mushroom mushroom

Sorry guys! It's not that stuff isn't happening that's worth blogging about; it's that it's all "I went to Busan this weekend and spent a whole day talking to Autumn about boys and clothes and traveling."

But I'm not lesson planning right now, so let's talk about how crap I am at basic human functions like feeding myself.

I partly went to Thailand as an exercise in being a grown-up. I had never lived by myself or relied on myself to feed myself. It's different when you live with someone, because you can share those burdens. Or something.

Anyway, Thailand proved to be the land of $1 Pad Thai and housekeeping cleaning my room once a week and taking my laundry all the way across the street to be done every week. It was a challenge, I tell you. It made me laugh, because I was far less capable than I had been in the States. At least there I cooked for myself. Sometimes.

Now in Korea I realize that I am rubbish at feeding myself. I keep running out of food. Like, usually I have breakfast cereal with fruit and yogurt for breakfast…and dinner. But this morning, I didn’t have any fruit or cereal. Instead, I had leftover corn on the cob and blueberry yogurt, and now have no food again! This keeps happening! On the bright side, there is a once-every-five-days market near my house. I discovered this while on the way to the grocery store (I had run out of breakfast cereal again.) The sidewalk surrounding the grocery store was full of produce stalls, and the funny usually-vacant area behind the grocery store was now a bustling market!



In a way I'm spoiled (this time of year) because when I run out of food I can walk two blocks and buy overpriced nectarines or tangerines. Or other fruit but why would I buy other fruit when I can buy nectarines and tangerines? And the mushrooms—there are so many different kinds of mushrooms! Cooking real food is difficult because it’s hard to buy small quantities of produce, so my stir-fry is usually limited to two vegetables, which are always broccoli and oyster mushrooms. This is because, when told to choose two vegetables among all the choices at market, why would anyone not choose broccoli and oyster mushrooms?

Unfortunately, the market only happens every five days, so the rest of the time I have to go to the actual grocery store, which isn’t so bad because they do sell those corn flakes with the cranberries and almonds.

(I should note that I eat a hearty Korean lunch at school every day. The teachers are regularly impressed with my tolerance for spicy food--dudes, I lived in Thailand.)

This is my exciting life in Korea!

In my room

Wanna see where I live?

I live in Jangyu, which is a bedroom community of Gimhae, which is a suburb of Busan.

First, I don't have a key. Instead I have this. I don't want to think about the implications in case of disaster.


This is the take-off-your-shoes area. Please try to find an empty spot in those cupboards among my vast collection.


And this... this is my room!


There is plenty of room to hula hoop.


This is the kitchen, complete with a bag of moving-in waste. There is a microwave and a rice cooker under the table. I chose the pink rug myself. That door goes to the bathroom.


This is the bathroom. The shower head is behind the door.


This is my laundry room, which seems like a very inefficient use of space.

what good things mother makes

Gosh, I'm sorry about this lapse. I'm going to lectures and eating kimchi a lot. I also had some European Luxury Waffles, which were tasty.





Additionally, corn. There was a bag for the cobs, but it went away. In Korea, we recycle!

all my bags are packed and I'm ready to go

The computers at the airport weren't working, so the ticketing procedure involved the Asiana staff running back and forth with peoples' passports to a back room somewhere and hand writing boarding passes. Understandably, this delayed the flight since folks had to wait so long to check in.

Mistakes are bound to happen with handwritten boarding passes. I had the same seat number as another girl, but Asiana sorted it out. When we exited the plane she grabbed my TEFL International backpack for me, since I had stowed it a few rows back on account of the seating weirdness. She recognized the logo as she is also a TEFL alumni who has been working in Spain for the last two years. With a US passport, mmm hmm. Of *course* she's here for EPIK too, but she'll be teaching in Seoul.

The flight was painless. I watched some movies that I would not otherwise have watched, and some that I wanted to see (Date Night, with Steve Carell and Tina Fey, which was not as funny as it could have been; Valentine's Day, which I enjoyed but will later claim to have watched only because of the pitiful selection of movies available; Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which varied from the book but I dug it, and The Back-Up Plan with... um... J-Lo playing a baby-crazy woman who um... God it was awful. I knew it would be awful and I watched it anyway and it just was.)

I took a bus to Jeonju University where I will stay for ten days of orientation, and on day nine I will learn where I will spend the next year. I've been living out of backpacks and suitcases for the last four months, so I'm excited to get a whole apartment to myself.

leaving home ain't easy

I left Ban Phe at the end of July.

I spent a few days toward the end with Autumn in Bangkok while she got her Korean visa, and we spent much time at this sanctuary, in an alley off of Khao San Road.



It's an old house, with fabulous paintings on the inside. Perfect for a fabulous party.



When I did leave, I had a stopover in Seoul for a few hours before crossing the pacific. I saw some things in Seoul.

Gyeongbokgung Palace!





Another Starbucks!



And then I went back to the airport and flew over the ocean.

You thought the leaden winter would bring you down forever

I visited a magical island this weekend. Ko Samet is the reason Ban Phe is on the map, but this was my first visit. I was deliriously happy all weekend until the very end, which was still a perfect ending.

On Saturday after being booted out of Condochain and bidding farewell to the folks who won't stay in Ban Phe, I caught the ferry with two girls from my TEFL class. On arriving on the island we found some available bungalows (very rustic accommodation) and went down to the beach for drinks. We met a cute, sarcastic, whiny Canadian who we joined for dinner at a restaurant on the beach a while later. The food was wonderful. The sand was white. The drinks were abundant.

After dinner, we walked to a hookah bar on the beach. Rugs were laid out on the sand, and there were pillows to lean upon and short tables. The four of us shared a hookah and I listened to the music from the bar and watched the fire dancers down the beach and the lanterns floating up to the heavens for good luck and it was beautiful. This island's culture and inhabitants are so intentional and warm and transient, like Ren Faire or Khao San without the touts.


Paisley Glen or beachside hookah bar?

I didn't think it could get better, but inside the club at the hookah bar there was a wonderful cover band. They played the Cranberries and Guns and Roses and... uh... Shawty got Low. It was FANTASTIC. The singers, the guitar, the dancing, the energy, the music.

We left when the band finished their set and it went back to a dj and walked back the other way to a gay bar on the beach. I dipped in the ocean with one of my companions and it was beautiful. Then we headed back to our bungalows, and found that one of them was full of ants, everywhere. We all slept in one big bed then and in the morning realized we had shared the bungalow with this guy:

I am very glad that we didn't see the spider until the morning. Otherwise we would have had to sleep outside. It is by far the largest spider I've seen outside of a tarantula, and it is fast.



In the morning, we met up with another friend and found a secluded beach with white sand and still turquoise water and just played and swam in the ocean, laid on the beach and ate delicious food. I had an ovaltine shake and banana with coconut milk. While resting for awhile I played some music (it's odd that I haven't listened to my ipod at all on this trip until now.) I put it on shuffle and "Tales of Brave Ulysses" came on and it was perfect.

The mermaids here are whiter than the sand.


I was completely enchanted by Ko Samet, but had to leave to catch the ferry at around 5 pm. I came back to the school here in Ban Phe where I am spending one night before leaving tomorrow for Cambodia with a couple of others. After dinner I walked back to the school with a friend and we stopped at a restaurant that was having a lawn karaoke party with two of the TEFL employees, including our trainer. Both of them are leaving in the coming weeks, one to Singapore and one to England. It was wonderful to sing karaoke with them. I sang three songs--Proud Mary was a duet, it was great. I Will Survive was great. The other was Take it to the Limit by the Eagles. But the music was not right. It was just a generic drumbeat and I couldn't sing to it! Especially with a song that is so slow, Emily singing that song was the most horrible thing I have ever heard. It was better to watch them sing karaoke. When I left it was bittersweet because they're both leaving while I'll be in Cambodia and they're pretty cool people who it would have been fun to get to know outside of the TEFL-trainee relationship. They'll have great adventures though.

I realized when I got back to my room here that my phone was missing! It must have fallen out of my purse at the karaoke place. I called the place but there was a language barrier and a loud karaoke happening in the background barrier so I'm not sure they know what's happening, but I will stop by tomorrow in the hope that they have my phone. If losing my phone is payment for the amazing weekend I had, it was worth it. But I still want it back.

ICN to BKK

I guess I can't sleep in Asia. Weird. Monday morning I woke up at about 5:30 and could not get back to sleep. After my complementary breakfast courtesy of Asiana I went for a walk. I stumbled on Dongdaemun Market, and as it was still pretty early in the morning, folks were sawing and drilling to make their displays and deliveries were arriving on trucks and motorbikes. It smells like leather and fish and perfume. Everyone smiled at me and I think a lot of folks were happy to practice their English with me. I had lots of "Hi, how are you, have a good day" and actually no "come buy stuff from my shop."


Dongdaemun Market. The Internet says it's something like 10 acres. There are lots of real stores and also vendors set up on the streets. You can buy clothing, sunglasses, fresh fish, handbags, and...


Korean Ginseng in pretty bottles at the market.

I also walked by the Bank of Korea musem, which is a very pretty building which is closed on Mondays. An underpass map had a palace listed on it, and I couldn't find the thing and was getting thirsty so I went back to my hotel to look it up online and I learned that all the palaces in Seoul are closed on Mondays too! What timing I have.


The museum.


This is a fountain near the museum. It was covered in flowing water when I saw it from across the street, but after crossing through the underpass it was off when I reached the other side.

I got very very tired all of a sudden around noon, but could not take a nap. I tried sleeping at the airport after arriving there at 5, and may have dozed some. The 5 and a half hour flight to Bangkok seemed more cramped than the one to Seoul, but I think I may have slept for a few minutes.

I knew I was going to be completely exhausted on arrival in Bangkok. I had a very clear series of tasks for myself: Pee. Go through immigration. Get baggage. Go through customs. Find ATM machine (my card worked, what a relief.) Buy bottle of water. Find taxi. I managed to complete these tasks and was very satisfied as I got in the cab that I would be sleeping soon.

It was about 1 am when we got on the road, so the highways were pretty empty. This was a very scary cab ride! The driver straddled the line between the lanes a lot of the way (I saw other cabs doing this too.) No signal or anything, just drive on the line for a bit until you make a decision. I reminded me of Toad's Turnpike on Mario Cart. Anyway, we arrived at Khao San Road. Taxis don't go down the road, so I got all my luggage out and trekked into the backpacker ghetto.

It was bustling at 1:30 or whatever. There was a circle of people around a guy who was breakdancing in the middle of the road. He wasn't on cardboard or anything, just spinning on the pavement. I heard a hoard of people singing along to U2 and it was so heartening, but I needed to get to sleep so I didn't investigate.

I found my hotel (can you call it that at $19 a night?) and checked in. It is a stark contrast to the fancy hotel I stayed at in Seoul. It's tiny. The walls are dirty and gray, and there is a frightening reddish area above one side of the bed on the otherwise purple headboard. The bathroom is the shower, so toilet paper has to live in the bed area or it will get soaked. But this room has three very important things: a bed (well really a mattress and boxspring on the floor, but close enough,) air conditioning and wifi. I'm set!

I can't sleep though. I took some benadryl last night in the hope that it would make me drowsy but still woke up at every little noise the air conditioner made. I woke up for good a little after 7.

I don't have high expectations for myself today, but if I can make it to the 7-11 down the street I would like to get some Tylenol pm or something.

I am in Korea!

I spent 11 and a half hours in the sky, and the sun never went down on Saturday--it just kept on shining into Sunday as I tried and failed to fall asleep on the plane. I was excited when I opened my vegetarian meal and saw rice and broccoli and yellow curry. Curried what, I wondered. It looks like rice but it's next to rice. It was curry sauce on a garden burger. Yum!

I had trouble figuring out where to go when I got off the plane since I knew Asiana had made a hotel reservation for me, but I didn't know where to get the information. Angel was an angel though and met me at the airport and made me happy on the bus to my hotel (which is, by the way, the fanciest hotel room I've ever visited. It has heated toilet seats and lots of other toilet buttons which I have not pressed.) We walked around a bit in the area around my hotel, which is very busy and musical and bright for being 10 at night.

My ears still need to pop and I'm very tired now, so I'll leave you with a picture of me. Unwashed, sleep-deprived, but in Korea.



Tomorrow night I leave for Bangkok!