The most awesome things ever.

I'm just waiting for it to climb the 63 building and pound its chest...

This impressive attraction is on top of the Mini car store that I pass on my way to work. I pass a number of strange things on my excursions through Seoul, but this tops it for excessive and WEIRD. Come on, a stick person thingy that shines like a giant disco ball. It looks like a Zolaman with a bad hair day dipped in chrome.

It's obvious that I am missing it's curbside appeal. What makes things hot and not, cool and flop still are new to me. Maybe 20-somethings really DO feel more attracted to a store that looks like it sells toys rather than cars.

Fun with Konglish in Itaewon

Thanksgiving - Nov 25

Ah, Turkey Day, a day for good food, talk and happy times. Turkey is actually quite rare in Korea, and very expensive. But, luckily for us, we had both an oven (also equally rare) AND a turkey for our festivities. Cooked to perfection, there was not want for food at the party, and like 30 people came. Korean and Waegookin alike, we all had our fill. It was a truly great party. A little singing by the Haligonians (a few cheesy rounds of Barenaked Ladies songs), a little drama for my friend JuJu, and a little bit o wine for the rest of us happy peoples. Gotta love the turkey sleepiness though, everyone was crashed out by midnight! :P

Shamanistic - Nov 24

I went to see a Shaman ritual at the National Folk Museum a couple weeks ago. I thought the whole procession was very amazing. The chanting was my favourite part, it was very hauting and powerful, though the entire display with the papercraft and dancing was also very beautiful.

So much new to experience, the culture is so different here. There is a dance that looks really interesting that's being performed in December I hope to go see.

Hana Bank is on FiYA!

This Friday was like any other Friday, nice day, a little chilly, but otherwise quiet. Jake and I were off to the bank for a relatively banal event of paying bills and getting a bank card - until we get sight of the main branch building shooting out flames from the roof.

You don't believe it at first, it seems so strange to register, only until after Jake said, "Oh. The buliding's on fire." Then I saw that yes, that orange flame and billowing smoke should NOT be there. Jake, despite this handicap, decided the fire was isolated enough and he had enough time that he went and got his card anyway. He said that after he got his card, he informed the bank that their building was shooting flames, to the panic of all the staff. I had my camera, and I stayed outside to film the action.

Thankfully the fire was out before much damage was done, and the firefighters did arrive and all was well. But still, some excitement all round. (The awesomeness that is video is available only if you look at the post in blogger.)

Couch surfing: Alex - Nov 9 - 12

So my second attempt at couch surfing was pretty successful. Meet Alex, a Russian Torontonian well-travelled and just starting a new 4-6 month backpacking journey in Asia. We totally had fun hanging out, and he went on this temple stay at the Zen Buddhism Centre. I think I'm going to head there myself soon.

So after his temple stay, he came back to stay a couple more nights and we went to Hongdae to scope for some electronica. We ended up going to M2 bar, which was playing some kickass trance. We were the only foreigners there and the place was pretty empty, but it was all good, we danced as much as humanly possible. At first people were a little shy, but with two people dancing full energy, it eventually gets contagious and the place was pretty hoping at one point. This one guy kept saying, "The best!" and giving me thumbs up :P It's a nice release, dancing like that. I hadn't done it yet in Seoul because all my coworkers aren't into "techno." Le sigh.

Staying out until 4 AM on a workday rules. Here's to 2:00 PM start times for work!

Couch surfers and Palacing - Nov 3-4

I had my hosted my first couch surfers this weekend. Dan from Mexico and Jon from Sweden. A good way to think of them as holding out their thumbs and a sign: "have hedonism, will travel." :P They'd been traveling all around Asia, and they'd just taken a train/ferry from Russia. They actually came on Thursday night, which was a Sean's going away party. We all had a pretty good night.

It was interesting having people over. The first night was mostly crashing after being at Pop's pretty late. On Saturday we went to the Deoksusung Palace and Nomdaemoon. We got to see some changing of the guards ceremony and the market was spectacular.

Halloween @ Jackie's

This Halloween wasn't so much partying as it was getting used to Seoul, but I did do some Halloween festivities at work. There was some costuming and candy and games to celebrate. I went as a kitty =^_^=

Since there are three different groups of kids, I ended up putting on a costume three times! I was nearly sick of it by the end, but I'd really hyped up dressing up so I wanted to stay in the spirit. A lot of my classes all wore costumes, it was really cute. I don't have the picture (yet) but my level 5 class won the costume competition! They were all so cute.

Lex did a great job as a disgruntled Indian princess :P

Gwanak-san (Gwacheon) - Oct 28

This week's adventure: a trip down to Gwacheon to hike the Gwanak-san mountain. It was a great way to leave the city behind. John and I headed down kind of late, but we still got in about 4 hours of hiking.

It was a steep climb, and it started raining on and off the entire time we climbed, but it was worth it. The air actually smelled like Autumn and we were surrounded by trees. Except for the shorter days and colder nights, Autumn could come and go and Seoul and you would barely be able to tell.

Gwacheon is way out in another province from Seoul, but the transit is amazing here so you can go two hours out of the city and do it by subway.

We were rushing at the end to get down off the mountain before the sun went down, but all was well in the end and we ate some pajeong to celebrate our feat.

Good-bye Sean Thrash Show - Oct 27

This Saturday we went to Sean's band's show (that's right, he was in two bands), Join the Circle, and another band. Sean was finished working at Jackie's and was heading back to Canada. The show itself was still great. I kind of liked the different genre, especially the mix of Korean and English. My friend JuJu came with, and we had a fun time. I'd also run into Jane that day to go to some free Korean lessons by the Sookmin Women's University. Halifax represent!

Yeongju and Andong Oct 20-21

A group of us from work headed down to Yeongju and Andong for the weekend. They are on more the south-east part of Korea, about a four hour bus ride from Seoul. I saw a Buddhist temple, a Confucian school, a number of bars and a folk village. Just awesome :P A number of pictures are up in my picture blog.

Seoul is a modern city, and because of globalization, that doesn't mean too much different than any other modern city. So Andong was a great trip, I feel like I've gotten a glimpse of the real Korea.

Couch Surfing

So a coworker encouraged me to join Couch Surfing. It is a community of people who believe in both sharing a space and making friends while traveling. I am certainly a believer of this philosophy myself, so I signed up immediately.

Membership comes with a lot of perks - like hanging out with the CS community in Seoul for their monthly get togethers. Their last was this Sunday, on the roof of one of the ambassadors' apartment building. I like their choice of snacks, and the people are certainly friendly, I give them a hearty thumbs up.

Now I just need to get the motivation to finish setting up my profile. Online communities are both good and extra work for my tired brain X_X

Noraebang (Singing Room) Oct 13

Check out the loser banging the tambourine! Aye Aye aye.

Visa Run - Oct 11&12

So apparently you need a visa to work out here in Korea ;) I ran out of time before coming from Canada to get mine, so I had to head to Osaka for a couple days, because for the teaching visa, you have to actually obtain it out of country, so Thurs-Friday I headed out to Osaka, Japan to get my passport stamped.

Traditionally known as the "Visa Run," many a teacher in Korea head over to the Korean Consulate in Osaka on a daily basis. These individuals often flock together in what is known as the "herd."

My "herd" turned out to be just one woman from Ottawa, but we ended up having a pretty good time. After the official business at the consulate (read, take pictures of the squatter), Christina and I found our hotel and then went out and started shopping. There is a giant covered market that runs for blocks upon blocks. The stores to note were definitely the underwear stores, man are they experimental (yet cute) in Japan! That and everyone is beautiful, especially those girls dressed in lolita fashion.

One of the department stores has this huge ferris wheel on it, really cool. Christina and I could see the whole Namba area from this weird pea pod.

We also managed to have a look at the Osaka Castle before heading out. The castle was gorgeous, and I loved the old Japanese architecture. It also made me realize I've been spending too much time in cities lately. Next trip is definitely to somewhere with trees...

Gogi Gogi - Oct 5

Korean BBQ rules, put a grill in the middle of the table, and start cooking meat on it. Serve with soju and lots of Korean side dishes.

Then follow with more soju at a local pub.

Pictures to come soon from my gogi gogi experience.

There are barber poles and then there are barber poles

Behind my hagwon is a parking lot, with this pink bunny truck parked there. I raised my eyebrow in curiosity and asked a few questions. It seems that there isn't a cultural confusion, that is indeed a whoremobile.

Not only that, but there is a special code using barber poles. Of course there are the barber poles where you can go and get a trim, but there are also special barber poles where you can go to visit bunnies for an erotic massage.

So the lesson is, if you pick the wrong pole, you'll end up with a really expensive haircut.

Yay for jet lag

Jet lag for me has always been a bit of a small tug of frustrating, when I would go from one end of Canada to the other. Four hours seems like a lot, until you try 16. I mean, I'm up at 4 AM like I've slept in past noon. Nice.

Yesterday I was so unbelieving to what I was doing I had to keep reminding myself that I was actually moving out of the country and into Korea. I'd find myself easily lost in books or the internet and completely forget what I was really doing. "Oh right, I'm moving to Korea." Today I'm a little more over myself. Things seem less bizarre.