Lego Land

I've often asked myself lately, "what in the hell was I thinking?"

Korea is like lego land. No matter where you go it pretty much looks the same. After almost 3 and a half months everything is kind of starting to blend together. Every street seems to be stuck on the repeat button... kimbop restaurant, drinking hof, little market, salon (oh how koreans love to get their hair styled), korean BBQ restaurant, spa, massive apartment complex like 30 stories high, a few double spinning barber polls and you're good to go. There you have the essentials to build your own lego land of Korea! With work being not so great lately I can honestly say I've thought of packing my bags more then once. It's not that Korea is bad necessarily, it's just that everything at home seems so much better. No worries though, I won't give up that easily.

Korea does have it's charms though. People here are by far the nicest people I've ever met in my life to strangers. Last night I had the cutest old taxi driver in all of gwangju. He spoke broken english but had me laughing for the extent of the 15 minute drive...

1. Do you have a boyfriend? Why? Why? Korean men veeeery handsome!
2. Me handsome?
3. Eat kimchi? I eat kimchi! We eat kimchi! Eat kimchi much!
4. Soju drink? Me soju! I die! NO soju! You soju! Much? No, no, no, NO soju me.
5. America? Canada? Ahhh, me America like veeeery much! Baltimore? Oregon...ahhh...ahhh...i don't know. What? Ahh California! Me like California! Baltimore?!?

...this is my life...haha

Like I've said before, thank god the kids are so freakin cute!

More yummy food!

So I've become a lazy blogger. I'm sorry :(

On the bright side however, I feel a wave of inspiration on the way so stay tuned for a good two or three weeks worth of material I've got stored up!

I took this video at the Kimchi festival. Apparently gwangju has some amazing kimchi! Who knew? The best part by far was making kimchi with the old ladies. Lets just say I've not very good at making kimchi and leave it at that...haha. The best part was I got on the news and my picture made it in the paper. I'm pretty much I high roller down here in Gwangju. Or maybe they just think it's really amusing when foreigners eat kimchi. Either way it was pretty fun.

Korean Dryer

I miss dryers... and fabric softener :(

Ok

Today all I could think about was how lucky I am to be here. I get to travel. I get to teach. I get to meet extremely interesting people and experience a entirely different culture. To top if off I have family and friends who love me back at home. I really can't complain, even if things don't always go as well as I would want them to. I know I will never look back on this experience and regret it. Not for one second.

So I'll have good days and I'll have bad days, but everyone does. And I will write about both. It doesn't matter if you're in Portland, Korea, Canada, Colorado or where ever, there will always be good and bad days. So even though sometimes I do get frustrated and hate it here I know I just have to take it one day at a time.

It's easy to think about the things I gave up, but it can't compare to what I will have gained.

Pics of HK

One day I will see the big buddha!

Day 1

-Wait at the airport forever for my friends flight to arrive after being delayed forever.
-Take a bus to Hong Kong Island to find a hostel for the night. I seriously think karma got us there. If we hadn't have run into a Canadian headed to the same place I'm not sure if we ever would have found it.
-Wan Chai

Day 2
- Stanley Market
- The Peak...the view was amazing
- Mastered the subway (very user friendly!)
-Lan Kwai Fong

Day 3
- Star Ferry
- Kowloon
- Nathan Road ...ect.
- Dim Sum
- Mid Autumn Festival
- Dragon Dance
- Red eye back to Korea :(

Hong Kong

I made it! Hong Kong is crazy! I luv it! If you ever get a chance go...don't even think about it, just go. Before I leave I definitely want to go back just to do some major shopping. I have never seen so many stores in my life. Plus everyone speaks English!

p.s. Hong Kong has there own currency. I did not know this. FYI.

Converting the won to the US dollar to the Hong Kong dollar = headache. I'm not a fan.

In two days I think we crammed in enough for a full week. The crazy schedule I had for getting me back to work today left me pretty drained but it was well worth it. I took tons of pics, so they will go up soon I promise.

Anyway so it's weird thinking after staying in a hostel it feels good to be "home". Gwangju is starting to feel like home. Weird. The Hong Kong hostel however, is really nice. Way better then what I thought it would be :)

Ok, more to come...

Hong Kong is Back On

So I'm still going to Hong Kong, but only for three days...sadness. Oh well, it's better then nothing. At least I get out of here for a little while.

Ok so I was being a little dramatic. Sorry. I've learned my lesson, don't blog in a bad mood. Haha.

So here a pic from the Ethnic Cafe in Gwangju. This is my absolute favorite place to go downtown. The guy in the middle is referred to as "sexy boy." I'm guessing his Korean name is really hard to pronounce. I think he owns the place.

Bad day

I hate it here today.

Apparently there was a huge miscommunication regarding the schedule for the rest of the term. This includes the fact that there will be school on Thursday and Friday of next week. The week when I am supposed to be off exploring the inner workings of one of China's most exciting cities. Aka, my Hong Kong trip is screwed. To make matters worse, one of the other teachers quit. Awesome!

Korea also sucks because there is no such thing as a "sick day." I feel like this is a completely foreign concept to them. No matter how sick you feel you still show up. I'm pretty sure it's standard to keel over standing at the podium of your classroom. This also applies to family emergencies. If you have a death in your family, you still show up. That's just how it is.

Twisted words, broken promises, crying directors, school reputations, threatening to with holding pay checks, can I come home yet?

Where do you draw the line between the all American "god complex" and respecting the culture you've decided to throw yourself into. Sometimes I think people out here forget to think about that.