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Published: July 27th 2006
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Cooling off
Trish playing in a fountain with all the Korean kids So we left off after just arriving at Chris's in Korea. We stayed with Chris the first night (there was only one bed so he ended up sleeping on the floor....the appartment is just one room) and then his friend Tim gave us his appartment for the rest of the week and stayed with his girlfriend Becky. They're the coolest people, Tim once spent a couple months following the Greatful Dead on tour.
The past 4 days we've seen some of the sights in Korea and a lot of the bars. During the days we went to the business district and all there was to do was play in a fountain of water! We also found a market with cheap clothes and the most disgusting smells, which we partly attributed to the dried octopus they sell on the street here. It's disgusting, people eat it at the movies as a snack, instead of popcorn. can you say "would you like dried octopus with that"?!! One day we were shopping and while Marissa was getting a henna tattoo, we met the cutest korean girls who spoke English (oops i don't know what i did but all of a sudden i was typing
Korean girls
The Korean girls we became friends with in korean....this is what it looks like: 혀ㅑ댜ㅓㄴ허/ㄹ허ㅏㄹ오). anyways, we ended up spending all day and night with those girls. they took us to a travel agent and translated for us, while we tried to find out prices to fly to china. and they bought us ice cream at mcdonald's...how random. we wanted to hang out with them again but their dad won't let them go out at night! so we haven't seen them since. but they told us some stuff about koreans, like that's it's common for girls to walk around here holding hands all the time, which we've seen a lot. Apparently it's not acceptable to be gay here, so girls holding hands just means they're friends. and girls aren't allowed to die their hair. Something we noticed on our own....the hard way, do not cross the street unless there's a crosswalk. Being montrealers, we tried crossing this huge 5-street intersection. Don't worry Mom, we didn't get very far before realizing it was suicide and turned back! Drivers are insane here, they cut people off and drive through red lights. Apparently the cops don't have any power so people do whatever they want. There's practically no crime, but
Crazy Foreigners
Partying with Chris's friends car accidents are daily occurences (that's not how you spell that is it?!! whatever i'm in asia i don't have to know how to write english). Another thing, you can't try on shirts in stores cuz girls here wear so much makeup that it rubs off on the clothes. how gross. Marissa went to try on a hat once and the girl took it back, touched her forhead and then said ok. we were so confused - and a little insulted - till we realized she was checking for makeup. the funniest thing is their idea of a wedgy. they put their hands in the shape of a gun and poke people in the ass with it....how disgusting!
So that's what we've learnt so far about korea. The nights were not so filled with culture, mostly spent drinking at American bars, with Chris's friends.....who all love it here. Some people came to teach English for a year and still haven't left after 3! Who knows maybe that'll be me....doubtful though, i wouldn't make it 4 days on their food! One night one of chris's friends did a little table dance thing and as she was doing it one of
The Montreal Crew
Our Montrealers moment-with Chris and Fallon the guys sent chris a text saying 'that was not a sexy dance!!' you can judge for yourself by the pic of her on the table....i thin kthose are my feet under her! after that bar, we all went to a country bar where they play the american national anthem every night at 12. i didn't know that so i was very confused when at 11:58 everyone turned in preparation to face the wall where the flag was hanging!
k enough about Korea. We're at camp now...teaching English and we basically have no clue what we're doing....it's great!! and the camp is so disorganized, sometimes they're like 'go to your classes and make something up'. So we sit there and just talk to the kids. They're really cute, but half the time i get blank stares. I'm never really sure if they understand me! there's one kid that can usually follow so he often explains things in korean to the other kids...which kind of defeats the purpose of the class. but whatever, i'm getting paid whether they learn or not! They all have English names and one kid doesnt respond to his, I don't think he really knows it. at
Seoul River
Walking along the river to a market one point, i was trying to get his attention so the whole class joined in yelling his name and he still didn't turn around. I decided today to start calling him by his korean name, but i forgot it already! they always use their full name, first and last and their first name is always 2 names, i don't know if it's their middle name or not, but 3 names isn't so easy to remember! they're like Kim Hyun Jin and Lee Eu Soon. Who the hell can remember the difference from one to the other!! I taught one klid how to give massage...smartest thing i've ever done! every time she sees me she massages me!! Today, 2 kids seperately touched my exposed back and just stared at me. It didn't make any sense until the camp coordinator nicely told me to keep my shirt pulled down! she said it's inappropriate in Korea to expose your skin....ooops!
to all of Marissa's friends/family....she gave up on the blog already. so she says hi but you'll have to get more out of her through email.
that's all for now...stay tuned.
Peace (they all do the peace sign here in pictures....it's
mmmmmm
Snack anybody? This is our new favourite food....dried octopus! like they just discovered it!!)
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melissa
non-member comment
hey trish, when i saw that pic of the tattoo i almost had a heart attack and then i saw it said henna. hahahaha. tell mariss she sux for not writing on the blog. i really love reading all ur little adventures. anyways everything is good and boring here as usual! so i was in new york last week and saw 2 asian girls holding hands i was so confused cuz they looked 15 but since its acceptable there i guess they werent lesbians afterall! heheheh. tell mariss i say hi and miss her.... mel