Sarah and Mark's last day

Well, the time has come. Sarah and Mark just worked their last day. It is going to be really hard to watch them go. They were both really nice and they became great friends. I hope to see them again next spring when Mark gets married to Jenn, also another great person I met in Korea.

It's going to be a big change in terms of the working environment just because we're getting so many new people in such a short time. It will be different, and I hope I'll adjust well.

We're going to go out tonight to celebrate with a nice dinner (at the place I got food poisoning), but I won't get what I ate that gave me food poisoning! Come to think of it, it was Sarah's birthday dinner that I got sick from! haha. That was a really long time ago.

It seems like it has come so fast, but we've known all along that it would happen, and when it would happen. I'll miss them very much and I'll always be very thankful for how much they helped me adapt to a new country and a new lifestyle. I would have been lost without the help from them and the other teachers.

Tomorrow I will go to Jeju island with Lindsay. I'm really excited! We haven't had a vacation for a while, and this one will be fun. I wanted to go to Jeju since I got here. Originally I planned to go to Thailand or Cambodia for this vacation, but it was too expensive, so we'll just go to Jeju and enjoy our time off!

Dinner is soon, so let me just put up a few memorable pictures (I only have pictures of Sarah though. Mark is very elusive when it comes to pictures!)

Weekend festivities

Well, the weekend was really fun. Friday night we met our Korean friends again and ended up hanging out at my place for the night. There were about 7 people here... our 2 Korean friends, the usual gang, and Eon from New Zealand. It was fun. Saturday I met up with my friend Stu from Canada and we hung out. Today I went to Myongdong and bought things.

That's a very abridged version of what happened this weekend. Frankly, I'm too tired to make a big post! I have to do lots of work tonight and tomorrow - mark an essay and write a bunch of report cards... and clean my apartment!

Alright, off to bed I go.

Room 409

Well, I'm leaving room 820. Things are changing! When Lindsay leaves at the end of next month, I will move into her apartment. My company needs to sell one of the apartments and it turns out mine is the most expensive to rent. Mine is 550000 a month, and Lindsay's is something like 300000 something, so they are moving me into her place at the end of August.

It is kind of a pain to have to move, but at the same time, I'm thinking positively and this is what I've thought: I will move to Canada 3 months after this move, so it will give me an opportunity to de-clutter and get rid of things I don't need. That way, when I actually do move back to Canada, I will have less things to pack and sort through.

On the bad side of things, I have to move my futon back downstairs from upstairs which was next to impossible to get up there, and I have to somehow move my piano to her apartment.

It will be weird leaving this apartment, I really like it. Although, I think Lindsay's place is better because she has a nice view out of her window, rather than another apartment building!

Sarah's plane is taking her back to America in 7 days. I will have to say goodbye to her in 6 days. Mark leaves after we get back from Jeju, so I will be able to say goodbye to him after, but Sarah is leaving so soon! She has served her 12 month sentence, so she deserves to go home, but I don't want to see her leave! She was such a big help in the beginning when I first got here, and she really has become a good friend here in Korea. It will be weird not seeing her every day.

Today Sarah and I are going to the bank to exchange our change for bills! I have at least 50,000 in change, but I think more. I will write here when I find out how much I had saved up.

I am posting a lot this month, because I realized that I haven't posted this much since December! My average amount of posts is around 7 or 8 per month, but this one is number 10 for July! I don't know if I can beat my record (16 posts in December), but I will try! That would be a post a day until Jeju, so that might not happen!

Alright, my water is boiling for my coffee and I need to get ready for the day.

Bye now

Bi-solarism

Well, I have mixed emotions about the solar eclipse. It was cool to say that I've seen it, but it wasn't as eclipsy as I thought it would be. I went up to the roof for about 20 minutes, and tried to take some pictures, but it didn't really work. I tried a bunch of different ways to take a picture, but it didn't work. Anyway, I looked at it directly twice, each time just a glance. You know when you look at something bright (like a camera flash) it sticks in your eyes for a while? When I looked at it, all I could see was brightness. But after I looked away, the light that was in my (eye) memory looked like a waning crescent moon, with the crescent shape looking like a C shape rather than a ) . It was cool.

If I were in Busan again, the sun would have been 10% more covered than it was here just outside of Seoul, but I'm happy that I've seen it anyway. There were 2 other people on the roof just as I was leaving. The one guy scared the heeby jeebies out of me because I was standing so close to the edge and he just showed up without saying anything. I'm insanely acrophobic so that wasn't a pleasant surprise.

Now I'm enjoying a nice hot coffee that is behind schedule by about 1 hour. Well, it's right on schedule actually, but I woke up an hour earlier on this special day of cosmic activity.

As I said, the pictures didn't work, but here is a picture of a solar eclipse anyway. This is roughly the same shape as what I saw today.

Solar Eclipse

Alright, so I suppose that anyone who knows me won't be surprised by this post. I'm a big nerd when it comes to any of these subjects: Music, geography, languages, and space.

Well, this falls under the cosmic category of space. On July 22nd, 2009 there will be a solar eclipse. I'm pretty excited. The best place to see it is actually just a bit south of the Korean peninsula, but that is if you are desperate to be in the umbra. Unfortunately, I will have to settle for being in the penumbra, which is just as well.

This is the longest solar eclipse and there won't be a longer one until June 13, 2132. So. I'm glad that I'm on the right side of the world to see it! I hope I remember. It is happening Wednesday morning my time, it will start around 9:30 and go for a few hours. I will go up to the roof an hour into it, or maybe around 10:15. I'll try to snap a few pictures and put them here. I read online and they say it's alright for my camera to see it, but not my eyes, so I will have to be careful not to look at it for too long.

I'm excited! That's all for now. Here's a picture of the trajectory of the solar eclipse.

The weekend

Well, the weekend has been fun. It is Saturday night now. Today we went to Kevin's house (my old supervisor) for a sort of goodbye dinner for Sarah and Mark. Mark didn't go, so really it was a goodbye dinner for Sarah. It was really nice to see Kevin and his wife again, and his son took quite a liking to me. He showed me his lego, his books and his electric piano. He was very proud. He knows quite a lot of English for being 2 years and 9 months!

We had a fantastic dinner. Bread, salad, pasta and chicken. It was really delicious. They are really nice people. Kevin's wife is also really good at speaking English. Last night we went out. I wanted to not come home too late, because I'm sick and I need rest, but we definately came home when the sun came up. Sigh. Anyway, Lindsay and I went out to this place above our beloved Galbi place. It's kind of a bar, restaurant type thing. We had great french fries with cheese on them. I had wanted bar food for a long time before we went out, so I was happy. After we left there, we went to the park and sat in the band shell and talked. It was such a nice night. The kind where it's breezy, and not too hot. There weren't any bugs either. Quite nice.

Then this delivery guy came around with his motorcycle and stopped in front of us. We started talking, and then magically like 6 of his friends showed up. They couldn't speak much English, and I couldn't speak much Korean, but we hung out for a good 3 hours! That's mainly why we came home when the sun came up. We went with our new Korean friends to Noraebang (Kareoke), which was fun, but both Lindsay and I didn't know how to sing their songs, and they didn't know ours. It was fun anyway.

We left Noraebang early and went home. It was a fun night. I was really tired today. I think I slept until like 3 or 4! What a waste of a Saturday! Anyway, I just got back from that fantastic dinner, so that was nice. Tonight I will probably watch a movie or something, and have a relaxing night. I wasn't supposed to go out last night - I must get better! I'm starting to get better anyway, I have a runny nose still, but nothing too serious. Oh look, it's midnight. I suppose it's officially Sunday then!

Sunday I'm not sure what we're doing, but I suggested to Lindsay that we go to New York Fries and get poutine!!! Sarah will meet up with her birth family, it will be the last time she sees them until she comes to Korea next. I am happy that I got to meet them. They're really nice.

Speaking of Sarah and Mark, they are leaving so soon. They have to move out of their apartments in one week! That's crazy! It will be very different when they're gone. When Lindsay leaves at the end of August, I will be the only one left of the original 5 teachers. It will be different, but I think that the new people will be nice. Like I said before, I can bond with them because we're all in the same boat - in a new country teaching English and having different adventures. The one guy who is coming is Korean. He is from New York, and he's a music major so that's exciting for me. I wonder how often we'll get side tracked and start talking about music theory or something. I bet the other teachers would be quite bored!

Alright, I will go now. I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Swine flu returns

Alright, I don't want to make anyone panic, but the swine flu has returned, apparently with a vengeance. I'm not sure exactly how many, but I think 3 schools have been shut down in my area because of the swine flu. Of course, being a private school, we will be the last to shut down if we actually do. I think the only reason we'd be shut down is if we have a student who has swine flu and they attended a class while they had it.

As of now, there are several students missing from our classes either because they go to a school that has been closed, or they are sick and are just being safe.

The unfortunate thing is, I'm sick. It just started yesterday. I have a runny nose and a sore throat and gross stuff is in my throat. Now, I haven't gotten sick (throw up) and I don't have a fever or anything, so I think I'm in the clear! If it lasts until Friday, I'll go to the clinic on my way to the bank because they're next to each other.

In happier, less infectious news, I have 3 countdowns in progress!

• In 5 days, I will reach my 8 month mark,
• In 13 days, I will be in Jeju Island with Lindsay, and
• In 18 days, my friend from Belgium is coming for a month-long visit!

I like to have countdowns, and if I may be so bold, I will start counting down until my last day of teaching which is going to happen in 96 teaching days!! haha, Ok, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but I can start early!

If I'm not mistaken, I started a countdown to my parent's visit at 70 something days. My sister is coming in 78 days.

All of these countdowns!!

Last night I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It was AMAZING. It is my favourite movie now of the series. The graphics and everything were sooooo good. They made it really serious, but funny at the same time because all of the characters are starting to develop feelings for each other. Anyway, it was really sad a couple times, but I won't say anything here, because I know that some people haven't seen the movie yet, and they haven't read the books either. So. All I can say is... GO WATCH IT. It was amazing.

The new season of Big Brother has started again. Of all the trashy reality shows on T.V., that is the one that I am addicted to. The season is good. They have this theme where each person is playing as a popular high school clique. It sounds kind of stupid, but it changes the game a lot because each clique has immunity if one of its members holds the power of HOH. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, I will stop my Big Brother rant at this time.

Well, that is all my news for today. I will probably update at some point during the weekend.

Have a great last half of the week!

Mudfest pictures

Well, here are the mudfest pictures and video!

The guy at the table was the front desk to our hostel... I'm in the store buying new shoes after my old ones were too dirty, and people are shoved into a jail cell for not being muddy yet.

You can see the video that I made here! Enjoy!

MUDFEST

Well, this last weekend I took a trip to a city called Boryeong. We went for a festival called "Mudfest". The whole idea is that there is a TON of mud, and everyone is expected to be covered in it. I opted out of that part of the festivities, and just relaxed on the beach... BUT there were so many people there that were covered in mud. I wasn't expecting such a huge crowd, but there were something like 1.5 million people that came as tourists!

The majority of them were foreigners. We went with a company called Adventure Korea. They run tours throughout Korea. We had 5 bus loads of us going just from our area!

I took some videos and some pictures, but I will be putting those up later, probably tonight. I have to work soon, so I can't put them up now.

Anyway, the weather cooperated for the first half of Saturday, but from Saturday evening until we left on Sunday evening, it was a MONSOOOOOON. The wind was SO strong that signs were blowing off of their posts, and pieces of the floor were ripping up and flying away. After we saw those things we definately decided to get indoors where things couldn't hit us!! Our poor $3 umbrellas that we bought didn't last too long, so we bought ponchos. Unfortunately, the wind was so strong that it ripped the ponchos, and we got drenched anyway.

It was VERY intense weather. It was like when I just posted a few days ago, but for a whole 24 hours. All of that aside, we did find a dry 10 minutes to go and ride elephants!! That was pretty fun. Actually, the whole weekend was fun!

Alright, that's my story of this weekend. buhbye.

Monsoons

Well, it's the fabled monsoon season. I wasn't sure when it was supposed to happen, but today was definately an experience. I walked outside, and quickly noticed the rain flying by in sheets... going SIDEWAYS. Anyway, I was absolutely drenched by the time I got to work. The next day that is like that, I will just go in shorts and a t-shirt and then change at work. I was still wet when I got home 8 hours later. It wasn't very nice.

I guess it doesn't help that we decided to go to E-mart for lunch today in that weather. It was so crazy. I will do some research on the internet to see what the weather systems and stuff are doing on the satellite pictures. I usually do that at home, but I'm not sure where to find a weather map for Korea. I will probably just look at www.theweathernetwork.com , like I usually do when I'm at home.

That's my story of the day. It was intense, and I was wet.

That is all.

July thus far

Well, it's July, and it's still hot! But I've been managing with my air conditioner! Anyway, work is going well. We get paid this Friday which will be magnificent. I will send home money again this pay cheque. I think it's quite a good plan... perhaps one that I should have been doing since I got here, but I was going on too many trips! Speaking of trips, my Jeju island trip is just around the corner, I think it's in 3 weeks today! Maybe tomorrow.

I have been thinking about options when I get home, and some of them are quite appealing. I was looking into this program called SWAP. It is kind of an exchange program where you travel on a working visa. This is part of my plan B. I guess I could mention my plan A first!

My plan A is to work at Tim Hortons right when I get home. I'll apply to a bunch of jobs right away and if I don't get a job that I want within about 5 or 6 months, I will go ahead with plan B.

Anyway, I know a person who did Swap twice in the past, both times to Ireland. I haven't done much research about this, but it's a potential plan B. (Especially because it would allow me to work in Germany which is what I originally wanted to do before I came to Korea!!)

You have to pay for Swap, but I think paying a small amount is better than blindly going over and asking for a job.

That's my story about my life, now about other peoples'...

Sarah and Mark are leaving very soon, which I'm not too happy about. I hope the new people are good, but I don't think anything could match the chemistry that the original 5 of us had together. We recently got a new teacher (about 2 months ago now), and he's great, so hopefully we keep getting good people to join the team.

One month after Sarah and Mark leave, Lindsay leaves. That will be tough I think. That will be 3 people gone within like 5 weeks! That's nuts! I'm sure everything will be fine, because if you come overseas to teach English I suppose you have to have something in common, and that can lead to becoming friends.

Today I saw in the news that an O.P.P. officer was killed in a car accident outside of London, Ontario. I was scared because my cousin and his wife are both O.P.P. officers (although admittedly I ALWAYS forget where). It said there were 2 officers in the car, and one is now in the hospital in critical condition. It's not my cousin or his wife, but I'm sure they're affected in some way or another, so my thoughts are with them.

I figured out today kind of in my sleep that I have been here for about 30 weeks now! Kind of a milestone I suppose! That means that I have 19 weeks left. I'm not sure why it adds up to 49, but maybe I'm adding wrong. Anyway, roughly that's what I have left to go.

Alright, I am going to go have my daily coffee and what not. Well, I've already had one, I'll go have another.

Hope everyone across the globe is enjoying their summer! (Unless of course you're from the Southern Hemisphere, in which case, have a good winter!) haha...