Mi Casa.

The reason there are so many of these is because my camera can only record in 2.5 minute or so intervals. So they aren't long-- I promise!














My hair looks ratty because I didn't shower before going to the hospital at 7 a.m., and I was told I couldn't shower for 24 hours after my injection. Now it's just a waiting game. Waiting for the pain to go away, waiting to see if anything actually improves or if the pain meds are what's making me feel almost normal again, rather than the injection.

Anyway. Kudos to you if you watched all four videos! Annyeong.

Lists.

This past weekend, I:

[x] Swam in the Sea of Japan
[x] Ate mediocre nachos at a cute Mexican restaurant in Busan
[x] Danced to Bob Dylan
[x] Watched Cold Mountain at the DVD Bong (highly recommend!)
[x] Said goodbye to a dear friend for seven weeks

So far this week, I have:

[x] Successfully transferred money from my Korean checking account to my American checking account
[x] Shopped. Finally. You don't realize how much you miss Target and Forever 21 until the one stop shops are no longer available.
[x] Spent a morning at the lovely Can More restaurant with Diane, sipping on Mango Guava smoothies and chatting about her departure back to South Africa next week
[x] Taught my private about the difference between "giddy", "smitten", "infatuated", and "crush". I'm not sure that is worth her paying $50/hour, but she seems happy to do it. Can't really complain, can I?
[x] Fallen in love with the lyrics to "The Dance" by aKing
[x] Given two hours of oral tests to two of my classes...
[x] ...because of this, had two pizza parties today
[x] Tanned on the rooftop of an 18 floor apartment building
[x] Written and sent letters
[x] Gotten a MASSIVE new fridge which replaced my old broken one. I love cold milk. Who knew?
[x] Practiced with Jay
[x] Booked Jeff's flight to South Korea. EPIC!

The rest of the week/upcoming weekend, I am:

[x ] Playing at a Korean coffee house, Yan's, with Jay. We've been practicing for about a month now, and have six songs down cold. (iwillnotletmynervesgettomeiwillnotletmynervesgettome)
[x ] Going to a Hawaiian themed movie night on Friday
[ ] Helping my students rehearse scripts Saturday morning for an English speaking competition
[ ] Possibly returning to the beach, depending on the weather

* * *

Needless to say, busy busy busy busy. But all of it is fabulous and intoxicating and beautiful and thought provoking. All of it. I have fallen in love with nearly all of my students. They've grown on me faster than rice paddies grow in the summer time.

More later? I need to practice.

Update: Just got home from playing music with Jay at Yan's. I haven't been on stage with my guitar since Xhedo's, and it felt so good. So familiar. Even though my nerves were as apparent as ever, I got past them within the first 30 seconds of the first song, and managed to sing as best I could for the following five. Now it is time for me to rest me weary eyes, wake up tomorrow morning, and Skype Megan Lang... and then proceed to the easiest work day of the week.

'Til next time. :)

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasting time.

The title of this post is a quote by Bertrand Russell (British author, mathematician, philosopher), and I feel it accurately describes the hours I spend chatting with friends over pasta rather than working on lesson plans, stumbling the internet, and reading when I should be (or at least I tell myself) studying the Korean alphabet. It also perfectly describes this past weekend, as seen below. Also, some pictures from the past few weeks, per the request of people who don't have Facebook, and have made some sort of statement regarding my face. So, you (we) go.

Playground from down below

View from George and Steve's roof

Matt, Jay and I

Jay, Kayley, and George's arm

Kayley and I/A&B/Red and Blue

Feelin that TWO-TONE!

The only really recent picture of me, taken this past Saturday. Per the usual, I'm not looking at the camera.

It is officially June, which almost marks my three month anniversary of my time in Korea (short of three days). If I could explain how fast a quarter of a year has gone by, I would. But alas, I cannot, and I can only say that my time here has gone by as fast as everyone said it would. I feel like I need to do a lot more. I want to visit Seoul in the daytime, swim in the sea in Busan, hike Namsan, bike along unmarked trails, and learn how to cook. I want to go to a South African braai, play guitar in a coffeehouse (getting there), and master the Korean alphabet. In time.

I saw this back at home and it made my day. Hopefully it will makes yours, too. A tribute to Miles, pug(gles), and dog lovers everywhere.

Love, love, love.

Greenery, The Commune, and Some Parade

My favorite color has always been blue. I go between preferring dark blues over light blues sometimes. But in general, in my life, blue tends to be this defining part of me. I have a thing for blue eyes, which for whatever reason is reflected in the guys I've dated. Some of my clothes which hold the most meaning to me are blue. Blue jeans. Crystal Lake, the Atlantic, the sky, cerulean crayola crayons. Now that I've said that for no particular reason, I can get to one of my three topics for this post.

We have had a substantial amount of rain for the last seven days or so, which in turn has turned everything vibrantly green. It's really beautiful. Green comes in a close second to blue. I could wax poetic about both colors if I was so inclined. I have an affinity for trees and there are some really great ones in Korea. Not to mention the mountains being different shades of green.

The view from my apartment.

A block by my place.

Again


A tomb. Apparently the tree on the right, the biggest one, is where Koreans would hang themselves from during the Japanese invasion.

So my friend George and I grabbed some dinner tonight, and after we had finished, a parade loudly sha-banged it's way through the streets. My camera work is awful because I tend to forget that I need to hold it horizontally for videos to be seen properly. I only realized that about two thirds of the way into the video. But it's still pretty good I think...? You be the judge. We think it was a political parade of some sort. It was still SUPER funny though. I tend to not have a clue what's going on in Korea or why they do the things they do half of the time anyway, so then tonight when I've just finished eating, BAM. Parade at 8:00 at night. Double you tee eff.

I will update more videos later from The Commune later. :)

Update: 11:50 a.m. on Tuesday. I planned on getting a haircut this morning, but I woke up 1.5 hours later than I had planned. Shit. Oh well. Here is a video of a Korean cover band playing some Weezer, circa last Saturday at The Commune in Daegu. It was more than a pleasant surprise to stumble upon them!

There are some things pure, while certain things blur.

I whole heartedly love Sundays. And for me and many of my friends, Sundays slowly bleed into Mondays because no one has to be at work until 1:00 or so. It always makes for an extremely relaxing end of the weekend when you don't have to be up for the typical 9-5.

Weather wise, this past week has been gorgeous; high 60s/low 70s, and it looks as though it's going to stay like that for the weeks to come. It is long skirt and t-shirt weather. It is sitting-in-Wonsong Park-with-friends-playing-guitar-in-front-of-a-historic-site weather.

Per the request of a certain friendsies, while walking towards the small tomb to meet some friends for lunch yesterday I pulled out my camera and gave a quick tour of some of the surrounding area which I live. It is completely windy in the video so I do apologize in advance. It cuts off for some reason in the first video, and then picks back up again in the second.

I have loads of other pictures I want to share, but I don't want to take up my entire blog with a random compilation of them. So I think what I am going to do is just show the best ones from various nights. The thought of making a photo album account stresses me out! So anyway, here are a few from the past couple weeks. :)

Bulguksa.

For thousands of Asians, the swastika still holds its' original meaning, which was of wealth, good fortune, and for Koreans, protection. Shame it means to us what it does.

I went to Bulguksa two weekends ago when it was still cold, and before the cherry blossoms had fully bloomed. It was really cool going with my boss and my coworker, but I need to go back now that it's warm outside and the trees are greener.

* * *

Climbing cherry blossom trees. Photo credit: Diane Hall.

Photo credit: Diane Hall

Some women!

Mmm alright. That is enough photo uploading for one blog. Next weekend is the Traditional Korean Wine and Rice Cake Festival here in Gyeongju, also known as the Soju Festival. There will be people coming from all over Korea to be a part of it, which is awesome for us who live here because friends of friends will be visiting. More people to meet. There will be tents and tents of Koreans giving out free Soju samples. I will also have the opportunity to make my own. Can't wait to tell you about it! :)

Raining Pink

Saturday morning while in Daegu for my medical exam I noticed that some of the cherry blossom trees are starting to fade. It was really beautiful. In any direction I looked, there would be hundreds of white-pink petals drifting to the ground; it was like walking through cherry curtains.

Gyeongju is amazing in the spring. It's super people oriented. You can be walking around and stumble upon a park with benches hugging the trunks of the biggest trees. There are people biking, hiking, skateboarding, eating sushi outside of 7-11s, holding hands, taking in the scenery. The locals are starting to recognize me which is almost kind of nice. Case in point: last night Diane and I were about to part ways at Lotte when a Korean man walked past us and said "Lo-La?" pointing to Diane. And I said, "No, I'm Laura". And he goes "Sisters?" And Diane says, "Nai". Nai meaning yes, we are sisters, and why do you know my name? I suppose it's good though. They need a shock of culture in their homogeneous town. At least they aren't staring as much as they were in the beginning.

Anyway. You know how I said it better be warm by the time I post again? :)
It's in the high 60s/low 70s all week this week. And according to my lifeline, the coolest it is going to get in the next 15 days is 62. I know it's snowing back home. But hey. At least the Michigan weather keeps you on your toes!

I bought a guitar yesterday after my trip to the acupuncturist. The guitar is a Charpel. I got it from the man who owns the Yamaha shop in Sunggong dong-- my new favorite Korean. He's super old, super funny, a total hippie and laughs like he's never laughed before. He included a free "kah-po" and a case which I thought was kind.

I had acupuncture for my back which has been murder and for my legs which also haven't improved, even with the physical therapy. And the acupuncture helped a lot. I am going back tomorrow morning so she can work on my balance. When I saw her yesterday she put her hand on my back and said, in a very soothing voice, "You have... five vertebrae in your back. One, two, three, four, five. Vertebrae four is... mm.. how do I say... behind other vertebrae. I fix it and in three weeks you will be well." I felt amazing after seeing her. And it was also really nice to have her say specifically what was wrong with my back. I went with my friend Maria, whose right shoulder, if touched, would make her wince in pain. She's had this problem for years. As we were walking out of the office, I could touch Maria's shoulder and it didn't hurt her for the first time in a long time. Pretty incredible. I highly recommend it.

Yesterday sort of dragged on, though. I have a feeling this week is going to be like that. I just want it to be Friday again.

Me Likey

Current play(life)list:

Kings of Leon: Sex On Fire
The Band: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Fionn Regan: Hunter's Map
Guster: Come Downstairs and Say Hello
Jack Johnson: Breakdown
Jason Mraz: After An Afternoon
Old Crow Medicine Show: Wagon Wheel
Silversun Pickups: Three Seed
The Avett Brothers: Swept Me Away
The Prize Fighter Inferno: The Going Price For Home
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles: You Really Got a Hold On Me
The Fugees: Fu-Gee-La
James Taylor: Mexico
Jeff Lynne: Lift Me Up

* * *

Twouble with Twitters-- "Don't you twitterstand? You can become a twitter-elbrity!"
Hilarious! Although it makes me feel guilty for updating my facebook status. =/

Anis Mogjani-- "Rock out like the mangoes are in season. Rock out like the record player won't skip. Rock out like this was the last weekend, like these were the last words, like you don't wanna ever forget how." Slam poet.

* * *

It has been a fairly slow week for me here in Gyeongju. First of all, it is damn cold, making me not want to go out and do much. According to AccuWeather (which you know I live by) it is 37 degrees with a "real feel" of 28. Brr. It made my hot and fresh mendu dinner all the more delicious. Well that, and I also forgot to turn my heat off when I left today so I came home to a surprisingly warm apartment. Not the worst thing in the world!

The other night Diane and I had dinner at some chain restaurant in wonsungdong. It was delicious. My meal consisted of spicy ramen noodle soup with egg and mozzarella. Immediately after we treated ourselves to ice cream from Baskin Robins (boom batty much?). They serve the babiest of sizes there, and all for fairly cheap (2500W/cup). I am going to have to really try to not go there frequently. Instead of grabbing a cab home, we decided to walk. We walked past the Gyeongju stadium where our home opener is being held. It is huge and beautiful and says "Gyeongju" in the stands. It is definitely a professional stadium, with flood lights and room for 10,000 fans. I hope my leg is feeling up to it.

We also walked past this statue of a Korean general on a horse pointing his sword onward and upward. It was really amazing. It's got to be like, 20 feet tall or so. Huge. I estimate that it's a couple hundred years old. I don't know the name of the General, just that he fought off the Japanese. I have heard Koreans say that Japan has invaded Korea "2,000 times in 2,000 years". Not to be taken literally of course, but an interesting indigenous perspective all the same.

In other news, North Korea has a (test range) missile on a launch pad. The images from GoogleEarth that have been shown in the media show it clearly. The North Korean government is saying they are sending a satellite into space, but from what I've heard and read, nobody believes that. Supposedly the missile could reach somewhere as far as Alaska. The whole thing has got the Japanese military protecting the sea as well as part of their territory that the North Koreans have mapped out as "missile zone". The Japanese are concerned that debris could hit near Tokyo. I don't know. I try to keep myself informed and I keep reading about it. The conclusion I've come to is that ultimately North Korea is calling a nuclear weapon a satellite; China, who is a distant ally of the North has remained relatively quiet about the situation; Japan has urged the North to scrap its' plan, saying that it would "damage peace and stability".
The U.S. and South Korea, along with Japan, are strongly opposed to North Korea testing long range missiles, and say that the North would "face international sanctions under a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution prohibiting ballistic activity by Pyongyang (NK President)".

I'm not worried, and I won't be worried until the Koreans worry, which here in SoKo, they are not. Just something to think about. To end this rant-tacular blog on a positive note, here are a couple pictures of the Gyeongju crew from Aleesha's birthday last Friday.

George and Steve

Nightmare Before Soju (props to Diane for the pic)

Beau, Diane, and Simon

Bill, Simon, and Aleesha

Kelly, Beau, Lena, and Dave

Diane and I

Til next time... it better be warm by then! :)

A Weekend Taste

A little ways down from my apartment.

And again.

These were taken today as I was walking back from shopping. David the Californian accompanied me to Home Plus, which is comparable to a Wal-Mart or a Meijer. I got some essential things that I had forgotten at home (tweezers, nail clippers, a hair brush), some more groceries, and cleaning supplies. It was a successful trip followed by lunch at McDonald's.

* * *

Except for Friday when I got sick, this weekend was really enjoyable. Even though I wasn't feeling well Friday night, I went to Movie Night at Nicole's hagwon (private school) with a bunch of other foreigners and watched Friday the 13th. It's a ridiculous movie, but the idea is super fun. I guess every Friday they have these movie get togethers at Nicole's school, which is really beautiful and is loaded with a large projector to accommodate the activity. She provided snacks and drinks and a welcoming atmosphere, and so there we sat, about 20 or so ESL teachers from around the globe, and watched the cheesiest of scary movies in honor of the date.

Last night Aleesha (Canada), myself, David, Steve (England), and Matt (New Zealand) went to London Hop and had some Hite. Then Aleesha and I went and had dinner across the street at her favorite "Orange Restaurant", which is a chain here that serves really good fried rice and sushi. So we ate, went back to London Hop, and then the five of us went to a bar Aleesha suggested where we drank fruit soju. It basically tastes like cheap vodka mixed with fruit juice. After a couple pitchers of that we scurried across the street to a place I think is called Paul's Bar or Pool's Bar. It was pretty cool-- it was lit with blueish lights and candles and you could request songs, so we all had a chance to put in song requests and then the DJ would download them for us. The night wrapped up around 3:30 (bars don't seem to close here in Korea), at which point I took a taxi back with Steve and Matt, came home and slept until 2:00 today.

This brings us to the present, where I am waiting for a call from either Dave or Simon, both of whom are going to a DVD bong tonight. A DVD bong is a place where you can go with a group of friends, bring your own drinks, and watch a movie of your choice on a huge projection screen-- all for the low cost of around $15,000W (divide that by five or so; just about $3.00 a person). I am really looking forward to seeing what these things are all about... people seem really into them here.

I STILL cannot figure out why my videos won't post to the blog, and I'm getting to a point of desperation. The format is in AVI, which Blogger says it accepts, yet it does not allow me to upload. It just consistently says "Uploading Video", when really it's not. I think I am going to have to e-mail Blogger help or something.

Til next time. :)

See below.

The title of this post is also the background on my computer, taken from postsecret.com. I strongly suggest anyone and everyone to visit the website at least once—I can guarantee, at the very least, that it will spark a strong emotion in you, if not an outright obsession.

Currently, I am sitting at my desk in my new apartment, eating men du, which is some sort of dumpling deliciousness that I picked up at the vendor outside of the grocery store. It is my second night in my new apartment, and I am finding to be adjusting more quickly than I anticipated. I have never lived alone, but I don’t think I could have asked for a better living situation. I am typing this post using Word with plans to post it tomorrow, because as of right now my internet is not up. Cate has to call what I think would be the equivalent of Charter or Comcast so that they can verify online access for me.

The apartment is super cozy and super cute and beyond livable. I will post pictures once I get everything unpacked and organized. In fact, I will probably just take a video of it and post that. I have been trying to take as many videos as pictures because they give a better representation of what life is like here in Korea. It is spacious and has a queen sized bed (thank god!), an armoire, a desk, cable TV, a little table, a cabinet, a stove, everything. Everything I could possibly need is here in my own rent free, studio apartment.

Last night I went out with my new favorite couple, Diane and Beau. I successfully took my first taxi to Sung Gundong, which is a district in Gyeongju. If Gyeongju were Oakland County, Sung Gundong, Yung angdong (specifically where I live), and some other districts that I can’t pronounce would be Royal Oak, Birmingham, Huntington Woods, Novi, and Clarkston all mixed together, yet still distinct from one another.

They took me first to a beer bar where you go in, open a fridge, and choose from a selection of international beers. We sat at a table and drank our drinks, at which point Diane suggested we go to a wine bar next. I don’t know the name of it nor do I really know exactly where it is located. I do know that every bar in Sung Gundong is right next to one another, lined up in a fluorescent, bustling college-esque town.

The wine bar was beautiful. Diane had said before we had arrived it was sort of an Arabian themed bar, and I believe that is the best way to describe it. You walk in and take your shoes off, which is something you do at many restaurants as well as whenever you enter someone else’s home. The entire bar was draped in deep red curtains with gold detail hanging lowly from the ceiling. We sat in a little corner on the also deeply red carpeted floor on thin pillows—similarly to many places I have eaten at so far, the table was barely up to my stomach. There were candles on each table which the waitress lit when we first arrived. We drank a bottle of sweet white wine, talked about our hometowns, where we had traveled (my summer tales of Ontario have been a huge part when talking about my life), and general conversation about my move to Gyeongju. Both Diane and Beau are incredibly supportive and understanding of me and my decision to move to South Korea, and have promised I will love the people here and will easily make friends. If my information is correct, there are about 500,000 people in Gyeongju, and about 70-80 foreigners. Assuming that this is accurate, it is safe to say that us foreigners are by far the minority. This being the case, they said that the foreigners stick together. Beau said even if I might not like someone, I will have a connection with that person because we have our travels in common. Needless to say spending time with those two gave me extreme comfort and a sense of camaraderie that I have been craving since I left home.

Today, Cate called me around noon and invited me to lunch and out for a walk to the lake—I was thrilled she asked me, because to be honest I didn’t really know what to do with myself when I woke up at 8. So we go to this lake, and it was just so cool I don’t even know how to begin describing it. It’s a family friendly place with lots of photo ops and food and shopping centers everywhere. I was semi-pleasantly surprised by the 8 kilometer bike ride we took. We biked around the water, up hills, down hills (way too fast!), flying past cars and people, stopping for kiwi ice cream and corn on the cob sold out of a truck. I say semi-pleasantly surprised because it was a work out that I was not prepared for. I don’t know if all Koreans are as fit as my boss and her family, but I know that I felt like a sluggish American riding around, clearly not in my comfort zone. After the bike ride I came home, showered, and went to Diane’s to hang out. I have really cliqued with her, and she has been kind enough to lend me her amenities until mine are all sorted out.

So that was today, and tomorrow is my first day of teaching. I will post everything as soon as I can.