from the world of germs... and also inform them of how ridiculous they look.

[Here is a pic, for your viewing pleasure, of me wearing a face-mask I got free on a cereal box]

Another typical Korean 'winter' fashion is the Animal hat, which is also worn by both young and old people. They are literally hats of animals heads, well not 'real' animals, ah just look at the pictures.

[I'm pretty sure the cigarette is ruining his "look"]

[Even Shane wears them, I'm too cool for that sort of shananigans though]

A TON of kids wear these hats, they pull em off a bit better than adults or Shane.

Tour of my English Academy

2009-01-16T04:17:00.009Z

So here is a quick tour of where I work. My private school/Hagwon is called Avalon English in Gwangju. I work with mainly Elementary kids, but I also teach a few Middle School classes. I much prefer the little kids, they are hilarious and most of them aren't embarrassed to speak English. The Middle school kids are at that awkward age, so they tend to spend the whole class burning a whole through their desks with their eyes.

[Avalon English - June posing at the Front Desk]

[The Teachers Room]

[My Desk, your admiring my sweet screen saver aren't you? Each of the yellow folders represents a class or two.]

[This is an essay from one of my Elementary kids, she's one of my Faves, so cute]

[This is one of the classrooms, just imagine a full class of little kids and me behind that podium. haha!]

[Our staff restaurant/cafeteria is on the roof, this is the sweet view from the roof, that's Mudeung mountain, I shall conquer it in Spring time!!]

Snowglobe Korea

2009-01-14T04:12:00.010Z

The snow just keeps coming! It's cold and I think my face may fall off. It's pretty though.

But..... rrroll on Spring!!

[Caitlin & I... wrapped up...layers... Laaaayers!!]

[Snow Angels in the road @ 3am. Matt & I]

[Matt: "Quiiick... a caaar!"]

[Angels in the street]

["...lets make a ton of snowballs, put 'em in our freezers and have a snowball fight in May.."]

I skidded down my driveway sideways on a patch of ice yesterday... on my bike.

Sad Day :(

Gwangju Bike Crew

2009-01-12T15:23:00.003Z

Above: A dashing sexy bike you were thinking? Yes? I agree. As soon as the snow and ice fecks off, we shall have grand adventures together! Below: Shane's bike has a certain 'je ne sais pas'.. redness to it, it was love at first sight!

We are now part of the "Gwangju Bike Crew", which consists of the peeps from Jo-Eun Villa. (That'd be our apartment buildings name!) There's only 6 of us but we shall conquer Korea... Tour De France style.

The Korean Music Scene

2009-01-10T10:29:00.009Z

The Korean music scene is crazy, they use alot of western music, take out the English singing and add their own Korean words. A song will start playing in a shop or club and i'll get excited cause I'll think I know the song and then some Korean will start singing..... it's hilarious!

There are, of course some Korean pop icons that all the kids love. Two bands in particular, Big Bang and Wonder Girls. This post is especially for Aine, you'd be a big fan of Wondergirls. haha!

[Wonder Girls]

[Big Bang - pretty much a bunch of absolute tools, Backstreet boys eat your hearts out]

Also, in dance clubs, all the Koreans don't really just dance like we do, they have dance routines to most of the songs. They can't just 'bust a move', they must be in sequence. It's brilliant to watch!!! haha!

I can't get this song out of my head. I hear it EVERYWHERE... Koreans go CRAZY for it.

Check out 'Nobody' by Wonder Girls:

(don't forget to come back and leave me some lovely comments though! lol)

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=pOTfZxgGXa4

Ice & Alcohol

2009-01-07T04:25:00.006Z

New Years was a pretty messy occasion in Gwangju. I got off work at 10pm on New Years Eve but legged it outta the school with Matt at about 9.30pm. A bunch of us headed to one of the foreigner bars downtown called Speakeasy. It was a black & white night, although I slacked on this a little.. ok alot. Anyways so it's been snowing... it was especially heavy on New Years. When it snows... Koreans haven't a clue how to deal with it, so there's a ton of car pile ups and the paths are all like death traps, you can't walk anywhere without landing on your arse several times.

All 'n' all.. New Years was a great night, we drank too much liquor, ate some food, danced, kissed everyone at midnight and then searched for a taxi in the early hours for about 45 mins in the snow and ice. Poor Jesse left the bar on his own, without telling anyone, drunk. He slipped on ice on some steps and busted open his eyebrow, 20 stitches later he's a constant reminder of our crazy icy New Years in South Korea!!!

Intensives are the Devil

2008-12-30T08:04:00.013Z

I have been slacking on the blog lately (as alot of you have pointed out, I know, I'm sorry) so I thought I would write you two blog posts (Lucky You!).

So Intensives has started in our schools, it's when the kids have vacation for the holidays. So instead of letting them play and "waste away their youth", their parents send them to EXTRA English classes with us, which makes our lives a living hell for a month. We have to teach extra hours, even though we are paid the extra wages... I'd rather Vito intensives and have a beer.

(I promise pics of the school soon!)

Soooo as I'm talking about the schools, both Shane's school 'Readingtown' and my school 'Avalon', who are brother/sister private English Academies (or Hagwons) held a Christmas party for us on Saturday night which was hilarious. We went to a hotel, had a giant feast which had about 30 different dishes or more to choose from, drank a ton of wine and then the teachers performed a talent show... I didn't prepare anything in time (They probably wouldn't have been able to handle a performance from me, I pretty sure I would have blown them away, full of raw talent is me!) Anyways here's a few pics from the night:

[Yup that's Shane dancing on stage!]

[Some of my co-workers - Simon, Daniel & Nikki]

Also while on the topic of school... when the Korean kids arrive, we give them an English name, cause not only can we not pronounce their Korean names, i'm never gonna remember them. Usually they choose a name from a list but some of them just choose their own from God knows where!!! Shane and myself have come across kids with the names Bono, Elvis, Cyclone, Brain (yes..not Brian... Brain), Silly, Bin, Rambo and there are several kids called Shark. Ehh I dunno. No Comment!! I wish I had a cool English name. haha!

Our group of peeps that work & play together went out for a nice Galbi Meal last weekend, I think I may have already explained but here's some pics of the feast. Pork ribs, that you cook at your table on a grill and a ton of side dishes, it's gooooooood. Shane loves it cause it's a meat feast, he's such a Texan Carnivore.

[Galbi Feast - Check out all the side dishes]

[I loves me some Galbi Goodness!]

A few weeks ago I bumped into three Irish girls from Mayo & Galway in this German Bar we go to. They are a good laugh, it's great chatting to people who understand all my slang and I don't have to explain what i'm saying. Shane likes to laugh at half the things I say. He's just mean! haha! I bumped into them again after our work Christmas party. Gonna head out with them soon on the lash so we can drink and talk about how we miss roast dinners and dirty fry ups.

[Edel, Claire & Charlene]

[It's snowing again - Here's Proof from the Cat Castle]

I Heart Skype!

2008-12-30T07:14:00.019Z

So on Christmas day a bunch of us got together for a Potluck feast where everyone brings some random contribution of food, whether you cooked it or bought it, you bring it. We had all sorts of random eats. Of course I contributed the mashed spuds with lashings of butter, some stuffing (which was kinds dry cause it had no turkey arse to be stuck up), some brown gravy (which I can never pull off as well as the Mother) and some Chocolate Rice Krispie cakes because one of my Korean mates 'Haewon' is obsessed with their chocolatey goodness! It turned out to be a good laugh!

But I still maintain I kinda skipped Christmas this year as Korea isn't really "down" with the Christmas spirit. I'll make up for it next year though, i'll be sure to wear maternity pants to dinner in 2009 and I plan to eat till I pop!

[This was obviously held in our apartment..hence the hot wallpaper!]

So what really made my Christmas was getting to talk to friends and family over Skype and being able to see people via webcam. I would also like to thank everyone who sent Shane & myself packages, they were brilliant! We are living like kings... well until our "Western" food supply runs out! Urgh!

So while I spoke to the Fam over webcam I snapped a new pics, check em out:

[Mam, Dad & Shane]

Merry Christmas from Korea

2008-12-16T04:58:00.010Z

So Christmas is only around the corner... next Thursday.. AHHH!!! Sucks not to be home for Christmas but Shane & myself are defo gonna make the most of it. We spent all day Sunday bleaching the whole apartment clean(to kill the "cold" germs!), sweeping and decorating. We would defo win the tackiest tree award with our Dollar/pound shop decorations and our blue "pepsi" Santa sitting ontop like a little Christmas tree fairy/star. We stuck up some lights and Shane found and took a Scooby-Doo kids table on the street which has joined our collection of street furniture. The apartment is starting to feel alot more cosy and homey.

We both have a good routine going now, we get up about ten-ish and go to the gym every morning before work. Can't wait for spring to come around... dying to get out of Gwangju now and travel around Korea. I should get paid for the first time on the 25th of Dec. A nice Christmas pressie!! We're both pretty skint right now so after Christmas we are going to buy each other bikes!

We've been hanging out with everyone that we work with alot on the weekends, they are all awesome! On Sat night we had drinks in our apartment, played charades (best game ever... haha!) and then headed to a local Norebang/Kareoke Room. We brought our own gargle in so we were all pretty hammered and had a great night. The highlight was probably trying to navigate the Korean Squatter toilets drunk.... urgh!!! I finally got a picture of one for you all though!!

[We got really into it! haha!]

[Korean Squatter Toilets...Lovely!]

[Parts of Downtown look nice and Christmassy. Like Art Street]

[AND... i've already bumped into a rather sketchy looking Korean Santa]

IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Miss you ALL a ton xxx

Obsessed Much?

2008-12-10T04:45:00.006Z

You have all been asking about how the school and teaching is going so guess it's about time I fill you in. Firstly, Korea is obsessed with Education. Most kids go to school from 8am until 4/5pm and then go to an English Academy for the rest of the night. For my older kids, most of them don't finish class until 10 or 11pm... AND if I give them detention they have to stay until Midnight. When do these kids get time to play? They die for their weekends, and even some kids still have school and academy's on Saturdays. It's just plain mean I tells ya!!

Right now I'm taking over for a teacher that just left, I've this week and next week to finish her classes and then next semester I have my own kids, hopefully a bit younger than who I'm teaching now, and also have my own syllabus and curriculum sorted out! The kids aren't bad, usually tired, I wouldn't blame 'em. But the thing that wrecks my head is that they don't get sarcasm!! So I can't really joke too much with them because they look at me like I've got ten heads! Urgh! I really wanted to try out working in a classroom environment but I think it has made me appreciate working outside alot more. I miss working with horses ALOT! I'm still going to give this a good go and enjoy it while I'm here though! It is defo different!!

One other thing that I've noticed is how safe Korea is. Little tiny kids walk around the streets on their own, they walk to and from school, take buses and even cross large busy roads. Most of my older kids walk home even after class or detention at 11/12pm! Anywhere else there'd be a kiddie snatcher on the corner waiting for them... or at least our parents feared there was, but here there doesn't seem to be any paedophiles floating around with lollipops.

Lots of things get overseen here that would not be allowed back home. An example would be Taxi Drivers with TV's in their car. They scare the shite out of me... Not only do they NOT stop for red lights, they also watch TV while they are driving and they don't care if they have a passenger or not. The only positive things about Taxi's here is how cheap they are. It costs us like 2 or 3 Dollars/Euro to get to most places around us, like downtown.

The Asian Rice Arse

2008-12-05T04:50:00.009Z

So since coming to South Korea, and in only 2 weeks I have found out alot about the Culture, Food and People. Most info I've received is pretty random and always hilarious. One thing that one of my coworkers and friend Tiffany pointed out yesterday is that Koreans or alot of Asian people in general don't really have asses, which is referred to as the "Rice Butt/Ass". So yesterday I went shopping with Tiffany and she pointed out this AWESOME underwear for ladies. They contain PADS in the arse of the underwear to make you look like your packing something back there!! Sooo Funny!

I was very tempted to buy a pair and give myself a Ghetto Booty. I think I know what everyone will be sent for their birthdays next year! lol.

[Arse Pad Undies, from the genius Koreans!]

Korea is also pretty fashion conscious and I've defo found some hot shoes, cheap cheap cheap nice clothes and also some interesting outfits too. Because they don't really have any arses and most are stick thin, alot of the girls wear micro-mini skirts. Here's a few outfits.... you reckon I'd get away with wearing these back home?

When we were shopping, Tiffany also brought me to this crazy little Pizza stall where they put your slice in a cup. hmm... random. This lady is laughing because I was telling her to "smile for the picture".

Also today I went with my co-workers of Avalon School. Yeah that's me... I teach Elementary and Middle school kids at Avalon English Academy and they call me "Lisa Teacher".

So yeah, we went for this really nice Shabu-Shabu meal, it's meat and greens that you cook yourself in a huge pot of spicy broth, then once you've finished the meat n greens, you put in noodles to cook, and when they are gone, the nice ladies make you fried rice out of the broth left over. It's my fave meal here so far.

Afterward, one of the girls Kelly took me to a tailors to fix my coat. It was ripped at the seam and this guy fixed it on the spot for 2 bucks. Now that's service!!!

The tailors son was also running around inside

one of their industrial sized washing machines.

Nothing surprises me anymore! I may eat these words!!!

This weekend is Gwangju's Film Festival so I think we're gonna go check that out. We wanted to go hiking but the weathers pretty crap and cold now.

Although today...... IT'S SNOWING!!!!

Asian Health Check

2008-12-03T05:07:00.005Z

So yesterday this Korean guy called Jason that works for the schools took me to Gwangju's Hospital for my Health Check. Another crazy experience! Firstly I had my height, weight, blood pressure and eyes checked. Then they took blood, a pee sample and a chest X-ray. Followed by a dental check. All of this was done within 45 minutes and all the results will be available within 48 hours. Now that's service! The funniest bit was getting my blood drawn. It was like the counters of a Supermarket or Boots. There's doctors/nurses sitting at these counters and you take a numbered ticket. When your number comes up at one of the counters, you head over, take a seat and put your arm out. I had to take a picture as proof.

[Check out the number up on the left, also the nurse looks nay impressed that i'm taking her picture! haha!]

After that random turn of events Jason drove me up to the Gwangju University to take a picture of the city! It was kind of a gloomy day but here you go - - -

[Gwangju]

Thanksgiving 'Korean/American/Irish/English/Canadian' Style.

2008-12-02T05:05:00.013Z

So this weekend a whole lot of us got together for a pot luck for Thanksgiving. A great excuse to eat, drink and be merry. Everyone got involved... we had chicken, spuds, salad, veggies, soups, a Korean stew, yummy pesto starters and even curry. It was a mighty feast which was followed by a lot of wine and beer.

[Some of the Thanksgiving Feast]

[The craic was 90 lads! lol]

[Tiffany, Kelly & Me]

[Jesse & Shane.... only spells trouble! lol]

After all the shenanigans in our apartment block we got into a crazy Korean cab that brought us downtown (as always never stopping for red lights) for some more festivities.

[Matt in his 'trashy chic' & Shane being.. eh.. 'hard'? haha!]

[Kelly, Haewon & Me @ The Speakeasy Bar]

The night consisted of drinking, dancing, darts and unfortunately headbanging... resulting in some sore heads AND necks the following day!!! On the Sunday Myself, Shane, Matt & Ashley went to see James Bond, in English of course with Korean subtitles and then went to this really sweet smoothie place with SWINGS for seats!!! Ah Korea. So random!

Korean Beefcakes

2008-11-28T11:15:00.005Z

So today Shane & I joined a local Korean Gym called Hankook Gym. Well more like a "bodybuilder gym". One of the guys working there recognised Shane from the last time he was in checking it out and calls Shane Mr. Texas! The other guy that works there HAS to be on steroids, actually alot of the guys that work out there must be. So we checked it out, it's crazy cheap, like 145dollars for 6 months, so we joined and then Shane headed to work. I decided to go back later to workout and it was a whole new experience!! haha!!!

[The sign for Hankook Gym & obviously the reason for joining! lol]

Firstly the treadmills have a constant incline on them so I was pretty much running up hill for 20 mins. There were a bunch of teenage boys there that kept staring at me and smiling, I'm sure it had to be the running & the bouncing boobs. Asian women aren't really packing anything up top. Kinda like skittles on an ironing board! Anyways... also the Korean ladies were pretty covered up working out, maybe cause they are supposed to not sweat?!, I dunno but I on the other hand was wearing a pair of sweat pants and a tank top... The ladies were nay impressed of my attire! But the bodybuilders were real nice and kept saying hello to me.

This one ripped man was asking me where I was from and how old I was in broken English, he told me he was very impressed with my training routine. Well... he would be compared to the rest of the females, as they spent their time on those stupid oldskool muscle loosening machines. You know... the ones with the vibrating band that you put around your arse or legs. Hilarious!!! Anyways so this guy who looks about 50 but says he is actually 65 is bench pressing more than any of the other beefcake Koreans. Poor Shane is gonna have his work cut out for him when we go back on Monday morning! lol

So when I was finished I got my stuff and headed for the loo on my way out, only to find out they are squatting toilets, which I passed on! I've heard they exist but this was my first encounter!

I think I'm settling in a bit now, bring it on Korea!! Can't wait to start working on Monday and tomorrow were are having a Thanksgiving Potluck with a few friends. Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans...... eh...... for yesterday!!!

The Gaff Tour

2008-11-27T04:55:00.006Z

I'm gonna add the address of my school on the sidebar of the blog-page for anyone that has asked for it. Apparently it's better to have post sent to the school because there is always someone there to receive it, the apartment mail box is only tiny anyways, it would never fit boxes of Cadburys chocies in it... Mwah ha ha ha!!

So here's the Apartment Tour as promised. It was taking too long to load onto the page so just click on the link below & it should take you to the video on YouTube. Let me know what you think!!!

Enjoy!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgP40xj0ExU

The Cat Castle

2008-11-26T09:52:00.007Z

Firstly, thank you so much for all the comments. It's great to hear your feedback! So I've made the apartment tour video but it's being weird and wont load for some reason, so that'll have to wait till another day! Anyways there's a few Korean kids wrecking my head right now, they keep doing Nik-Naks (where they ring the bell & leg it) on our door right now. Shane is at work, otherwise i'm sure he'd chase em & scare the hell out of em. I already shouted at them, next time I plan to catch one & feed him to the hungry cats at The Cat Castle next door.

There's an old abandoned castle-like-building next to our apartment building, which we like to call The Cat Castle. It's full of little wild cats that eat from the garbage. Adele... you should come tame them. If you lived here, you'd defo be their Queen.

[The Cat Castle]

So i'm still coughing up my lungs but feeling a little better today. Last night Shane & Myself went for a walk around the neighbourhood where we found Domino's Pizza. The pizza's looked a little sketchy but we thought we'd chance it & ordered a pepperoni. It was Yummm! AND it came wrapped like a little present. A gift for my belly.

[A gift from Dominos]

Note the pimp bedsheets, Shane denies it but I think he picked them out. Also we found that sweet Korean marble table on the side of the street & nicked it! Maybe we are in the Ballymun flats after all. Little knackers! So we've already had some good spicy Korean food and as soon as I feel better i'll be able to stomach more but for now i'm surviving on the best damn cereal around. Get stuck in!!!

[Choco Flakes - The bear says it all!!!]

Krazy Korea

2008-11-24T11:08:00.010Z

So i made it & this is my first official blog-post from Gwangju, South Korea. Right now I think i have the flu, so i'm writing to you & drinking my Lemsip Cold & Flu drink (Thanks Mam!x). Right now i'm not a huge Korea fan, i kind of underestimated the culture shock, although i'm sure it'll grow on me. It's sweet to hang out with Shane again, he's in great form, has settled in really well & has already found a new mate called Jessie to act like a jackass with... typical..haha! The Apartment is pretty sweet. 2 rooms, plus a little bathroom & separate section for the little kitchen/laundry room. It's cute. I like it! I'll post a video of it soon.

Downtown Gwangju

The food aint half bad, lots of meat & greens, very spicy. It already gave me "the runs"... urgh! The people we are working with are awesome, we've already been out for Dinner & Soju Cocktails (which can be lethal, as you can't even taste the Soju, mmm!) I'm starting to perfect my chopstick skills... ok that's a lie. I'm shite with a pair of wooden sticks. Give me a feckin' fork already!Soju Cocktails & chopstick drinking games.

The Korean people are generally nice, they like to stop you in the street & try talk to you, and the kids stare at you which is hilarious. Some little 10 year old kid in a leopard print coat sold me beer in a store yesterday. The Koreans really like their "active walking gear" and they also like to dress their poor dogs up in "gear too".

"Gear" wearing Korean Lady picking up her "gear" wearing dogs Poo. Good for her!

Went to The Park with Shane & his friend Matt yesterday. Well it's not a park like we know it, there was not an inch of grass, more of a cement park if you will... ?? The boys climbed a huge unguarded climbing wall & i wrote down my thoughts & read my Russell Brand Memoir while being chatted up by old Korean people who seem to think if i'm white... i MUST be American. It came as quite a shock that alas... I am Irish. Yay for me! I think they liked me more... no offence America!! .....Obama Fo Yo Mama!! :)

Climbing Tower @ The "Cement Park"

No seriously... I'm in South Korea. See! :p

This is me. Wishing you were here!

I miss you all ALOT. Culture Shock is a bitch. Thank God for scrambled eggs. Love you All.x

Only Around The Corner..:.

2008-11-04T20:11:00.009Z

We've both been for our 5 minute Consulate Interviews AND Footprints have booked our flights, soooo South Korea is only around the corner!!!

Halloween has come & gone. Love Halloween. & by this Friday Shane will be in Gwangju setting up house & i'll be there shortly after on the 21st of November. For Halloween I really got into character as a Zombie (28 Days later era Zombie, those slow ones are pointless!) & ran around scaring people while others asked me to pose for pictures with them. Really great weekend. & Shane was apparently Bill Cosby, which I am yet to see photographic evidence of...

=>Take that statement back. Sheri just sent me the pics, he looks like he took a Nutella Bath. Hilarious!

Wouldn't want to meet me in a dark alley.

Aine (previously dressed as Tom Selleck) & Lizzy (as BananaMan) were nay scared!

Leaving On A Jet Plane....

2008-10-27T17:44:00.001Z

So I suppose the start of our adventure is the process, it goes something like this:

Interview with Footprints Recruitment Agency (Would Defo Recommend!) --> Get all our Documents together (Pain in the Arse!) --> Scan & email to Footprints --> Find us a suitable School --> Email back and Forth ALOT --> Research the area/school/benefits --> Interview with school --> Sign our contracts --> Send our documents to our School in South Korea --> Get Visa Issuance Number --> Interview at Korean Embassy --> Footprints Book our Free (Yes... FREE!!) flights to South Korea --> Buy a years supply of Deodrant, as to not smell, apparently Koreans don't sweat? hmmm suspicious! --> Be Excited & Terrified all at the same time --> "Leaving On A Jet Plane....".... here we goooooooooo!

Lisa= Ireland to Gwangju South Korea

Shane= Texas to Gwangju, South Korea.

Gwangju Location: South West

Population: 1.4 million

Currency: Korean Won/KRW

Known for: Culture, Festivals & the Arts (Fancy!!)

Nearest Metropolitan Cities: Seoul (4 hrs by train), Busan (3.5 hrs by bus)
Climate: Cold Winters & Hot Humid Summers (similar to New York)