Seoul Searching

This weekend I took my new roommates exploring in Seoul. We went to the foreigner area Itaewon (see picture below) where I devoured a veggie burger. We also went to Myeong-Dong so I could update my wardrobe at Forever 21, and we also swung by the artsy area known as Insadong.That night we went to Hong-Dae (clubbing area). On the way there I saw this sweatshirt. I swear I'm seeing "San Francisco" all over the place these days. It's one of the cities I'm considering a move to. Sue found this awesome Hooka bar...No cover charge and really reasonable drinks! We have yet to discover a name for this place...It's across from Club 500, which has started charging W15,000 just to get in!

Gyeongju

KOREAN CUISINE IN 10 PARTS:
Soybean-paste soup, fish, tempura mushrooms, potato pancakes with garlic stems, pickled garlic, pickled jalapeno peppers, weeds, little fishies, weeds, weeds.

And this is what rice looks like before it falls on your dinner plate:
In Gyeongju we stopped by a 600 (?) year old gingko tree. You write a wish on a peice of paper and tie it to the ropes surrounding the tree. The tree goddess hopefully makes it come true.

Only 77 work days left...

These are some of the cute Kindergarten girls who came into school wearing traditional Korean dress (Hanbok) today.This is why I'm never hungry at lunch time! People are always bringing in bread/dok/peanuts/song pyeon...Did you know that peanuts are wet when you break them open? Now I know why they're called "Dry roasted peanuts"... (EDIT: They were wet because they were boiled. Oops. Here I was thinking that peanuts were more like a bean or a fruit than a nut...)

This week the English teachers and I are going on a cultural Field trip, so tomorrow is our last day this week then we're going South to a historical city called Gyeongju for 2 days...Then it's the weekend and I'm hanging out with some friends from Hong Kong who are coming to Seoul for a mutual friend's wedding...

The first week in October I have Thursday, Friday and Monday off to celebrate "Chusok", which is like Korean Thanksgiving. The next weekend is the Pusan Film Festival, so that's going to be cool. I was going to ask to take part of my winter vacation off so I could spend more time at the film festival, but now I don't really feel like I can justify that since we're getting so much time off at the beginning of October. I guess I'll only be going there for the weekend (although the festival itself is 9 days long).

THEN...WAIT FOR IT...My Winter vacation is from December 20th until FEBRUARY 5th! Then my contract is UP on February 28th...And there's a holiday, and the last days are a weekend! Which means I'm only working 2 weeks in the new year before I move out of Korea! (That doesn't include school/district camps that I will be forced to work, but they don't count cause they're fun and not regular school...In total they'll take about 2 weeks).

So...Let me do some math now...Today is the 15th...
15 days left in September (of which I work 9)...
31 Days in October (work 19)...
30 days in November (work 21)...
31 days in December (work 14)...
30 days in January (work 0)
28 days in February (work 14)
-----------------------------------------------
= 164 Days (77 work days) till I leave Korea! AGH!

I didn't realize it was so soon...Gotta get cracking on my "what the hell do I do after I leave Korea?" plan.

researchlings

Here is some of the stuff I looked at today:
http://www.enchanteddoll.com/

Art Deco artist Erte: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ert%C3%A9

I'm also researching who I would want to interview at the Pusan International Film Festival, if given that opportunity...So far I'm thinking Danish film producer Marianne Slot, cinematographer Kim Hyung-koo, and French/Vietnamese director Trần Anh Hùng. Check out: www.piff.org

Art I made

Here is some of the most recent art I've been working on:

AFTER photoshop:

This is me attempting Art Nouveau/Aubrey Beardsley

TIME 2B CREATIVE.

I got a new watch. I saw the brand O.D.M. in the Hong Kong airport on the way back from Europe, but I ended up buying the Hong Kong brand in Korea. (I'm glad I waited, cause they didn't have this cool coy fish design at the airport).

When idle, the watch scrolls a message across the screen. When you want to see the time, all you have to do is move your wrist upwards: there is a motion sensor in the watch so the screen changes to show you the time and date. You can change the message whenever you want, as long as you go to a store that has the special machine. So far, my messages have been:

CREATE YOURSELF
A wise woman creates more opportunities than she finds
(which was way too long, cause the message took 3 minutes to scroll by)
and my new motto:

TIME 2B CREATIVE

I think I saw these watches in the Big Bang/2NE1 "Lollipop" ads? (For those of you that don't know, "Lollipop" is a phone name...There was also "ice cream" phones and "audrey hepburn" phones last year...Oh, and David Beckham "razor" phones...)

Europe Photos

Since I'm not on facebook anymore, I'm taking this opportunity to upload some of my favourite photos from Europe. I printed most of these out and they're hanging around my house. Maybe I'll put these in my photography portfolio. Note to self: why didn't I notice this "compose" option (as opposed to "Edit Html") earlier?!

In Helsinki, Finland

In the Hermitage, St.Petersburg, Russia

In Tallin, Estonia

In Tallin, Estonia

At Peterhoff, St.Petersburg, Russia

In Peterhoff, St.Petersburg, Russia

Ice Skating

On Saturday I went ice skating with my friend Carla and one of her teachers, Insuk. Nothing like pretending to be a professional figure skater to make you feel happy! (At least it made me feel happy! This is a throw back to a fantasy I had when I was 14 where I am an amazing figure skater and fall in love with another amazing figure skater...but then sadly he has a heart attack and I discover he has cancer...Have I always been so pessimistic about love?!)

Carla introduced me to "mini kiwis" that apparently grow in the Korean mountains. You pop the whole little thing in your mouth, peel and all, and they are "delicious"! (Koreans call everything "delicious"...They are always surprised when I explain, "actually, we don't use that word very often...Usually we just say 'Mmm, this is good'.") Edit: 14/09/09: Today my co-worker was describing these to me in Korean and she said they are말랑말랑 (malang malang) which means "squishy". I thought that was a really cute word so I'm going to try and remember it.
After figure skating, we went sightseeing around Chuncheon. It was great to be with someone who has a car. Chuncheon is so spread out, I haven't really seen much of it besides E-Mart (Korean IGA), Myeong-Dong (shopping area), and Kang De Hoo Moon (the university student hang out). We went to a golf course (which was cool, I've never been on a golf course before...) and then to a mountain, to see a waterfall. After that we went for Dak Gal Bi, a spicy chicken dish from which I ate the Gogoma (sweet potato) and cabbage.

Ok...Seriously! Goodbye Facebook.

It's amazing how much more productive I am without Facebook. I'm trying to remember what my life was like before the internet. I was a kid, so life was easier: I went to the library to research for my homework, and I used these things called "books" and there were "catalogues" full of index cards...When I went to my friend's house, my mom had to call their home numbers, because I didn't have a cell phone. Speaking of numbers, I actually remembered phone numbers before the advance of a cell phone address book. Speaking of address books, who uses those anymore? I wonder how the yellow pages is coping these days?

I remember my grade 5 teacher brought a Mac to school in 1995 and told us that we could view a "page" from NASA. I had no idea what we were really looking at. I didn't get my first email address (francesdarwin@usa.com) until I was in grade 7. I went to a "lap top school" in 1998...It was so "revolutionary", we all had the same IBM Thinkpad laptops and sent in our homework by email. The school had problems with us surfing the internet in class, so the only way they could control us was to ask us to unplug our ethernet cords. I wonder how they're coping now with wireless technology?

I didn't get facebook till 2005 or 6...It wasn't a big thing back then...I was like "meh", ok, if you insist (my friend was insisting). I can't believe it's that young and it's already a verb. "Sure, I'll facebook you!"

Some poetic happenings

"Sunflowers are full of stars."

"An eyelash in my rice."
"Rusted rope on the road by the river."