Tuesday, June 14, 2005


Jin-Sue and Jenn in Daejeon Posted by Hello


Hannah and Krista in Daejeon Posted by Hello


Good on ya if you can read this!! If you double-click on the picture then it'll open up in a bigger window. It's easier to read it then. Posted by Hello


Hwaseong Fortress Posted by Hello


Krista and Jenn after walking around part of the fortress Posted by Hello

Monday, June 13, 2005


Hwaseong Fortress. This was our starting point on the wall. We walked up to the pagoda you can see on the top of the hill in the background. Not that far of a hike, but we had our bags and humidity was NOT in our favour that day. I know, we're wimps - Suwon, South Korea Posted by Hello


Hwaseong Fortress.....don't lean on cannons, you end up with really dirty arms Posted by Hello


The Gorilla and her baby at Everland Posted by Hello


Krista and Jenn at EVERLAND Posted by Hello

Thursday, June 09, 2005

This is a letter that a friend of mine here Devon wrote. Marnie, my old roommate, had asked Devon for a letter of recommendation prior to her leaving the country to move to Wales. Devon wrote her a fabulous letter, and then he also wrote her this. Konglish is Koreanized English. It is what we speak to our students. I guess you could compare it to baby talk. The main reason it exists is Korean sentence structure is completely different from ours. When we'd say "I am a teacher," Korean's would say "I teacher am." I speak Konglish all the time, and I'm finding that it's working it's way into my daily vocabulary, which is scary. Read on, and enjoy....also, if you understand the Konglish part, then you may make a good ESL teacher!!


Marnie teacher job good give why?
Why you should give Marnie a job

Marnie teacher good teacher is. Me Marnie teacher is me study time long. Bravo Marnie teacher! ^_^ Marnie teacher many funny and is teach game many. Marnie teacher is test cunning small, but check many, dang many no! Marnie teacher is go, me sad and is cry many. Marnie teacher go no!

Marnie is a good teacher. I have studied with Marnie for a long time. Good Job Marnie! :) Marnie is very funny and teaches many games. She doesn’t cheat when marking our tests, but sometimes if we make mistakes, we still get marked right. Marnie is leaving, and I am sad, I will cry. Marnie don’t go!

Marnie teacher stick many is no, smile many is yes! Marnie teacher smile is die little. Marnie teacher fat, pretty many many. Marnie teacher speaking “Me is princess”, me “hee hee” many many. Me birthday, Marnie teacher beck coupon give, me happy, assa speaking. But me friend birthday, Marnie teacher friend coupon give, me coupon give no, me sad. I head speak “Marnie teacher, why me coupon is no?”

Marnie doesn’t hit us with her stick, she smiles a lot. Marnie is always smiling. Marnie is a little overweight, but she is very pretty. Marnie calls herself a princess in class, it makes me laugh a lot. On my birthday Marnie gave me 100 coupons, I was happy. I said “Assaaa” (YES). But on my friends birthday, Marnie gave my friend coupons, but I didn’t get any, it made me sad. I thought to myself, “Marnie teacher, why didn’t you give me any coupons?”

Marnie teacher boy love is Rudolph song sing gu-mi come. Marnie boyfriend big and hair no. Marnie teacher boyfriend English speaking crazy, “loo” speaking is toilet same same. Yong-guk speaking is English speaking many same same no. Korea finishi, Marnie teacher go boyfriend house, is live house same.

Marnie’s boyfriend loves to sing the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer comes to Gumi. Marnie’s boyfriend is big and bald. He is English and his speaking is very weird. When he says “loo” it is the same as saying toilet. Canadian’s English is not the same as the English people from England speak. Many words are different. Marnie is finished in Korea, she will go to England and live with her boyfriend.

Devon teacher student is speak “Marnie teacher, Devon teacher love” me speaking no! Devon teacher scary, Marnie teacher good, love is no. Devon teacher student is bad speaking. Devon teacher babo, is face hair bad. Devon teacher face hair is why?

One of Devon’s students says that Marnie and Devon love each other. I say that they don’t. Devon teacher is scary, Marnie is good, they don’t love each other. Devon’s student is telling lies. Devon is stupid, and he has a bad beard. I wonder why Devon has a beard?

Marnie teacher is study many, uno game is little. Hong teacher speaking Uno game is no, Marnie teacher uno game play, speaking Hong teacher speaking is “shh” Marnie teacher cunning is many. Marnie teacher is fan speaking funny many. Marnie teacher cola drink is many, auto bike driving box is coffee no.

We study a lot in Marnie’s class, we don’t play a lot of Uno. Mrs. Hong tells us that we should not play Uno, but Marnie let’s us play Uno if we don’t tell Mrs. Hong. Marnie cheats with games a lot. Marnie speaks into the fan a lot and it is very funny. She drinks a lot of cola. She drives a scooter, but she is not a coffee girl*.


* In Korea there are girls who drive around on scooters. They deliver “coffee” to men who order it.


My scooter from the back....how classy is that lock? Posted by Hello


My Scooter!!! Posted by Hello

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Assaaaaa, long weekend!!!

Hello all!

This weekend was one of those weekends when, after it's all over, you look back and wonder how you ever crammed as much stuff into 3 days as you did. Although, at the time we never really felt rushed, we managed to accomplish quite a lot in 3 days. That was the plan, don't waste the rare occasion where we get 3 days off in a row, savour every moment and make it worth it.

As a result, this blog entry will probably be very long and detailed. I know how I write, I tend to be wordy and this weekend calls for wordiness. There's a lot of explaining that needs to be done. This is your warning, sit down when you have time to spend in front of a computer prior to reading this. This will not be a rush deal.

Here we go......

Part 1 - the plan

We knew in advance that we'd be getting 3 days off in a row. This past Monday, June 6, is a National holiday in Korea. I think it was Memorial Day. I'm not quite sure, although I believe I'm close, if not right. I spent the weekend with my friend Jenn. Jenn and I know each other from University and she currently lives in Masan, South Korea. Masan is a beautiful city on the south coast of the country, about a 2 hours train ride away. She'll be leaving for Australia in 5 weeks so we want to spend as much time together as possible before we don't see each other again for who knows how long (probably 2 years). We planned to meet in Daejeon, a city 2 hours away for me by train and 4 for Jenn, spend Saturday in Daejeon, and move on to Suwon, a city close to Seoul for the remainder of our weekend. Neither of us had been to either city and we had heard good things about Suwon, so this weekend was perfect to explore both. We scouted out things to do in and around both cities and on Saturday morning Jenn hopped on a train, and 2 hours later I did the same and we met in Daejeon Train Station a little after 11 on Saturday morning.

Part 2 - saturday in Daejeon

Our general plan for Daejeon was simple....do nothing. We knew that the real touristy stuff we planned on seeing was in Suwon, we just wanted to kick back, relax, and do some shopping in Daejeon.....if only it had turned out that way. We started off the day by finding a cheap love hotel. In Korea I'm sure there are hostels, but probably more so in Seoul. We usually stay in Love Hotels. They're cheap hotels that cater usually to young Korean couples who are looking for a private place to...well, you know. In Korean culture men and women often will live with their parents until they are married. This makes it very awkward if a younger couple would like to....ya, you know. So, cheap Love Hotels were created. We don't use them for the same reasons (obviously) but we're glad they're there. Handy little things those love hotels, and also very stylish....the vending machines located in them make for great entertainment value, as do the strategically placed mirrors.

So, we found ourselves a place to crash, and crash we did. I hadn't eaten anything yet and Jenn had had an apple. So we went out and found an orange restaurant for some food we knew we would recognize. I'll explain......orange restaurants are all over Korea. True to their names, they are orange. They serve traditional Korean food and you can usually find the same food in every one of them. It's great for when traveling, the food gets pretty repetitive, but at least you know what you're ordering instead of pointing at a picture and ending up with chicken feet and ass (eh, Jenn?) Afterwards we went back to our hotel for a nap.

We then ventured out to do some shopping. I didn't have any huge buying plans beyond new shoes. I had only brought one pair of runners here to Korea with me, figuring that since I'd been told I was to wear business attire to work, i'd only be wearing them on the weekends. Well, since I wear jeans and t-shirts to work everyday, my shoes have started to wear thin. My other 3 pairs of shoes however, which i'd brought to wear to work.....are doing just fine and dandy....as are the business clothes I lugged all the way here. We found a Nike store and I found some shoes I like. Those of you who know me well enough will know that I have big feet. I even have big feet for Canadian standards. I am a size 10 in women's. I'm a monster, I get it. At least in Canada though I can buy girls shoes. In Korea I am considered a man. Girls just don't have feet my size. It's pretty sad though, because guys just don't have pretty shoes, not that I NEED my runners to be pretty, it's just more fun that way. Anyways, I sucked it up and bought some boring running shoes. Jenn bought some too, hers are more fun. Ok, all in all, the day's still pretty mundane.

We finished shopping and were heading back to our hotel before dinner. On the way I noticed an old Korean man riding a bike coming towards us. He looked a bit weird, had this weird look on his face. He got closer, then he flashed us.....not attractive at all really. I turned around and hit him as hard as I could. He kept riding....this was only the beginning of our troubles with men this weekend.

We got to our hotel and changed for dinner. We didn't change into anything nice though, because we were relaxing. I had on my lululemon capri's and a t-shirt. Jenn was equally as comfortable. We headed over to Outback's for dinner. I had a wonderful steak (how I miss steak). It was totally undercooked, but I like my meat rare, so it's all good. Koreans, on the other hand like their meat well, well, well done. When I pointed to the medium rare picture on the menu the waitress looked at me like I was insane, she just kept saying "but, cook no!?!" after I assured her about 3 times that I knew what I was doing, and that it was ok, she finally went away and ordered my food. The steak I ended up with could have still been mooing, I guess they don't cook medium rare all that often, but it's ok, I still liked it.

We had a pretty low-key evening planned for after dinner. We had train tickets for the next morning at 9:30 for Suwon and we planned to spend most of Sunday at Everland, Korea's Disneyland. We stopped in at a photo sticker store and got some truly Asian collectables - pictures of ourselves with digitally added glitter, stars, and other gaudy additions. Sunday involved a lot of walking, so after the photo session we just wanted to go to a pub, get some appy's and one bottle of soju to share between the two of us and talk for awhile before an early night.

Ahhhh, the best laid plans.

We found a nice looking pub and sat down. We ordered our soju and settled in for a few hours of idle chatting and people watching. We managed to do so for about an hour or so. I had been watching these two Korean girls beside us, they seemed to be getting drunker and drunker, but they looked like they were having fun. I caught the eye of one of the girls and she started talking to us. It happens a lot, Korean's want to learn English and they talk to us to practice their English on us. It gets annoying, but these girls seemed pretty nice. We moved from our table and settled in beside Hannah and Jin-sue. They were really nice, they both spoke English decently well and we were all getting along. Hannah is a student at a nearby University and Jin-Sue works for a gynecologist. It took us awhile to figure out what she did though. She kept telling us that she was an o-b-ge-why (say it fast) and was getting super frustrated when we weren't understanding. We couldn't understand why she was getting so frustrated, it sounded like she was speaking Korean to us and obviously we wouldn't understand. She finally brought out some paper and wrote it down. She had been speaking English, we just weren't putting two and two together. She had been saying that she worked for an OB-GYN (O-B-G-Y). I think it was one of those situations that you had to be there, but we found it hilarious.

So, during the time that we're talking to Hannah and Jin-sue, we also keep drinking. Soju kept being ordered and before we knew it it was late and we were tipsy. We suggested that we leave this pub and go dancing...seemed like a fine idea (remember, still in jogging pants). The girls seemed very nice, we had been talking to them for awhile, had exchanged phone numbers and I actually planned on calling them at a later date if I went back to Daejeon.

Then we left the pub

Hannah was still normal, but all of a sudden Jin-sue turned into this crazy, drunk, bitchy, yelling, tiny yet scary, Korean girl. We were heading for a cab, but Jin-sue kept trying to split up myself and Jenn. She wanted Jenn to go with her and me to go with Hannah. We put our feet down and informed her that we would be staying together. We all got into the same cab and headed somewhere else in Daejeon (don't ask where, I have no idea). So, we drive for about 15 minutes....or 5,000 won worth, which is a good chunk. We end up in what is apparently the Daejeon club district....it's about 1:30am. We get out of the cab, and drag Jin-sue to the sidewalk. At this point now I know I was thinking of ways to get rid of these two, and I know now that Jenn was as well.

We tried to get into a few clubs and were turned away. The girls had brought us into the Korean club district....not even remotely close to any foreigners clubs. In a lot of cities this wouldn't matter....but Daejeon is close to an American military base. A lot of clubs don't let in American military because they tend to cause problems, we were white, we COULD be military, that's all doormen needed to know. At this point Jin-sue is starting to get pretty riled up. I guess she was used to getting into these clubs or something, and now she wasn't allowed in. We just stood there as scores of Koreans walked past the doormen. The girl had a death grip on my hand and was trying to drag me past the doorman into the club. I will only say this once.....thank god for the group of american military who showed up. They distracted Jin-sue long enough so that she let go of my hand. Jenn and I didn't even need to talk to our new-found friends to explain that we needed to ditch these two crazies. They got Jin-sue distracted and Jenn and I booted it, they followed close behind.

So, now we're somewhere in Daejeon, we don't know where, with 4 american military soldiers who we don't know. There were 3 guys and 1 girl. The girl looked so happy to see us. Her name's Michelle and she just kept saying how happy she was to see girls. I guess being around guys all day would get a little hard to take sometimes. We got along well with Michelle and two of the guys. One guy and I definitely didn't get along too well. He was an asshole, and I told him that he was. I'm not usually a fan of the american military (those who I've met so far anyways), but this one guy was perpetuating the American myth astoundingly well, the other two were cool. We walked pretty fast for awhile then sat down outside a convenience store and....you guessed it, drank some more. I don't even know what time it is now....but we're well on our way to being drunk, and it's really getting close to the time our trains supposed to leave.

Long story short....we go back to their hotel with them (get your minds outta the gutters, nothing happened) and we fall asleep....and wake up as our train leaves the station.

Part 3 - sunday in Daejeon

So ya, not so good. We're hung over, dehydrated and don't really know where we are. We say our goodbyes and hop in a cab. The most important words you can learn before traveling in another country are how to say "train station." Then always get a hotel close to the train station. That way, your hotel will always be easy to find if, say, you get into a cab with two random Koreans and they take you to a neighbourhood you don't know. We get our bags from our hotel (hey, at least we had naps in it) and head to the train station....we get another ticket. $10 down the drain.......

Part 4 - sunday in Suwon

It's a gorgeous day, super hot and super muggy. Fantastic weather for someone who's NOT hungover and going to spend a day walking. We don't eat anything in Daejeon because we need to get to Suwon asap. We have a Korean Disneyland to see!! We get to Suwon, find another love hotel and head off to find an Orange restaurant. Once full, we're feeling much better. It's not THAT late in the day, so we head back to the hotel and have a little laydown before heading off to EVERLAND!!! (www.everland.com) I've heard my kids talk about Everland a lot. They love it, they go on school field trips there all the time, I was pretty excited. We find a bus that will take us to Everland and hop on, thinking that it wouldn't be that long. An HOUR AND A HALF later, we arrive at Everland. The bus was super crowded the whole way, with people standing in the aisles pretty much for the entire ride, thank god we got a seat, I was in no mood to stand.

Everland was better than I had expected. There are a ton of pictures posted on here of it. It reminded me a lot of Disneyland - minus the Mickey and Minnie running around. It was still pretty Korean though, way more shopping than rides. The weirdest thing I found was that it was nearly impossible to find anything to purchase that had Everland on it. Everything revolved around this little deranged looking Sheep, "Sheepo." Sheepo is, I later learned, Everland's mascot. He is a sheep who was born without any wool, so he has to put on a wool suit to fit in with the other sheep. This makes for great toys since his wool is fake, so he can also put on different suits and play dress-up. I'm still not quite sure what a sheep who has no wool has to do with Everland, but I'm working on it.

We walked a lot, took a lot of pictures and rode on a roller-coaster. We also wanted to do this amazing safari ride that Everland has, but remember, this was a long weekend, so Everland was crazy. I'm sure the safari ride was fabulous, but i doubt it was worth waiting 150 minutes in line for. We instead walked through the rose gardens and took in a few of the random shows that were being put on. There was a tumbling act, an Alice in Wonderland parade, and a brass band, just to name a few. Mainly we spent Sunday relaxing though. Yes, we did a lot of walking, but there was no drinking, no random Koreans, minus the few million who were swarming around us, and we did as we pleased. We ended our evening in Everland by sitting on a bench and people watching before heading back to the bus for our hour and a half bus ride back to Suwon. Where, I will add, we spent the night tucked into our own bed at the love hotel, watching a movie and falling asleep before midnight.

Part 4 - monday in Suwon

We sleep in, we deserve it. We get ready and leave our hotel with our bags. Our bags, by the way, are pretty darn heavy. Both have extra pairs of shoes in them now, as well as all of our clothes and belongings that we'd need for 3 days. We're girls, this is a lot of stuff. It's ok though, we figure....we'll just head to the train station (convieiently located right near our hotel) and drop off our bags in a locker there. We figure, it's Monday, it'll be fine. Right.....it's a long weekend. Korea is busy and insane on a good day, the Monday of a long weekend is an extremely irritating time to be in a place where many travellers converge. Needless to say, there were no lockers. Our plan for the day only included one thing, and that was walking around an old fortress wall in Suwon. It's a big wall, it's actually the biggest fortress wall in Korea, the best perserved, and the most beautiful and famous apparently. Well, we were about to hike it with our backpacks on.

We grab some Dunkin' Donuts in the train station and head to the wall. It was an overcast day, but that doesn't stop humidity one bit. It was HOT. I've never been so sticky, it was gross. The wall is really nice, it's great, makes for a great workout......now if only thats what we had wanted. Ah, I'm just complaining, it was really nice. yah, it was hot, but that's alright, we just took lots and lots of breaks, and drank lots and lots of water. Part of the wall is located up this tiny mountain, there was a pretty good view from up there. I got a picture of the World Cup Stadium, for all you soccer buffs out there. I must say though, no view is really complete without some water to back it up. It's still weird to me to be up high somewhere, look in all directions and see nothing but land. I miss the Ocean. If anyone can figure out a way to get me some Ocean here, I'd be very thankful! Yah, that wasn't even a concealed hint....

We walked the wall, took a lot of pictures, chatted with some kids who actually didn't laugh at us, but instead wanted to talk....nice change, and headed back to the train station. We figured we'd hop on a train and be on our way. I knew we'd have to wait for a train, the train station was insane and it'd be ignorant to expect to get a seat right away.

We never got a seat.

We were informed that the next train we could even get on wouldn't leave for 4 hours, even then, we didn't get a seat, we were standing room only. My ride was for 2 hours, Jenn's was for 4. It was all we could get though, we had to take it.

We walked around for awhile, Suwon station is a big place, 6 floors of malls, restaurants and other goodies where you spend money. We found a book store and i bought two new novels, one of which I've already finished (I love John Patterson). At this point Jenn headed off across the street to find some Gimbap (Korean Sushi) and I sat down on the floor to begin my book.....there were no open chairs or benches or anything...no lockers either still to put our bags, so i just leaned against my bag, it worked.

I was maybe 5 pages into my book when some drunken Korean man came up to me and started yammering on and on. I couldn't understand a word he was saying, so I just ignored him and kept reading. He kept yammering for a few minutes, but ignoring him was becomming more and more difficult. I got pissed off when he started touching me, at one point he grabbed my book and wrote something in it. I was just about to get up and move (no point in confronting the guy...not worth it) when a Korean police officer came and dragged him away. There was a minor scuffle, apparently the guy didn't want to leave his new white toy, but soon he was gone. (I'm still alone, Jenn's not back yet)

Then, because obviously I'm a woman in distress, I had two more guys come up to me to see if I'm ok. That's all very nice of them, but I'm fine thanks....I really just want to read my new book. I actually tell them this - "I'm ok, I just want to sit here and read my book." One of them doesn't speak English, he's Korean, and another one's from Ghana, studying International Finance in Seoul. That's great, I still just want to read my book.

Here's a tip for all you male readers out there...if you're talking, and a girl's reading a book and every so often throwing an "uh-huh" or an "mm-hmm" your way, she's not interested.

The Korean finally gave up, mainly because we didn't speak the same language. The guy from Ghana however, definetly didn't. I mean, jesus, take a hint. The thing was, Jenn wasn't back yet, and I couldn't leave where I was sitting. Jenn and I both have cell phones, but her battery was dead, so if I moved I wouldn't be able to tell her where. I was stuck. Jenn returned and sat down beside me, we BOTH started reading books and ignoring this guy....he kept talking. Then his friend came over....that was great. Now there were two of them. The other guy, however, took a hint and they left. Finally, some peace and quiet.

Our train came and we found a sort of spot in one of the bathroom cars to sit. The car was super crowded, I wasn't even sitting against the wall, just in the middle of the car. It was a weird combination of people in the car, Korean's were actually a minority, which doesn't happen. The majority were Malaysian factory workers.

I really don't want to generalize here, but I have to. Koreans stare at us, I'm used to it, I'm used to being laughed at and pointed at, actually, I barely notice it anymore. I will not, however, ever get used to being stared at by Malaysians. It's different. Korean's stare at us because we're different, they're not used to seeing foreigners and they're curious. Malaysians stare at us like we're pieces of meat that they must figure out how to catch. Again, big generalization about the Malaysian people, but I'm just going on what I've experienced. We sat on the floor the whole ride from Suwon to Gumi. The whole time knowing that we were being oggled. At least they didn't try to talk to us, or to me at least. I got off the train without incident in Gumi, said my good-bye's to Jenn and went home. I should never have left Jenn alone in that car.

Poor Jenn.

They came over and started talking to her. From what she tells me the conversations consisted mainly of them trying to get her to come to some hotel with them and....well, you know. She, like me, tried to ignore them, but it became impossible. She packed up her stuff and moved cars. Didn't work, they found her. I'm not sure how many cars away she moved, but these trains are usually about 12 cars long and we were in one of the last ones. She had a lot of room to move. They hassled her more until she got off the train, then they got off at the same station.....she had to run to a cab and drive away as fast as she could to ensure that they wouldn't follow her. Great end to the trip eh?

.....you think this blog entries finished don't you? It's not.

Part 5 - gumi - the trip that I would have gone on if I didn't go to Daejoen/Suwon and why i'm glad I didn't

My friends from school Devon, Drew and Kathi all went down to the South Coast for the long weekend. They headed to some remote beach to relax and do nothing. They had a decent time, saw some ocean, saw some hisotrical stuff....ate some undercooked chicken, and all got food poisoning. All 3 of them work at Doryang School, and all 3 of them have been off work the past 2 days. I've been working at their school because, well, there aren't any teachers there. As crazy as my weekend was, I'm sure glad I didn't go with them and get food poisoning. They all ended up at the doctors for IV's to battle dehydration. Fun times.

That is all my friends. I hope I didn't bore you too much. There was definetly a lot of detail involved here, but I warned you! Hey, don't feel bad though.....just think about this, this blog entry just took me 2 hours 15 minutes to write!

Tuesday, June 07, 2005


Jenn at Everland Posted by Hello


Sheepo is a cartoon character from Korea�s Everland Theme Park. Due to a lab mishap, Sheepo was born without a wool coat, so he zips on a fluffy wool coat to blend in with the other sheep.
 Posted by Hello


Everland - Euro Festival....it was really well done. Had a really good Disneyland feel to it, except instead of Mickey and Minnie it was all about Sheepo Posted by Hello


Everland Posted by Hello


Alice in Wonderland Parade - Everland Posted by Hello


Alice in Wonderland Parade Posted by Hello


Everland Posted by Hello


Hwaseong Fortress Posted by Hello


Guard at Hwaseong Fortress Posted by Hello


Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon.  Posted by Hello


Hwaseong Fortress Wall Posted by Hello


World Cup Stadium in Suwon Posted by Hello