Let's hangout at the Jeonju General!

This morning was, in short, hilarious! In order to get our "resident alien cards" (finally I will be a card carrying "alien"...I'm sure that some of you have been just waiting for this with baited breath for literal YEARS! Korea is onto me people, Korea is onto me!) we had to go on a super fun trip to the hospital to get a thorough check up. You know, just a general once over to make sure we didn't have the Tuberculosis, or the HIV or to ensure that we weren't addicted to a ton of contraband substances. The whole thing was altogether hilarious because we felt like, and somewhat had to behave like a kindergarten class of four on a class trip to the hospital as we followed the "foreign teacher coordinator" around the hospital to the various stations we had to visit, practically holding hands in a straight line behind him.

If we looked like puppies or toddlers, there was a good reason, considering that our only other source of guidance was a series of lines painted on the floor which our "handler" explained led to the three areas we'd have to go. The white line led to the clinic where we'd see the doctor, the red line led to the area where we had to give them our blood and the yellow line...led to the x-ray area! I know right? I totally thought it'd be something else too!

Our number one stop on this grand tour of physical check-ups was in the x-ray room. Luckily for us we ladies had already been warned by another of the teachers that they'd want us to take off our bras for this magical operation, so we didn't have to spend the ten minutes she did trying to figure out what the waving of palms in front of chest was supposed to mean! It was a pretty basic operation, y'know, just put on this hospital top and press your chest really really hard against this thing and then get out...yah. I mean, it was no mammogram or what have you (boob crushing...but for a GOOD reason!), but seriously, I'm pretty sure we all had to have Tuberculosis screenings before we got here! Anyway...whatever, so long as I get my "alien card".

Next off, at the same table where we had to give them our blood (muahahahahahahahahahaha! Bloooooooood!) we had to give them a small bit of other bodily fluid. Now, I'm sure we can all agree that this is a pretty normal part of a physical, but let me tell you right now it was the weirdest freaking urine sample I have EVER given in my life! Instead of just peeing in a little plastic cup with it's own little orange lid we were given a lovely little paper cup of the type one would usually use to get a bit of water from a water cooler (not the pointy bottomed type, but made of pretty much the same stuff) and two separate tubes. Once given these vessels, we were sent into the public washroom where we were to pee in the water-cooler cup and then dump the contents into the two test tubes. Maybe it was performance anxiety, or maybe it was the fact that we weren't allowed to drink or eat anything since last night before twelve, but a couple of us were having SERIOUS trouble with this! We both ended up half filling the tubes, even though they were supposed to be filled to the top (even though one of them lacked a cap) so we'll have to see if they call us back in there later to finish off the test. Really though, how much pee do you really need to determine whether or not I'm all up on the drugs?! So stressful! I can't just pee at the drop of a hat people, I can't! BAH.... It did lead to some hilarity, since once we met back up with our "handler", I felt that it was necessary to inform him that the two of us had had some issues with providing the specified amount of pee and that if they called him it might not mean we were on drugs so much as that they hadn't gotten enough pee to prove we aren't! And don't even get me started on the fact that they drew our blood directly beside our uncapped urine samples...whatever hospital, whatever!

Our last stop on this wonder-tour was at the clinic where individually we had our eyes, ears, weight, height and blood pressure checked. Hilarity also, of course, ensued here as one of the other chicas started reading off letters while looking at numbers, thus proving her eyesight was HORRIBLE, and Bryan, instead of leaning back while reading off the letters leaned far far forward! It was also pretty funny when the nurse took our weight, height and chest circumference (yes, chest circumference...are they keeping records of this? Like, the average chest size of everyone in the country at any given time...?) I'm pretty sure the nurse was like "what the hell?!" since all three of us gals are pretty big lovely ladies in a variety of different ways. One of us is tall, one of us has beautiful voluptuous hips and I'm just generally a large lovely lady...all in all, body types that are just not super common up in here! Whoo hooo, messing up your potential record keeping with our gorgeous selves!

Aside from that, this whole aspect was pretty basic and otherwise unexciting. The trip into the doctor's office, however, was fairly laughable. In addition to some pretty basic questions about our medical histories, including an inquiry about diabetes, smoking, heavy drinking etc., he also asked each and every one of us if we had any "symptoms". Not of anything in particular, but just general "symptoms". Now, this seems pretty broad considering just normal "being" could be considered symptomatic of lots of different things, depending on one's "normal" state of being in regards to everyone else's idea of "normal". Again I state, whatever it takes to get my "alien card" so that I can finally be identified as as out of this world as I think we can all agree I behave most of the time!

Who doesn't love a fun trip to the hospital I ask you?

Dirty dogs!

Best part of Jeonju? Street dogs. I know I mentioned this last post, but seriously, I am in love with these dogs! They're cute, they're friendly, there's tons of them...one downfall: they're super dirty. But I guess I would be too if I was abandoned or ran away or whatever and was wandering around the streets all day! It doesn't really prevent me from wanting to take them home, give them a good ol' spray down in our "shower room" and love them FOREVER! Dogs of Jeonju, you are not safe from my endless dog love! It will be truly shocking, I think, if I don't come home with a new furry friend in tow.

Aside from the fact that I'm probably gonna get fleas or worms, the only downside of this is the fact that I think I may be freaking people out with my interest in these grubby fellahs! This morning when we went to E-mart again, I was WAY TOO interested in the group of extremely grungy looking K-9s hanging out outside this auto shop...everyone kind of wanted to move things along, but I had to fight myself not to run on over there and get my pet on! I mean, seriously people, there were five friendly dogs just sitting there waiting for me to come and love them! I asked the teacher we were with who'd been here a while if they were nice or not and she said they always seem pretty friendly, and no one here is afraid of them or anything...I think that definitely bodes well for my dog adoption plan...you know, they won't like bite off my face or anything, so that's positive right?

I LOVE DOGS! (even if they're filthy, full of lice and potentially rabid, I still LOVE them!)

Stay at home non-mom.

Yesterday was my first day of being a stay at home non-mom (which sounds kind of like a hand crocodile eating noise, so I guess it's not an unfitting position for the hand-crocodile queen...nom nom nom nom nom nom nom). I was not super great at being an unemployed lay-about in Canada, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be less than great at it here! I mean, at least in Canada I could go home to my family for a visit, or hang out with friends to pass the time. Here everyone I know is at work during the time that I'm alone, since literally EVERYONE I know will work with me in the future...y'know, when I actually start work! I had a meeting with the director of my programme today and found out that my actual start date will be at the end of May even though the teacher I'm replacing is leaving mid-June...I guess that's two weeks better than I thought it would be...be happy about the small things I suppose! I always feel like such a freak when I'm in situations like this. It seems like pretty much anyone else would be rabid with joy at the thought of having a whole month of do whatever the hell you like time in a whole other country, but to me, it's like, the worst thing ever and I'm freaking out. I think right now it seems extra daunting because I can't even communicate well enough yet to get a cab back to my place if I go exploring...and if one is lost in a whole other country, it's pretty essential that one is able to communicate at the very least where one lives...y'know, to avoid death from the elements and starvation and stuff.

In my meeting today I asked the director if I could volunteer to observe classes over the next couple of weeks so that I can at least get my bearings and if maybe I could get my hands on the syllabus (hop on the silly bus...I'm pretty lame...ignore me) and textbooks I'll be using, so I'll probably be nerding it out doing volunteer prep-work for my future job! It's not really like I have anything else to do, so I guess I'm not that lame...right?

I think aside from that, my goal for the month will be to learn Hangul and maybe hook myself up with another teacher who I can do a language exchange with. I think it'll have to be a Korean teacher at another school though, since the time I'll be wanting to do the exchange in is during the time everyone else I know is at work...it'll be an adventure finding this person I'm sure! I can up with a plan earlier this morning to create some Hangul "posters" to put up on our walls...I figure it's always helpful to see what you're learning everywhere everyday...okay, so it can't hurt right? I'm going to go out later on and see if I can find some paper to make them out of. I banned myself from bringing any of my art supplies or even my sewing and I'm already really regretting it. Yesterday I actually went into this store that I'm fairly certain was meant for children and grabbed some markers and pencil crayons. The reason I'm pretty sure that this store was meant for children (specifically the children going to our Hagwon) is that while I was in there several children I recognized from our short tour the preceding week came in to buy the English notebooks they were selling...that and my new supplies have strawberries and b-nans on them...and cute little creatures on the label...and I'm pretty sure I had the Canadian equivalent during my own childhood. Whatever, I have no shame and I definitely need to get stuff where I can get it for now! Don't judge me!

I guess aside from that little foray, the best part of yesterday was the street dog that Aubrey and I saw when I was walking her to work (that's right guys, I'm so bored that I walk my friend to work!) It was really short, fat and stumpy like a Yorky, but it had dark and brown hair like a German Shepherd. I pretty much wanted to kidnap him and bring him home right then and there. It was actually pretty funny since we didn't initially see him...in fact, we were made aware of his extremely cute existence when the little Korean boy walking in front of us stopped dead in fear ("I'm afraid of doggssssss!"...Cora). I don't know why because this dog appeared perfectly healthy and perfectly precious...maybe he'd had a bad experience with street dogs in the past? Regardless, I don't think this dog could ever hurt anyone since he was kind of too short to even bite anyone's ankles...Maybe I'll go on a hunt for him today and get myself all nice and diseasy by touching animals that I shouldn't. I'm always like this. I'm pretty sure you could put a dog with a visible abscess in front of me and I'd still not be able to keep myself from petting him/her. I have a serious problem here people. I have a compulsion to disregard all of the "don't touch animals you don't know" lectures that we all received as children and get my grubby little paws right in there. I can't help it!

Maybe I'll have a little nappy-poo-poo on our lovely double bed that was delivered this morning. Come on people, I'm open to suggestions for magical activities I could do while I'm being a lay-about...anyone?

Party hearty!

Well that was pretty much the busiest weekend I've had in a while! On Friday night we went out to this place called "Fish & Grill" (although I'm not completely sure that's its real name since the sign out front is completely in Hangul...anyway, that's what the other teachers call it...for all I know it could actually be called "Deep Fried Heart Failure Palace"...in fact maybe that's what it SHOULD be called) for "dinner" (which is also questionable as a title for the "meal" we had as it consisted of only snausnages and fries, fried chicken and fries and an absurd amount of Korean beer and Soju...all for 15000 won per person which is a measly amount of money for the sheer volume of all of the above consumed by our rather large party). After we'd finished up with our fried beer fest, we headed off to the university district to Tombtone, a bar that many of the foreign teachers in Jeonju frequent. Although I'm usually not a big one for going out, I had a really great time, and we didn't fall into bed exhausted until about 3 am. We caught a super cheap cab back to our place (4000 won) with our next door neighbours, a couple from Minnesota (Pictured above, left). P.S. look at the super great picture of me with my mouth full of greasy greasy food... I'm kind of thinking Soju might not be my friend since I didn't get out of bed until about 3 pm the next day...

On Saturday, our school had a welcome party for the four of us/a going away party for the teachers we're replacing. There was tons of

food, including Korean BBQ and some sort of rice cakey thing that resembled a worm...I'm obviously not in love with that. Aside from the fact that we were forced to participate in the rooftop version of Noribang (Karaoke), it was all in all a pretty good time! I decided we should sing Don't You Want Me Baby? by the Human League since that's the song I most frequently belt out just hangin' around the house and had thus had quite a lot of practice...

although that didn't really make us feel significantly less foolish when we had to reapeat "Don't you want me baby?" over and over again at the end of the song...but still far less foolish than when wesang Baby Got Back later on. Can anyone say work in-appropriate? Luckily with Noribang you don't have to sing all of the words displayed on the screen...was everyone else already aware that that is pretty much the dirtiest song you ever did hear...though so so catchy. I'm sure no one knew...right? Whatever...just check out this sweet view of Jeonju from the top of our school!

After the party we went over to our neighbours' house for a bit of fun times with the other teachers and played this card-based game where each card meant the drawer thereof had to do something different. This included several rounds of "Never Have I Ever" and a card that endowed whoever drew it with the power to make the rest of us hold up our hands as moose antlers at any time...fun times.

On Sunday we ventured to E-mart which is the Korean equivalent of Walmart. In fact, when Walmart came to Korea, E-mart promptly bought it out...IN YOUR FACE WALMART! We bought a bunch of other stuff we needed for the house, including a blender for all my smoothie needs, and an iron for all of our wrinkle needs, and all in all I think we

did a pretty okay job of navigating the store and explaining to the sales people that we wanted the cheapest everything. We also saw a really really cute hedgehog that my friend and I agreed may have had

a broken leg, but that I still really wanted to take home and nurse back to health! While we were in E-mart we met up with some other foreign teachers, Kiwis working in the public school system. The weirdest part of this whole thing has definitely been the fact that seeing other foreigners has become the MOST exciting thing in the world. Back home, I have never once spoken to someone simply because they "looked" any certain way, but here, if someone is something other than Korean, it's like we're all over each other! Bizarre to the max. It's like we're all feeling so isolated and English-

deprived that we'll talk to literally anyone who speaks English. We

all bonded over our shared feelings of alienation...which I've found is what usually happens, and promptly became Facebook friends (because we all know its not real life, and certainly not real

friendship, if it doesn't happen on the Fache Boak).

Once we'd paid for our stuff, we even managed to procure a cab back

to our neighbourhood. Sure it involved Aubrey flashing the carefully written out card with her address on it at the cabby and then asking several times whether or not it was okay, but gosh darn it, we got there! We got right to her front door in fact. I think that's pretty damn impressive! We are impressive everyone! Admit it. Maybe it would have been even more impressive if the cab could have dropped us off in front of OUR front door considering we were carrying two small bookshelves, a blender, an iron, two pillows with cases and a bunch of other junk, but, you know...small steps.

Later on in the evening after our somewhat ailing fellow new teacher had woken up, the four of us newbies ventured out in search of dinner. We'd walked by a bunch of eateries on Friday night on our way to the "Fish & Grill" (including my best friend Baskin Robbins, which

they have in Korea!), so we decided to see if they had any food that we could navigate

ordering. We ended up going to a place called "Pizza School" which seemed to specialize in very very cheap pizza pies. At a whopping 5000 won a pizza, we could all eat for about 2500 won a piece and had the

extreme pleasure of venturing into the wild world of sweet potato pizza along with its safer companion pepperoni. The best part of this place is that it's a truly fantastic source of my favourite food, the hard to come by cheese...goey melty yummy cheese! Here I am posing attractively with the advertisement for something called"Dutch Bite Pizza". This thing literally had hotdogs on it people...hotdogs, corn and red/green peppers all smothered in mayo andaccompanied by something that looked similar to those Pizza Hut pull-apart crusts that, though they

look delicious are most certainly NOT. I think we're going to have to get it next time since it's always important to try everything at least once...even if it looks a bit sketch and more than a bit unhealthy for your eyes, stomach AND body. How could it not be good with all of those factors? To your left you'll find the full menu of options available to us. I'm pretty happy with what we got. The sweet potato pizza was fairly delicious, and although it was unexpectedly a bit honey-mustardy, overall, it possessed the deliciousness. After our little foray to get schooled in the world of pizza, we took a little jaunt over to my previously mentioned best pal Baskin Robins. When we got there, the place was swarming with bagillions of Korean families, all of whom seemed to be ordering giant mixed containers of ice cream...presumably to share (?) It took forever to get the attention of the ladies behind the counter, and when we did, they just took Bryan's order and left we standing there ice-creamless! I was so frustrated I could have cried. Luckily Aubrey came to my rescue and got the chick's attention simply by being

not me...I don't know what up with that... Needless to say, by the time I actually got to eating my "Love Potion #31", I was feeling less than loving feelings towards the whole experience. Damn you language barrier, can you leave nothing untouched by your tyrannous ways? Barriers to ice cream always seem way worse than barriers to anything else, I'm telling you. In the end it was all good I suppose, I mean I did eventually get my ice cream...And besides, here's a lovely picture of Bryan nerding it out hardcore with Aubrey. How can I not find some joy in that? Please note the video game controller hands...

We called it an early night after the icey creamy, since the other three had to start work the next mid-afternoon (they seriously don't start at Bryan's part of the programme until like 1:30 pm...and they don't start at mine until like 3 pm! I think I'm going to love this). I don't get to start work until June when the teacher I'm replacing leaves, so for now, I'm a stay at home non-mom. I don't really know what I'm going to do with myself for a month! We knew that one of us would start a bit later than the other...but I was kind of hoping it was going to be Bryan! This blog may get kind of boring for a while...or really really interesting if I get up the gaul to get out and about the town...and get lost and or otherwise maimed. We'll see how this one plays out...Seriously people, if you want to come visit, NOW is the PERFECT time!

Oh what a difference a day makes.

Look ma! Real, live, for-actual friends...who also speak English! After days upon days of near total isolation in our own little world of two, today we had the great pleasure of meeting not only the two fantastic ladies peektured above, but also nearly the entire teaching staff at our school! We are not alone! It's the best, it's fantastic...I'm so excited I could pass out AND pee my pants!

After a bit of confusion in the morning, which left Bryan and I

standing outside our apartment for over an hour waiting for the

school's teacher coordinator to come pick us up for lunch...at ten in the morning...which we probably should have caught on to a

s being the wrong time...for lunch...we finally got things underway around noon. Now, I don't regret having been confused about the time we were supposed to go, because while we were downstairs for the hour or so waiting,

we had the opportunity to witness some pretty hilarious things. First off, instead of handing out grocery flyers here, it would seem that

instead they just get posted up to the outside of your apartment building. So while we were down there, Bryan had the great pleasure

of finding out that, here in Korea, apparently squid costs less than bananas. That's right everyone: those slimy little cephalopods cost less than the world's cheapest fruit...which, in turn, mysteriously costs an insanely high amount of money (we figured out the reason

for this later on so stay tuned).I'm pretty sure this won't keep me from buying bananas, so

don't worry bananas, we're still friends. The second wonder we had

the pleasure of witnessing was a man who's only job seemed to be

pressure washing garbage cans. In fact, this man even had a specially designed truck for

this purpose which, as he drove away, we saw contained only the pressure washer, some cloths and other washing stuff in the open back...very very odd, but kind of nice since it means that maybe garbage cans are kind of less stinky here...or maybe they're more stinky since while he was washing the can, he didn't take out the garbage...which I think means that there's now a bunch of soggy

garbage waiting to be collected for I have no idea how long.

Once we were picked up, things got fun...fast. We pilled into the

teacher coordinator's car with the other two teachers (with some difficulty since the

backseat occupants had some ample hips...well, except for Bryan!) and were taken to a sushi restaurant near by. If you know me at all, you are well aware of my obsession with rolls. I can't help myself! In fact Sushi Star was the one thing I missed my very very most when I woke up a bit hungover this morning. Now, although I'm fairly certain both Bryan and I were beyond pleased

with the restaurant choice (especially since the day before I had gone so far as to concoct a complicated sushi getting scheme. You see, both of the places we'd found

downtown had cases out front with plates full of fake food showing off the dishes you could order and I decided that we could just take photographs of the food we wanted and show it

to the waiter.... I think it was a pretty good plan, and I think it may need to be implemented later), the unfortunate part

of this excursion was that one of the other teachers is very much opposed to the eating of sea creatures. She says, and I quote "If it comes from the sea, I think it should stay there because that's where it lives."

After this magical meal, we were whisked away to the 1000 won store (1000 won= 1 dollah) where we were given 15 minutes to build our lives...well, at least to get essentials until we can

figure out how to navigate the city/correctly pronounce and/or write in Hangul the name of our

neighbourhood and the variety store on the corner (cab drivers here navigate using landmarks, not addresses, so often giving them an

address is often beyond useless), at which point the teacher coordinator abandoned us! You have never seen four people buy so much stuff at the dollar store, especially at that speed, no

r have you seen the confused looks on the cashiers faces when we dragged our lives up to the counter to pay. Get this though, friends

and roman country-people, you can pay at the 1000 won store with a CREDIT CARD! "Crazy" you say Dollar Store? Well, I think you should

maybe implement this policy because quite frankly

who knows how many people in every country only have 15 minutes to get all the essential "things" they need for their lives with limited foreign currency...I think it would make things easier for

everyone. Don't argue with ME dollar store, don't even dare! You're just upset because Korea thought of it first... Anyway, all in all a GREAT trip!

After the dollar store, we went

to our school for a tour and we got to meet all of the other teachers, and then the director showed us a market very nearby the school where we could get some groceries. That's

right people, I am not the proud owner of GROCERIES. Now, when I'm

hungry, I can just waltz over to the fridge and eat some (highly overpriced) strawberries, or some (highly overpriced) bananas, or even my new boyfriend, Melon Popsicles! I am pleased, very pleased! There were a few eccentric things about this trip to the market that made GETTING this food even more pleasing than just having it, however. These include the "steamingly" cold fresh veggies pictured in the...er...freezer above (note that they are fresh, not frozen...so that's kind of confusing), the 50% sale on the aforementioned my

boyfriend Melon Popsicles (yes capitalized...it's

his NAME!) and the assortment of fun products with Korean names that are currently entirely unreadable

to non-Korean speaking/reading oafs like ourselves! There I am with a box of hair dye that I can only assume promises to give my hair the serious volume and pimp it out with all of the golden bling pictured on the box. And there is Bryan with what we assume from the colour palate as Tide. We went with it since it's the detergent we usually use at home...but seriously, it really could be anything. What is is NOT is the somewhat sticky- making-sounding "Sugar Bubbles", which was also an option. Nothing like going to a whole new country and making "safe" choices about detergent. We're real adventurers, let me tell you what! Probably my favourite thing about the market was the fact that I could obtain about five types of mushrooms, if I'd wanted them (I limited myself to three)! My least favourite was, in no uncertain terms, the insanely high price of fruit! I have had an ongoing love affair with fruit throughout my life, and I have no intention of ending this beautiful relationship now, but in all seriousness, it may bankrupt me! As previously mentioned, squid, which in Ontario is a rare and costly delicacy, costs significantly less than BANANAS! Bananas, the cheapest fruit you could possibly buy. BANANAS cost LESS than squid. Now, the reason for this may be that the B-nans here are sold in full bunches, which means that you can usually buy no less than 15 bananas at a time...but still...seriously?! (At this time I'd like to say that I in no way think that Korea is weird here...I am the weird one, not Korea. This is normal for Korea, but weird for weird ME...just clarifying that!) None the less, I still ended up with quite an assortment of fresh fruit, including some strawberries (1 KILOGRAM for 7000 won, which I guess is pretty good), Kumquats, and some somewhat reasonably priced grapes. I really wanted to buy these little yellow melons, but we keep getting this pickled yellow something that I'm not a huge fan of and I was kind of afraid they'd be the non-pickled version of that. I guess maybe I ought to ask someone...

Once we finished shopping, the hilarity really began as the middle aged cashier took off up the escalator (flat of course so you can roll your cart up to your car)with my box of groceries! He had been asking us something in Korean before taking off, but we weren't super sure what. When we got to the top of the escalator, he'd set my groceries down at the door and was half-way up the street! Luckily, there was a younger Korean guy there to translate and he told the older guy that we didn't want a taxi (which is apparently what he'd been doing: running off to hail us a cab because he didn't want us walking anywhere far with our big boxes!) and that we lived close enough to walk (we only live two blocks away from the store). It was hilarious once we figured out what was going on, but seriously confusing up until that point! Thank goodness that Korean kids have to take some English in school or we'd be generally screwed pretty much all the time!

Now that the groceries are put away, we're just kind of chilling at HOME (finally!) and waiting until the other teachers get off work. We're going out later on tonight to obtain some deliciousness at some sort of restaurant...I'm pretty psyched for whatever it ends up being. It'll just be nice to go for food with people who know what they're doing, especially since it means we'll be able to eat without going through the insane pointing frenzy that usually accompanies ordering! Yay not all alone!

Home sweet home!

Well, we're officially here, in our apartment that is. Home sweet home. In fact it's really lovely...and actually kind of bigger than our apartment in Hamilton! We've got two whole bedrooms (one of which I think is going to double as a closet/guest room), a lovely little living space, a skinny little kitchen and an on-suite laundry room with a washing machine and a drying rack that pulls down from the ceiling!

The place came complete with two single beds (we're going to see if we can get a double since I'm pretty sure that I'm going to fall right out of these tiny beds and break my baby toes! Okay, probably I'm just being a baby, because they're definitely completely normal sized single beds...I guess I'm just not used to it), a lovely pink plaid comforter set (pink...) for me and a lovely brown plaid set for Bryan, a box of frosted flakes featuring Tony's Korean cousin Lyon the lion, some extremely thick milk (with bonus yogurt beverage attachment tapped to the side), two dishes and a bowl! Not bad considering we got here three minutes ago! We are fully equipped to sleep and eat here people! It's all good!

There are a couple of "best parts" of our place that I feel you MUST know about...there are also a couple of hilarious and awkward parts, but I'll go with the good parts first! First off, we don't even have keys! At the entry way downstairs and on our door above the door knob there are small electronic key pads, and instead of a key we just use a code to get in! The one on our door is a "disco lock" because it sings a little song and flashes colourful lights every time you unlock it. We think it likes us. We also lucked out and got Ondol (heated) flooring. Because Koreans traditionally sleep and eat on cushions on the floor (and therefore spend a lot of time down there since those are the two activities that make up the bulk of human life), Ondol flooring is heated by hot water and makes them super cozy comfy on the tootsies! (Mom, I think you'll really like this since your feet are always cold!) We also have these sweet things on the window that make curtains unnecessary. They're like sliding blinds that are completely opaque but let in lots of light. It's kind of the best since one window faces the street and the other faces directly into someone else's! The one problem is that we don't have them on the living room windows and I may have accidentally flashed a group of construction workers working on another building across the street the other morning...ooops!(I think I just mooned a bunch of people...)

Now for the "weird" stuff (which arguably could include disco lock...but whatever). The one thing that I think I'll never ever ever get used to is the fact that we don't have a shower. NO SHOWER PEOPLE. Just a hose attached to the sink which hangs on the wall above it and which you are meant to spray yourself with just standing there over by the toilet! My friend Aubrey asked a very valid question: If our toilets are technically "in" our showers, does that mean we've all peed in the shower?" Not just that, Aubrey, we haven't just done that. Basically the whole bathroom gets soaking wet and you can't really walk in there with anything on your feet for at least three hours. Luckily our cabinet is kinda water-proof, but we have to take out the bag I've got in there for garbage and the toilet paper every single day! It's all well and good if your main modus operandi is to engage in a water fight at least once a day, but, as I've recently become quite the fan of baths, it's something I don't think I'll really ever come to love. The other thing that I'm super weirded out by is the stove situation. We've got a gas stove, which is kind of par for the course in most of the places I've lived...the thing here is that every time we want to cook, we need to turn on the gas with a little switch next to the stove (and then turn it off when we're done so that we don't die!) I'm pretty much only worried about this for Bryan since he tends to be a bit forgetful about appliances. I think I'm just going to have to spend a bit more time being even more OCD-esque than usual and checking things out before I leave the house...and while I'm in the house...

Overall it's a super great place and I'm besides, I can't really complain about anything since we get to live in it completely rent free for the entire time we teach for the school! Whoot whoot best part of our contract! Now to decorate...

I am so hungry (for easy to obtain food)!

I think we might be getting better at obtaining food...maybe just a little bit and entirely contingent on the time of day and how much sleep we've had prior to the food getting. I mean, last night's foraging mission was a DISAST-OR. Yes, all in capitals. Yes with that weird way I pronounce the last bit of the word when I think it's a really big deal. I'm pretty sure we inadvertently offended the man at the restaurant next to our hotel...a lot and entirely by accident and partially because of jet lag. The restaurant is called "The Red Tomato" and for some reason, although we are smack dab in the middle of South Korea, Bryan insisted that maybe we would be able to get (for reallys) Italian food, which really appealed to me because the night before we left, there was nothing I wanted more than some delicious delicious lasagna...all gooey and melty and full of saucy tomatoes and clumpy cottage cheese...yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...*shakes out of revelry* anyway, that was my absurd hope. When we got in the door it was immediately apparent that this was just not going to happen, at least not last night (but maybe in the future *looks around desperately for someone who would be privy to this kind of information regarding the availability of my melty cheesy here in Jeonju or even just S.K. in general*....)

This place had architecture like a cabin in the swiss alps: heavy, dark brown exposed beams interwoven with stark white plaster and granite flooring. In short...the opposite of any kind of reputable Italian restaurant that would possibly have my delicious on hand. The restauranteur seated us at a table intended for at least 6 lined with two huge couches on either side. Once Bry and I had settled on a couch each, he got rid of the extra place settings and brought us the menu. This is the point at which it really set in that I would not be eating anything remotely melty that evening, because as I thoroughly took in the one menu we'd been given to share, it dawned on me that it was the exact same menu being served in the small restaurant above our room at the hotel, and I'd already exhausted the things on offer that I had any desire to eat. I think we looked at the menu for an abnormally long time again, because the restauranteur seemed pretty confused when he came back with our tea and we'd only decided on drinks. So confused in fact that he tried to take the menu away...for three full minutes...while I explained in every possible way I could think of that we hadn't decided on dinner just yet. Now, please note that this man's English was very very good. He knew what we were saying and spoke to us in the highest level of conversational English I've heard so far. But unfortunately when bridges are only able to be built from one side (remember, stupid Sarah and Bryan speak NO Korean beyond an-nyoung-ha-seh-yo) and it was really slow going. I had to grab the menu as he said "more slowly" about sixteen times. It was a rough go, let me tell you!

Finally, after receiving our kiwi juice (me) and coffee (Bry) we decided on mushroom and seafood fried rice. Now, to be completely honest, I've never really been a huge fan of fried rice. It's kind of just that "thing you get" when you're ordering in Chinese take-out, kind of to go with your honey garlic spare-ribs or delicious delicious cashew chicken...*drools*...but never as a main, at least for me. This fried rice though was DELICIOUS. Seriously, D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S, and I got to work polishing it off immediately because at this point I was ravenous. We'd taken an afternoon rest time again (like the elderly couple we seem to be rapidly becoming...or perhaps have always been...yay, look at me, I am an old person! I love me!) and hadn't eaten since our foray to Copain that morning and I was HUN-GRY! Unfortunately, jet lag (and or a potential allergy to kiwis that I should probably have checked out/ accept and take as a cue to stop eating the lovely little furries) made it impossible for me to eat more than half. This has happened nearly every time we've gone for food so far and I'm really starting to worry it's because I've done something awful to my metabolism or something by not eating nearly at all for that first day.

Now, the really awful part of this inability to eat even half of my rice is that it basically meant that I also couldn't eat any of the side dishes that came with our meal, which probably led the restauranteur (p.s. I'm not trying to be cocky with my language usage here and if you have a less a-hole sounding way of expressing the fact that this man was not only a waiter but the owner of this fine establishment, please let me know so I can avoid sounding ridiculous and elitist in the future) to believe that we didn't like them/think they were even edible etc. When his wife/fellow restauranteur/cook came to take our plates, Bryan earnestly explained that it was the jet lag that was causing our lack of appetite and that we'd really enjoyed the food, but it's more that slightly possible that she didn't really understand what he was saying even though she nodded. In any case, when we went up to pay (Koreans are endlessly hospitable and will never bring a bill to your table for fear of implying that they'd like you to leave before you've indicated that you're ready to do so...take a cue from these lovely people EVERYWHERE ELSE!), he did look a bit hurt, like we'd judged his establishment unworthy. We felt bad.

Now, just to digress for a moment because as you all know I am the opposite of modest and I feel that I must discuss with you here the ravages that kiwi seem to do to my body. When we got back to the hotel, I was bathroom ridden for at least an hour and I was pretty sure that I might die. If this was just a one time thing, I might be more apt to blame it on the jet lag instead of the fuzzy green little dude in my drink, but the fact of the matter is that kiwis were also involved in the infamous "poo pants" incident in my studio a couple of years ago. It is for this reason that I think I am best to come to the conclusion that we just shouldn't mix and move along to more agreeable fruits. I mean, there's no point in me eating them when others can enjoy not only the taste of the fruit but the more *ahem* long-term benefits of retaining the nutrients it offers.

Anyway, after, er...loosing the majority of my dinner last night, this morning I, again, woke up completely ready to cook and eat Bryan if I didn't get some food ASAP. After our wonderful experience at Copain the day before, we decided to go grab a bite at one of the cafes in the little shopping area we'd discovered on our walk and that Bryan believed had waffles...and other stuff since I'm not super into those latticed pancakes regardless of what people put on them. Here's where disappointment in the land of food sets in again, however, because although we started off with flying colours and a highly successful an-nyoung-ha-seh-yo exchange between ourselves and the woman behind the counter, it quickly disintegrated when we realized that approximately 0% of the menu was in English. Disheartened we continued a little bit up the street to another little cafe, which, like most of the places so far, had a least a couple of words of English on the menu. I'm very proud of us, however, because the amount of English on the menu, though present, in this case was pretty minimal and in order to make sure we got what we really wanted to eat, I actually had to ask questions (like "what kind of sandwiches do you have?" in order to determine what the two descriptions written in Hangul below the word "Sandwiches" actually meant). By far, this was the best meal we've had so far...most likely because it's the first meal where we've been able to order stuff we really really wanted AND been able to communicate how we want it, which, sadly, is no small triumph! The onion bagel and strawberry-banana smoothie I ended up with were exactly what I wanted and I was so so pleased to discover that my bagel even came with cream cheese (although at first I definitely thought it was just a ridiculously large amount of butter...a shockingly large amount of butter not to be consumed by anyone not actively courting heart failure and imminent death...apparently though, this is an entirely acceptable amount of cream cheese to me...go figure)! Bryan got something called "Honey Toast" (which was coated in whip cream) to go with his usual coffee and all in all we were both pleased as punch!

To be completely honest, this whole thing really feels similar to how it must have felt to be a toddler, before you could really ask for what you needed or get it yourself, and you had to rely on those around you who were better able to communicate to understand your complex series of hand gestures and disjointed words and get you what you needed (please note that it's what you needed, not even wanted, but needed...as in things like food, or a place to sleep or...you know, that IMPORTANT stuff). I'm really thankful to everyone we've encountered so far for being so kind and so patient with us, because I know that it must be just as frustrating for them to not be able to fully understand what we'd like and therefore to not be able to give it to us. So far, no one has gotten frustrated enough with us to just give up, and I think that's really impressive as I'm positive that we must be pretty difficult to deal with a lot of the time. Overall, I think this whole experience of flying solo (well, I suppose "in pairs" is more accurate) in a country where I don't speak the language and am only able to communicate the things I need in a very disjointed way will make me not only a better teacher, but also a better, more empathetic person. I think that it's always really important to be able to empathize with others, and there's no better preparation for doing so than experiencing a similar situation yourself. Now when my students are feeling frustrated trying to communicate with me in their own (potentially) disjointed English, I'll totally be able to get where they're coming from and approach the situation with a level of understanding that perhaps I would have otherwise been lacking. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, my mom always says, and I think this is definitely a case where that's true.

Luckily for both of us, checking out of the hotel is the last task we'll have to handle solo for a while because our school is coming to get us in about an hour and we'll have Korean-speaking people to help us out from here on in. I'm pretty psyched to be eating three squares a day again and to be able to just go over to my cupboard to grab some food when I'm hungry instead of having to go on a magical adventure/treasure hunt for menus that contain at least a little bit of English. And eventually I (of course) intend to learn enough Korean for this never to happen again...Yay some degree of independence!

In case you'd like another perspective on the whole "Korea Thing"

Just in case you'd like to hear what Bryan has to say about this whole thing...here's the link to his blog...where he discusses being far too skinny...just joking! But seriously...here it is:

http://bwtjeonju.blogspot.com/

"How are you?"

I really do hope that our sleep schedule gets a bit less screwy in the near future. Last night we fell asleep at 5 pm...then we woke up at 3 am, fell asleep at 5 am and got up again at 8 am! I feel like a kid on X-masacre morning for pete's sake...this jet lag thing is just a little bit too out of control! After hanging out in the tiny little world we'd created in our hotel room all day yesterday, mostly out of fear, I was feeling a bit pathetic this morning and insisted that we leave on an exploratory mission. Bryan seemed pretty content to eat in the restaurant on the floor above us again, but after Katie's rave reviews of Korea cafes, I was pretty set on venturing out to find one. Strangely enough, we didn't have to venture far, and ended up eating breakfast in a tiny little coffee place across the street called "Copain". After all our difficulties of the previous couple of days, I felt like eating someplace with a French name...in Korea...as anglophones, would be a a fun little foray into cultural mixing...and besides, who doesn't want to eat at a place called "Buddy"? How much friendlier could anywhere get, I ask you? I mean, just LOOK at this place...soo CUTE! We sat at a table with a little bench with two little throw pillows and a chair, and things got even cuter when the waitress brought us the two ham/egg sandwiches, soup, coffee and lemonade we'd ordered.I am clearly overjoyed, as you can see in the picture there. Not only was my extremely hungry belly getting some food (finally, remember, we only ate once yesterday before falling asleep at 5 pm and I am a lady who likes to keep nourished!), but please take note that there is a DOILY under my soup, people, a doily! It's like my soup is sitting on a tiny old-lady couch! And my spoon says "Wicker Rocker" on the handle. Perhaps you can see both better in this close up of my delicious meal? Do you see that doily there peeking out from under the soup? And the cute little spoon with it's somewhat non-sensical misnomer? and here is Bryan's equally cute meal...served on a little tiny cutting board and also featuring a little purple doily...to protect the cutting board from the evils of coffee or simply to add a bit of whimsy to the meal? You be the judge. After we'd finished eating I bought what is easily one of the most delicious baked goods that I have EVER consumed. It was this little lady finger type cookie thing (but with two halves and much much softer) filled with what seemed to be...er...butter. Seriously, it looked like caramel, but once I'd gotten it into my mouth, I definitely think it was just over-pigmented B-U-T-T-E-R!

After we'd eaten, we took a little walk up the street in no particular direction and happened upon a really interesting shopping area. It seemed to be set up for pedestrians, and even featured a little rain canopy overhead, but there were

cars zooming in and out, left and right, and a complete and utter lack of sidewalks! No one else seemed upset by this, so we tried to keep our shock (and a few times fear)

under wraps. I was perhaps a little bit too pleased to find that I could get not only Birkenstock's, but also

(really really cute) Clark's (that I'd never even seen before).I'm really hoping that both of the above come in my size and plan to figure out the size conversion AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! I suppose as is usually the case for women of size like myself, even when we can't get our hands on the cutest of cute garments on display everywhere, usually a cute pair of shoes is well within reach and should quench any consumerist urges that spring up in me! Part of my stress when packing came from the belief (re-enforced and confirmed by various sources)that I'd have trouble finding clothing here, and possibly even shoes (since I also have pretty wide feet), so learning that I could at least find one of those items (if I needed them) was pretty comforting!

Probably the best parts of this little foray were the shop names, including this little gem "SOUP:Performance Feminism Fashion". Now, I don't know about all of you, but I'm always on the prowl for the proper outfit for my Feminist projects, and I'm really hoping this place carries my size!

Another key moment of the day was when a lovely elderly woman exclaimed "How are you?" and, after we'd answered proceeded to strike up a conversation...in Korean. We think she was commenting on how tall Bryan is, but we're really not sure...yet another moment where I feel like I really should have gotten a handle on Korean before leaving! I mean, I missed out on chatting with a lovely elderly woman! This is a serious loss for me since, as previously stated, I heart senior citizens! We'd been warned before hand that people would frequently start speaking to us on the street, and that we shouldn't be freaked out or anything because mostly thy just want to practice their English, but gd it, it'd really like to know what she was saying! It could have been the cutest, best or most hilarious thing ever, and my ignorance has prevented me from experiencing it! Oh woe is me!

After finally purchasing some rather expensive (44000 won...that's like 40 bucks! I am not the kind of woman who usually spends that much money on "styling" products...I mean, my usual shampoo costs 3 dollah or under!) shampoo and conditioner, we're now taking a bit of a breather back at the hotel and will hopefully be able to venture out later on tonight to get some dinner (it started snowing really really hard earlier, and now it's started raining, and we all know how I feel about THAT!)..I'm starting to get hungry again already! I guess I'm used to being a bit better nourished...but then again I'm also used to being able to walk over to my cupboard to get some food! Soon tummy, soon!

Welcome to Mars...er...Jeonju!

This morning I woke up at 5 am. Naturally. I don't think I've woken up naturally at 5 am since I was literally an infant...and even then I might not have. You'd have to ask my mom. I've kind of always been one of those people who sleeps best during the day and outright refuses to go to bed at anything that could be considered a normal hour. It's not that I don't understand the potential value of getting a good solid sleep at night when I have a day full of stuff to do, but, I don't know, I think I'm just naturally nocturnal...and besides, I don't want to miss anything! I think we can all agree that the best things always seem to happen after the sun sets. I can't help it that my affinity for owls goes this far! In any case, I digress. I woke up at FIVE IN THE FREAKING MORNING feeling kind of disoriented and wondering why in the world I was curled up on a tiny twin bed in a strange room. For the brief moment before I looked out the window, I could easily have pretended to be in some strangely set-up hotel in Toronto...nothing sounded different outside (I'm pretty sure car horns sound the same most everywhere...correct me if I'm wrong), but the second I looked out the window, it was apparent that we simply weren't in Kansas anymore, Toto.

When we finally dragged ourselves out of bed and got up the gumption to actually shower and make ourselves presentable to the world, our first task was explaining to whomever was (wo)manning the front desk that we'd really like to switch to a room with one LARGER bed, and that we'd like to stay for three more nights. Bryan had originally booked us rooms at the Jeonju Tourist Hotel, but after the magical times we'd had last night, we'd come to the conclusion that moving our stuff over there and back again was just going to be too daunting (to be completely honest, I think I'd rather have filled my ears with peanut butter and jelly, and become the owner of a successful child-minding service for unruly toddlers, which, as you all know, is something I consider akin to HELL...well at least the part where I'd be in charge of minding poorly behaved children!) I tried to mentally prepare myself for the possibility that communicating our needs was going to be significantly more difficult than I was used to...but really, I don't think you can prepare yourself to communicate with someone when you speak very little of their primary language. I've always thought it was more than slightly ignorant of anyone to go off traveling without learning at least a few key phrases in the language of the country they're visiting, but here I am! I've become exactly that...a stupid, blubbering idiot, and I'm sure I'm offending EVERYONE! Bryan seems to think I did okay. It's not like I got frustrated, angry or stomped my feet and simply gave up the ghost. After about three tries and numerous hand signals/one word exchanges between myself and the lovely woman at the front desk, she handed me the key for the room above ours (the 1207 to our 1107) and, pointing at the key in my other hand said "bring it back...after". With that and after a few little bows (we seem to have unconsciously adopted this in addition to saying "thank you". I think we're hoping that whomever we're speaking with can understand that we appreciate what they're doing even if they don't understand the words we're saying) we went upstairs and

moved our mountain of stuff to 1207. The house keeping lady was just cleaning all of the rooms (including 1207) and we had a bit of an adventure explaining what we were doing. Lucky for us she was able to say "you are here?" and we were able to meekly nod our heads... pathetically. In any case, this is our new room. It's much bigger-seeming than the other one...I think because it has FEWER TINY BEDS (am I right people, am I right?). You can see how well our excessive piles of stuff fit into the new room (surrounding me on all sides). I mean...they fit much better in this one, but I suppose none of you would know that since we didn't take pictures of the other room...just trust me, it's better.

This room (like the last one, one floor down) also has a lovely view of what I'd refer to as mountains out our window (I can't take a picture for you guys right now because it's snowing...a lot! Damn it earth, I thought it was spring...everywhere...

what are you DOING!?), but probably most other people (at least here) would call "hills". They look pretty big to me though...so...MOUNTAINS! I mean, they're definitely more mountain-like than the escarpment, Hamilton, so...well I'm just going to call them "mountains" until someone corrects me, and that won't be until the school picks us up here on Thursday night since I'm beginning to think I've very little hope of having any sort of real conversation with anyone unless I can get some sort of space age, ear insertable translating fish or machine a la Doctor Who or

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. More on my feelings of helplessness when it comes to communication later, but for right now...look at our sexy sexy bathroom!(Yes, that is what Cora so affectionately refers to as my "area" there on the counter. No matter where I go, I have to lay out all of my "Sarah things" on some sort of flat surface and make a little space of myself. I can't help it, I love stuff, I have stuff, I need to put my stuff in some sort of order so that I feel like I AM someplace...you know?)We've got a little tub (complete with "old person bar"...you all know how much I love old people! Swoon. AND a lovely seafoam green vanity around the sink. I'm pretty into this place.)with a detachable shower nozzle...just in case you want to sit down I guess. The one thing that I find kind of odd (now that Bryan has pointed it out at least) is the fact that the sink is BESIDE the bathtub. I mean, think about it...have you ever seen that before? It seems kind of weird, I think, once you think about it, as in most bathrooms I've seen the sink is right beside the door and then the toilet is by the tub. I guess it does allow you to wash your hands while you're in the shower...but do you really need to wash your hands in a separate little basin while you're washing the rest of your body in the other, slightly larger basin of the bathtub? I think NOT, but you do whatever your heart so desires when you come to the Core Hotel. I will neither quash your dreams, nor attempt to stop you, I promise...Moving on...

Our next big task for the day was obtaining something substantial to eat. We'd both woken up completely ravenous (and ready to kill and eat anyone or anything that crossed our path...seriously...I have NEVER been so hungry in my life! Bryan gave me a granola bar and I could swear nothing has EVER tasted so good!) After our little blips and communication difficulties from the night before, we were both a bit apprehensive about leaving the hotel, so we decided to check out the cafe one floor up from our room. When we walked in, the two waiters behind the counter greeted us in Korean and (I think) asked what if we'd like to eat. After seeing the bewildered looks on our faces, one of the waiters said "eat" while lifting his hand to his mouth (that might seem like a silly thing to do, but I must say that I'm really beginning to appreciate small efforts like that, because without them, EVERYTHING would be impossible and we'd definitely STARVE!) We enthusiastically shook our heads and were seated by one of the large floor to ceiling windows, which gave us a FANTASTIC view of the city.

After considering the menu for what I'm sure was an abnormally long time (I was so befuddled that I didn't even realize the menu had more than two pages until Bryan flipped through them...it's not like they weren't obvious...I'm just ridiculous...so that kind of slowed things up) we settled on shrimp fried rice for Bryan and Seafood Spaghetti and "Strawberry Juice" for me. Now, the reason that I've put the latter item in brackets is this: (similarly to the "strawberry pudding at Sushi Star)the item did not arrive quite as described. While I had ordered the beverage out of a desire for some sort of reasonable priced source of fruit (the fruit platter was 20 won...that's like $18 people!), it would have been more suitable for a dairy craving...it was a smoothie...or maybe even a milkshake, but in NO WAY juice. Maybe I'm just tired, maybe I'm just cranky, but gd it, I wanted JUICE! Whatever...over it...it tasted GREAT! The best part of the meal though (although considering how freakin' hungry I was at this point, the whole thing was AMAZINGLY tasty) was the soup they brought before hand. It was some sort of creamy yellow broth with...wait for it...CORN FLAKES floating on top (cream corn soup?) I LOVED it! I even tried to scam the remainder of Bryan's, but he was having none of that! As I'm sure some of you have heard, there are smaller side dishes served with every meal here in Korea. In this case, they consisted of some sort of yellow, rectangular, definitely pickled stuff and the always enchanting Kimchee. We both made a valiant effort to at least eat a bit of each item, but I really do fear that we're going to offend someone at some point here, because we were too utterly pathetic to choke more than a bite down! Once we finished up, we had a bit of an awkward moment as the waiter tried to ask us if we'd like coffee, tea or desert. I think he forgot that we were pathetic non-Korean speakers for a couple of seconds and went through his full question before realizing neither of us had any idea what was going on. Finally Bryan said "coffee?" and he agreed and went off to get it. We did only slight better at paying and retreated back to our room to recuperate. I know it's my own fault for not being better prepared, and I do hereby solemnly swear never ever to be one of those stupid people who emphatically exclaim "why can't they all just speak English?!" no matter how stupid I feel trying to obtain something to eat, but trying to get what I need is really really tiring right now!

I really do feel like a clumsy space-person visiting another planet and failing miserably at fitting in or at least communicating with the residents unoffensively. And the thing is, I fully recognize that I AM THE WEIRD ONE HERE! And I really do feel very badly for stressing people out. I think I'm going to go figure out how to ask for delicious corn-type soup in Korean...I want more of that...NOW!