Hi friendos. Should this intro be serious and introspective? Or should it be silly and playful? Oh, I know! Since I've always liked to analyze but have also existentially struggled with the duality of life, I'll let you choose what kind of intro you'd like to experience today. For serious, please read number 1. For silly and lighthearted, please scroll down to number 2.
1) Something I've always enjoyed observing is the contrasts in life. Joy/sorrow, excitement/calm, life/death, tragic/comedic. I think it's why I enjoy dark comedies like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Death at a Funeral; Little Miss Sunshine; and The Good Place. Any piece of fiction that can make you feel something while also reminding you of the absurdity of life is worthwhile. They don't shy away from something serious or uncomfortable, but rather they embrace it. It reminds us all that we're not alone. 2) Should I call you friendos? It sounds like the name of a cereal. Here's your bowl of Friend-Os. But eat it with caution - while some of them are sweet and delicious, some of them are bitter. And the bitter ones stick in your teeth and you'll still be able to taste them, like, months later. If you pour organic almond or soy milk over them, they kind of taste like a fusion of Indie music and farmer's market doughnuts. Let's begin. Play at work: May 3rd was Children's Day, so we played English activities and made arts and crafts with the kids. I wore a paper crown that looked a bit like a blue Native American headdress and the kids wore their own handmade crowns. We were all royalty. Have you ever played the game called Change Chairs? Everyone sits in a circle and one person stands in the middle. She describes things that people are wearing or what they like, and if it's true for anyone sitting down they have to stand up and find a new seat; the person in the middle is trying to sit down. Play it at your next birthday party and thank me later. (: Try new things: May 3 happened to be Friday, so that night I journeyed to Itaewon (the most foreigner-friendly district) with Joseph (the Korean swing dancer, not my co-worker) to try salsa dancing. We briefly stopped at a Turkish restaurant and ate a tzatziki kebab wrap and baklava. It was his first time eating baklava. He liked it. I hope you've had baklava, too, because it's delicious. At the salsa bar, I felt distinctly out of place. Everything from the venue to the people to the music didn't jive with me as much as swing dancing. It was a fairly dark and small venue, there was a lot of alcohol being consumed, and the Latin pop music had the bass mixed a little too loudly. I think I'll always be hopelessly enchanted by the swinging jazz music, the soft lighting, and the bright and bouncy hardwood floor of the swing scene. However, our very last dance was a swing dance to a jazzy remix of "Feel Good Inc". Then I took a taxi home with a Korean man with snow white hair who said it was important to love yourself. Healing Camp: May 4th was a special day - I went outside Seoul to a place called Healing Camp. I'd been invited to Bat Swing's Membership Training (MT) which is where everyone in the community gets together for a weekend to make new friendships and strengthen old ones. I was carpooling with Joseph, Becca, and Iron. We drove alongside sparkling rivers and gorgeous, bright green, rolling mountains. Then we arrived at the place that Bat Swing had rented - something called a "pension". It was a large building with two communal sleeping rooms, a small kitchen, and a large social room with a couch (where we spent most of our time). Outside, there was some turf, some barbecues, and a big tent where we ate dinner. After dinner, we played games like egg, chicken, phoenix. Which I won, once! Then we had free time, with dancing inside and playing outside. Later in the evening, some people started cooking late night snacks in the small indoor kitchen. It was such delicious, authentic Korean food. There were Korean pancakes, egg and carrot omelets, fish cakes, tuna rice, and Japanese yogurt with fruit. And it was so convivial. Everyone was relaxed, chatting, dancing, and playing. As it got darker outside, everyone came in and sat on the floor around some tiny tables. Then the dancing started in earnest. When I went to bed at 3:00 or 4:00 am, the party was still going. The next day, I woke up to a room full of people passed out on the dance floor on little blankets. "Traditional Korean lodgings", haha. Becca and Joseph had left at around 1:00 am, so I carpooled back with different people. We all went to a cafe that was beside a lake and surrounded by a well-maintained flower garden. This was where I learned that the area we were in was called Dumulmeori (two waters meet). It was a quiet, tranquil place and I was sad to leave it behind. Swing in the Park: May 6th. I vividly recall the weather that day: it was bright and sunny with a light, cool breeze. The weather was extra important that day because I was at Konkuk University to dance outdoors in a park. It was one of those unusually pleasant experiences. There was a moment where I sat very still and tried hard to notice and memorize every detail of the things around me. I was sitting on warm, black marble steps that surrounded the concrete dance area; listening to the musicians play live jazz music; watching everyone dance; feeling the cool wind swirl around me, across my skin and through my hair. I watched the wind move the leaves in the trees and felt peaceful. I had one fun dance with a Korean man that I'd never met before. He had long hair and big, square glasses. Actually, I didn't learn his name that day and we didn't speak at all. But spoilers: next month I meet him again and he becomes my very good friend. I later learn that his name is Joono. Keep your eyes open for his reappearance. :) Then Chang mo and I went to Big Apple for more dancing. Unfortunately, after about an hour, I felt fairly nauseated. It was probably from being outside in the sun dancing for several hours combined with my utter lack of sleep from the MT. At around 9:00 pm, I had to leave Big Apple because my stomach was so upset. But it's part of the journey. Anime: Speaking of journeys, on May 7, I finished A Place Further than the Universe. Unless you've seen a lot of anime and truly have nothing better to do, I can't really recommend it. But I think I watched it at the right time in my life. The next night, I met a Korean man named Yong. When he learned that I was from Canada, he asked if I knew someone from Edmonton named Read. I said, "Hm, I'm not sure..." but then he showed me a picture and I did know him. We actually called Read and Caitlin and chatted for a while. If you two are reading this, we certainly have to go dancing together back in Edmonton. First the bar owner at Sayomi knew Jessie, and now Yong knew Read. The swinging world is so small. Being brave: On Sunday, Evan DeGraff gifted me a game called One Shot, which you shouldn't play if you're prone to paranoia because it breaks the fourth wall very effectively. But if you like short, suspenseful games with pixelated animation styles... give it a "shot". Today was a special day because it was the first time I did slack lining with Mai in Ichon park. While we were doing it, many Korean people were watching us with curiosity, but there were three Korean guys watching us especially intently. I saw them and waved for them to join us, but they didn't come over at first; however, after about an hour, they all managed to build up enough courage to approach us and try it out. One guy said he ran a magazine and wanted to interview us about the activities we do in Seoul (that actually happened - I'll talk about it in June). May 17th. Happy Independence Day, Norway! n_n Look at the World: On May 19th, it was raining. I loved wandering around the rainy Seoul streets. The colours of the red brick buildings and green plants were so vibrant in the rain. Everything was cleaner and fresher, and the air was fragrant. Role models: May 22nd. Amy said that she saw the movie Matilda in school and she said that I was like Miss Honey. ️When I first saw that movie, I desperately wanted to be like Matilda. Actually, I think it's the reason I have so many dreams in which I have (spoiler ahead if you haven't seen the movie): telekinesis. They're my favourite kind of dream. What's your favourite dream? Anyway, now I identify more with the adult character Miss Honey than I do with Matilda. Take notice: On May 24th, I took the bus to Nowon with my boss, Susan. We chatted a little bit about work-related things. And she paid me a great compliment when she said that she likes to listen to what I say because it's careful and clear. I find that good employers are those that can notice the unique strengths of each of their employees. They see what someone is trying to be good at and specifically comment on that. However, you don't need to be an employer to notice other people's efforts and compliment them. Plants are good for your mental health: May 31. At the beginning of the month, my student named Bella gave me a sunflower seed as a present. I somehow remembered to plant it that same day. Well, today is the day that the sunflower seed sprouted! I hope it grows to be big and bright. :3 You know, I hid a secret fun thing on this blog/website thing, but no one seems to have found it yet. Alas. I'll be seeing you later, friendos.
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[HELLO]. Are you ready to vicariously wander around Seoul some more? This post takes us back to my early roots, where I was unafraid of seeming presumptuous or naïve or imperfect and just wrote because I had something to say and not enough time to say it. Some highlights from this month are: Nick and Megan visited, the cherry blossoms blossomed, there was some climbing, swing dancing, and more musings. It's the usual: social experience, physical activity, and reflection. Looking out and looking in.
Work: On April 4th, I was teaching my GB class about aromatherapy, so I went to Daiso before classes (Korea's Dollarama) and bought the kids lavender candles. Between the five to seven after-school academies that they're in and the intense school workload, they need all the stress-relief they can get. I also gave them chocolate. I hope they lit their candle. I also brought my tiny Eevee figurine (which I bought at Joe's behest; he gives great life advice) and whimsically said that Eevee would die if it heard Korean. I say the strangest things if I think it will encourage the kids to speak English. "You don't want Eevee to die, do you?! Please don't speak Korean!" And the precocious pi boy (see my previous post for an explanation) wrote a note that said, "I die if I hear the Korean!" and taped it to Eevee's ears. April 5th! Happy birthday, Mom! <3 I love you and miss you so much. I want to do cartwheels on the grass with you, bake a pumpkin chiffon with you, and hug you. Readers, please hug your moms for me. Friends: On April 6, I met up with Nick and Megan to do the nerdiest thing I've ever done: attend a Starcraft tournament. Although... I have been to a Dota 2 tournament. What's nerdier, Starcraft or Dota 2? Anyway, before it started, we went to a coffee shop called 999 that was (as cliche as it might sound) charming and rustic. The floor, walls, and ceiling were made of wood, the chairs were mismatched and old and wooden, and there was a dazzling light display in the front window (picture below). Then we went to the tournament. This was their second day attending, but on their first day there, Nick and Megan had appeared on the live stream with a sign that said they were from Canada. So, hoping to repeat their fame, we made a new Canadian sign and drew really cute Zerglings on it. Also, they may or may not have sneaked soju into the Starcraft game in a water bottle. Devious day drinking. Afterwards, we went to Jamsil to look at the cherry blossoms. They were lovelier for their transience. In Lotte mall, we drank more coffee and ate freshly baked fish-shaped pastries that had sweet read bean paste and walnuts in them. They're actually fairly ubiquitous street food and are called taiyaki in Japan and bungeo bread in Korea. Then I left for dance class, which was exciting and educational. Afterwards, my classmates introduced me to beer mixed with strong Dutch coffee, which was surprisingly tasty. The owner of the restaurant (Sayomi again) brought out a mysterious dish that I'd never seen before. Someone said it was a Japanese soy milk dessert. It was a great dessert - creamy, melty, and delicately sweet. The soy milk gave it an earthy, hearty flavour. I gave him one of my banana muffins in return and he seemed to like it. :3 Also, adding free items to an order in a restaurant is very common here and they call it "service". That day, the owner gave us service in the form of a Korean pancake called pajeon (파전). If you've never had one, I highly recommend that you go support your local Korean restaurant and try it! More frrrriends: On April 7th, I met up with Nick and Megan again for more cherry blossom viewing at Yeouinaru; unfortunately, there were way, way too many people. It was a seething river of humans. Feeling overwhelmed by the unbelievably dense and massive crowds, we wandered away into a nearby forest. We explored the area a bit, tried to be cute by taking some pictures by cherry blossom trees, and rested in a Korean gazebo. Looking back, I can recognize that their time here (and Hunter's visit, too) coincided with my mood being at a very, very low point. My homesickness and loneliness had reached something of a climax and I must have seemed distant and jaded. But by spending time with them, I felt my anxieties and sorrows slowly easing away. Sitting in that park with them was more than just relaxing - it was healing. I was reminded that it's okay to slow down and just exist sometimes. We watched a turtle in a pond; admired some daffodils blowing gently in the wind; spent ten minutes building a tiny fence out of twigs for an ant colony; almost touched a rabbit (admittedly a tame one). I think I'd forgotten what it was like to be with people who wanted nothing more than to laugh and be silly and have a small adventure. To watch the sun go down together. It was a much-needed rest day and I was sad when we had to part ways, for the last time. The next morning I played Borderlands 2 with Adam, Crage, and Matt. It's a very serious and intense game. Actually, I think what we did that day was attend a robot's sad birthday party where he had brought pizza and party blowers, and had invited everybody in the town; but nobody showed up. Poor little guy. Looking in: April 10. So, to be honest, I write most of my raw notes for these posts in the second person narrative (which, incidentally, is the narrative style for this masterpiece of a song). Here is my unedited, sole entry for this day: You lost your voice today. The main character in Gris also lost her voice today. The game is so beautiful. Even when you've lost your voice and the world seems grey, colorless, lonely, and broken, remember the color and light and beauty inside you. Share it. It's unique to you. Walk on starlight. Be a paintbrush. Make the world a musical rainbow garden. April 11. Work was fairly difficult, unfortunately, because I'd lost my voice (it's not quite as romantic as I just made it out to be) and the kids didn't change their behaviour at all. So instead of having classes that I could somewhat control with a strong presence and voice, I had classes that I could barely control because they took advantage of my weakened state. I've learned to never show weakness! On the lighter side, I've been going to this bakery called Nemo, and when I came up to the till with a loaf of bread, the woman behind the counter said, "pretty bread for a pretty woman" in Korean and I understood her and it was so sweet. After work I went to dinner (tofu soup) and a PC bang with Joseph and we played Overwatch and he talked to his family. We teamed up as Mercy and Torbjörn and won a few games. Light and dark: On April 12, I went climbing with Mai at Yongmasan before work. She shared some strange-looking, hollow black bread that had white chunks inside it. I took a tentative bite, and it was actually great. It was chewy black sesame bread and the white chunks were sweet cream cheese (it's called 오징어먹물깨찰). It has now become my favourite bread to purchase from the subway station bakeries. You should eat it. After climbing, I walked to work that day and described it as a "cherry blossom magical morning". The trees alongside the stream near my workplace were in full bloom. A breeze blew and some petals fell, twirling and dancing through the air. People were unabashedly taking pictures and admiring the beauty. If you ever have the opportunity to see the cherry blossoms in Japan or Korea during April, you should go. The trees put on their most fabulous pink dresses and strut around on stage for the world to see. And now, cue a dramatic scene change where, after work, I unexpectedly spent some time with Joe, Chris, and Clare. It was nighttime, and we walked down the busy neon-lit streets from Nowon to Chang dong. We snuck underneath a bridge and hopped across the stream to one of the pillars. We sat together, drinking soju, quietly watching the dark water flow past us as a lone duck swam upstream. It was moody and angsty and perfectly the opposite atmosphere of my magical pink fairy forest morning. April 14 was dancing at Big Apple, but afterwards I totally messed up on the subway and missed the transfer that would have taken me straight home. So instead, I had to take a route that only got me halfway home, at which point the train stopped and said that all the passengers had to get off. So I got off and hailed a taxi. This particular taxi was driven by a man who might've been the most eccentric and outgoing taxi driver in all of Seoul. He had frizzy hair, a slightly gravelly voice, and had a picture of his granddaughter beside the steering wheel. We talked about family, friends, flowers, Canada, and dancing. He was very patient and spoke slowly in Korean and genuinely asked questions in an excited, interested way. Bicycle battle: On April 16, I finally used the bike that Johann had given me all those months ago. It's not my usual style - it's a red mountain bike with a squeaky chain and big treads - but it was remarkably refreshing to get outside and ride a bike again. The feeling the wind and the sun on my skin made me feel as giddy as a child. I actually witnessed a magpie fighting a snake beside the bike path. You've gotta get out and exercise in the sunshine folks, because you never know what you might miss. Play the part: April 19 was more climbing at Yongmasan with Mai and Sagar. It was fun, but cold. Curiously, however, some Korean people in business suits carrying briefcases and clipboards approached the wall. They just stood around kind of aimlessly. One of the older guys tried traversing at the bottom of the wall for fun. Then I started actually climbing and everyone stopped to watch. I paused about halfway up and waved at them, and they (adorably) waved back. Then at the end of the climb, I told Mai that I wanted to take a big fall for them to see. I took in some slack like I was about to clip, then let go and took a very controlled and honestly pretty small fall. They gasped appreciatively. When I reached the ground, they applauded and I bowed theatrically. I guess I'll always be a thespian at heart. April 21. A long time ago, my coworker let me take out a book from the library at our hagwon: Going Solo by Roald Dahl. Today I finished it. It was a unique book, made more intriguing by the fact that everything that happened was real. The book details his experiences in the second World War, and they range from absurd to harrowing. Anis and Amber: April 24 was a nice day. I met with Anis at Yongma waterfall park and we shared some snacks for a proper picnic. Anis is a friend of mine from Canada; he has a degree in Chemistry and we took the same TESL certification course in Edmonton. We also both decided to come to Seoul at the same time. There's something so good about having someone from your hometown move across the ocean to the same city as you. Then it was staff dinner day after work. The dinner was uneventful, but Chris, Joe, and Amber and I went to a makgeolli place afterwards. We talked with Amber about her experience in Ireland. She had considered living in Canada, but ultimately chose Ireland because she knew there would be fewer Koreans there. She intentionally chose it to be less comfortable and more challenged. She is a strong and incredible lady. Also, she has great taste in makgeolli because the restaurant served us strawberry makgeolli that was essentially a smoothie with alcohol in it. If you end up in Korea, you simply have to try it. So sweet and scrumptious. Performances: April 27 was a graduation party at Boogie Woogie. My classmates performed and they were amazing! They wore denim jeans and yellow shirts and were just such solid dancers. After the performances, the students were responsible for decorating the dance hall for the flower-themed social later that night. Simba and Minshik spent time with me, eating pizza and just playing around. Then "Rolling in the Deep" started playing over the speakers. I've sung this before song at karaoke, so of course I started singing along. The bar owner must have heard, because he came out from behind the bar... and handed me a microphone. Then everyone dropped what they were doing and came out and listened! They made a makeshift stage by making a half-circle around me. I was truly flustered, and to be honest I think my lips were shaking the entire time. It wasn't a great performance, but I kept singing and they cheered afterwards and the girls totally swarmed me. The climbing scene and the swing dancing scene are both overflowing with camaraderie and encouragement. They're wholesome and uplifting, and everyone seems to cheer even more loudly if you're nervous. What I'm saying is that you should try 'em. =] That's my time in April. See you next month. n_n P.S: Names are very important in Korea. In the swing dance scene, everyone (literally) makes a name for themselves. Here are a few that I've met thus far: Snow Flower, Swing Lover, Rudra, Swing Baby, Tigger, Moon, Latte, Goody Goody, Anakin Skywalker, and Optimus Prime. What's your swing dancing name? Hiya. There's not much to say about this one. It's short. It's my everyday life. There's some amount of looking inward instead of outward. And also, people from Canada came to visit! ^_^
This one also has a secret message! Let's jump inward, first. As all of you probably know, I came to Korea to be an English teacher. Theoretically, a robot should never be able to do my job. I mention this because lately I've been watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. In one episode, he was discussing the rise of automation and the subsequent changes in the number and kinds of jobs that would be available to the next generation. He interviewed children - asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up - only to inform them that the job they want might not exist because a robot might be doing it. The kids understood the problem and asked, "Well, what can I do?" to which John Oliver replied, "You can do a series of non-routine tasks that require social intelligence, complex critical thinking, and creative problem solving." It was actually kind of... uplifting to hear this and to think about it. I'm still not sure what my career will be, but as long as I find a job that requires me to use social intelligence, complex critical thinking, and creative problem solving, I think I'll find some amount of satisfaction in what I do. So I pose the question to you: Dear readers, what's your job? Do you find satisfaction in doing it? Do you think a robot could ever do it? Speaking of complex critical thinking and creative problem solving, I've also been thinking about Dungeons and Dragons. I feel like I've been comparing myself to a D&D character for a long time, in fact. Lately I've been choosing to upgrade my Korean and Swing Dancing skills. If you tried to imagine yourself as a character in a fantastical world - where you could gain discrete skill points in various things based on the time you spent on them - what is your character like right now? What kind of character do you want to have in the future? What skills do you wish you had more points in? I've had a lot of time to analyze... well, how I spend my time. And I realized something. This may seem like a pithy aphorism, but it's important to spend time actually doing the things that you want to improve at. For me, I was surprised by the amount of time I've spent reading, writing, and dancing. What do you spend your time doing? Reading: I've recently started reading The Selfish Gene, which everyone can and should read. Yes, you, you are part of everyone and you should read it. Do you remember when you were a kid and you had basically no choice but to learn new things every day? Learning new things was why I loved reading. A book can change the way we think about and view the world. The way the author wrote became the way I narrated my own world in my mind as things were happening. After each book, my vocabulary exploded and I was able to more accurately describe the world. Learning new words was like learning how to see secret, hidden things. To be honest, much of my moral direction has come from books. How to behave, how to perceive the world, how to remain open-minded and curious and brave. Please share some of your favourite books with me. =] Dancing: March 2 was the first day of the advanced class at Swing Family called Flyer. The teachers, Juliet and Adrian, were phenomenal dancers and I thoroughly enjoyed learning from them. My partners were also higher caliber than they were in the Learner level. That night, Jay came to the social dance and gave me an injeolmi macaron as a going away present - he was going away to the USA for a few months. Wish him luck as he begins the grueling process of applying for jobs at universities across the country. I didn't write much about my writing because so much of it is very personal. Whew, thanks for putting up with my tangential musings. On to the outward stuff. March 4 was the first day of my third term at work, which meant I got to meet my new kids. Well, truthfully only some were new kids - I had taught many of them in Telescope in my first term. We've all grown a lot, and now that we're older and wiser, I'm excited to teach them again. On March 13, I had another haircut. I walked in and saw that the employees were in the middle of eating their lunch. I apologized and asked if I should come back another time, but to my great surprise, they welcomed me in and shared their lunch with me. Smaller Korean restaurants and stores have a special, welcoming, familial atmosphere that I didn't encounter in Canada. As long as you're willing to open your heart and keep coming back to them, they welcome you with open arms (and sometimes platefuls of food). We ate rice, meat, spicy ramen, and a weird fish ovary thing. In return, I shared my oranges and cookies with them for a small dessert. So instead, if you'd like to read a science-fiction short story that I wrote... π day! On March 14, I went shopping for plants with Brandi before work. I bought three flowers: a purple campanula, a blue cineraria (like a tiny, blue daisy), and a beautiful white cyclamen with upswept petals. Having plants in your home is like medicine for your soul. I love caring for plants. And animals. During a break at work that day, I was talking with a precocious boy in my oldest class and on a whim decided to ask him if he knew what pi was. I drew the symbol on the board and explained how today was March 14 (3.14), and to my astonishment, he started writing the digits of pi. He wrote at least 30 numbers down - from memory - before the bell rang and I had to leave the room. Needless to say, I bragged about him a lot to my coworkers afterwards. I hope you ate pie that day! When I arrived home after work, I found a big package sitting outside my apartment door. It was from mom and dad and Auntie Leianne! Inside was cereal, my favourite tea (called Read My Lips -peppermint and chocolate), Coffee Crisps, and two hand-written notes that made me smile and miss my family. Guys, please hug your moms and dads and aunties for me. ... or some first drafts of short stories I'm currently working on... March 19 was climbing at Red Point with a huge group of people: Mai, Dilay, Hunter, Aiden, Logan, their girlfriends, and Painter Kim. Painter Kim and the owner of the gym both took a liking to Hunter, since he's incredibly strong. Also, Painter Kim left early because he needed to pack - he was going on a trip to mount Everest base camp! He said he'd send pictures. I'll let you know if he ends up doing that. On March 23, I took a train to Busan with Hunter. We had purchased our tickets too late to get our own seats, so we had to stand on the train for most of the trip. Interestingly, once the train starts moving you are allowed to sit if the seat is vacant; however, the person who bought that seat can kick you out once they board. This is actually when I started reading The Selfish Gene (which you should read). The countryside was a refreshing change from the concrete forest that is Seoul. When we arrived, Hunter, Troy, and I walked to Haeundae Beach and splashed in the waves. It was delightful. The wind smelled like the sea, the sand was warm and fun to walk in, the water was cold and fun to splash in. As we were walking, we saw a very strange sight - there were flocks of seagull-like birds hovering in midair in front of groups of people. Check out the pictures below. The birds were waiting for people to throw little snacks into the air, and then the birds would swoop and dive to catch the food and resume their hovering. I walked so close to one flock that I easily could have reached out and touched them. After the beach, we walked along the seaside boardwalk. The breeze was refreshingly cool, and the water was a deep, beautiful blue. We saw a mermaid statue and a wild orange cat. I realize I never told you the purpose of our trip to Busan. March 24 was the Holi Hai festival in Miryang. Troy's friends and Hunter drank alcohol, but I was on antibiotics (for another bout of bronchitis), so I didn't. It was a day full of music and colorful powder. One moment that I will never forget is when a very tall Indian man in a yellow turban joined us in the throng of people and carefully, delicately put yellow powder on my face. Then a boisterous black man accidentally threw some orange powder directly in the Indian man's eyes. I helped him get it out by gently brushing his eyes and blowing the dust out. Also, it's worth mentioning that there was a group of men who were throwing people in the air for fun. A few of the girls in our group did that... myself included. The shower that night was probably one of the best and most colourful I've ever had. ... send me a message! On March 29, I met up with Donna, Duncan, and Hunter for a hike up Achasan. Even though the air pollution and smog were terrible that day, I was nevertheless overjoyed to see familiar faces. Afterwards we ate bibimbap at a restaurant, and then it was time for me to go to work. It's nothing special, but maybe you'll find something that you like. Or maybe... On March 30... Nick and Megan came to Korea!! I met up with them at The Hyundai and we ate 낙지비빔밥 (squid bibimbap) and 된장찌개 (spicy tofu veggie soup). Megan had never eaten squid before! I think she liked it? We talked about life and the world and made plans to hang out and see the cherry blossom trees later in the week. It was so nice to just walk around and be with them. They cheered me up when I was feeling a little bit sad because of the air pollution and homesickness. Thanks for putting up with mopey Ashley, guys. =] ...we can talk about your thoughts on the topics I present. But even if you don't enjoy them... And that's all I have for you this month. Canadian friends came to visit! And I can regale you with even more friend-y tales next month when Nick and Megan and I watch Starcraft and look at cherry blossom trees. ... I hope you enjoy being part of the secret. n_n Welcome, deer friends, to the second month of 2019! If you're still here with me, thank you for reading. This post is brought to you by jazz music and gigantic mountains, taking me to previously unexplored heights metaphorically and literally. Speaking of metaphors, you may need to find some hiking boots for this mountainous post. I think it's the longest one I've written. It begins with some pleasant, flat ground, then slowly builds until we're on top of a mountain, and then it ends with a random assortment of... post-hike snacks? I'm taking this metaphor too far. Anyway, think carefully before putting on your footwear for this journey - dancing shoes? Hiking boots? Whatever you choose, let's wander together. ^_^
On Sat Feb 2, I went to a potluck and dance class at Swing Family. I'd brought banana chocolate chip muffins, and there were also cookies, crackers, oranges, soda, and Vita500. I really enjoyed (admittedly probably creepily) watching people take their first bite of my baking and seeing their faces light up. I must've been a baker in another life - I love experiencing culinary compersion. After the class, we made our way to the Boogie Woogie dance hall for social dancing. Swing Dancing in Korea 101: Thus far, I've found that each swing dance bar in Korea has a similar social dance structure. The doors open around 7:30-8:00pm, it gets properly busy an hour after that. At approximately 9:30pm or 10:00pm, the DJ plays a specific "birthday jam" song which signals that it's time to celebrate the people in the community who had their birthdays that week. The birthday guys and gals stand together, facing the crowd, and lines begin to form in front of them. Then they dance... a lot. When that's finished, everyone forms a huge circle called the "jam circle". Anyone can enter the jam circle at any time, and it's like a spotlight for new, developing dancers or for the old pros who just want to show off and let loose in front of the community. On this Saturday night, as I stood at the periphery of the newly-formed jam circle, I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see my teacher, Min Shik (민식쌤). Last week, he had taken one of the students from our class into the circle; I felt so incredibly honored that he wanted to bring me into it this week. We pushed inward through the crowd, stood in anticipation at the inner edge of the circle, listened to the crowd count out the previous couple... and jumped in. Suddenly being in the spotlight was thrilling and terrifying. Everyone's clothes seemed brighter and blurrier, and all I could focus on was Min Shik and the music. I felt the adrenaline like a fire in my lungs, in my mind, in my heart. Then, rather abruptly, it was over. We spun out of the circle and another couple seamlessly replaced us. Although I was shaking for a while afterwards, it was less scary and more fun than my first time in front of a crowd at Fiesta, where I didn't know anything about swing dancing. Small steps. :) Mountains: The next day, on Feb 3, I woke up at 6:15 am and began the most whimsical trip I've ever been on: I went to Sokcho with Joe. It was a grey, rainy, moody morning. We walked around the bus station amidst early-morning travelers and sipped some hot coffee. Once we were on the bus, I put in some headphones and fell asleep watching the raindrops streak down the window. The rain was still falling when we arrived. The umbrella got some heavy use that first day. As we wandered the rainy streets, the first thing we decided to do was eat at a famous restaurant called 88 Saengseon Gui where the employees were almost entirely foreigners. At this restaurant, you can only order one thing: BBQ seafood for 14,000 won. The employees cooked it for us on a grill in the center of the table. The line to get in was long, but they flew around the restaurant and were able to move people through extremely efficiency. The grilled fish was fresh and delicious (oh gosh, try saying that three times fast). After that, we explored a gigantic market. It was yet another sensory overload of sights and smells, spices and fruit and fish. At one point, we saw some mysterious brown dough balls being heated up on a skillet and had absolutely no idea what they were. The menu said 수수뿌꾸미 (susubugumi), but neither of us had heard of that before. So, out of sheer curiosity, we decided to wait and buy some to discover what they were. As we waited, an enormous line formed behind us, which only added to the mystery. It was clearly very popular, whatever it was. The man cooking the dough balls manoeuvred them expertly around the metal grill and the balls began to look like pinkish purple pancakes. He placed some dark purple pellet things into the center of the pancakes, deftly wrapped the dough around them, and handed them to us in cups. We took shelter under a big rainbow umbrella and took our first tentative bites. It was sweet and doughy! We discovered that they were sweet red bean paste-filled things similar to hotteok. But they were much better than hotteok. If you ever see these things, get in line immediately because they are certainly worth the wait. Then we stumbled upon and rode a ferry across a tiny stretch of water to Abai Village, which was... kind of underwhelming and surprisingly empty. We essentially had the whole island to ourselves, so we walked past the steely grey ocean, poked a starfish, kept away from some sketchy-looking traditional Korean food, saw a fisherman's tiny tent, and mostly wondered where we'd wander next. Off in the distance, we spotted a traditional Korean gazebo that was perched atop a hill overlooking the ocean. We decided it was a good destination and began to walk, carrying all our luggage, down the rain-dampened streets and across a huge blue bridge. We crossed a bright blue bridge and arrived at a little market at the bottom of the hill where people were selling deep fried food and live fish. There were, in fact, two gazebos: the one on top of the hill that we saw from far away, and another at the bottom that was perched at the edge of the ocean. The bottom one had a marble bridge leading out to it. It also had lights lining the bottom that slowly changed colour. As in, it was a veritable rainbow bridge. We stood in that seaside gazebo for a long time, watching the waves crash against the rocks below. Then Joe saw a red lighthouse in the distance and we decided to visit it, too. We ventured down a long pier and by the time we reached the lighthouse, it was very dark and there were no other people around. It had just started raining very lightly, like a fine mist, so we quickly took some hipster photos and decided to get something warm to eat and drink. Dinner was at a hangover soup place run by a very friendly elderly man who gave me some instant coffee for free. We bused home and slept in "traditional Korean lodgings", which I discovered meant sleeping on blankets directly on the floor. Thankfully, the blankets were thick and the floor was heated, so it warmed me right to my chilled bones and I fell asleep immediately. On Feb 4, we slept in late, then began walking beside the road toward Seorak mountain (설악산). We ate lunch at a place that was both someone's home and a restaurant; check out the pictures below to see what it looked like. :) We chose a Korean pancake and bibimbap and they were both phenomenal. The couple that ran the restaurant asked if they could take our photo and put it up on the wall, where there were several other pictures of foreigners who had been lucky enough to eat at their restaurant. So we're now immortalized at this tiny, lovely restaurant outside of Seoraksan national park. :) Also, ohmygosh, Seoraksan national park. Even though it was winter, I enjoyed being there so, so much. There were several hikes to choose from of various difficulties and lengths. For our first hike, we chose a waterfall observatory, which began as an easy hike through a forest path and ended with a moderately challenging ascent of a few hundred stairs. That one was fun because we got to cross a suspension bridge. The water below it was frozen, so naturally we found a really big rock and dropped it off the bridge when we were alone. Astoundingly, it didn't break through the ice! Then we took a cable car to the top of a massive mountain that was still covered in snow. At the top, the wind was so shockingly cold that it took my breath away. The view was stunning, and it was fun running around on the rocks and looking out over the mountain range, but because of the cold air and the setting sun, our time up there was pretty short. We ate Burger King for dinner, then fell asleep once more. Feb 5 (happy birthday, AJ!) was an early start as we rushed to Sunrise Beach for photos of the sunrise. See the gallery below. :) We ate breakfast at a convenience store, which was surprisingly pleasant and memorable; we had instant oatmeal and sweet coffee and stood watching the sun rise over the ocean. Then we retreated back to the room for a nap since we had woken up preposterously early to see the sunrise. Then it was off to the park once more. This time, we passed a massive bronze Buddha statue, where people were wearing socks and bowing reverently. Our hike that day was Ulsanbawi Rock and it was both a long hike and my favourite one. The beginning was an exceptionally easy walk on a paved sidewalk. Then it turned into an easy, relatively flat dirt path that wound through the forest and ran alongside a babbling brook. Along the way, there was a peaceful temple that had a truly ancient stone bridge and crumbling stone steps where we fed a chipmunk an almond. Then the path became slightly more difficult, ascending gently until it arrived at yet another temple. This temple was actually a cave that had been carved into the mountainside, and there was a beautiful white Buddha statue inside it. Joe was braver than me and drank out of a communal drinking fountain just outside the door. Also outside the temple was the famous, immovable rock Heundeulbawi, which is a supposedly immovable Volkswagen Beetle-sized rock that sits on top of a house-sized rock. There were many people attempting and failing to push it over. The house-sized rock had innumerable carvings on it in both traditional Chinese and Hanja. We sat on it and ate some lunch, watching people come and go and drink the fountain water and push on the rock. Then we continued to the next check-point: a small outcropping of rocks that were supposed to be the best place to listen to the mountains sing. Yes, sing! Ulsanbawi is special because when the wind blows over the rock faces, they make musical howling sounds. They're the largest wind instrument in the world, haha. We tried to get some recordings, but the wind blowing across the microphone totally drowned out the mountain's sounds. After that, the hike was not very pleasant at all. It turned into very large, uneven stone steps and eventually became man-made stairs that clung to the side of the mountain like scaffolding. They were treacherously steep and the view down was dizzying. We took quite a few breaks on the way up those. And then we were at the top. After all that, I am happy to say that the view was worth it; it felt otherworldly. I'd achieved transcendence and enlightenment. Well, not really, but I think I'm more sympathetic towards spiritual people when I'm on the summit of a mountain. Its stillness moves me. The view from the top of Ulsanbawi was truly spectacular. In one direction, we could see more mountains and the rest of the national park; the other direction was a sweeping, panoramic view of Sokcho snuggled up beside the ocean. I would have liked to stay there for a long time, but we had the wind to contend with. It was frigid and came in unexpected, frighteningly strong bursts. In fact, an Australian guy with glasses and a camera asked us to take his picture, but while he was posing he slipped on some ice and I was genuinely afraid that he was going to fall over the railing. He didn't but we all went down right afterwards. Going down all those stairs, my legs felt like jelly, but at least the mountain gave us protection from the harsh wind. Once we were back on the flat path, we felt inexplicably rejuvenated. We were jogging down and jumping from rock to rock. The path among the trees was so warm, and the trees and brook so pleasant, that we were both practically frolicking. Then it was time to go home to Seoul. We got in a taxi and went back to Sokcho. We ate dinner at a restaurant that had a Siamese cat just sitting on one of the seats, begging for pets and plays. We petted it and played with it. =] When I got home, I was tired from the hike and from the traveling. My bed seemed pretty comfy that night. On Feb 6, I slowly rejoined society and caught up with regular life things: a phone call with family in Canada, laundry, cleaning, recycling, groceries, dishes, then finally swing dancing at Time Bar. There was another foreigner there! I really like introducing myself to the other foreigners that I see; there aren't many in the swing dancing community here. We danced and introduced ourselves (in that order, actually, haha). His name was Jesse and he was - believe it or not - from Edmonton. We even knew some of the same people. I'm excited to join the swing dancing community when I return home. ^_^ Okay! Since this post is getting a bit long, here are six fairly random, unrelated events that are worthy of a brief mention. 1) I've been listening to Talk to Me in Korean (Ttmik) a lot, and they mentioned Jongno 3(sam)-ga while I was there on the train! Wild. 2) On a Saturday in mid February, I went to dance class and social at Boogie Woogie and stayed at the after party until... 5:45 am. They call it "sun up". We ate delicious, deep-fried eggplant at a restaurant called Sayomi. This restaurant is really special because the owner is also a dancer and he caters a big swing dance event on Jeju Island every year. Also that night, I had the incredible honor of another human being asking me to name him. I gave him the name Brandon, which he thankfully liked and still goes by. He drew a treble clef henna tattoo on my forearm. 3) Bizz sent me a letter with a legitimate wax seal with a bumblebee on it! Inside was a friendship bracelet and a funscary jump-out-at-you paper butterfly that made me leap out of my chair and made my heart race. Bizz, I'm sorry that I don't have a video recording of me opening it. I think you would have laughed out loud, because I certainly did (after I had calmed down)! 4) Went bouldering with Mai and met an old guy who said we could call him Painter Kim. We watched him climb a 5.10d that he said was the most perfect route at the gym. When he was done, he thanked us for watching and said it was the first time he finished it. He said he'd had an injury and hadn't been able to climb it before, but we gave him the strength to finish it. It was nice. 5) At the end of the month, on Feb 23, I attended Swing Family's Harry Potter-themed graduation party. They kept the dance studio open until 3am, and then we went to Sayomi for a goodbye party. The instructors gave all the students towels as gifts! I felt a little emotional. The bar owner kept making us delicious food. Also, he knew Jesse from Edmonton. 6) Johann was leaving at the end of February, and he was kind enough to give everyone at work presents in the form of stuff from his house that he didn't need anymore. Some honorable mentions that he gave me: three giant bags of frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries, and pineapples), a big knife, pots, almonds, pecans, a candle, and a bicycle with a lock. That night, I lit the candle and again got fairly emotional. It made me think of the Shakespeare quote, "How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world". I loved its little flickering light that night. It warmed me to my soul. This little alive thing in my place. If you're reading, thank you, Johann. Whew. Finished. Goodnight, friends. See you next time. Oh, and if you have a nice thought about someone, consider sharing it with them. Your words could be a small, warm candle to them on an otherwise dark and lonely night. ^_^ P.S: Kim Gibson, thank you for sharing Universal Flame by Devin Townsend with me! I've really been enjoying Z^2 this month. 새해 복 많이 받으세요~ Happy New Year~
Well, I suppose it's April now, but please allow me to temporarily temporally transport you back to January for the duration of this post. Then I'll take you safely back to your original time, promise. Welcome to the first month of the new year! I hope reading about these experiences has been enjoyable for you. I began writing this without a clear idea of what its purpose was, hoping that it would become more apparent as I went forward through time. Well, it's been six months now and I still don't know what its purpose is... but it exists, so maybe that's enough for now. ^_^ So, the first day of 2019. Jan 1st was exactly the kind of day you'd want after staying up late the previous night - relaxing and rejuvenating. We slept in, ate an omelet and fresh fruit for breakfast, then wandered the Chang-Dong area together. Since it was a holiday, many places were closed, but we managed to find a cozy place that was open and ate udon soup. Then we went back to the apartment and watched Buster Scruggs. By the way, I highly recommend that movie. It ranges from absurdly comedic to... the opposite of that. Check it out if you'd like some feelings. Overall, Jan 1st was a quiet day was full of small, happy moments and I wouldn't have had it any other way. On Jan 2, we converted all our stored potential energy into kinetic energy and went to Gwangjang Shijang, an enormous market in downtown Seoul. We stepped into the covered streets and were completely engulfed in all kinds of stimuli, from smells to sights to sounds. The streets were lined with well-established little stores selling everything you could think of: candy, vegetables, fruit, spices, kimchi, baked goods, and there was an unbelievable amount of raw fish - some of which was still alive and kept in small tanks. There were also many vendors set up in the middle of the crowded street selling street food like tteokbokki, dumplings, kimbap, and hotteok. These vendors had benches and chairs set out for people to eat at; luckily for us, we had arrived hungry. We bought bindaetteok first - a chickpea-based fried pancake that is one of the most delicious and unhealthy things I've ever eaten. It was incredibly rich and savory, and the soy sauce that they'd given us to dip it in heightened the flavour to otherworldly levels. When we were tired of wandering the streets, we sought refuge at a cafe and relaxed with some coffee. At the end of the day, we went back to Chang-Dong and went to a pasta and pizza restaurant for dinner (I know, not Korean food, but I dearly wanted comfort food). The restaurant was part of a large structure which was made of dozens of brightly-painted shipping containers. We also stumbled upon a strange, maze-like path on the corner of the structure. The ground was covered in tiny white stones, so it made an interesting crunching sound as you walked, and there were hundreds of tall, thin, white plastic poles lining the path. It's difficult to describe, so please feel free to look at the pictures below. On Jan 4, we rode the train to Incheon airport together; I rode it home alone. I've become someone who hates goodbyes. Here's a sad math equation for you: √A^2 = </3 The next day, as I was sitting in a kind of lonely, dissociative, hazy state on the train, a pigeon flew into the station and almost stepped into the train itself. I found myself silently coaxing it on, willing it to come in and make my morning more memorable. It didn't, but I smiled just thinking about the pandemonium that would have undoubtedly ensued if it had. Thanks for the smile, bird. Jan 5 was also my first class at the new swing dance organization called Swing Family. I found the venue without difficulty and entered the dance studio to find it already full of young Korean men and women. I didn't approach anyone because I was a little intimidated to speak Korean or force English on them. Another foreign girl eventually came in and said hello to me, but we only exchanged a few words. Then the lesson began, and it was entirely in Korean. Frankly speaking... I was overwhelmed and ashamed by my lack of understanding. I had kept up fairly well by watching and copying the teachers' bodies, but I had been too nervous to ask for further explanation in English. When it finished, I was feeling frustrated at myself and a little afraid for the future classes. Thankfully, we all went to the swing bar (called Boogie Woogie) for social dancing afterwards, and the music and dancing soothed my heart and eased away my fears. We may not have been able to communicate verbally, but we could at least dance together. We knew enough moves to be able to have some tentative, exploratory conversations. It was a start. On Jan 8, El was kind enough to accompany me to a famous shoe store where I bought my first ever pair(s) of legitimate dancing shoes. They were made from scratch to fit my feet, and I even got to choose their colour. One pair was pink and brown, the other pair was teal (I have them now and they are just the bee's knees. The cat's meow. I look like a gal from the '50s). One week later, on Jan 14, I invited my friends Joe and Sohyeon over. We made a stir fry for dinner and banana chocolate chip muffins for dessert. We played cards, listened to classical music, and spoke Korean, English, and a little Spanish. On Jan 18, I went to Hyehwa with Mai, her German friend, and Joe. We ate food at a Vietnamese restaurant and also had their beer, then went to a Japanese restaurant and ate skewers drank warm sake, then ate Taiwanese street food that was fried dough with an egg and some cabbage and salad dressing inside it. Jan 19 was dancing at Time Bar with El, Hosok, and Johnny. My dancing shoes had arrived a few days ago, so I decided to break them in. Unfortunately, I didn't wear socks that night, so it was more like the shoes broke me in. By the end of the night, my feet had cuts on them. The next week would be characterized by me having a slight limp and wearing bandages inside my shoes. The after party was at a restaurant that served sashimi, salad, and raw octopus legs that had been chopped so recently that they were still moving (sannakji). When that particular dish came out, I froze in my seat and just stared at the plate. Hosok picked up a tentacle with his chopsticks and said, "Say ah!" which I responded to by pursing my lips and shaking my head. But he kept holding it out for me and insisted that it tasted good, so I caved and decided to give it a try. I mean, I'm not going to be in Korea forever, right? Why not eat the squirming... wet... octopus tentacles. As soon as it was inside my mouth, I could feel it wriggling which caused my entire face to scrunch up involuntarily. The suction cups were sticking slightly to my tongue while I chewed. After an uncomfortable period of time, it stopped moving and I focused on the taste instead of the feel. It tasted fine, even a little bland. I think the appeal is in the excitement of eating something that is still moving. A few minutes later, I ate one of my own volition and it was significantly less exciting. In the end, I recommend trying them if you ever get the chance. Jan 26 was another teacher's conference in Suwon. Troy and Trevor were there, so we spent the day together, being troublemakers and hooligans at the back of the classroom. Afterwards, a few people went out for drinks at a bar near Giheung station. It had anime books lining the walls and board games that you could take down and play at your table. It felt really good to be out meeting new people at a new place again. I guess you can get stuck in an everyday kind of routine wherever you go. In fact, once you settle in, it's difficult not to. Suwon was a refreshing break from the routine. Music this month took a back seat to learning Korean. I dove face-first into it and have committed myself to listening to at least one episode of Talk to Me In Korean every day. As for my general musings this month... I've been thinking a lot about what I'll do when I go back to Canada. Which has led to me wondering how anyone ever manages to choose what they want to do with their careers/lives. It's so easy to become victim to the paradox of choice, where you are paralyzed into indecision due to the sheer volume of choices. Becoming skilled at something takes time, obviously. Nevertheless, you have to choose something to spend time on, or you end up not being good at anything. So... How does one choose? I think I want something that makes me happy and betters humanity. I'll be thinking about it even more in the next few months. That brings us to the end. Welcome back to March and thank you for journeying into the past with me for a little while. And, as always, thanks for reading. <3 Heya people. How have you been? How's the weather? How's work/school? Sometimes I wish you would all write blogs so that I could check up on you more regularly. Please send me a message about anything anytime. Sincerely. <3
Oh wow, oh my goodness, it's a secret message. Anyway, I'd like to start this by saying thank you to a few people. Just before Christmas, I received a letter from the crew at Red Deer Catering and it helped buoy me when I was starting to feel quite homesick. Colin, Andrew, Bella, Lisa, Fab, Kim, and Uncle Darren - thank you from the bottom of my heart for your letter. You guys are the reason I'm writing this post, actually. I keep the card on my desk at home so I can see it. So, yeah. Thank you. This post seems long in contrast to the one I secretly posted at the beginning of December which I didn't tell anyone about because I figured it was too short to make a big deal out of and, well, this monologue-style communication is starting to feel rather strange, to be frank. My high school English teachers would be ashamed of that run-on sentence. If any of you are reading this... consider it creative licence, I guess? Or, alternatively, send me a message correcting all my mistakes. I'd be more than happy to hear from you. On to some stories, I guess. On Sun, Dec 2, Johnny and I braved both the cold and Seoul's transit system and went to a tiny hole-in-the-wall cafe called Tears of Sailors. The stairs were treacherously steep, but the inside was warm and cleverly decorated to compensate. We were there because we had just purchased tickets to a punk show, but the show didn't actually start for two more hours. So we killed the time (in an admittedly not very punk way) by eating pie and drinking coffee. To be honest, I was nervous because we had seen some tough-looking Koreans smoking outside the bar and I wasn't sure how well I would fit in with the crowd. When the show finally started, it was... wild. There were people wearing everything from a fedora and suspenders to leather jackets with metal spikes.The most unforgettable performance was by a group of young men who had pulled toques down over their entire faces, obscuring their facial features. The drummer was a shirtless, tattooed Russian man. The lead singer's hair was extremely long, and he had jammed the toque over it so haphazardly that half of his hair was plastered to the front of his face. I'm amazed that he didn't suffocate during the show. He then proceeded to blindly flail about on stage while screaming incoherently into the mic; he actually fell off the stage at one point, but was caught by some of the audience members. Despite that dazzling showmanship, my favourite band was a trio called Billy Carter. The band consisted of a charismatic female vocalist, an enigmatic female guitarist, and a stoic, frizzy-haired guy on drums. The vocalist said that her daytime job was a wedding planner, but that she only did it so she could afford her music habit. After their hilarious and uplifting performance, I tentatively ventured to the merch table to buy a pin. I also built up enough courage to thank the guitarist for making it feel like anyone could belong at a punk show. There's a code word at the end of the blog. Mon, Dec 3 was back to work. The new batch of kids are a little older, behave a little better, and have a little more personality. In one class, I asked two boys in my class to be quiet... and they zippered their mouths shut. So when I called on them to answer a question, they just pointed helplessly to their mouths, like, "I can't talk, my mouth is stuck". So I had to throw them invisible keys and they unzipped their mouths and spoke. Then they closed them again and threw the key back to me and I put it in my pocket. From Dec 3 to Dec 14 we had LangCon Festival rehearsals every MWF after teaching hours were over. I'm not sure what to say about these rehearsals, to be honest. At times, it seemed like all we were doing was repeating the script over and over without making any changes or improvements. It was difficult for the foreign teachers to give constructive criticism because the kids were just learning English, so we'd have to tell the Korean teachers who would then translate for us. At other times, it was rewarding enough to see that the kids were excited to perform. Dec 8 was a dance rehearsal at The Holic for the graduation ceremony on Dec 15. During a break, we played baseball in the studio with a really heavy wooden bat (I can only imagine why he keeps that in the studio) and a ping pong ball. On the way home, I listened to London Grammar's album If You Wait and it was... peaceful. Text me the code word... Sat, Dec 15 was a long day because two noteworthy events happened: LangCon Festival and Swing Pop's graduation party. At 9:00am, the students boarded the bus with their costumes, the teachers boarded the bus with their coffees, and the bus departed for Suwon. Avalon had rented out an auditorium in a college there for the event. It was an enormous room with a huge wooden stage and hundreds of chairs. There were already many people milling among the chairs, props, and food, including some people from the hiring/hotel group. When I saw Trevor, we ran towards each other and hugged in a somewhat spine-crushing, enthusiastic embrace. It was good to reconnect with him, albeit briefly. Then the teachers, students, and parents retreated to their seats and waited for the shows to start. Then they started... and didn't stop for the next 5 hours. Our Green Eggs and Ham group was the very last show of the day, so when we finally made our way backstage, our kids were practically vibrating with nervous energy. Despite that, our performance was fine. However, the overall event felt stuffy and perfunctory - the scripts were mediocre, it was often difficult to understand what the students were saying even as a native English speaker, and the jokes that were written in the scripts had very little effect on the majority of the audience. Then at the end of the performances, our group ended up coming in second and the kids were ecstatic. That's when I realized that, even though I wasn't really enjoying the show, the kids probably didn't notice any of the things that I was noticing. It was stressful and kind of unpleasant for the teachers, but it seems like the kids had a good experience that they can tell their friends about and remember forever. Maybe all they'll remember is that they were actors for a day, and that they almost won the whole thing. That would be nice. But I had a dance graduation to attend and Joe had friends to meet up with, so immediately after the kids received their awards, we made a beeline for the bus station and headed back to Seoul together. Then it was Swing Pop's graduation. As I entered, I was greeted with smiles, music, and a lot of food and drinks. And Hernan, who told me that I'd be dancing with a different partner than the one that I'd rehearsed with - someone who had just started learning the choreography yesterday. However, Rachel had created glittery headbands for the women and matching bow ties for the men, so we all looked spiffy even though we may have made more than a couple mistakes while we were dancing. During the week that followed, I received three things: a flu shot, an adorable letter from mom and dad, and two Kakao Friends Christmas mugs from the white elephant gift exchange at work. On Dec 23, I went to my friend Eoraewa's dance performance. I watched the classes show off what they'd been learning, then unexpectedly got called on stage along with a few other women to do a swing out competition. I was allowed to choose my partner, so I asked El to join me because I knew he was a good dancer. The problem was that I had only just learned what swing out even was and couldn't really do it yet. I definitely wasn't good enough for a competition. It ended up being... embarrassing, as I was very unskilled at it, but people seemed to understand that it was just for fun. And at least now I'll always remember my first dance "competition". and I'll mail you a postcard from Korea. :) And then it was Christmas day. On Dec 25, I picked up AJ from the airport and gave him his very own T-Money card. He had been traveling for over 24 hours and had barely slept, so we went straight back to my apartment and he promptly fell asleep. :) The next morning, we called my parents via WhatsApp and opened presents with them. Our tiny Korean Christmas is one I won't ever forget. My family and his family had hand-chosen some perfect, beautiful gifts and I was a little overwhelmed with gratitude. Thank you so much, again. I don't know if I can ever repay you guys for the presents and love, but I promise I'll try. :') The next few days were a flurry of activity and hanging out with people as we tried to get AJ to eat as many Korean foods and experience as many Korean things as we could. We ate soup, noodles, rice, kimchi, bibimbap, went out for Korean bbq with my co-workers, and drank soju. On Dec 30, we hiked up Suraksan with Joe. I hadn't realized it on my previous hike, but apparently we hadn't made it to the top. An extremely friendly Korean man led us all the way to to the top this time around. But on the way, he invited us into a tarp-covered shack restaurant thing where we ordered and ate some food (fish cake soup and potato pancakes) and drank makgoli. The hut/shack was warmed by a wood-burning stove and we were the only foreigners in it. On the way down, we had to cross a river that had completely frozen over and which was extremely slippery and steep. The only way across it was by holding on to a steel cable and sliding slowly to the other side. While we were traversing the frozen water, Joe said that it was like we were in a video game (I imagined us being in Tomb Raider or Uncharted, like an action video game where you have to climb mountains and explore forests) and that he couldn't believe it was real life. I couldn't tell if he meant that he was having fun or that he was terrified for his life. During the day on New Year's Eve, we went to three markets near the center of Seoul: Myeongdong, Namdaemun, and Insadong. There were more things being sold there than can be named: spices, clothing, shoes, bags, tupperware, fish, raw meat, candy, unidentifiable knickknacks, to name a few. We ate tteokkbokki, hotteok, dumplings, and some kind of fried lentil seafood pancakes. We bought ridiculous socks for our families. AJ bought celadon pottery for his uncle. When it got too cold, we retreated to a fancy cafe and shared a jujube tea, which was thickly sweet and tasted like apple cider and dates. As the sun set, we explored tiny, quiet, twilit streets that were lined with small restaurants. That night, we went to Clare's for a New Year's party. It was a noisy shindig, with lots of people and food and K-pop music. We had some drinks and played some games before finally going to bed. I think New Year's is a good place to stop. We can linger a while longer in the happy days and nights at the end of December. The first few days of January involve taking the square root of A^2, so I'm not in a rush to relive that. Please reach out to me if you want to talk about anything or are feeling lonely. The world is a lot smaller now, and I'm only a few keyboard taps away. As always, thank you for reading; however, if I'm being honest, I'd prefer a dialogue over a monologue any day. On that note, I hope to talk to you later. <3 The code word is... Clandestine. Hi. It's been almost a month since my last post; time has grown wings. I imagined a clock sprouting wings and terrorizing a bunch of people by reminding them that it simply won't stand still.
What I'm trying to say is that I'm sorry for the delay in posting. I have to admit, my blog note-keeping has been less than exemplary. Nevertheless, I have still been writing sporadically - especially when something memorable happens - so you'll get a condensed version of the month's most exciting events. It's like when you're reading a book or watching a movie: you didn't pay the price of admission to watch Iron Man trim his beard. Unless you were hoping to see that... Be forewarned, there will be no beard trimming in this blog. Okay. Let's get started. The week of Nov 11-17 was unfortunately unusually uneventful. I taught children, spent time with friends and co-workers, and went to dance class. Nov 19 was the three-month-iversary of my existence in Korea. I watched the Cowboy Bebop episode called "Hard Luck Woman", so my evening was similar to Auri's third day in The Slow Regard of Silent Things. On that day, I also learned that the Korean word for apple is the same word as apology. So when someone with a terrible sense of humour has done something that warrants an apology, they'll give an apple to whomever they wronged. But according to Talk to Me In Korean, it's a rather silly thing to do. Which means it's how I'll be apologizing to everyone from now on. I've found that giving/receiving food or sharing a meal with someone has special significance here. The kids at work give the teachers little candies when they're happy. Even the adults do it occasionally. I've started carrying around an orange in my backpack so that I can give it to someone if they're nice or if they need food. I think it's an endearing cultural quirk. On the bus ride home on Nov 20, the young man sitting beside me was listening to Taylor Swift and Carly Rae Jepsen songs so loudly that I could distinctly hear which songs were playing... through his earbuds. His poor eardrums. I would never have guessed that he'd listen to those artists based purely on the way he looks, though. It reminded me to always open and read a book before judging its contents. That's how the idiom goes, right? Nov 22 was the first day of Korean lessons with Joe! He's an excellent language teacher. He's patient and always waits a long time for me to figure out how to say something. We went to a coffee shop called A Twosome Place. To be honest, I don't fully understand why it's named that. Is it because it's wholesome? Or maybe there always has to be an even number of people in the building? Regardless, it was really nice to be given "homework" for Korean instead of just teaching myself. I'm excited for our future classes. Sun Nov 25 was another morning Korean lesson with Joe and a cup of joe. We went to Suyu and wandered around a bit before settling into a small cafe. We wrote about feet and I learned a foot idiom: if you say someone has wide feet, it means they know many people. Listened to Electric Light Orchestra on the train, notably their song "Bluebird", then went swing dancing at a new bar called Fiesta. I met more people there! The three that I connected best with were 호석 (Hosok), El, and a young man who was born in the same year as me and also has a degree in microbiology and also is named Optimus Prime. Going out for drinks with them was the most immersive and authentic Korean experience I've had so far. There were no other foreigners, and everyone was drinking soju and beer and eating traditional Korean food. There was samgyeopsal, tteokbokki, raw oyster, spicy noodle soup. I had some difficulty picking up the rice tubes in the tteokbokki... Also... I broke a glass trying to make "Korean style" somek, which is a combination of soju and beer that is mixed by banging two chopsticks together in the glass. The week of Nov 26-30 was the last week I'd have with this batch of kids. During that week, I had many phone calls to make. We are required to make a phone call to each of our students so they can practice speaking English over the phone. For the beginner-level students, we usually ask them to read a passage from the story books that we do in class so it's structured and not stressful for them. But for the higher-level students, we can have an almost-normal conversation with them about almost anything. The trick is trying to pick something that they'll actually want to talk about. On Tuesday, I called one of my students (we'll call him KM) and we talked about traveling and what he thought of Avalon/LangCon. Funnily enough, he accused me of not bringing the class enough snacks. By coincidence, Friday was the unofficial "snack day" at our campus; the foreign teachers typically bring snacks for all their classes on the last day to make it more enjoyable and memorable for the students. But when I told KM this, he said he wouldn't be there on Friday! Wednesday was his last day. So on Wednesday after class, I asked him to wait outside the staff room and I came back out with a chocolate bar for him. He said thanks and bowed. On Friday, I found out that I'll be teaching older kids next semester, which I am terribly excited about. I connected better with the older kids than the younger ones, so I'm excited to see what happens. That's it for now, but I have a feeling that the post for December is going to be long. Maybe even very long. Many things have happened already and still more are brewing... The most highly anticipated of which is the reunion of A^2 in a couple of weeks. Talk to (at?) you later, fellow humans. Please feel free to message me anytime. I'd prefer a dialogue over this seeming-monologue any day. 안녕하세요!
Hello everyone! Welcome back! I hope the past several weeks have treated you well and that you're being positively challenged by the things in your life. I hope that you've strengthened connections with people that are important to you and spent at least a little bit of time loving yourself. On that note, thank you for taking a little bit of time to read read this. This is the three-month checkup, and it's a long one! Grab your bootstraps, cause it's time to go wandering. This post begins with me traveling on a train to a training conference. There was a two-day teaching conference on Tues, Oct 23 and Wed, Oct 24. All Avalon teachers had to attend at least one day. It was at Ori station, which was an hour and a half away from my apartment by train. Unfortunately, the train ride was long and the presentations were mediocre; but they did give us free Subway sandwiches for lunch. And I made plans with old friends to hang out on Saturday at a beer festival. Clare and I stopped at Nowon station on the way back to work to pick up some lunch and I ate a tasty cheesy black sesame bun. The bakeries here are ubiquitous and delicious. However, that night was a full moon and the students had transformed into werekids for the day. All of my classes were just wild. Even the ones that are usually very quiet and pay attention. It was literal lunacy. Trivia: Apparently every full moon of the year has a name. The one on October 24 was called the Hunter's Moon. On Sat Oct 27, I went to the Great Korean Beer Festival. It was outside on the rooftop of a mall! Unfortunately, the wind was blowing hard and was bitterly cold. I kept warm with porters and stouts. There was a great live band that performed jazzy renditions of popular Western songs, but I didn't catch their name and I can't find it online! Nevertheless, they were fun to listen to and sing along with while we were huddled around our beers and space heaters. I left early to go to swing dancing class, which was probably a good thing because my nose was turning red. From the cold, of course. The next day, I went swing dancing some more! It was at an event called Weekend Live which featured The Shirt Tail Stompers. There's something magical about dancing to live music, and the musicians played so beautifully. I felt very fortunate to see/hear them perform. There were several guest musicians that had flown in from Stockholm as well as a Korean woman who was petite but had an impressively powerful voice. In between sets, music was played over the speakers so the dancers could keep dancing, and the bassist joined us on the dance floor for a few songs! The event was organized by Jea - the president of Swing Pop (the group that I'm taking classes through) - so I knew many people there. It was a well-organized, fun event, and the music and dancing were unforgettable. Jea, you threw a thoroughly classy party, a delightful shindig, a jocund jamboree. On the way back, I saw an enormous rainbow bridge between Jamsillaru and Gangbyeon stations. And then it was Halloween week. On Oct 30, every employee stayed an hour after work to decorate the school; it was truly transformed. All the fluorescent lights were covered by colorful, translucent plastic to give the school darker, atmospheric lighting and we taped dozens of silver and black balloons to the ceiling (picture below). Watching my (usually quite stoic) co-workers hop on top of desks and run around being silly and creative was actually pretty fun despite the lateness of the hour. Halloween itself happened the next day. If you've ever been to the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Science is Magic event at the University of Alberta, our event was reminiscent of that. Each room had a different activity that the kids could do and they were completely free to choose the order they did them in. They received candy if they completed all the rooms. My room was called Candy Walk, which was like musical chairs but with numbers taped to the floor that the kids stood on instead of sitting on chairs. It resulted in nobody pushing or shoving one another! I listened to numerous Korean pop songs. On the walk home, I saw someone wearing one of those inflatable T. rex costumes and someone wearing a ghillie suit costume. On the first day of each month, I receive an email from Action for Happiness. Each month they send a calendar that gives you small daily tasks. The tasks are designed to gently challenge you to increase the happiness in the world around you. If you'd like, please take a look at their website and see what you think. But there's no pressure. :) The final swing dance lesson of Beginner Level 1 was Nov 3. After the class, our teacher, Rudra, gave us all "sleeping socks". I now have little snowmen with hearts to warm my feet at night. Everyone went out for dinner afterwards and we had some excellent global representation: our class was comprised of people from Korea, Russia, China, the States, and Canada. Afterwards, there was a Halloween celebration at the dance studio. The lighting was dim, the room was warm, the floor was bouncy and wooden, and there were freshly cut persimmons and homemade pumpkin spice brownies. It was a nice night. On Nov 5... I watched V for Vendetta! I also ate eggy in a basket to commemorate the occasion. It's still an amazing movie and I hope you watched it, too. During the week of Nov 5 to 9, I didn't have internet. One of the downsides to being a newly landed alien, I suppose; however, they were very productive days. I did yoga. As soon as I had internet again, I ordered dancing shoes online and downloaded Destiny 2. Ah yes, I knew I was forgetting something - LangCon Festival. All of the Avalon campuses across Korea participated in this event. In early October, kids auditioned for acting roles in plays written by the teachers. There were four teams at our campus. Every foreign teacher and Korean teacher was expected to either direct the kids in acting, singing, and dancing, or to make props and costumes. From Oct 24 to Nov 9, all the teams met after class on MWF from 8:40-9:30 and rehearsed. I wrote our script, which was a slightly less repetitive version of Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham. Thankfully, Alina did almost all of the directing during rehearsal time. Everyone helped with the dancing and singing. Ashley made the props and costumes by herself at her apartment in her spare time. Basically, we all busted our tails to make our group presentable. The performances happened on Sat, Nov 10. We had stayed late the night before to decorate, and arrived early to greet the parents. Our director, Susan, was very kind and bought us all coffees and lattes. Our team went first and it went off without a hitch! Whew. During intermission, Cameron (a male foreign teacher at our campus) danced for the parents. That was a unique experience. Then Patrick (the head foreign teacher) and I performed "You and I" by Ingrid Michaelson. Then we learned the results - our team won the campus competition! Hooray! And Susan was incredibly kind and bought us lunch in the form of tasty chicken burgers. After LangCon Festival, I went to Lotte World Mall with Brandi, Erika, and Stephen. The mall was a vast, scintillating sensory overload. There was a Studio Ghibli store! It had a giant stuffed Totoro and Catbus (pictures below). I bought several articles of clothing for a costume to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast at a swing dancing party later that night. The (very belated) Halloween party was at a new dance studio called Bat Swing. My dance instructors said that we'd learn more from attending social dances than we would from lessons, and I'm inclined to agree. At social dancing, you learn how to take chances, try new things, and fail over and over again. If failing is learning, I learned a lot about dancing that night, haha. When I got home, I ate my first persimmon (picture below), which I had bought on a whim at the grocery store. Please allow me to attempt to describe the way it tastes. The outside is delicately, deliciously crunchy - kind of like the outside of an apple, but easier to bite through. The inside is very soft and juicy. It has a bright flavor and an almost creamy texture. It tastes very fresh. It reminds me of the way the air smells after you've cut grass, but with a fruity sweetness. It's so sweet, it's like candy. Thanks for indulging me. You should eat one. :) On Nov 11... I went dancing again. I just realized that most of this post is about swing dancing. What can I say? I like it. Come dance with me. This event was very special because it was a Korean pre-wedding party. Not the actual reception, but a pre-reception party. I think. Jea knew the people who were getting married, so he invited everyone from Swing Pop. Again, I learned a lot and even danced with the groom for one song. I think he was expected to dance with everyone at least once, though. And Jea taught me so much Korean! He taught me a bunch of body part names and some phrases. He also taught me so much about dancing, since he's been doing it for ten years or something crazy like that. Oh, and the food was amazing. There was fresh fruit, tomato-mozzarella-basil skewers, meat skewers, muffins, and ice cream cake. At the end, we made a big circle and anyone could jump into the middle with their partner and show off some moves (I didn't do that). Regardless, it was really fun to be a part of. And now, for some music. If you want to relax and feel calm, I highly recommend the album Woodland by The Paper Kites. Things We Do by The Collective West is also great for when you're cooking dinner or just want to listen to some upbeat, folk, indie kind of stuff. Also, it may be old, but Outbound by Bela Fleck and the Fleckstones is simply phenomenal music. So is the album Ultra Ego by Feed Me Jack. As for progressive metal, if you haven't heard Polyphia before, you may wish to consider listening to them. Their songs are technical, intricate, and are emotional magic. The first thing you should do tomorrow morning is put in some headphones, close your eyes, and listen to their song "Light" as you lay in bed. And that's the end. I feel really fortunate to have you all in my life, even if the most we ever interact is you reading and liking these posts. Okay, have a great couple of weeks. I'll write to you again in a while. :) Hei everyone. This was a restful and remarkably uneventful week. I truly don't have much to say about it. If you choose to read this post and are super bored, well, I warned you in advance! If you're looking for riveting content and exciting Korean shenanigans, abandon ship now!
If you're still with me, I'm going to be posting every other week from now on, since I can foresee this happening more regularly now. My honeymoon phase with Korea is over, and I'm ready to settle in a little bit more. Some things of note did happen this week: I finally got my Alien Registration Card (ARC) on Thursday. The photo of me that they put on it makes me look like a femme fatale from film noir. Which is to say that it doesn't look like me very much. Since I finally had my ARC, I went to the bank and got a debit card. I don't have to pay for everything with cash anymore! And I can send money back home to pay student loans. At the bank, the song "Requiem" from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was playing. One thing I did do was listen to a lot of music. The walk to and from work affords me an hour or two each day, and it's been wonderful. Maybe this blog will become a review of music! I could have weekly themes. This one would probably be jazz or metal. I played albums by various jazz artists like Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. Snarky Puppy's upbeat album groundUP. A couple Rush albums like 2112 and A Farewell to Kings. And then a bunch of metal like Scale the Summit's album The Collective, Thank You Scientist's album Stranger Heads Prevail, and The Contortionist's album Language. If you end up listening to any of these for the first time, please let me know what you think! And maybe recommend some music. On Saturday, there was a farmer's market just outside my apartment. There were people at booths selling exactly what you would expect: jewelry, household knickknacks, clothing, produce. They had a live DJ playing music, too. Then I hopped on the train and went to dance class (which is when I listened to all that jazz). After class, Anis was kind enough to invite me to his birthday party, so I joined him and his friends for Korean barbecue in Hongdae. And well, that's the end! I don't even have any pictures! Hopefully I'll acquire some interesting content over the next fortnight. See you later, everyone. :) Happy Thanksgiving, Canada! I hope you spent it with good people and ate way too much food. Make sure to let your loved ones know that they're appreciated. Hug them extra tight for me.
As for me, I'm going to start this post by thanking my parents! They have some incredible parenting skills. Seriously, if you need help, go ask those two. They're experts. And it must be a transferable skill because they're also really good at raising kittens! From what I can figure out from seeing them raise kittens, the key seems to be a combination of cuddling, pestering, and constantly throwing them into new situations. Thank you for teaching me to work hard and play/relax afterwards. And for sharing vital life lessons with me, like:
Okay. The blog proper: On Sunday, Trevor and I summited Suraksan. The first quarter of the journey was a steep stone staircase set in the middle of a dense forest that made my legs burn and my heart pound in my ears. Thankfully, the path gradually became less steep and opened onto a tree-lined ridge that dropped straight down on either side. The tree roots leaped out of the ground and dove back into it. They stuck out at odd angles and we had to be very careful of our footwork so we didn't trip over them. The last quarter of the hike was the most strenuous and involved scrambling over boulders using our arms and legs and brains. The final stretch had a handrail of thick steel cable and the rock we were walking on had footholds worn (or carved) into it (picture below). At the top, we rested, ate snacks, and drank in the view. We were high above the sprawling city. The mountains around us looked like sleeping dragons covered by thick green blankets of trees. They sat stoic and silent while the wind danced around noisily. The sun was warm. The breeze cooled our faces. The ledge we sat on was precipitous and made the butterflies in my stomach fly off in every direction like a flock of birds when you run at them. As we made our descent, the sun started to set and the forested mountainside was bathed in gold. Then it was back to work. I listened to Gavin Castleton's album Home during my walks there. A student gave me a whiteboard marker! My co-workers and I went out to an arcade and then for Korean barbecue in Nowon. Trivia Time: In case you've never heard of it before, Korean barbecue is "the popular method in Korean cuisine of grilling meat, typically beef, pork, or chicken. Such dishes are often prepared on gas or charcoal grills built into the dining table itself." They bring you raw meat, and you cook it yourself using a large grill in the centre of the table. It's a very hands-on and social way to eat dinner. This week I wanted to get back into rock climbing, so I began researching Seoul's climbing gyms and stumbled upon a great blog that described the wall I was most interested in. Since I didn't have any climbing partners, I decided to reach out to the woman who wrote it... and I received a reply! After some emailing, we arranged to meet up on Saturday at The North Face climbing gym. Her name is Mai (pronounced like "my", not "May") and she's an incredibly interesting and kind person. We're currently the same skill level and I'm excited to improve with her. For an excellent description of the gym, check out Mai's blog! Although the gym is big, nice, and close to home, I still prefer the route setting in Canada. I don't think they wash the holds often enough here and they almost exclusively use the hand holds as foot holds, so they get really greasy. And the movement doesn't feel quite as intuitive or have a smooth flow. But we saw Kim Jain at the gym! She recently won the IFSC World Cup, so Mai went up and congratulated her. On the train ride home, I saw a guy wearing a hoodie that had a red maple leaf on it and said, "We should all be Canadian". 🍁 :3 After a quick lunch and some episodes of FMA:B, I was off again - this time to go swing dancing. I typically stand on the train and people-watch and listen to music; there isn't much of a view because it's usually underground. Then I felt the train begin to pick up speed and it suddenly burst out of the darkness of the subway into the bright afternoon light. The sun glittered on the river and N-Seoul Tower stood majestically in the distance. My jaw actually fell open. If I had given my route even the barest glance, I would have seen that I had to cross the river on Cheongdam Bridge. But I didn't and I think the view was that much better for being so unexpected. I disembarked at Nonhyeon station, which is near Gangnam, and it was spacious and elegant (picture below). My destination was called The Holic, which turned out to be a brightly-lit basement studio with wood floors and a mirror-covered wall. I connected immediately with a girl wearing deathly hallows earrings (thank you, J.K. Rowling) and she introduced me to other dancers. Everyone watched the graduation performances and then spent the next two or three hours dancing together. What can I say? Everyone was unbelievably welcoming and sweet. I've found a very special community. And I signed up for beginner Lindy hop lessons! If you end up visiting me in Seoul, you can bet your bottom won that I'm taking you out dancing. That's all for this week. Thanks for (virtually) joining me on these adventures. I hope to see some of you face to face sooner rather than later. :) |
AuthorAshley is a Canadian teaching English in South Korea. Although between the Korean, swing dancing, and general life skills, she's probably learning more than she's teaching. Archives
June 2019
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