so, my computer and my camera still aren't talking, and that's sad. It means that I can't put any fun videos/pictures on here. You'll all just have to deal with my random writings without any visuals for awhile. I'm truly sorry....warning, this thing's long.
I know I said I'd write more about Christmas. The truth about me though is that I'm lazy and I procrastinate...if you know me at all you should already know this and my lack of posting should not come as any surprise. I could excuse it all away, and trust me I'm good at coming up with excuses, but it's not worth it. anyways.
So ya, Christmas was good. It was merry, it was bright, we drank a lot and generally had a good time. It definetly didn't feel like Christmas though, that's for damn sure. I think (ney, know) the lack of feeling had a lot to do with my denial of Christmas. It's a common survival technique out here. Avoid thinking about home, deny that things are still progressing as if you don't exist, keep up your bubble that lets you think it's not really THAT hard to be halfway around the world during holidays.
Watch as I flawlessly work this into my excuse for not posting previously. It was too hard...yaaa, that's good.
aaaanyways, so Christmas ended and I went back to school that Monday. Working on Boxing Day wasn't as weird as I'd thought it'd be. However, I've worked in the food industry for the past...too long, so I've worked my fair share of Boxing Days. The weirdest thing about it though had to be the lack of enthusiasm from the kids. I guess it's just my rose-tinted western thinking but I kinda just assumed that since there was Christmas stuff everywhere around and the kids SEEMED excited about Christmas, that they actually had christmas at their homes. Well, they didn't. I had maybe one kid in each class who actually did something for Christmas, and if they got anything 90% of the time it was money. Explains a lot about why the Christmas spirit didn't really hit me this year eh?
The work week practically flew by, it was pretty awesome. I figure that had a lot to do with the fact that we were actually getting January 2-4 off from work. Assaaaa! Actual holidays! We hadn't had a day off for 2 months. It was about bloody time if you ask me.
So, Friday arrived, we went to sleep early...we had partying to do that weekend. I got up early, went to the orphanage, came home, packed and Christa, Jessie (yes, the dog) and I jumped in a cab heading downtown. It was then that we realized that we had 15 minutes before our train left the station and Christa still needed to go to the bank and I needed to drop the dog off at her "doggy hotel." Picture this: me, with huge backpack on (I NEVER pack light) running through downtown Gumi (I'm white, I stand out without the running) with dog in arms, held like a football. I'm surprised Jessie doesn't have brain damage. There must be some shake-a-puppy syndrome. Maybe THAT'S why she refuses to pee on the paper...
We made it, thankfully Korean trains don't have the greatest on-time track records. I was literally catching my breath for the first 15 mintues of the train ride...really need to go to the gym more apparently. I'll blame the wheezing on the pollution and hanging out in smokey bars. See, I'm just THAT good at excuses!
We made it on the train though, that's the happy thing. A bunch of us (about 20)were heading up to Seoul for the New Year. People had different times off. Joan, Will, Andy and Rob had all been up there since Wednesday. Joe headed up there on Thursday and others were scattered around the city by Saturday when we arrived. On the train with me was Christa, Traci and Bryant. To calm our nerves from our near train miss we decided to drink a few on our way up. It was December 31st. That certainly calls for prep drinking before going out. ahhh korea. The land of the beer carts that roll past you on trains. The land where you drink your beer as you get off the train, walk down the street, say hi to the cop...and continue to drink.
My lungs hate korea for the smoke/smog...my liver for the beer.
We get to Seoul. It's crazy. Seoul is packed on a good day. This was a holiday. Fun. We kept our backpacks on...and head to the subway. We are bound for Yongsan. Yongsan Station holds Seoul's Electronics Market. It's a fabulous place. It's massive and holds many cheap electronics. People are shouting, it's very bright, you can spend money. It's my kind of place. We were going because Traci had dropped her digital camera on Christmas (definetly not because she had been drinking), and Bryant wanted to look at MP3 players. I needed to pick up some additional memory cards for my camera.
So, we cram ourselves on a subway car. Literally, cram. There's a picture that Christa has of us, I'm kind of turned around, Traci can't even turn to look at the camera. We're that squashed in. We actually think it was at the exact time of the picture taking that Christa's wallet got stolen. She lost everything, credit card, alien card (for foreigners living in Korea), the cash she'd run to get out of the bank before catching the train, other various cards and the like. It was horrible. We like to think of Korea as this safe place. The reality is that Korea IS safer than Canada in some ways. Driving, not so safe, walking on the sidewalk...I've seen safer, but in general regard to possessions or threats from other humans not involving an automobile of some sort Korea's comparably pretty safe. Well, our beliefs were successfully shattered in one moment.
So, Happy New Year to Christa.
Luckily she knew her M/C number so she immediately called home and got her parents on cancelling that. She lost the money and everything for good. There's no hope of finding it, which sucks. Everything can be replaced though and she actually had it all taken care of within the first day of being home. SHE doesn't procrastinate!
We finish up at the electronics market and head on to Itaewan. Joe had gotten us a hotel room that morning. I had sensed that Itaewan would be packed with foriegners from around the country converging for the New Years festivities and I was right. He couldn't get us a room in the place they were staying so we were put down the street. It's ok, we didn't plan on spending that much time in our rooms anyways. Our plan for that night was simple. Go for dinner and head to this street in Jongno that's shut down for a big street party. A bell is rung and fire works are let off. Times Square Seoul style. Oh my god. I wish my camera and computer were talking cuz I have video of this that you just have to see. They weren't fireworks. They were roman candles. They weren't professional...no, they were being let off by the random drunk idiots (us). Sounds dangerous right? Well, back to my earlier comment about how Korea is safer than Canada. It's true. In Canada not all, but definetly a few, Roman Candles would have been turned into weapons. I'm ceratin a few people probably caught on fire by accident that night (Jimmy). But the feeling of safety was for some reason there.
ok, so I'm a geek and I tracked down another video online...go
here ... all those lights? Ya...those are drunken idiots lighting off roman candles. Makes for really good pictures though!
Ok, so there was much randomness that night. Highlights from the group: we picked up a random Korean, named him Jimmy and took him home with us...we hope he's alive somewhere, we had a dance-off with random Koreans, we helped the cleaning crews, Nino rode on a garbage truck, Nino tried to STEAL a garbage truck, we saw riot police (korean riot police are funny), we talked with "models" from Uzbekistan...and, ya, there's probably more.
Fastforward...we leave the street. Ok, more preciesly we're cleared off the street at exactly 12:15 because they're re-opening the street. We head back to Itaewan and go to the bar. We dance until 6.
January 1st, 2006
Everyone splits up into small groups and scatters. Christa, Traci, Joe and I head up Seoul Tower. When we get there it's snowing and cold. We wait in a REALLY long line to get to the top, take some pictures and head to Seoul Cinema to meet Bryant for a movie. We watch King Kong. I'm not a big fan of huge bugs devouring heads...so King Kong wasn't really my movie of choice. I've seen better, I've seen worse, I was mainly just really tired. We go back to the hotel, we go to sleep.
January 2nd, 2006
Today we play tourist. Traci, Bryant, Christa and I went to this palace in Seoul. I'd been there before but it's always a fun place to go. I like palaces :). It was cold, but not that bad. We then headed over to Insa-dong to do some shopping. Insa-dong reminds me a lot of Granville Island. It's totally the Granville Island of Seoul, minus the whole island thing...and the English. We went to a tea room, laughed at the pottery breasts on the wall, ate too much, got warm, and headed back to the hotel for another early evening.
January 3rd, 2006
....side note, I love how the writing about Dec. 31st was insanely long, but poor Jan 2 get's diddily-squat....my fingers are getting tired.
ok, so Jan 3rd. A friend of mine from Nanaimo, Katie, has recently moved to Korea. She's living in the small city of Yongin. It's about an hours bus ride East of Suwon. Suwon is on my train route back to Gumi from Seoul so we made plans to meet that day in Suwon and spend the day together. I've been to Suwon twice previously. Both times the bloody train station screwed me by not having any free lockers. This time was no different. I met Katie and proceeded to walk around the fortress wall that is there for the third time...second time with a backpack. I love that wall actually, it's a really nice walk. You get great views of Suwon...but the backpacks really not necessary. Again, i NEVER pack light.
It was awesome to catch up with her. It'd been about 2 years since I'd last seen her. Time flies when you're in Korea...
I hung out until about 6:30 then hopped the train back to Gumi. I still had one more day off and the prospect of sitting on my ass, and possibly cleaning the apartment a bit was welcome. I did just that.
Alright....that's my New Years. You're still not completely up to date. I have to do another entry detailing the news that's going on in my life...for right now i'll leave you in suspense. and OH I know you are cuz I'm just that interesting...
