bye bye dalmatians…hello teen titans!

deery-lou.
taekwondo is back to full swing. my weekly class resumed today. it was actually fun to be back with all the youngsters. although i think one of the kids is crazy. as we were sitting against the wall watching the other students practice their poomses he kept talking to himself. not in the "i'm a kid kind of way". more like a "maybe i should be locked up kind of way." at one point i think i actually saw his eyes roll into the back of his head. spooky. the little girl in class even said he was crazy. i watch a lot of films in mrs. sullivans psychology class. which makes me think he's slightly off. my little buddy was there though. he's so funny. he helped me out when i had the wrong stances or hand placement for poomse 7. it was way cute. i know you all have been wondering and sending me numerous emails [just kidding] but my fridge has been fixed. although now the fridge part seems to be super cold seeing that it froze a tomato that i had in there. speaking of frozen tomatoes they have tomato popsicles here. i have yet to try one. i feel like i should but i'm also kind of scared. what should i do? yesterday i decided to do some cleaning and rearranging in my classroom. the students love when you change the classroom, NOT! i moved my desk so that it would be in the direct path of the air conditioner. i have so many windows in my classroom that its always warm. i also unofficially changed my classroom name from "dalmatians" to "teen titans". the titans are much cooler than a bunch of dogs. i figured it was time that my classroom's name reflected me. i printed out a picture of the teen titans and taped it over the sign that said "dalmatians". they think i'm so weird. i've also added more super heroes to my walls. heeheehee. i love me sometimes. on my way to work today i passed by a store that had mannequins that looked like this:




that first one is so damn creepy. the hair is good, but the face is too freakish. and the laughing one is not much better. everytime i look at that pink haired monster i gotta laugh. i mean, come on. who is going to buy clothes from this store. not i. thats for sure. i'll bet you anything the freaky mannequin comes to life at night.

speaking of shops and stuff, a couple of weeks ago i was walking around ewha women's university area when i stumbled upon a cafe that misty would absolutely love. i'm almost afraid to even mention its existence. thats how good it is. let me just say i'm sorry misty. i didn't know about this place before your visit. perhaps it'll give you incentive to return. what could all this fuse be about? the magical and wonderful place i'm talking about is a barbie cafe. where i believe you can actually dress up in barbie attire. now i'm not 100% sure about that but i believe that's what hyun-sik said. i didn't go in but i'm thinking i might have to go check it out. yes, misty, i'll dress up as barbie just for you. i did take some photos of the signage:






this is why i love korea. its the random things you find scattered here and there. the barbie cafe, the barbapapa soap dispenser, the store that had nothing but vintage clothes from america, the smurfette wallet, etc. they're so unexpected.

be well…

the video vault
the night clubs of korea

watch me! club las vegas [a night out with co-workers]
watch me! kiss club1 [this ain't no ordinary night club]
watch me! kiss club2 [one of the many acts at kiss club that night]

a pleasant surprise

deery-lou.
its day 3 and still no working fridge. one doesn't realize just how important this appliance is until its dead. today i had to throw away everything in my freezer. its barely cold in there but hopefully enough to keep my milk fresh one more day. i'm trying desperately customize myself to room temperature water. i must confess though i like it COLD. tomorrow i will once again express the immediate need of fixing this to my boss. perhaps this time he'll understand. i did manage to finally get everyting put away and up on the walls. YEAH! now i can begin to fully enjoy my tiny tiny apartment. i spent the morning in bed watching more episodes of popular. i'll refrain from going on a rant seeing that i've done it twice already. i bought a waffle ice cream today that was filled with vanilla ice cream and red beans. to my surprise it was actually quite tastey. yum. yum. both today and yesterday people have been moving into apartments. this is what i noticed. all the movers were wearing sandals. some with socks, some without. they have a machine kind of like a movable fortlift that they use to take things up to the higher floors. as i was sitting in my apartment i notice this machine pass by my window. i watched as they loaded up a washer and raised it to the third story. their two guys were waiting to lift it off and bingo it was in the apartment. we need these machines back home. it would save a lot of energy not having to walk up and down stairs. seeing that the buildings are so close i'm able to see into the apartment across the alley and vice versa. i noticed that they had a kick ass new fridge unlike the second hand crap that i got. i want to live in that building. anyway…i hope everyone is having a fab weekend.

be well…

the video vault
these are from my trip to thailand last christmas

watch me! drinking elephant [no explanation needed]
watch me! bathing elephant [here's star the elephant i was riding cooling off]
watch me! snorkling trip [views of koh chang from the snorkling trip]

just another saturday

deery-lou.
firday was jean's last day at ils. jean is the busgirl. her takes the children to and fro the bus. i'm not sure if she rides on the bus with them or not. i really didn't talk to her much manily cuz she doesn't understand english and me korean. anyway…after school we went to madame kalbi's for a final farewell. i know i say this everytime and i'm beginning to sound like a broken record but she has the best sidedishes EVER! we got home around 10pm. once again i had comsumed too much meat and felt very nauseous and sleepy. i cimbed into bed and figured the best thing was to watch some popular season 2. that show never fails to make me laugh. there was a great scene when april tuna being mad she didn't make the glamazons said she was the teenage paula abdul. the writing on the show was so damn clever. and the actors timing was so right on. nicole jillian and mary cherry definitely have the best lines.

today i've spent the day doing nothing. i woke up around 6am but immediately fell back asleep until 11am. i managed to shower and go to the store for coke and cereal. i also squeezed in reading the may issue of jane with pam on the cover. that's misty. now i have no idea what i'm going to do with the rest of my saturday. it's actually quite nice out. there's a breeze. i really need to finish decorating my apartment but that seems like a chore. oh, yeah my fridge broke. isn't that great. i have no idea when it will get fix. the freezer won't keep anything frozen and the fridge part is barely cold. hmmm. should be interesting to say the least. there's nothing like drinking a semi-cold glass of milk. yum.yum.

be well…

video vault
watch me! hongdae gallery [making art]
watch me! marihuana [snippet of korean band marihuana playing at club aura]
watch me! limited express [japanese band limited express playing at club aura]

rainy day wednesday

deery-lou.
it rained all day yesterday. it was so great to fall asleep, windows wide open, listening to the rain. i love rainy nights. back when i was a young teen i use to take naps when it would be pouring down rain. we got wonderful rainstorms in florida. so far my week has been pretty uneventful. i had terrible stomach pains the last couple of days but since taking my chinese meds i feel a whole lot better. there's nothing that having to work when you feel like total shit. we can't simply call in sick like i use to back at j.a.b. i spent monday and tuesday night in bed as soon as i got home. i did manage to finish the harry potter book. i'm so well read. haha. i wish. i've also managed to squeeze in some hardy boys/nancy drew episodes. i [heart] pamela sue martin. she was so spunky. this is the final week of special classes. thank gawd. i'm not sure how much longer i can last we two hours of zander. love the kid but its non-stop yelling with him in class. for some unknown reason this week they've been playing superheroes. i could hear them the other day yelling out the name "aquaman". could it be because of my aquaman shirt. or the fact that peter has been watching justice league. i'm so proud. it looks like i've had some influence on them. today i found out who was who: harry is green lanter, valerie is jade, and zander is superman. not sure about peter or chris because they weren't in class. what happened to aquaman? i guess they figured he wasn't cool enough. i printed out some pictures from the computer of their characters to give to them. tomorrow since its the last day of special classes i'm going to show them some superhero cartoons. i'm not sure who's more excited me or them. probably me.

be well…

from the video vault:
watch me! kids [catch a glimpse inside my classroom]
watch me! ninja.d [don't try this at home]
watch me! dancing ajumas [see why a no dancing on a moving bus law was passed]

yoshitomo nara_from the depth of my drawer

deery-lou.
having been a fan of yoshitomo nara's work for some time i was quite excited to see that there was an exhibit at the rodin gallery. on sunday i finally managed to make there. it was the last day of the exhibit and it was packed. this was the first time nara has had an exhibit in korea and it was great to see such a huge turnout. i don't think i've ever been to a gallery before where there was a line to get in. and the line didn't stop outside either. it was like that inside as well. for this exhibit nara constructed what he called 'seoul house'. the house was made out of used plywood panels and was reminisent of an old cabin. you were able to enter the house which had various works on the wall. there was also a small room you looked down showing the artist's workspace. from outside of 'seoul house' there were various looking windows which allowed you to look in. one of these windows looked into the underneath of the house which display mini pilgrims. it was all very cool. the plywood panels were also put up throughout the gallery displaying his work. in one section the gallery's lights were turned off and a sole spotlight shown on the individual art work. it was quite amazing. i felt so happy to be able view these pieces up close for the first time. unfortunately since this was the last day all of his merchandise was sold out. i did manage to find one book that was still left so i bought it. i couldn't leave empty handed now could i. as we were leaving the gallery, which i think we spent two hours in there, the line outside was longer than ever. hyun-sik and i then walked toward insadong to grab some lunch/dinner before i jumped on the train to head home.

before going home i stopped off to meet vickie. we did a little shopping in her hood where i found a smurf wallet. how excited was i. VERY!!! after debating several minutes i decided that i had to buy it. come on…its smurfs after all. we then went to a "espresso, beer, cake" place called he/she. it was great to just hang and and chat. i'm definitely going to miss her when she leaves which is in like 3 weeks. back at home i plopped into bed and pulled out harry potter which i read until 1am. recently i have become obsessed with these rubber ion braclets that are all the rage here in korea. they're for good health. then again everything here is for good health or well being. i now have 3 white ones and a ring. the madness must stop.

be well…

snaps from yoshitomo nara exhibit

links

• nara exhibit
  

meat, meat, and beer

deery-lou.

its now saturday, august 20 at 11:03 pm. i have done absolutely nothing. unless you count laying in bed all day something. last night jk took us all out to dinner. we went to a bbq near our new apartments. i'm not sure but i think i ate 8 pounds of meat. at one point there were three bbqs going. its was mountains of meat i tell you. one of the meats reminded me of steakems. i loved me some steakems. i ate a whole mess of this meat. by the time we left i was on meat overload. we then walked over to a traditional kkorean drinking place. from the outside the place looked very old-school korea. the inside did too. there were several different seating areas of various sizes. the tables were made of wooden and stood about ten inches off the ground. we sat on pillows on the floor. very cozy. very cool. here is where i spent the next six hours drinking beer and eating walnuts and honey. i finally managed to get home around 1:30am. its a good things my apartment was right next store.

good luck was with me today as my taekwondo class got canceled. that might i could stay in bed and didn't have to go anywhere. of course this was after i had already gotten up and returned from the store with a coke. its days like these that i miss the big gulp. so basically my saturday was spent doing nothing. actually i did manage to upload all my videos. i'll post some today and others through out the week. i don't want anyone to experience video overload. i wish i had some more to say but i don't. although i did manage to walk to the bakery for some greasy goodies. my bed is calling me again.

be well…

e-videos

watch me.meyeoungdong: my very first outing in korea
watch me.ansan lake park: 2 foreigners, a camera, and a korean park
watch me.manhattan bar: "i don't like close ups"

adventure in ansanland [the mystic pyramind]

deery-lou.

on sunday i met up with vickie. she came to ansan because we wanted to check out the botanical gardens. with my trusty [or not so trusty as i found out later] map of greater ansan in hand we took off for our quest. along our journey to the "mystic pyramid" as vickie soon dubbed it since the building [according to the map] looked like a pyramid, we stumbled upon many little hidden treasures. one of the first things we encountered was a huge church. i can only imagine the amount of money that went into that thing. it looked like it had elevators! as churches go its very modern and cool looking. the church would later prove to be a much needed landmark for us. kind of like the emerald city. as we continued on our way we found this magnificent garden under the subway tracks. it was filled with sunflowers, my favorite, and various other flowers whose names i don't know. is this the botanical gardens we thought jokingly. as we wandered around this garden wonderland an old korean woman approached vickie and started talking. we have no idea what she was saying but i think she was pointing out various flowers and telling us which ones were best for photographing. also so helpful, those koreans. she asked vickie where she was from and then continued on her way. vickie and i did the same.

we next came upon a sculpture of a dragon holding a ball. i pretended that it was a crystal ball. around the dragon were giant claws that formed a kind of small gate. there were two paths on either side of the dragon that led up to the forest on the hill. we decided not to climb up seeing that we wanted to get to the "mystic pyramid" before it got too late. our plan was too return to check it out on the way home but unfortunately we didn't. that just means i'll have to go back on my own and see what lies in them hills. as we continued down the sidewalk i saw a big, yellow spider in the trees. a perfect photo op.

not far down the street we came upon an azalea park. most of the azaleas were not in bloom but we walk the path anyway. it was a bit more shader and cooler than the street. it was around this time that vickie and i busted out the "follow the yellow brick road" song. not sure why. vickie then asked who would i be the scarecrow, tin man, or lion. obvioulsy she was dorothy. i opted for toto. not really a fan of any them. we went on our merry way singing and acting like fools. there were people scattered here and there through the park. some having picnics, some resting, and a group of men just sitting and talking. off to my right i spotted a toilet that was sitting in the middle of the grass. it looked like a little house. the azalea park seemed much longer than it looked on the map. well actually we were just guessing about where it was on the map. eventually we came to a street. we crossed and there was another little green park. we continued through that park until came to a deadend. there were no streets to turn on. we realized we had to go right but there was no way to go because it was a giant highway. in front of us were woods so we decided to go straight. as we made our way through the woods there was a sofa and several kids were running around with nets. bug catching i bet. the trip through the mini-woods was about 5 minutes. when we came out we were standing next to the giant highway. across from us were waterfalls. this was the waterfall park that i've been wanting to visit. what a great surprise. crossing the giant highway was like playing frogger but we made it to the waterfalls in one piece. there's something about waterfalls. whether natural or man-made i simply love them. they're so peaceful to look at. i always feel relaxed. there were a lot of people. a little ways down from the waterfall were all these concrete pools with fountains. they were packed with soaked children. everywhere you looked there were people playing in the water. watch me! for a glimpse of children playing. there was one group of children that all had tuxedo t-shirts one. cute! a group of people were handing out "jesus water". it was the coldest water i've ever had. praise jesus! i stopped into the snack shop to ask the guy where the botanical gardens were. good thing i had the map because all i had to do was point. he then showed me using his hands how to get there. vickie and i were off again in search of the "mystic pyramid". to cross the yet another giant highway we had to go over a purple bridge that looked like a roller coaster from far away. from the bridge we could spot the top of the "mystic pyramid" through the trees. we were getting closer.

greeting us on the other side was a square filled with random sculptures. in the center was another waterfountain filled with korean children. they certainly do love their fountains. all around we different sculptures. there was also a path leading out of the area in the direction of the "mystic pyramid". according to the map we were now in danwon square sculpture park. dss, as i will now refer to it, was really cool. there were sculptures and statues all along the path. to our left was a soccer field. there was an actual game going on so i stood and watched for a little. i'm really starting to like soccer or am i just starting to like the players. its probably the later. or maybe i'm just getting sporty after all. who knows! we were probably on the path for about 20 minutes or so until we finally saw it. there standing before us was the "mystic pyramid" in all her glory. we were so happy. i almost peed. just kidding. we thought for sure it would be closed since it was almost 5:30 pm. luckily for us it wasn't. and it was free, too! what a score! as far as botanical gardens go it was quite nice. unfortunately a lot of the flowers weren't in bloom being summer but we did see a lot of greenery which was nice. i definitely want to check it out again in spring. especially now that i know where it is. we rested for a bit outside of the gardens. it was nice and peaceful.

on our way home we found a stretch of wholesale places. which is good to know since there are some stuff i want to buy before returning to the states. as we continued along we saw two young girls in a blow-up swimming pool in the middle of the sidewalk. thats one way to beat the heat. at one point we got sort of turned around then vickie noticed "the church". we were back on track and before long we were right where we started. by following the map vickie and i actually went out of our way to get to the botanical gardens. its actually a lot closer. it just took us forever. although had we known about the shortcut we wouldn't have seen all those cool things. and thats what it was all about.

later that night i met up with hyun-sik. we grabbed dinner in my new hood and then just chilled out. on monday we went into seoul. i was on a mission. i needed to get a new scrapebook. after looking all over ansan it was unavoidable that i'd have to make the trek into seoul [express bus terminal stop, blue line] to the most excellent art supply store. there's also an underground shopping area there that we walked around. its was hella crazy. one of these days i'm actually going to find something to buy there. from there we went to ewa's women university stop. there are a bunch of shops outside. i found a store that sold knock off pringles for a $1. bought some. the store also had nacho cheese. i was so tempted but didn't purchase any. there was also a store that had a barbapapa soap dispenser. they wanted 18,000 won for it. i'll have to think about that one. although knowing me i'll be back to get it. we grabbed some dinner at pasta 12. i had chicken and pasta in a teriyaki sauce. definitely interesting to say the least. they did have the best garlic bread though. still the best place for italian is the place vickie took me to in insadong. that kicked ass. i love though how they always give you a little dish of pickles. i love pickles. after dinner we walked down to hongdae. i found a superman tote for 4,000 won which i bought. i'm a geek. hyun-sik and i parted ways around 9:30pm and i got home around 11pm. i was beat. i stayed up reading harry potter until 1am.

be well...

snaps from my adventure in ansanland…
Links

• adventure in ansanland

some mini-videos

deery-lou.

i thought it was about to try to add some videos to me blog. click me to see a very tiny video from camp.

click me too to see my niece and nephew saying "cheeeessse!"

i'm working on adding an image of the video to click on. give me some time. i'll figure it out one of these days.

be well…

my korean camp experience…

deery-lou.
howdy-ho all. sorry for the delay but i've been having some problems with the site for the past three days. however, everything seems to be working now. YEAH!!

so this past weekend was our ils camp retreat. it was quite unlike camp in the u.s. mainly because we stayed in a high rise. and i was so looking forward to a cozy little korean cabin. the rooms were on big space with a wardrobe, bathroom, and blankets to use as beds, oh my! i actually had a reallly fun time. it was great to play with the children in the water and spend the day out in the sunshine. one thing i did notice is that the korean men show more skin than the woman. all the woman, even though they had on bathing suits, kept their shorts and tops on in the water. go figure. a bit strange but who am i too judge. here's a rundown of the camping life.

friday, august 12, 8am: i arrived at ils with christine and anna. immediately went to holly's to get an ice coffee.

8:30am: the students started to file in

8:45am: i was given my group assignment [chris, peter, erik, ben, mike, james, bryant]

9:15am: my group heading down to board the bus

9:30am: we departed for camp. the camp was held in dogno, asan. apparently there are hot springs in the area although i never had a change to visit them. maybe next time.

10:30am: rest stop tiime. i had to escort zander and jeff to the restroom. afterwards i bought a waffle with syrup and butter spread. very yummy!!1

10:50am: we left the reststop. the students kept giving us all kinds of candy. they sure do like to share.

11:30am: we arrived at camp. we filed out into the blazing heat and lined up in front of the building. here we had to listen to the camp counselors go on and on. i have no idea what was said because it was all in korean.

11:45am: we headed up into our luxury rooms [NOT!]. our beds where blankets on the floor. it was kind of like staying in a youth hostil. actually i think it is a youth hostil.

12:30pm: lunch time. the students had to line up in the hall. here the counselor made them repeat something over and over and finally lead us down to the mess hall. outside of the mess hall the students had to line up again. its all very military-esque. inside the students marched one by one. the got their chopsticks, spoons and then were served food assembly line style. then they were directed to their seats. not realizing that there was a special table for teachers we stood in line with the students to get food. the meal consisted of rice and some kind of gravy sauce, corn, kimchi, a bread patty with ketchup, soup, and a yogurt drink. it was edible to say the least. after eating we filed out and had to give our trays to the clean up crew. this was tricky because if you didn't act fast you ended up getting splattered with bits of food as the man banged the metal tray against the garbage shoot. needless to say i got splashed.

1pm-2pm: this was rest time before going to the pool. i made my bed on the floor on listened to music.

2pm: the students were once again lined up in the hall before going to the pool. then they were lead outside where we stood again for a little bit and then lead off to the pool area. before going to the pool the students had to partake in a mini obstacle course. with so many students it was taking forever. it was fun to watch but i wanted to go to the pool. after the obstacle course they were lead to a pavillion where they had to do some exercises. when the exercises and speeches were over the students had to line up their shoes and then they followed the counselor to the pool area. there was one pool with a current that went in a giant circle, a water slide, and another wading pool for little kids to play. the current pool was probably the deepest of them all. it came up to my neck. i spent most of my day in the current pool. sometimes by myself, sometimes carrying jeff around, and other times just swimming with random students. i made lots of friends with children not from our school too. every once in awhile i'd hear a tiny voice say "hi. what's your name. nice to meet you". i had one kid follow me around for a bit. how cute. as i was going around and around in the current pool i'd watch the lifeguards. the were all very cute. i busted on you kept taking pictures of myself. on one of my passes he was checking himself out in his sunglasses. these koreans definitely like to look at themselves. at one part of the current pool these a stream of hot water that comes out into the pool. i stopped there at every passing. mainly for the hot water which felt good and nothing because the lifeguard stationed there. i should point out that 95% of the people there all had swim caps on and goggles. goggles are a definite must next time cuz there is so much chlorine in that pool that it made my eyes burn. i did go into the wading pool for a little bit but it was too much. i kept getting attacked by students especially sue. when she wasn't asking me to chase her she had a death grip around my neck. all in all a fun day.

5pm: pool time was over. after the students gathered up their shoes and the counselor made sure everyone was there we went back to the room. it was now shower time and rest time before dinner.

6pm: dinner time. back to the mess hall. this time we learned of the special teacher table of food. there was more of a variety and we got to serve ourselves. the food at dinner was pretty decent. there was some kind of cabbage and beef, rice, sweet potato noodles, garlic stems, kimchi, and soup. i got splashed again with food. damn him. after dinner horace and i met the only other foreigner there. his name was sam and he'd only been in korea for 6 months. we talked with him for awhile and then back to our room where we waited for our next outing…the bonfire.

7:10pm: the students lined up again to get ready to go. here we heard more blah, blah, blah from the counselor until we were lead outside and to the area where the bonfire was being held. once it got dark they lite the bonfire. songs were sang, some games and contests were played. i think we were doing fairly well because i kept hearing the mc saying "ils". there was also a dance off for the teachers of the various schools on stage. i got up there we christine, jean, and anna. unfortunately we didn't do too well. i think its because i was too good of a dancer. just kidding. the whole bonfire outing lasted about 2 hours.

9pm: we made our way down to the basement. it was haunted house time. spooky. before going into the haunted basement we had to listen to more blah, blah, blah. this time the guy talking was very strict. he kept yelling at the all the kids to be quiet. finally it was time to go down to the haunted house. i ended up going through the haunted house with daniel attached to my back, peter clinging to one arm, and someone else on the other. it was actually quite comically seeing that i could hardly move. they had people dressed up that would jump out and scare the kids. they screamed through the whole thing.

10:30pm: bed time. i had a hard time trying to sleep. finally with the aid of kristin hersh and my ipod i managed to succumb to sleep.


saturday, august 13, 6:30am: wake up call.

7am: the day started off very early with breakfast. there's nothing like some good old breakfast squid to get you going in the morning. that's exactly what we had plus some kind of egg thing. its truly amazing at how i don't even flinch at that that kind of stuff anymore. you would have thought that i'd be eating squid, kimchi, seaweed, and rice for breakfast. what happened to pancakes and bacon?

8am: it was games time for the students down in the moldy smelling basement. they had to build something with blocks. it was quite boring. to occupy my time i started to make an apartment building.

8:50: off the pool. first stop the pavillion for exercising. bored now!!! today i wanted a raft for the current pool. the only problem was that i had to buy one for 8,000 won. i opted not too. i spent most of the day in the current pool with mike who kept riding on my back. i did manage to get on the waterslide. although no one told me how swallow the pool at the end was. i completely bruised one knee and scraped the other one. i did some time in the kiddie pool too. but again i could only stand it for a little while. those little kids take too much out of you. so it was back to the current pool where i spent the rest of the day having splash and dunking fights with teachers christine and anna, and students kevin, mike, and kevins friend. i must say i had a blast. i'm just a giant kid at heart.

11am: pool time was over. we shuffled back to the room, showered, packed, and waited for the lunch call.

noon: lunch time. it was the same lunch as the day before. although at the teacher table we had some extra stuff. i piled a load of what i thought was noodles and peppers on my plate. to my surprise they were tiny little fishies. i tired them but didn't really like them. however i did like the dried shrimp where you ate the shell and all. very tastey. my now i had mastered the tray handoff and sprint and got to put it to use one more time. i made it through with no food splatter.

12:30pm: we boarded the bus for our return home. i listened to music the whole ride back. most of the students slept. there was no rest stop this time.

2:30pm: we arrive back in ansan. i immediately headed off to taekwondo. class was tough cuz i was really tired. my kwanganim keeps telling me to practice hard.

4pm: we all my camping crap i started to head for home. i stopped at holly's coffee and got a blueberry iyote, which is a frozen yogurt drink. it was soooooo good.

6pm: i watched the interpreter with nicole kidman and sean penn. it was pretty decent.

9pm: bedtime

that's sums up my korean camp experience. coming up…my quest for the mystic pyramid.

be well…




snaps from ils camp

links

• camp

taco bell refried beans

deery-lou.

quick post. i just ate 3/4 of a can of taco bell refried beans. the sad thing is that as i was waiting for my bean quesadilla to cook i was eating the beans right out of the can. i forgot how good they were. not necessary the tb brand but refried beans in general. i should have brought back more cans and a case of flour tortilla. i've been eating them with everything lately.

be well…

p.s. i just got back from school camp. more details to come in my next post. need my rest now.

vacation photos

deery-lou.

how cute are they! so i finally got around to uploading my vaction photos. hope you enjoy!

snaps from florida…

links

• florida

essays

deery-lou.

its tuesday. however, i'm going to write about sunday because i can. don't hate. celebrate.

sunday
started off bright and early. i'm not sure i think the new early bird ethan. although i am managing to get a lot more done and my weekends feel longer. go figure. i started my day off with a hardy boys episode. it had everything one could hope for: witches, black cougars, a mute, and old man jenkins. oh wait, old man jenkins was on the nancy drew episode. anyway you get the point. that shaun cassidy, what a card. playing the goofy younger brother joe. i highly recommend viewing these. its pure 70s wholesomeness at its finiest.

to make my sunday morning even more fantastic i got an email from adawg setting up a phone date for 10am my time. YEAH!! how excited was i. after months and months of getting her answer machine i was finally going to be able to converse with her. i L.O.V.E my little boo/kiki/adwag. she's the best thing that came out of my 5 years at j.a.b. incorp. from the moment i heard her voice i broke out in a smile. she always makes me smile. we had a great talk, covering just about everything from love, sex, to midget mud wrestling. well, actually we didn't get to midget mud wrestling but its almost like we had. adawg has a way of breaking out into different characters when she tells a story. its the best thing ever. i could sit and listen to her for hours. and that just what i did. love ya boo. you're the best.

vickie called and asked if i wanted to go see some photo exhibit. what the hell. i decided to go. i can sit at home any time. plus vick only has a few more weeks until she leaves. i met her at exit 4, city hall stop at 2pm. the exhibit was at the press center. it was by photographer sebastiao salgado and it was titled essays. it spanned his work from early 80s to present. the images were black and white and covered areas all over the world. the exhibit was broken into four rooms, four themes: people, workers, immigrants, and famine. the photos were quite good. there was one in particular that stood out for me: it was from bejing. it was a good of people sitting in a bar next to a bicycle factory. i was hoping there would be a print available to purchase but no such luck. afterwards vickie and i went to insadong to get some lunch. before making our way to the restaurant we stopped at two different shops and bought crap. we both purchased a smurfette holding a frying pan with eggs in it and salt. she came with her own oven. hi oven. they love smurfs here and so do i. vickie took me to a very tiny italian restaurant down an alley. i had linguini with clams in a pesto sauce. who would have thought that it would be so good. IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!!! those koreans sure can do italian. on my way home i stopped in baskin and robbins. it was all vickies fault. she got one earlier and now i felt the need to have one too. i went for a blue peach cooler, which is kind of like a milk shake. upon leaving the store i noticed that they had a banner in the window with drew barrymore's picture. appartently she's the new br spokesmodel or something. you go drew. i didn notice that they had sweet potato flavored ice cream. me thinks i'm going to have to try that next time. my blue peach was actually very yummy. as my students would say. that pretty much sums up my sunday.

monday and tuesday have been pretty uneventful. it rained on monday. today is was a lot cooler than usual. i walked home from school. it was pretty nice. i wanted to get more of a feel on my new neighborhood. actually i think i'm going to like it here. it seems to be a little more happening than "new ansan ghost town" ever was.

be well…

early bird special…

deery-lou.

deery-lou, the cheerful fawn, says waking up early is not F.U.N. i'm not sure how or why but ever since my vacation i've been waking up super earlier. the whole time i was in sunny florida i never seemed to sleep past 8am. now that i'm in the "land of the morning calm" my internal alarm clock seems to be set for 6am. either i'm completely jet lagged and my sleep pattern is all screwy or i've finally hit that age in life when i start rising early. i so hope it the former. i'm not quite ready to begin every day at "stupid o'clock" in the morning as my friend vick would say. she's actually the one who brought up the age thing. next i'll be scouted out the local restaurants for early bird specials, watching the 6pm news, and then fall asleep in my lazy boy with all the lights and tv on. getting readjusted to my classes was alot easier than i thought. my day now begins at 10am with a special summer class. the one benefit is the free lunch we got now. yummy. i gave all the students disney postcards from florida. they seemed to like them. a couple of them kept yelling and screaming because my hair was very short. its amazing how they simply don't like change. this whole week i've been pretty beat. its also been extremely hot here—florida hot. you step outside and are immediately drenched in sweat. its gross. slowly but surely i'm getting use to my new apartment. i'm still in the process of arranging things and all that stuff. hopefully i'll get it all done today. i did manage to figure out the washing machine. basically i just started pushing buttons and once water came out i was happy. not having a dryer sucks. stuff gets all stiff and hard when hang drying. personally i'm not a big fan of stiff underwear. although after a year i'm sure i won't care anymore. i do miss not having carrefour right next door. we have a couple of little markets. they're alot cheaper than carrefour but they don't have all the goodies i'm use too. but as long as they have milk, eggs, beer, chips, soda, etc. [which they do] then i'll be fine. i can't wait til it gets a little cooler so i go explore this area. it actually has a lot more character than where i was before. i'm looking forward to finding lots of hidden treasures.

i had my first taekwondo class yesterday in over a week or so. it was me and the kwanganim. needless to say i didn't remember my poomses to well. i forgot a couple of moves here and there. the one and one class actually went pretty good. i really like my master. he makes me feel comfortable. although yesterday when i was practicing i watched myself in the mirror and thought how i looked like a complete dork. how come some people look cool in the uniform but not me. i've got a lot of training to do before october. thats the first time for black belt testing. i'm not sure if i'm going than or in december but i'll keep you posted. last night i watched an episode of the hardy boys. i forgot how good it was. i so love the opening credits of them running through the maze. hee hee. i am a dork. its these little things that give me such joy. time to get back to decorating my apartment.

be well…

pembroke pines

deery-lou.

the drive back to my sister was much better. most likely because i had my newly purchased ipod and with the adapter that i bought at target i was able to play music through the cassette player. oh how i love technology. to top off the trip back i had a chickfilet sandwich. oh how i missed them. i spent the next couple of days hanging out at my sisters playing with my niece and nephew. they are so cute. on thursday zoe and i went to to their neighborhood pool with the children and spent a few hours. swimming in a pool never felt so good. plus i had my newly purchased swimsuit from target. i finely have a bathing suit that fits. no more worring about it falling off as i jump into the pool. hee hee. later that day zoe took me to a comic book store where i bought nightwing year one. it was actually a pretty cool store. that had lots and lots of action figures where i found myself completely lost in them all. afterwards we stopped at hooters and picked up some chicken wings for dinner. hooters. need i say anymore. my brother-in-law, greg, managed to score a hotel room for zoe and i in south beach for friday night. we left for south beach around 2pm and got there a little before 3pm. we checked in and immediately hit the streets. the hotel was quite nice. all marble floors and counter tops. very chic. the guys that owns it is only 25. they were very nice. we walked around ocean drive for a bit that settled into the clevelander for a few cocktails and muchies. it was really nice to be able to just sit and chat with my sister. after our drinks we went for a walk on the beach. thats when we decided to high tail it back to the hotel and change into our suits. with suits on we headed back the beach. we spent the next hour or so floating around in the water. it felt like bath water. it was so nice. that night we went to a low key cuban restaurant called puerto sajous [spelling?]. the food was absoulutely amazing and very inexpensives. we shared a cuban sandwich, a ground beef dish, fried plantains, beans and rice. yum fest. we also had a glass a shangria that had fruit cocktail from a can in it. classy i tell you. after dinner we did some more walking around and then went back to the hotel. we were both beat. on saturday we hit the beach around 9am. we rented some chairs and stayed there for a couple of hours before we had to check out at noon. it was such a great day on the beach. the weather was perfect. after checking out we went to the urban outfitters which i discovered on friday night. it was so great to be in an urban outfitters. i bought a few things and then we went to the 11st dinner for brunch. they had the best pancakes ever!! we got back to zoe's house around 3pm. i borrowed greg's car and ran to toys r us and publix. i had to do a toy r us run. i miss toys. i even brought down and bought an action figure. hee hee. i went to bed fairly early since i had to be up at 5am to catch my flight back to korea. on sunday i got to the airport around 5:30am. i checked in and was all ready to depart. everyting was going on schedule. we boarding the plane at 6:30am for a 7 am flight. and then it all went to hell. we sat there for a half hour not moving. finally around 8am they made an announcement calling for a doctor. apparently one of the flight attendents passed out. they asked for all the passengers going to japan to come to the front of the plane. we deboarded the plane and they were going to find us another flight out because at this point we weren't going to make our connections in newark. they found a northwest flight for us to detroit and then on to japan. so far so good. when the woman from northwest appeared at the counter we got in line. the old hag immediately snapped at us asking what we were doing in the line. we told her our story and she was like "this flight is booked so i don't know how you're getting on." which was a lie. several people were arguing with her and she just wasn't friendly at all. when it was my turn she said i had a reservation for the detroit and japan flights but none for korea. she then said she wasn't going to book it for me and that i had to go back to continental. at this time the guy from continental came over and the two of them had words. not a very pretty scene. i told the guy what she said and he printed me out a piece of paper with my iternary on it to show her. when i got back to northwest i was at the end of the line. now there was another woman there who was just as friendly as the old hag carol. when the couple in front of me got to the counter she told them that they didn't have a reservation and weren't getting on the flight. then she grabbed my ticket and said the same thing. i told her that carol said i had a reservation. she ignored me and said "i have to get this flight ready to go." then she left. as she walked away i said "son of bitch" really loud cuz i was pissed. she looked at me from the boarding gate and said "now you're definitely not getting on this flight" and shut the door. meanwhile our luggage when placed onto the norhtwest flight. back at the continental counter myself and the other couple were absolutely pissed. i couldn't believe this all just happened. there were no other flights leaving for japan that we would make on sunday. we had two options. spend the night in miami or take a flight to newark and spend the night there. i decided to go to newark so that i didn't have to worry about making my connection on monday. so off i went. the folks at continental were kind enough to give us some food vouchers and placed me in first class on the flight to newark. at newark i went to the customer service and got my hotel voucher and more food vouchers. i had to spend the night in the holiday inn in newark. i thought about going into new york but was just too tired and seeing that i didn't have any other clothes i thought it best not too. i spent the day watch the top 100 child stars on vh-1. i also spoke with misty for almost two hours. hee hee. the next day things went a little more smoothly. i called continental and they said my bag was in japan. however, when i arrived in japan they had no sign of my bag. seeing that i had 5 minutes to board my flight to seoul i couldn't really do anything until i landed in seoul. the 2 hour flight to seoul seemed to last forever. at this point i just wanted to get there and go to my apartment. of course once i landed there was no sign of my bag so i filed a claim and then boarded a bus for ansan. another 2 hour trip. i finally got back to my apartment around 10 pm. i was beat. world traveling is hard! my first day back at school was pretty uneventful. i was just a wee bit tired. it actually felt good to be back. i misssed the kids.

footnote: i attempted to call northwest to claim but since they didn't have a 1-800 number i had to use my callilng card. well it took them about 20 mins to even answer the call. when i finally got to speak to someone she was very unsympathic. bitch! i started to get into it with her and then the phone card ran out of minutes. go figure. all she kept saying was "i'm sorry". whatever. once i get settled here i'm going to email them. in the meantime i advise everyone not to fly Northwest. they are rude and uncaring people. and if you are ever in miami international airport find carol and adriana and send them my love.

be well…

p.s. my bag arrive at school last night. YEAH!!