My Apartment

If you are wondering what a Korean studio apartment looks like, well, here is mine. It is larger than most. It is a corner unit so I guess it has more space than most. It is really comfortable and it is a 5 minute walk to my school

It's Official

Gwangju here we come.

Departing March 22nd, 2010.

Gwangju is Korea’s 6th largest metropolitan city and one of the most historically significant areas in the region. Established in 57 BC, Gwangju played a key role in Korea’s cultural identity and was an important part of the countries rise to success as a major player in in the industrialized world. Located within the southern coastal province of Jeollanam, Gwangju takes advantage of the beautiful summer months and mild winters. Gwangju is not a coastal city; however, its close proximity to the Yellow Sea (just west of Gwangju) and the East China Sea (just south of Gwangju) make weekend trips and adventures to the local beaches and islands more than feasible. Many of the smaller coastal cities surrounding Gwangju are also popular tourist destinations during the summer months and offer a wide array of water sports and activities. Gwangju has lots of interesting tourist destinations, park areas and scenic sights. Additionally, the city is famous for its diverse Korean cuisines and many restaurants in the area are well known throughout other parts of the country. Cost Of Living In Gwangju Day to day living expenses are on par with other major cities in the country, excluding Seoul which is noticeably higher. Foreigners In Gwangju All of the metropolitan cities in Korea have large foreign communities and Gwangju is no exception. Gwangju is currently home to thousands of western teachers, engineers and other foreign workers. Transportation In Gwangju Gwangju has one subway line, extensive bus routes, countless taxis, an international airport and a developed high speed train network offering affordable tickets to most destinations throughout the country. Gwangju Entertainment Gwangju has lots of entertainment options and possibilities for those seeking fun and excitement during their non-working hours. Gwangju is a historically significant city and the locals host lots of national and international festivals each year. In addition the festivals and events Gwangju also has a number of professional sports teams, countless karaoke rooms, movie theatres, sports complexes and lots of cafes and restaurants. Shopping In Gwangju Gwangju has lots of outdoor markets that sell electronics, clothing, fresh produce, fish products and gadgets that are otherwise unseen in western countries. The city also has department stores and retail chains in the downtown area. Nightlife In Gwangju Gwangju has one large entertainment district in the city center and a number of smaller entertainment districts spread throughout other areas. Korean nightclubs, karaoke bars, western bars and 24 hour cafes with alcohol licenses are abundant. Gwangju Landscape Gwangju has lots of options for those seeking nature related activities. Mount Mudeung, Sajik Park, Hwangnyong River and Jatgogae Ridge, to name a few , are some of the more prominent nature options available in the Gwangju area. Noise In Gwangju Noisy in the city core, moderately noisy in the surrounding areas. Pollution & Cleanliness In Gwangju Air and street pollution levels in Gwangju are comparable to other major cities in Korea, excluding Seoul which is noticeably higher.

Information provided by www.gone2korea.com

Getting ready

Mykie and I just found out that we shall be leaving close to the end of March. This leaves us about 3 weeks to get ourselves organised. Thankfully I have had the last year to keep myself rather organised. I guess not working leaves a lot of time to do...stuff. With the year that I have had there was no time to work anyway.
So, we are off to teach in Korea.

If I had a penny for every time someone makes the joke, or asks seriously, if we are going to North or South Korea, I would have at least a whole dollar. I know that I am speaking in pennies but I would rather start with something small and make a fortune. Sometimes i wonder what people know about the other side of the world or are they merely making light of the fact that they will miss me? I hope it is the latter.

I am really curios to see what a life in a world that is so different than mine will be like. Will they like me? Will they want to get to know me for me and not just because I am 5'9, super cute and a westerner? Will I be able to adapt and really honestly integrate myself into their community?

Well, at least I would honestly and truly try.

To be honest, if this would be my last year on earth I want to go out knowing that I really tried to get the most out of it. There are so many people telling me that maybe I should settle down, get focused on my career and make something in Toronto to call my own. What is my own? I wonder? With all due respect, isn't that what I am doing? I am just trying to be real.

Neither Mykie nor I have taught English formally. We have attempted to teach informally while travelling throughout Australia. But, are we even good at teaching? English is our native tongue, yes, but that doesn't make us good teachers. Just because you speak a language doesn't give you the real skills to teach it to someone who doesn't know it well. Well, I hope that we don't have too many casualties along the way. At least our enthusiasm is way up there.

To be quite frank, I am not feeling anything about the leave. Mykie is so excited. He can barely wait. Maybe I am just trying to process the fact that I am packing my life up in two rather large suitcases and jetting off again. I am leaving my friends whose lives will develop without me but rather stay the same. My family I worry will miss me too much. I will never fully appreciate that longing until I have my own children.
Maybe that is why if feel so...nothing. Don't get me wrong, I have wanted this for so long and now that it is actually here, I still want it! Maybe I am just nervous...that's it.

I am sitting in my bed writing this imagining what it will be like to continue this blog without the accompaniment of my two cats on either side of me? Korea is going to be a strange world full of exciting new adventures, people, places and things and I hope that you follow me throughout our journey. To be continued...

Steph's Wedding

Today was a very special day. My best friend got married. We got dolled up with hair, makeup and a new dress. Steph was so sweet and gave us all shawls and jewelry to wear. The shawls came in handy, for sure, since we took almost all our photos outside. Luckily it was a rather mild January day.

Thank god no one got freezer burn.

You know, I have been to many weddings but seeing your best friend get married is sort of like getting married yourself. You just feel so involved and part of it. It was nice. The day started at 5:30am and ended at 3:00am making it a long day, but well worth the smiles from Steph.

Steph is a very lucky lady. She married a really wonderful man, Tim. He is kind, sweet, funny and best of all loves her unconditionally. I think that they will be really happy together for a long time, forever. I could only wish them the best. They are a match made in heaven.

Love you both, truly!

Jumping Monkey or Jumping Mykie...

This video is sideways, sorry. Mykie and I were in Indonesia on a snorkeling tour and this lighthouse was one of our stops. It is in the middle of the water with a beautiful coral reef around it and a cave for advanced snorkelers to dive through. This lighthouse is 10+ meters high and Mykie decides that he wants to jump off it. I am sitting safely in the boat filming and doing the commentary. Enjoy!

From Asia back to OZ

Well, it appears that just around the corner our trip is coming to an end. Unfortunately, we have to go back to OZ Oct 22. I am not looking forward to getting back in the grind of things but we need to make some more money for the Philippines. I think that the both of us enjoyed Kula Lumpur. It is an easy city to get lost in for an easy week. I think that out of all the crazy south east asian cities, this one is the most tame.

Through out this journey, there were things that i was not so comfortable with. Something that would make me unhappy if I had to deal with them back home. But this is asian life out here, and if you really want to live it the real way, you have to do it this way....

First, cold showers are not a normal experience for me. At first it was very hard to get used to but when the day is so hot and sticky, that cold shower feels amazing. You can get rooms with hot and cold showers but it is more expensive and I am sure that we would spend our money on other better things.

If you go to a 'hostel' they are usually not so pretty to look at. THe place we have in Kula lumpur looks like a jail cell with no window to the outside world. If you don't count the hallway. The bed is an iron bed with a small side table and a fan. That is the luxurious life of a budget traveller. There is an upside to this....it costs $5 per person per day. Can't beat that. You probably don't want to spend too much time there anyway unless you buy the new christopher paolini book about dragons. It is all the rage in our room with Mykie so engrossed that he doesn't even know that i am talking sometimes. I tried to get into it but there are too many weird references to bangdlers and dragons and semi people etc. By he first chapter i was so lost i did not know who was what.

That reminds me of a funny experience we had a this burger joint called carl juniors. I think it is like a licks back home. They have a great burger menu. They had this yummy guacamole burger and under it there was a double guacamole burger. I was so excited i thought twice the amount of guacamole, i was in heaven. i love that stuff. To my horror, the burger was the size of mykie's head and double guacamole does not mean you get twice the amount of guacamole. It means you get two patties. I was like what am i going to do with two patties the size of Mykie's head. I wanted guacamole....in the end the burger was so tasty and to those wondering, no i couldn't fully finish it. I was so disappointed :( But this was also the day we bought our new snorkels and we wore them in the restaurant while taking tons of photos. I get started at enough, why not add to the fire.

Another asian point: For those who do not like bugs, well this is not your place to visit. As i tried to explain to my grandpa, the roaches here re the size of mice and some fly. yes, they fly. and they are fast. We see them everywhere and at first i was really grossed out by them, but now i just step over them and keep going. If they were in my house back home, I would probably have a heart attack but i will let them stay here.

We found this local restaurant, where i am probably the only white person that goes in there. This fact I am sure of because the moment we go in all the waiters come running to us to serve us. Sometimes it seems that if i closed my eyes for one second they would fight for a place in front of me waiting for me to look again. But, there is this one waitree/waiter that works there that i really like. It is a lady boy ( a man who lives as a lady). She is so sweet I just want to take her out for coffee and ask thousands of questions. There are lady boys downstairs at the local bar, and they are great. So pleasant. Aside from the funny enthusiastic staff there are roaches there too that always seem to crawl on the wall beside Mykie as we are waiting for our food. They are usually small, but yesterday a big one came to say Hello.... Goodbye, and I flinged it with the menu, over Mykie's head. So nasty! Not my Favourite!

Melaka to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

From singapore we took a bus to the city of Melaka which is on the way to Kula Lumpur in Malaysia. BTW i don't remember if i mentioned this but the buses here in asia are great because they all have recliner seats and are never full. it is really nice and comfortable. Melaka was supposed to be a two day stop to see its famous historic dutch remains. We ended up staying one week instead! We loved it. Not so much the city. It was small and there was not very much to do. We saw the historic dutch remains which remained to be a disappointment probably for most people that visit there. It consisted of crumbled remains of some building that was built in 1511. Mind you , that is impressive in itself that it is still standing. But aside form that, it was had nothing else to offer. There was a funny man sitting at the top of the stairs asking for change. Interesting enough he did not ask Mykie for anything as he walked by but insisted on telling me that he had an accident and wanted change. The accident apparently was hidden underneath a tensor bandage around his ankle. Please, i have seen a lot more 'accidents' in my life. I once fell from the monkey bars in the playground. Now that hurt a lot! LOL (laugh out loud)

Mykie and I saw five movie at the beautiful new theatre and enjoy the theatre to ourselves almost each time. We spent some hot days swimming at the local public pool. The pool was olympic sized, that was nice. On our last day Mykie got in trouble by some rambling man about not wearing speedo type swim shorts. Apparently, everyone wears them. Maybe they are all the rage down here. I don't know what the rage would be about though.

The lure of this place was the unique and totally welcoming hostel that we stumbled upon. The local bus had dropped us off a little to far from our original bus stop, so now we had to walk. Fortunately, we walked right by emily's guest house. It was a tropical garden oasis that was trapped behind the smouldering asphalt and humming from excessively loud passing traffic. Once we walked in we knew that we would be staying here longer than our planned two days. They had created this place from the ground up with their bare hands. Two brothers owned and ran it. They had a pet rabbit named mister playboy, with whom i fell in love with instantly. The had two turtles and lots of fish!!!!!!! It was like a garden oasis, with a hammock under a tree. tables and chairs made of wood stumps and very interesting travellers.

Note: i bought carrots and bananas for mister playboy. He loved it!!!!!!!!!!!! This rabbit just decided a year or so ago to take shelter at the hostel and now he is one of the locals.

We happen to meet a couple from Holland who i thought had the worst luck in the world but after long consideration, i realized they were just pretty stupid. First, they got their Ipod stolen from a safe. They rented out a safe at the hotel next to their own. Once they put the ipod into the safe, the guy heard someone mention ipod in malay but they just walked out and left it there anyway. When they returned after a couple of days everything but the ipod was gone. Surprisingly, they did not check their stuff until they got to another island and realized their ipod was gone. So dumb! It gets better.... They were sitting on a train, and there was a suspicious guy lurking around the doors. Even though he was suspicious, they did nothing. All of a sudden he reaches over them and picks up their 40 lbs pack and runs out of the train. They sat their all confused about what was going on. By the time they realized, he was gone somewhere in the shadows of the tracks(it was a t night) and there with him was his pack. So dumb, they just sat there screaming. AS the train started moving, the man emerged holding the pack in his arms as they watched him standing there. They never took the normal precautions they usually did like tying the bag to the rack.They always did that, not this time though.

At the hostel, the girl left her wallet under the couch and did not even know it was there. so dumb.... i thought it was a string of bad luck but when you hear the full story, you know they are not the sharpest pencils in the drawer.

They also had some bad experiences with bed bugs here in malaysia...but i guess you should learn from your mistakes and choose better. well, they got it after the 3rd time, LOL