Sunday, October 30, 2005

the evil song that won't leave my head

Hey guys....here's some video of my kids singing a wonderful song "Today is Monday." The song probably isn't that bad....except that when all three classes want to sing it I have to sing it 6 times in one day. The link to the video is http://www.youtube.com/?v=TWqRdmSHkKw if the upload doesn't want to work here on the blog site (which is entirely possible cuz i don't really know what i'm doing).


ya....fabulous eh? Here are two more classes singing the SAME song. Really, it's excellent footage, won't bore you at all (note: sarcasim). It definetly won't earn me an Oscar, but it'll give you an idea of my job. I'm quite serious when I say all I do all day is dance, sing songs and act like an idiot.





http://www.youtube.com/?v=g3ObKXqliDE -> if this last video doesn't work...cuz it's being a pain in the ass....the link is here

See if you can spot the Richard Nixon wannabe...

Monday, October 17, 2005

....and all the ESL Teachers across Korea hang their heads in shame

In Gumi alone there are about 100 foreign ESL Teachers. This does not include the numerous Koreans who also speak fluent English. We walk on the streets, we are all over the various neighbourhoods....we're pretty frickin easy to spot. If you're the least bit unsure...hell, even if you're postive your English is correct, stop and ask a foreigner. It takes two seconds, really.
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The old hair :( ....except this is an old picture so really it was way worse and uneven and blah..
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The New Hair :)
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ahh highlighter hair!

ok, so Koreans have different hair than we do. I'm not retarded, I've realized this....but apparently my blonde hair doesn't strike Korean hairdressers as all that different from their own thick, dark, coarse hair. My hair colour was all over the place, my ends were really blonde, my roots were horrible and I had random streaks throughout. It needed a cut and really, it was horrible (note the headbands in the school pictures.....they were my saviour).

So

I've gone to this hairdresser in Masan before with Jenn. They've always been really good, Jenn got her hair dyed there all the time and it turned out fabulous, I've gotten my hair cut and also, fabulous. So, Christa and I headed down there, me for a colour, and Christa for professional straightening.

I got a cut as well, and that turned out really nice, it was all evened out, which is what I wanted. He did take the thinners to it a bit though before I could stop him. I'm thinking to myself "seriously, how about you just FEEL my hair for a second, now, feel YOUR hair....ya, not the same," my hair definetly does not need thinning.....but I let it go.

Then we started dying

And he left the bleach on for an extraordinarily long time....and my hair turned highlighter yellow.

And my eyebrows were still dark, and it looked scary...

So we dyed my eyebrows the same....cuz it seemed logical at the time due to my panic...

THEN, we decided that we should maybe put in some brown streaks....to tone down the brilliant dazzle that was my head....

and they came out grey

So...now I have shocking yellow (and I mean yellow) hair with grey streaks and non-existant eyebrows that are blending in with my skin tone and definetly not balancing out my square jaw, so my jaws now taking over my face and overall it's scary

SO, we go home on the train and actually go out that night. Christa has eyebrow makeup so I toned down my eyebrows a bit. We had fun. I'm starting to think that possibly it doesn't look THAT bad...

Then I get up the next morning and realize that, nope, I look evil, evil and wrong. I talk to my mom on msn with the webcam, she calls me a lemon head and Christa can't really look at my face without a smirk breaking out. It's time to act. So, I go across the street and buy a box of hair dye. The picture is a brownish colour. I'm thinking that it's best to go darker and not try for blonde right away and darker would be better than this really.

But the brown dye is made to dye black Korean hair to a lighter brown, not evil lemon to darker...so my hair changes to a slightly more strawberry lemon. It looks like lemon gatorade on my head.

So, thank god it was a long weekend. I headed into downtown Gumi on Monday morning, hat on my head, to find a hair salon. My hair is now brown, as are my eyebrows....although as time goes by it's starting to fade to this redish brown thing.....it still looks ok, but it's kind of scaring me.

Playing Teacher

Marking homework
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Teaching phonics. My favorite. I do far too much singing and dancing really....
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Some of my girls. Left to right: Angela (formerly Evanesence), Shayla (formerly Elizabeth), Juliet, Rubby and sister, Maria (formerly Christina) and Misha. The girls who changed their names had decided that their names were far too long. I was teaching them cursive for their signatures and they were getting frustrated. I put a pile of names on the board, including my three best friends from Elementary School, Maria, Angela and Shayla. It's kinda weird that they chose those three, I'm used to it now though. I'm not quite sure though if those names are easier to write in cursive than their previous ones....they seem to think so though. I guess that's all that matters
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Insert random picture here....

Pic taken in Daejeon....random spontaneous trip. Drinking outside of the convienence store. Left to Right: Justin, Todd, Scott, Krista, Christa, Frasier, Tyler taking the picture. It was fun times.
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Everland and Suwon.....again

Christa and Krista at Everland, September 24-25, 2005
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Lions in the Safari Ride at Everland. It was kinda short, but at least the habitats were decent....compared to what else I've seen in Korea.
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The water ride at Everland...that we got to skip the line for.....cuz we're white and stand out
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At Everland....we found Jelly Bellys!!...and a lot more candy that we really didn't need
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Everland and Suwon....again

On September 24-25 Christa and I headed up to Suwon for some Everland time. We had a lot of fun and it was much easier the second time around. This being in Korea for awhile thing sure does come in handy at times. I know Korean, I can take trains like a pro, AND I know where all the good rides at Everland are. Nothing overly eventful happened, it wasn't nearly as busy as the last time I was there (thank god) mainly because I refused to go on a long weekend again. The lines were shorter, the longest one we waited in was 70 minutes for the Safari, and it was a beautiful day. In general September and October in Korea have been beautiful. The skies are actually clear (way less smog) and it's still warm. It hasn't rained for a long time, and it apparently won't for a long time. Today it's clear blue skies and a crisp 18C. It'll probably get up to around 20, it usually does.

Sidenote: hahaha to all you suckers who live on the BC Coast....let me guess, is it raining there?

Me at Suwon Fortress
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Christa and Krista at the Suwon Fortress
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Suwon Fortress, Suwon, South Korea
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Gyeongju, South Korea

The weekend after Japan Mom and I headed off to Gyeongju. Gyeongju is really the only city I know of in Korea that's actually still Korean. The buildings are all still traditional (it's in the building code) and there are a lot of things to see there. The day before we left for Japan, a friend of mine, Christa, arrived from Canada. Christa will be living with me and also working at Prime (yes, I know, same name, same company....we've realized this). She came with us. We had a good time. I'd been there before so I played tour guide. It was a beautiful day....a lot of walking again, but we managed. If anything my mom's trip over here to see me allowed me to lose some weight! We went there on Saturday and headed back Sunday. It was good times. Christa had to come home early on Sunday (she suddenly fell really ill) so only Mom and I headed up to Bulguksa Temple on the Sunday morning. Christa and I are going back next weekend though to see the leaves changing. Bulguksa is reportedly the most beautiful temple in Korea, and I believe it, and it's apparently the most beautiful when the leaves are in full colour.

Bulguksa Temple in Gyeongju. Much prettier than the last time I went in early March (see the April 8th blog entry). It's apparently even more beautiful in the fall. Christa and I are planning a trip there next weekend once the leaves are in full colour.
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The oldest observatory in Eastern Asia
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Mom, Krista and Christa in Gyeongju. Anapji pond. The sky really was a clear blue that day....you just can't see it through the smog...
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