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Published: September 10th 2006
shark attack
at the aquarium in Busan6 weeks later and we're finally gonna start the traveling! We're sad to leave cuz it's been a blast living here, but we're ready to go. So much has happened here that it'll be impossible to write it all, so I'll keep it to the more interesting stuff and tell you the rest when i see you next year....hahaha...just kidding. We'll probably be home in 3 more months. but things change daily here, every time we talk to someone new.
So anyways, work was great. I got used to the disorganization of the school and figured out I had to ask a million questions and figure things out for myself or I would be out of the loop with everything and it would all by my fault. If a school functioned like this in Canada, no kids would enroll. And I work at a school for rich kids. Seven year olds were wearing Burberry Skirts and Dior pants. And they were all real. So you'd think the school would make sure to at least train their teachers and keep them informed. But you'd be wrong. The teachers are expected to just know everything. Thank god for the other teachers at my
school or I would have been fired on day 2!
The area we live in is great. It's referred to as the Beverly Hills of Seoul! On the walk to work I pass by Louis Vitton, Prada, Gucci, Chanel, Coach, D&G....the list goes on and on. And apparently this area is known for its plastic surgeons! There's a street with like 10 places where you can get anything done. Everyone does it here. It's not even a question that every celebrity has done it. There's only one who's known for being au naturel. The girls we met here before going to camp have both had something fixed. One had her eyelids made thicker....which apparently is common and the other had her thighs lipoed!! They said it's common to have your jaw shaved down, cuz they don't like it when it's too defined!! They're more vain than we are!!
Part of the deal at the school is that I get an apartment. One of the teachers found out how small my apartment was and that Marissa and I were sleeping in a single bed together. So he offered to switch with us cuz he had 2 bedroom. Oh did I not
mention....Marissa quit her job on the first day and moved in with me and started the hunt for a new job! So this guy gave us his apt, which was awesome. And he tried to be friends with us after, which would have been great....he was actually a Jewish guy from Montreal (which is why I'm leaving his name out, incase anyone knows him, cuz what comes next isn't something that should get back to him!) But he turned out to be the biggest douch. The day we switched with him, we showed up when we said we would, with all our bags and food from our place and his shit is all over his apt. Not even remotely packed. And he's like, ok I'm gonna go out, just throw my stuff into my suitcase and take it to my new place. We had told him we would help him carry his lugage cuz we were trying to help him out since he was doing us a favor. But he took it as we would pack up his entire apt for him and move be his moving men! His stuff wasn't just not packed, it was in piles all over
Looking into North Korea
The soldier had to stand half guarded by the building and half looking into North Korea the apt, he didn't even use the cupboard. He expected us to fold his clothes, pack them, pack his toiletries and cosmetics. So I told him there was no way I was touching his underwear. So then he throws everything into the suitcase, not folded, so half his stuff doesn't fit (typical guy) and he says bring it over, empty it out there and then bring back the empty suitcase. At this point I wanted to smack him. The other apartment was like 3 blocks away and up a really steep hill. We carried his stuff, left it there, went back and said take the rest yourself. He pulled other shit too, but I'm not wasting my whole blog on him! My bitterness towards him will just come out more and more and you'll think I need anger management! The only other thing I'll ad is that Marissa and I weren't alone in our hatred towards the guy. We found out last week that every other teacher despised him!! We didn't wanna talk to them about him cuz we didn't wanna be the bitchy girls who gossip about people, and then our last Friday of work the school takes us
out for dinner and afterwards we find out the staff has come up with a plan to all hang out after but ditch him first. They're like, disperse and meet up in 7 minutes at the school and we'll hit the bars!! While we were waiting for everyone to catch up, we spent about half an hour trading "Douche stories"!!! I have never seen a group of people come together to bitch about someone else the way we did!!!
Ok enough about him. One night we went out with these 2 guys from work and by the end of the night they were so drunk that they started slapping us! I have no idea where it came from, but a couple days later I got a text from one of them that said S L A P!!! It unfortunately continued every time we went out with them, which surprisingly didn't happen to often!
The night we went out with all the teachers from work, we ended up at a karaoke bar, it's called Noray Bong here. It's the thing to do, people we're shocked we hadn't done it yet. You pay by the hour and get your own room.
It was actually the most fun I've ever had at a karaoke place. The alcohol might have played a small part in that!
Something else I've noticed about this country, nothing is logical. They haven't thought anything out! For example: the biggest bill they have is 10,000 WON, which is equivalent to about $12 CDN. So when you go to the bank and take out $200 you get 20 bills! it's retarded. They have 100,00 WON cheques (about $120) that is basically a bill but only some stores will cash them for you. Another thing is the bus routes. They announce the stops so they'll say this is the stop for the subway, but then the bus drops you off a block away. It just makes no sense. Why not drop you off right in front? Maybe we're just lazier in Canada, but it's just not logical to get off a block before the subway when the bus keeps going right passed it after you get off. Anyone have any insight as to why korea's so illogical?!!! Then there's the subway card. If you have a card, and you take the subway right after the bus, it gives you a transfer so you only pay for one. But if you pay for the bus with cash, you can't get a transfer you have to pay again for the subway. And we've asked some Koreans to explain how it works, and they can't! No one really knows what the deal is with those cards, just that they're better to use!
There is very little pollution here. The river's disgusting, but the streets and subways are always clean. You have to use special garbage bags...don't know why, but whenever we use regular grocery bags some random Korean yells at us! At grocery stores, they actually don't give you a bag unless you ask for one. At Walmart (yes they have one but pronounce is Walmarta) you have to pay for the bags. So people just stuff things in their purses!
Every girl here wears high heels! One kid commented once cuz I was wearing a skirt and flat shoes!! Once a kid touched my nose and said teacher, your nose, why is it like that?!!" I was like "that's how it was when i was born, why is your hair black" and she goes, "cuz I'm Korean!!"
I know I've mentioned that the drivers are crazy. I think I've figured out that red lights are more like suggestions than rules. If there's no one going the other way, cars, buses, mopeds, you name it just go right through. It's more like a yellow light than a red here.
We took a trip to the DMZ....de-militarized zone. It's the border between North and South Korea where the US has set up a military base. We had to follow the weirdest rules, like no pointing towards North Korea. There was actually a guy standing on the North Korean side with binoculars watching us. Apparently pointing ins a sign of hostility and they were likely to shoot at us if we did. And crossing over the line was obviously strictly forbidden. If you did it, you were in their hands and the South Koreans and Americans would do nothing to help you!!
This week we're heading to Busan, which is a few hours south of Seoul.....in the south of South Korea. We're gonna relax on the beach for a few days and hang out with some of the people we met at camp, before heading to China. We take a 24 hour ferry to Beijing on Sept 12. Actually it goes to Tianjin, and from there we take a 2 hour train ride to Beijing! It's gonna be quite the long commute. One of Chris's friends here told us there's so much shopping to do in Beijing, to not even bother with the touring!! She said, skip the great wall, land and shop!! Don't worry, it's one of the few pieces of traveling advice that we're not listening to! But it did make us really excited to buy all the knock-off purses and clothes we could find! We're gonna ship it home and I'm just wondering if when I get home in a few months I'm even gonna care about it!!! Guess I'll find out then.
Hope everybody's good. Marissa put all our pics on Kodak's website, hope it's not annoying to get so many emails, but if you wanna see more pics I'm gonna send an email with a link to the sight with the albums.
peace.
Trish
ps. i forgot to send it, so i thought i'd add what i di today....i went bungee jumping!!! how crazy! it was great, scariest thing i've ever done by far!!!
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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAUNTY KAROL
non-member comment
hAPPY FOR YOU
HI trish, Great email,Details ar amaxing. I love them. You sound wonderful and in full control. So proud of you, Shop till you dro[p and do not pass anything you might regret after.Once home it will be too late. Uncle Sam is doing well and increasing his walk from 10 to 15 minutes twice daily!!!! I miss you loads, Hugs and kisses, Aunty KXXXOOOOXXXX