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The Wandering Gypsy...I'm not done yet 8月3日 When in Korea . . .I would like to let you all know that I have an addition to my ever growing list of “weird foods that I have tried and actually liked”. There is no physical hard copy of this list as each of these delicacies has been quite memorable. My most recent adventure involved my friend, Pamela, two bottles of red wine, two adventurous and hungry bellies, and the BBQ restaurant on the first floor of my building. Pam came over to my place so we could grab some dinner and have a couple of drinks before we went to the Latin Asia All Night Dance Party in Olympic Park. We were considering ordering pizza, but at the last minute we both decided that we didn’t need all the carbs and settled on BBQ. I had been wanting to try out the restaurant in my building for a while, so this worked out well. Korean BBQ consists of meat that you grill on the table in front of you, a variety of kimchi (fermented spicy cabbage, onions, radish, etc), spicy sauces, carrots, cucumber and hot peppers. In most cases you are given a plate of lettuce leaves that you can wrap your cooked meat and other vegetables in. Normally we order bulgogi (beef) or samgyeopsal (pork). The restaurant on the first floor of my building is a special one however, where you cannot get bulgogi or samgyeopsal. The only options at this place were yohm tong (a dark meat that smelled like liver) and mahk chang (a chewy white meat that resembled pork fat). It was quite good, even though we had no idea what we were eating, and the owners of the restaurant seemed to be very impressed with us. Pam and I finally got the translation of what we were eating from a Korean friend today. Turns out the dark meat was cow heart, which I don’t consider to be too daring considering people in Newfoundland eat animal hearts all the time. The white meat however was slightly more adventurous . . . cow lower intestine. I’m the type of person that will try anything once, and I have to say that even though I now know what I was eating, I would it do it again!
I have special entry in the works for next time where you will get to see another side to my neighbourhood. It’s not always innocent and peaceful in sleepy little Songpa-gu. 7月30日 Summer VacationI’m on vacation right now. I only just arrived, I know! But the school is closed for a week, until August 4th. While all of the teachers I work with are off sunning themselves in Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and Taiwan, I am stranded in Korea due to my ongoing immigration process. I’m in the final stages now and should be completely legal by August 8th. I don’t mind being grounded in Korea for my vacation though; I’ve had so much drama over the past month that it’s good to stay in one place for a bit. And trust me, I haven’t been bored!
I joined DoubleHMG and had my first session with my personal trainer on Monday. His name is Jae Won and has a very Andy Warhol-ish hairstyle and glasses. I think he’s trying to be trendy, but it doesn’t really suit someone that is supposed to be a trainer in a gym. In my first session with Jae Won, I had a body composition analysis done. First he took my height and weight, and then I was hooked up to some space aged machine that read the makeup of water, protein, minerals, body fat mass, muscle mass, and skeletal mass in my body. The machine even calculated my waist-hip ratio and lean balance. Turns out, the only part of my body that is “normal” is my trunk. Keep in mind, Koreans are skinny stick people and I will never be considered “normal”, so for a high tech piece of equipment to say that a part of my body is normal . . . in Korea . . . I’m elated! As the gym doesn’t offer spin class yet (but Jae Won thinks they will soon), I’ve taken up running. I don’t get the same high from it that I used to get from spin, but it’ll do. I have another session with him on Thursday where we will start weight training. I’m very excited since I haven’t done any weight training since I left Newfoundland!
Other than the gym, I’ve been spending my vacation studying Korean, reviewing school curriculum, and catching up with my old friends here in Seoul. I’ve done a few touristy things like shopping in Insadong (the traditional area) and wandering around Olympic Park. I now live in the Olympic Park area and it is very quiet and peaceful here, unlike the chaotic university area that I used to live in. It’s nice having a park right outside my door where I can go just to enjoy walking around outdoors without being overrun by crowds of people. I live in a convenient area; Lotte Department Store (where they sell Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada, etc.) and Lotte Mart (like Wal-Mart) are within walking distance, the majority of my friends live close by, and the subway station is only a few feet away. I’m in a more affluent area of Seoul now and things are more western, but sometimes I miss the dirty loud Seoul I used to know: the loudspeaker on the vegetable truck waking me up at 6am, the outdoor Filipino market on the weekend, the adjummas (married Korean women, typically grandmothers, who are stubborn and pushy with short permed hair) singing hymns on Sunday morning at the church next door, the lights, sounds and smells (ewww) of Hyehwa, the riot police and protests in Gwanghwamun . . . ahhh it was the life! I’m not sure if suburb living is for me, but I’m still glad to be back in Seoul even if I have to commute for a bit of excitement.
I have five days of vacation left and I’ll probably spend my time gallivanting around the city. I love this city so much! Even if I don’t have anything in particular planned, I can just randomly pick a stop on the subway map and spend the day exploring. I have already lived here for two years, but there is still so much to see and do! 7月17日 All I wanna do is spin!!!!I haven’t been to spin class since June 30th, two days before I left for Korea. Things have been chaotic since I arrived! I am only now on the search for a gym where I can continue with my strict, and perhaps obsessive, workout regimen. In Newfoundland I would go to spin class three days a week, yoga twice a week, and I had a personal trainer in addition to that. I am seriously missing that now and my body is definitely feeling the effects of not working out. I don’t have as much energy as I used to and I’m not sleeping as well.
Today I made my first real effort in finding a gym that offers spin class. My old gym in Sungshin Women’s University area, Pop’s Italia Gym, had spin, so I figured it wouldn’t be that difficult to find somewhere to go in the Jamsil area. I tried finding their website to see what locations they have in the city but didn’t have much luck. I then asked one of the Korean teaching partners, Lize, to help me. She managed to find a phone number for Pop’s, but they have now closed. She explained to me that spin class is not popular in Korea and that many gyms were going out of business as they were just too expensive for the average Korean to pay for. There used to be a California Fitness chain in Seoul, which offered spin and yoga, along with many other classes. They went bankrupt though and had to refund all of their memberships a few months ago. I will admit, gyms in Korea are costly. I paid $700 for a year membership at Pop’s back in 2005, and that was when there was a special rate for joining. Their normal price was $900 for a year.
Lize told me that there were a couple of smaller gyms in the Jamsil area, but they only had treadmills and a few weight machines; and true to Korean belief that the more you sweat the better your workout will be, no air conditioning. This does not appeal to me in the least.
Lize then started searching on-line and managed to find a gym just up the street from our school called O2Zone. They didn’t offer spin, but they did have many different yoga and aerobics classes, a swimming pool, a large weight area, and several cardio machines. Their membership fee is 1,980,000 won per year (approx $2,000). She even walked with me to the gym just so I could check it out. The gym seemed a little old and I got the celebrity stare when I walked in from all of the Koreans in their matching uniforms. It wasn’t terrible though, so this gym is still a possibility. (Side Note: Gyms in Korea provide you with workout clothes so you don’t have stinky laundry to do at home. I’m pretty sure their uniforms won’t fit me so I stocked up on workout clothes before I left Canada).
We then walked back to the school and Lize mentioned that there was a Bally Total Fitness in Apgujeong, which is a 30 minute subway ride from Jamsil. I started to get my hopes up as she dialed their number as this would mean I would have a spin class. Unfortunately, we discovered that they have now closed.
I have one more option at this point that I will be checking out on Saturday with Lize. DoubleHMG is another gym in the Apgujeong area that has good facilities. They don’t offer spin, but they have Pilates and several other types of classes. It will cost about the same as O2Zone, but a lot of celebrities go there as well. That should make things pretty interesting!
I’ll keep you informed on my never ending quest for fitness in Korea . . .
DoubleHMG http://www.doublehmg.com/ 7月12日 An Airplane a Day Keeps the Sanity at Bay: Immigration NightmareWednesday morning I flew out to Fukuoka, Japan to have my E2 (working) visa processed. This lengthy process had actually started several weeks earlier while I was still in Newfoundland. There are many steps involved, but once you have been given a confirmation number from immigration in Korea (which I had), you are usually in the clear . . . or so we thought. The immigration laws had just changed in 2008 and I will spare you the dry legal details; however, upon my arrival at the Korean Consulate in Fukuoka I heard the words every expat dreads: “You are not allowed to have a visa.” My heart literally stopped and I stood at the counter dumbfounded for what seemed like an eternity before I was able to speak. The woman at the counter told me I would have to go back to Canada for an interview before I could be issued an E2 visa. There was nothing further that they could do for me in Fukuoka. Everything I owned was in Korea, and I was concerned that if I tried to enter the country again they would just deport me, seeing as it would be illegal for me to work there until all of the red tape had been cleared in Canada.
I trudged out of the consulate, broken and frustrated. I got the subway to my hotel and immediately phoned my boss. This woman amazes me. I have no idea what she had to do to convince immigration to process my visa in Japan, but due to her persistence we were given approval. Unfortunately, I couldn’t have the processing done in Fukuoka. I had to fly out to Osaka as they had more empowerment and connection with immigration in Korea. I had left my laptop behind in Korea as I didn’t want to lug it around Japan with me; luckily the hotel was able to rent one to me for the night for 1,000 yen (approx $10). I booked the earliest flight I could get to Osaka and found a hotel that was near the Korean Consulate for Thursday night. My boss changed my return ticked to Korea for Friday evening. Meanwhile, my parents and everyone at home were sitting on pins and needles. I knew I wouldn’t be able to relax either until I had my visa in hand.
I arrived in Osaka at 8:30am on Thursday and caught the bus to Namba station where the Consulate is located. I got there at 9:20am, 10 minutes before the visa window was due to open. I told the woman at the counter that I had just flew in from Fukuoka, and she stated that she knew who I was and that she had been expecting me. She said that normally I would not be given approval, but as I was already in Korea and I had not been told ahead of time that I needed to be interviewed in Canada, they had agreed to accept my application.
I felt a little more relieved, but I was still slightly apprehensive that something might go wrong. I left the embassy, knowing that everything was out of my hands now, and headed towards my hotel. Don’t ask me how I manage to find my way around these foreign countries where I don’t speak the language. I guess I just have a good sense of direction and no fear. I suppose I’m lucky to have that attitude or I would never have any adventures. Mind you, I’m careful about it; I stick to the main roads and try to stay around large groups of people. I would never go down a dark deserted alley, even if I did have someone with me. Anyway, my hotel was within walking distance of the Consulate and I had no problems finding it. To my delight, it was located just beyond a huge outdoor shopping complex that went on for more than a dozen blocks. Everything in Japan is ridiculously overpriced and as I was in an upscale area of Osaka, this was no exception. I was surrounded by Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, and Dolce and Gabbana, Starbucks and Excelsior every few feet, Swatch and Sketchers. There were lingerie stores, office supplies, western restaurant chains, sushi bars, casinos . . . you name it, it was there. I even stumbled upon a movie theater, which I decided to take advantage of. I will never complain about the cost of going to see a movie in St. John’s again. I paid 1,800 yen to watch ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’, which is the equivalent of $18 Canadian! After the movie I went back to my hotel and passed out for the night. I was exhausted from all of the immigration drama.
The next day I checked out of my hotel at 10am and headed to Starbucks to kill some time lesson planning while I waited for the time to pick up my visa. I still had this nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach and I wished I could just relax. Fed up with waiting, I decided to go to the Consulate early. I had to queue up there, which wasn’t helping my sanity. Finally my number flashed on the screen and the same woman that I spoke with the day before handed me my passport with visa inside, telling me I was very lucky. I don’t know how long I stood there looking at that visa, absorbing that this piece of precious paper was real. I didn’t walk out of that Consulate, I floated! I’m not sure what the guards thought about the goofy, relieved expression on my face. A huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
I’m back in Korea now, legally! The immigration process isn’t quite complete. Next week I need to go for a medical, and once I get the results I have to register at immigration and get my alien registration card and multiple re-entry permit. Life is never boring! 7月6日 Oh Korea! How I missed thee!After a fairly uneventful 22 hour journey half-way around the world, I’m finally back in the land of the morning calm. I say my journey was uneventful as I actually slept the entire way from St. John’s to Toronto, and then again from Toronto to Vancouver, with only a brief connection in between. I had about an hour in Vancouver to grab a quick bite, wash my face, brush my teeth, and check my e-mail. I slept the first few hours of the flight, watched a couple of movies, and read a few chapters in ‘The Pillars of the Earth’. This was my ninth time doing this flight and was probably the second most pleasant time I’ve done it; the most enjoyable time was when I flew executive class and got fed lobster, cheeses and port wine. There were no delays this time, no cancellation of flights, no excessive turbulence, no turning around of the plane for sicknesses or stormy weather, all of which I have experienced in the past.
I was greeted at the airport by one of the Korean admin staff at my school, Sean Han. Sean dropped me off at the hotel where I am staying until Monday when my apartment will be ready. Another teacher is staying in the room next to mine. She and I went out for supper that night; I ordered my favorite Korean dish, chamchi chigae (tuna stew). Oh, how I missed Korean food!
I started work on Friday. I’m currently the Interim Director, which means that I only teach one day a week and the rest of the time I’m managing the school. I had been told that I didn’t need to put in a full day on Friday as everyone figured I would be exhausted, but I was so content to be back doing what I love that I stayed the whole day. So far I really like the school. The classrooms are big and there are lots of teaching resources. The school provides all of the teachers with lunch, which will definitely help me to save on groceries. Another thing that I’m happy about is that I get to wear slippers all day long! In Korean culture, you must remove your shoes when you enter someone’s house, when you eat at a traditional Korean restaurant, etc. The school has adopted this practice as well and has provided everyone with slippers to wear while in the building. My feet are loving it!
Saturday I taught my first classes. I’m teaching the Moms & Tots program; the kids are 5 years old Korean age, which makes them approximately 3 years old Western age. In many Asian countries, you are one year old when you are born, and every Lunar New Year everyone adds another year. For example, I was born on October 19, 1979. I would have been one when I was born, and as Lunar New Year was on February 15th in 1980, I would have been 2 years old even before my first Western birthday. I don’t like that system very much because it makes me 30 Korean age right now.
Saturday evening I was reunited with my partner in crime, Sebastian. We had pho for dinner and then had a few cosmos at his apartment afterwards. Sebastian has a dog now, named Sheila. She’s a tiny French bulldog and has the funniest rabbit ears. I think I like Sheila much better than ‘Kitty the cat with no name’ that he used to have! Sunday I met my friend Christina for lunch in Itaewon. Christina worked at CLI with me back in 2005 and is in Korea for the summer. It was almost surreal to be walking through Itaewon with her as it was though no time had passed. After lunch I ran a few errands at Lotte Mart (similar to Walmart) and Shinsegae (an upscale department store). I splurged on some Clinique face cream in honor of my dear friend Sarah. For supper I met up with my very grounded drifter friend (oxymoron I know), Maria, whom I worked with at CLI back in 2006. Again, it was like no time had passed. It’s funny how I’m back here again and nothing has changed. Even the people are mostly the same, but they are people that I admire and have missed so much.
I have a busy week ahead of me. Tomorrow I’m moving into my apartment and then on Wednesday I’m flying out to Fukuoka, Japan to get my visa processed. I’ll return to Korea on Thursday, at which time I’m sure I will have lots to write about. 6月26日 Return of the Itchy FeetWell, to be completely honest, the itchy feet never really went away. I suppose they are just a little more itchy these days. I had been planning on going back to Korea at the end of August, however last week I found out that I would be leaving in just a few days. My ticket has been booked for July 2nd and I have a million and one things to do before I high tail it back to the Land of the Morning Calm. I spent last weekend in Toronto with Laney doing some shopping, so in that aspect I'm pretty well set. My apartment needs some major gutting, which Sarah has thankfully been keeping me focused on. She even made a schedule for me for the next week so I can pencil in my appointments and coffee and dinner dates. What would I do without her?!
I met with Tina today and she gave me the scrapbook she made for me. Everyone from work signed it and I was near tears in Tim Hortons as I read through everything and looked back on all of my experiences in my job over the past two years. Thank you to everyone for the kind words, and thank you Tina for being such a wonderful student and friend. I will miss you all very much. Read often and write comments! 5月7日 Back in Newfoundland! Booooo!I arrived back in Newfoundland Saturday night at 11:00pm. We were delayed leaving New Jersey again, but the tailwind helped us make up for lost time. My last day full day in Texas was Friday (May 4th). Sharon, Stephanie and I checked out the Congress Building after work that day. It's a pretty impressive structure. Stephanie and I were joking about walking in somewhere we probably shouldn't, and then we wandered in on a meeting of the House of Representatives . . . oops! No, just kidding, we were actually allowed to be in there! Stephanie and I decided to check out a few museums and art galleries that were opened later that evening, as Sharon went on her own shopping. Around 8:30 pm we headed down to Congress Bridge to take in the bats one last time and then headed back to our hotel to pack. It was a nice, leisurely way to spend our last night in Austin. All I have to say about being back in Newfoundland is "BOOOOOO!" The weather is crappy! It's a shock to the system to be in summer temperatures for three weeks and then all of a sudden be thrown back into nasty Newfoundland. Grrrrr! |
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