SICK MUCH?

I've been cooped up in my apartment all weekend sick and I guess the least I could do is write a post. I guess this past month could be summed up like this...

snow

cold weather

jackets

being sick

coughing children

Thanksgiving dinner

planning my trip to China

snow

being sick

being sick

Christmas party

being sick

fried chicken

It hasn't been snowing that much here yet but every time it does I still look outside in pure amazement. The other foreign teachers are so over my reaction but I couldn't care less. Then again, they're not from the land of perfect weather so I guess I could understand. I've had a cold for what seems like an eternity and it has finally progressed into an all out shit show. It's impossible to stay healthy this time of the year with little kids running around coughing on everything and everyone. On top of that, the weather is ridiculous averaging around 25 degrees. I guess I'll save the weather complaints for another day as I assure you this is not the end of them. Christmas will be spent in Shanghai this year and I'm so excited! We'll probably be there for about 3 or 4 days and take a train up north to Beijing for the remainder of our vacation. I've been completely slacking on the planning but I'm not too worried about it. Oh! FYI- It costs a US citizen $160 to get a Chinese Visa. If you're from ANY OTHER COUNTRY it's only $40. Alright I'm done.

side note - Korea knows what's up with fried chicken... really

INSIDE PAUL SMITH

Ok so my birthday post was unsuccessful for now but I'll get back to it later. I'd like to mention more important events that happened this past weekend. Actually, just one import event that happened this weekend. Paul Smith, a famous fashion designer from London, is showcasing his extensive art collection in Korea for the first time. This Sunday I had the opportunity to check it out and my creative senses have been revived once again. His collection ranged from well-known artists such as Shepard Fairey and Banksy, famous photos from magazines and pieces from students. On the third floor he showcased some of his photography as well as his stamped objects collection. For 15 years one of his fans has been sending him completely random objects to his house with stamps. To this day he has no idea who that person is, nor does he want to know. The objects were all shapes and sizes from a pair of skis, a torso form, an ET doll, a mail box... I hope to attend more events like this in the upcoming months as it's getting too cold to anything other than being indoors.

BIRTHDAY/HALLOWEEN IN KOREA

This picture completely sums up my night. I had the best birthday party ever! Pictures and an actual blog entry to follow... soonish.

PICTURE PERFECT

I haven't been that good at posting pictures lately. I don't really have an excuse except for the fact that I'm lazy. I figure I'll just post up some random pictures of the last 5ish months here.

hanging out with the girls at a 노래방 (singing room)

shopping at a local food market

testing out the benches at the Design fair with Vanessa

not too sure what the name of this dish was but it's pigs leg aka Korean style carnitas

my monkey socks and Vanessa's penguin socks after dinner

in Ayuthaya, Thailand with Charis

taking a stroll with Becca in Kanchanaburi, Thailand

had a rough night and decided to take a nap on the subway

taking the tram to the zoo!

Alright, that's it for today. Maybe if I'm feeling productive later I'll post some more.

Design for All

For the past couple of years Seoul, South Korea has hosted a massive design expo featuring professional artists and design students. Categories range from interior design, mixed media, paper goods, furniture design & architecture. I decided to check it out this weekend and there's no way I was able to see everything. I can't wait to go back again. It's being held at the Olympic Stadium till the end of October I believe. When we got there we noticed the baseball stadium was right next door and are definitely going back next weekend for a game! As per usual, it was a rainy weekend so I don't think we got to see the Expo at its full capacity since there were some major parts of the exhibit outside. I was however more than content with what I saw. I've been re-inspired yet again. Korea definitely got some cool points this weekend. Somethings I really just don't get about this country. However, I really appreciate their approach to design. I love its corkiness and the fact that things are made just for the sake of being silly, cute or simply aesthetically pleasing. Sure its fairly simple and at times there isn't much depth but there's nothing to think about. It's a note pad in the shape of a hand giving a thumbs up because who doesn't want a notepad in the shape of a thumbs up? To top it off, it's not outrageously priced. A designer sketchbook, a pocket planner, leather card holder and post-its in the shape of matches were all purchased for the pleasant price of $15.

AGAIN & AGAIN

A couple of weekends ago Vanessa got tickets to a 2PM concert through a friend. The only reason I even knew who they were is because every time we go to a 노래방 (noreabang) with our Korean friends, they end up singing this song. The concert was genius. We were basically the only foreigners there with the exception of maybe 2 other girls. We ended up taking our high school friend Jeff who just moved to Korea from San Diego. Surprisingly enough, he knew exactly who 2PM was and even most of their songs. The concert was everything I hoped for and more. It was cheesy and over the top. They did do some covers of US artists and I have to admit I was pretty pumped to hear a song or two I knew. They ended up covering JT, Usher, Alicia Keys and Maroon 5. Can I just add that those boys are hotties. It might have just been a combination of them being on stage with their 8 packs exposed but whatever. For now they're definitely my new crush/es.




Note - I don't know how to fix the size of the video to prevent it from cutting off. If anyone does, please let me know how.

A LOVE LETTER TO YOU

Happy 5 month anniversary Korea :) I felt it was only appropriate to write a love letter.

I love
your twinkling lights
staying awake till the sun comes up with you
your cheesy taste in music
the friends you've given me
the delicious $1 iced coffees at the mini store

that you recycle everything... even straws

how everything is so much cuter with ruffles and lace
the fact that even though I'll be on the first plane out of here as soon as my contract is over, you still continue to give me free refills of kimchi with ever meal.

TYPHOON!

I just thought I'd share with everyone my first typhoon experience. It started around midnight last night with heavy rain and by 5am this morning it was a full blown shit show. It was so windy outside I was scared to stick my head out the window in fear of a sign falling on me. My windows were shaking all night and so was my front door. I probably got a good 2 hours of sleep in last night. On my way to work today the streets were covered in debris, signs were hanging on their sides and entire trees were on the sidewalk. Anyway, that's my typhoon story.

CHANGING IT UP

I just moved into a new apartment almost two weeks ago. It has made all the difference in the world. The last apartment I used to live in was small, had a loft which I hated to climb up to, there was no room to cook and the walls were paper thin. Before I came to Korea I lived on my own for 4 years. There was nothing worse than coming home to my small apartment and feeling like I had roommates all over again. I did have a great friend across the hall though which was nice. I now live minutes from my job which will make life that much better during the winter. The apartment is significantly larger with a cute kitchen and actual closet space. I didn't realize how cooped up I felt in the other place till I got here. I've been designing, practicing on my ukulele and writing more here in the past two weeks than I did at the other place in 4 months. I'm sure it's not just this apartment that has gotten my creative juices flowing again. Whatever it was, I am excited to be back into the groove of the things I love to do. Every day I have more and more interest in just coming home and working on my computer or taking out my sketchbook for a couple of hours as opposed to going out for the night. I feel like I'm back in my Downtown LA Loft staying up till 2 or 3am, music blasting, my wrist cramping up and nothing on my mind except what's in front of me. From here on out things are gonna be different and I can't wait to see the outcome.

BREAKFAST AT STEPHANIE'S - Life after buying cheese

After our trip to Costco, (see previous post) I can't help but to find every excuse to eat cheese. Everything is just so much better with cheese. The grass is greener, the sky is bluer... OK I've now dedicated two posts to cheese. This is gonna be bad. I did however have a delicious breakfast courtesy of my new toaster oven that I bought online the other day for $13 with free shipping. It made an excellent piece of toast. Don't forget the sharp cheddar!

COSTCO

This weekend us girls made almost a 2 hour trek to Costco on the subway. We've been meaning to go to stock up on cheese since anything other than Kraft singles is basically obsolete in Korea except for Costco. We walked in and it hit me hard; I miss home. It's kind of silly to think a store, Costco of all places, would trigger such an emotion but it did. I love it here (Korea, not Costco... although Costco is pretty great) I really do and it's nothing more than the people that I miss. I just really miss them-- family and friends. I can handle the lack of food options, the awkward stares I get being a foreigner and the inability to communicate, but nothing compares to the people halfway across the world. But I've digressed... It looked identical to the ones back home except this one was two stories and had probably 5 times the amount of people in it. The layout was the same, the smell, the colors, the feel. It's the one thing Korea hadn't put it's cutesie flare on, which normally I don't mind all that much but don't fuck with Costco. We were so hungry from all the traveling that we went straight to the food court. It was the moment of truth. Was this really Costco? or just another SK knock off? Sure enough, the same items were on the menu with a couple of Korean twists of course. The menu included, pizza, hot dog & soda combo, smoothies, churro, iced lattes, ice cream, chicken bake, bulgogi bake and clam chowder?? I was so pumped that I couldn't make up my mind. I got a hot dog, slice of pizza and churro. I couldn't finish it all but it was so good. It tasted the same if not slightly better but maybe that's just because I'd gotten used to mediocre American-style food. After we ate we made the rounds aisle by aisle. Nothing really took my breath away until we hit the wall of cheese. Amongst the 5 of us, I'm pretty sure we purchased around 15 blocks of cheese. It took us so damn long to get there that we needed to make the trip worth it. We knew we weren't gonna want to come back anytime soon, if not ever. Of course there were samples. I was so full from the food court that I didn't really try anything except for the funny straws. Now that I think about it, I wish I had bought some. They were these plastic straws with chocolate bits in them. You use them when drinking milk and voila you have chocolate milk. I was really surprised that they had deli meat which is impossible to find here as well unless all you want is ham. My other purchases included prosciutto, salame, capicola, mortadella, turkey and feta cheese. For the first time in 4 months I had a non-sweet, Italian sub. It was incredible. As we rounded up our shopping I spotted these bad boys in the frozen foods section. It's always nice to see the familiar, even if it's a Dodger Dog. It was a good day.

Hi, my name is South Korea

Let me tell you a little bit about myself...

I really only know how to cook Korean food but I sometimes try to serve up other kinds of food too. Unfortunately, I'm not that good at it. I pride myself on my hot and humid summers and ice cold winters. A typical Friday night for me usually consists of going out to dinner, drinking soju and going to a norebang after... actually that's any night. I get kind of freaked out when I see foreigners and tend to stare. I always recycle and I keep my city streets clean. I eat rice and kimchi with every meal. It's delicious. I don't eat cheese unless it's Kraft singles which I wouldn't even consider cheese. I serve nachos with hot tortilla chips and cold cheese.

THE END

THAILAND - IT ALL STARTED WITH A GIN AND TONIC

July 24th, 2010 9:30a.m. on Thai airways from Incheon Int'l to Bangkok.

Flight Attendant - Care for anything to drink?

Me - ginger ale please

Fast forward 5 seconds...

Becca - I think she just poured gin in your cup

Me - really? ::sip:: oh shit she just gave me a gin and tonic... umm alright

Vanessa & Becca - we'll have the same

...and that's how it all started. I don't even know where to begin to talk about Thailand. Everything about the trip was incredible. The people, the food, the sites, the perspective I've gained on traveling and my surroundings have all been overwhelming.

Day 1 - We arrived in Bangkok around 2pm to Khaosan Road aka backpacker's central. We stayed at the Rikka Inn. It was such a cute boutique style hotel for about $12 a person. After we dropped off our bags we went straight for a drink and ordered the most delicious coconut smoothie ever. Later that day we hopped on our first tuk tuk and went for a spin around the city. We ended up seeing a handful of local temples. The night ended with buckets of alcohol being introduced to us as a drink option and a thai massage for $5.

Day 2 - Met up with Charis & Caroline and off we went for a Bangkok adventure. We took a motor boat through the canals of Bangkok, saw Wat Pho also known as the Reclining Buddha and ate more coconuts. Then we hired a mini van driver to take us to Ayuthaya, a neighboring city about an hour and a half away. Ayuthaya used to be one of the richest cities in Asia until it destroyed by the Burmese army in the 1760's. The ruins in Ayuthaya were beautiful. We got there rather late but the sunset backdrop illuminated the city and was absolutely breath taking.

Day 3 - We got picked up by another mini van from our hotel and made our way up to Kanchanaburi, a city about 3 hours North West of Bangkok. We ended up staying on a floating house on a river. It was great. They provided lunch & dinner both days and we were able to swim in the river.We visited the bridge along a railroad that connects Thailand to Burma.

Day 4 - Woke up early and off we went to go bathing with the elephants. It was so surreal. The truck pulled up to the river and there they were, 5 elephants hangin out in the water. The elephant keeper (I guess that's what he's called??) kept making our elephant go under water and throwing us off. After swimming with the elephants we got back to the river house, ate dinner and went on a relaxing bamboo raft down the river. After that we showered up and went on an hour trek with the elephants again through the jungle. After lunch we took a mini van back to Bangkok, arrived in Bangkok at 7pm and caught a 8pm bus down south to Surat Thani.

Day 5 - 10 hours later on a "VIP charter bus" we arrive in Surat Thani and take an hour ferry across to Ko Samui and make our way to the Silver Beach Resort. It was heaven. We had our own small private beach with no more than 30 people on the beach at a time. The water was clear and warm and rather shallow. We could literally go out for 1/5 mile and still be able to touch the bottom. Before we got to Thailand we were marinating on the possibility of going to the Full Moon party in Ko Phangnan, a neighboring island but didn't decide until the day of. 9pm rolled around and we all went for it. We got picked up by another mini van and shuttled to a near by pick up stop. Foreigners were lined up by the dozens waiting to board a random speed boat that would take us across to the other island. It was raining like crazy that night. We hopped on the speed boat, thunder & lightning storm and all and 25mins later we zoomed across, more like flew across, the ocean and made it to the Full Moon party. The concept of shipping foreigners across to another island to basically get fucked up and wasted was crazy. They were serving drinks by the bucket... literally. Your only option for a drink was a perfectly measured combination of liquor, red bull and some other mixer served in a small plastic bucket with a handle and a handful of straws. It sounds fun and all but when you're done, you some how have to find your way back home on the speed boat, on a mini van to your hotel and into your room. By the next day we decided it was no longer called the Full Moon party and officially THE SHIT SHOW. Going to that party was the best and worst decision we all made.

Day 6 - We took it easy the next day since TSS didn't settle so well. We sipped on coconuts, attempted to eat pad thai and got a $7 coconut oil massage on the beach.

Day 7 - This was definitely my favorite day on the island. We got picked up by yet another mini van and took a speed boat to Anthong National Marine Park. On the way there we took a small detour and were dumped off by a small island to snorkel which was quite possibly one of the funniest experiences on the trip. Becca kept yelling "ouch! ouch!" every other minute and I thought she was just being dramatic. By the time we got back on the boat her feet had been cut up by the rocks below us. After snorkeling we finally made it to the national park and kayaked around the cluster of islands that surrounded us.

Day 8 - Check out time was supposed to be at 11:30am but one of the cleaning ladies walked up to our room around 10am yelling "Get out! Get out now! Time to leave!" It was the best wake up call ever. We hopped on another mini van, took a ferry back to Surat Thani and took an overnight bus to Bangkok.

Day 9 - 5am we arrive at Bangkok and head straight to the airport for another 10 hours of traveling to Hong Kong then to S. Korea.

MUD FEST!

This weekend was one of the best weekends I've experienced so far. Becca, a great friend I've made here, her friend Matthew from England and I went on an impromptu trip down south where Boryeong, South Korea hosts Mud Fest every year. We hopped on a bus Saturday from Seoul and took a 2 hr. trip to the beach. We had no idea what we were gonna do or where we were going to sleep. By the time we arrived it was 7:30 pm and the muddy events were over for the day, although we did catch the show on stage which consisted of break dancing, traditional dancing and a pop group. Since the festival was on the beach, all the restaurants surrounding specialized in seafood. We had an incredible dinner and met a great group of people sitting next to us celebrating a birthday. Becca ended up challenging one of the guys to a drinking contest and convinced the table to learn how to play flip cup. We read that motels around the area could be extremely expensive with thousands of people flooding the town that weekend. Someone mentioned they paid 150,000w for one night, roughly $120 for a small room. We made our rounds through the neighborhood looking for a motel or Jimjilbang (a Korean bath house). One by one I went in asking how much for a night. The first place tried to convince us into getting into a random car to be taken to the destination and the second place claimed the only room they had available was for 145,000w. Luckily, I was able to talk the third one down to 20,000w a person.

The next morning, we put our bathing suits on and walked down to the beach. The weather was incredible considering it was pouring the day before. As we got closer to the epicenter of the event, more and more foreigners were present. I have to admit it felt really awkward to be around so many Americans. There were thousands and thousands of people. If you went to Mud Fest, you got muddy. Even if you didn't want to, just by walking around you were bound to bump into someone covered in mud. We opted for the colored mud. The event was free and we were surprised that all the activities were free also. Colored mud painting = free, mud slide = free, mud wrestling ring = free, obstacle courses = free. All we had to worry about was getting there, a place to sleep and food. We spent most of the time people watching, hanging out in the sand and taking a swim in the ocean. It was an incredible weekend getaway.

Dinner! Fresh clams, scallops and sea snail

Meet Matthew, Becca's friend from England.

Becca was a clam shelling machine that night

Becca explaining the rules of flip cup

Mud slide! Totally worth waiting in line

Colored mud body paint

IT'S RAINING, IT'S POURING... WTF I'M SWEATING?

Oh Korea how I despise you and your terrible taste in weather. It's monsoon season which brings up a couple scenarios. It's always raining. Chances are, at some point during the day, it's going to sprinkle, rain, or pour. Every day is a gamble. I've purchased 5 umbrellas since I've been here. My point being, always carry an umbrella with you... or don't and buy a polka dot one for $3. On top of that, the humidity is unbearable at times--most times. There's something so odd about it raining and sweating like crazy at the same time. Every day when I get to school with my flushed cheeks, I take a look in the mirror (there are mirrors every where around here but that's another story) wipe my forehead and instantly begin to fan myself off. I don't get it though. On my walk to school I see women dressed from head to toe, sometimes even with a jacket, not even breaking a sweat. I'm convinced Korean women don't sweat. The guys on the other hand... There's a little boy in one of my classes named Myung Jin and every time I walk into class the sides of his head are dripping with sweat. I take a look at him and the torso of his shirt is blotchy from wiping his face every 2 minutes. In between those 2 minutes he's chugging ice water by the gallon... poor kid. I don't recall experiencing Spring here really except for watching the cherry blossoms bloom, which by the way was incredible. One day it was 20 degrees out, wearing a coat and a scarf wrapped around my face and the next day my jeans were sticking to my thighs. We're all betting September will be a happy medium but only time will tell. On a side note, I'm going to Thailand next weekend for 8 days!

YOGA PART 1 - "FOCUS ON YOUR BREASTS"

I'm not too sure why this is part 1 because I don't have anything set for part 2 yet. You don't need to know me all that well to figure out that I've never been the yoga type. I've tried it several times in the states and couldn't quite jump on the wagon. Things have changed since then. I'm in a new country, trying new things and figured I'd give it one more shot. On top of that, the studio is literally across from my work so it's kind of hard to come up with an excuse on why not to go and it's incredibly cheap. One month of unlimited classes is 60,000w which is about $50. The class is a combination of all styles of yoga including Bikram with emphasis on BIKRAM. It's no where near as hot in there as other Bikram classes that I've taken but it's already so damn humid here and the slightest shift in temperature makes it that much hotter. For the most part there's a good balance of Korean students and foreigners. Most of the class is given in Korean but every once in a while he'll speak in English if he notices that we have no idea what he's talking about. This is when it gets entertaining. After being around Korean students all day at work, I've learned how to filter out the Korean accent when they're speaking English and can understand pretty well what they're saying. Our yoga teacher on the other hand is another story. Some times he'll say literal translations that just don't make sense and other times his accent gets so choppy that it sounds like he's saying something else. Some of my favorite phrases from him are....

"Shape up your ass!" - when he's really saying "Shape up your abs."

"Focus on your breasts." - when he's really saying "Focus on your breaths."

"Touch your big toes together like they are friends." - Becca and I just busted out laughing when we heard him say that.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" - if at any point you decide to take a break during the class you'll probably hear this one thrown at you.

To top it off, the music he plays really brings the class together including Ace of Base, Avril Lavigne and Michael Jackson. I can't think of a more yoga-appropriate soundtrack.

On a side note, I had a dream last night that I could do the crow pose. I tried it out in class today but it didn't go as planned. One of these days I'll get it.

namaste

SUWON, SOUTH KOREA

The great thing about living here is that it's relatively easy to have any kind of day you want. Sometimes I just want to stay at home , other times shopping, check out the city or see a cultural site. This weekend I wanted a little bit of everything and Suwon was a good choice. Suwon is about a 30min bus ride from Ansan. It's known for its Korean Folk Village and Fortress. Since it was raining the Folk Village was closed so we ended up checking out the Fortress. Some parts of the city are built around the Fortress which was pretty cool while other parts were more secluded. We made our way up a hill and as I looked to my left there was a giant gold/bronze Buddha Statue with a small underground temple. It was so serene and secluded from the city but still nestled between some houses. I've never seen anything like it.

SOMETIMES KOREA

sometimes you stay out late enough to see the sunrise

most times they put corn on your pizza even if you don't ask for it

sometimes when a bag of chips says spicy it really means sweet

most times you get stared at no matter what you're wearing

sometimes you break your toe while doing yoga

other times you get yelled at for being too loud on the subway

sometimes you miss your family and friends

other times you meet great people

most times you just nod your head like you understand what's being said to you

sometimes you really want in n out

other times you wake up at 6pm and find superman on your door

NAGWON ARCADE

Before I left the states I wanted to get a ukulele but as I started to pack I realized I needed the space for other things. Since I got here, I've been on the search for a music store and finally found the mother of all stores with the help from a friend. It's basically a mall of musical instruments, recording equipment & supplies. Picture narrow walkways of pianos next to harps, guitars upon basses and small boutique style stores wrapping around every corner. We walked into a handful of stores each with a slightly different selection from the other. I'm no ukulele master, nor am I all that familiar with the different types of ukuleles. I was just looking for something where the sound and the look matched the price. A tip for anyone looking at shopping here, carry cash. I was able to bring the price down by about $40 by paying in cash which definitely made a difference. In the end, I'm definitely happy with my purchase and am loving every minute I get to spend with my new uke.

STEVE McCURRY'S UNGUARDED MOMENT

This weekend was the last weekend of Steve McCurry's exhibition at the Sejong Performing Arts Center in Seoul. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to see it before it was over. Steve McCurry has been an inspiration of mine for years and to see his photos in real life was surreal. Walking into the space was overwhelming. The colors, textures and emotions drawn from the photos were a refreshing experience.

http://www.stevemccurry.com/

http://stevemccurry.wordpress.com/