Feeling sorry for myself Thursday

Aw, poor Sam is feeling sorry for herself. And writing in the 3rd person, apparently :)

You know, it's not all new food and romantic holidays by the sea when you move overseas. Today I am lonely. I have emailed ALL my friends, and no one has time to reply :( which = me being dumb and feeling sad. Well, actually I was feeling a bit sad anyway, so I think I'm projecting it into loneliness. Ah, the ups and downs of expat life! What's worse is I have all day at my desk to minutely examine my mental state in every single tiny detail. I think I'll put on my running shoes after work and see if I can't exercise myself out of it. But you know what I'm NOT going to do?

Eat myself out of it. Oh no, not this time. There will be no chocolate. There will be no cake. I can have a peppermint tea and a banana if it comes down to it. That's it!

1) Only 45 minutes until home time!

2) I've been listening to some good music at my desk today.

3) I'm going to go for a run and watch my favourite TV show tonight. Also, on Sunday I'm going to do one of my favourite regular trips into Seoul - the Hongdae art market and Myeongdong clothes shopping! Retail therapy ftw!

4) I want steak bbq for dinner. Or jokbal. Either way, I will have meat!

5) I love my mum.

Some photos from the weekend

Click the pictures to see them bigger.

The view from the hotel room.

Walking along a... pier? Groin? Not sure.

Fishing boats.

A small fish full of eggs. You just pull out the eggs and eat them.

Raw fish and raw fish ice soup.

Andy and I at the Buddhist temple.

Temple by the sea.

Me getting a drink

At the festival

Mmmm, pig!

Me eating the pig

Andy in the fish market

All different anchovies (I think)

Crabby!

Killing crabby

Ready to eat

Mmmmm....

The cable car

Up in the clouds

Andy and a bridge

Cool rock carving

Andy and another bridge

Me at the pathetic excuse for a waterfall we walked all the way to!

There are more pictures, but that's the highlights :)

Smell of pine needles Wednesday

To offset the truly horrible school lunch today, I had a lovely and relaxing sit outside underneath some trees. The smell of the pine needles drying in the sun was so nice.

Lunch, on the other hand...

Well, I've been eating mostly well for the past couple of weeks, but not *as* well as before, and now it's caught up with me. My feet, ankles, and tummy are swollen and I feel tired and unmotivated and just not as good as before. So, obviously, the answer is to clean up my food. Well, breakfast was a delicious combo of salmon, seaweed, and avocado - which was amazing and kept me really full. However, come lunch time I found cabbage and unknown meat salad smothered in unknown-but-probably-almost-certainly-sugar-laden-sauce, bean-sprout soup (I don't eat bean sprouts), rice (didn't even take any), and a battered hotdog. I tried an experimental bite of the hotdog to find it was a small REALLY processed sausage-like meat-like thing covered in what tasted like vanilla sponge cake, dipped in sweet tomato sauce. It was like disgusting, wrapped in weird, then dipped in yuck. So I ate the salad and drank the soup sans-sprouts. I think my co-workers probably think I have an eating disorder. And I might be a tad hungry by the time I get home! Ah well, with any luck I can un-swell myself and get back to that uber-awesome happy state I'd managed to obtain.

I've talked to Andy about it too, and he seems to understand. I just told him I thought flour and sugar are bad for me and don't make me feel good. He said he doesn't feel well after eating bread and stuff either, so with any luck my eating a little strangely won't be much of a problem. He actually doesn't even eat that much rice, so me skipping it 90% of the time hasn't caused much comment. I'm cooking dinner for us both tonight, so at least I know that'll be fine. I'm planning on garlic-rosemary grilled chicken, a lettuce-bacon-almond salad, and mashed kumara. Yum!

Speaking of Andy, I'm really enjoying (among other things) how our conversations are slower than I'm used to. It's partly because English is his second language, and mostly due to him thinking hard before he speaks. It means our conversations have a much slower pace, and I like it. Sometimes I'll ask him something and he takes so long to reply I think he's not going to, but he's actually just considering his answer thoroughly. It's actually a quality I'd like to have more of myself.

And I didn't end up cooking at home last night. I had octopus! But, I did try to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I turned it off after maybe 20 minutes though, it was so crappy! Not even Johnny could save that one.

OK, today's five:

1) Smell of warm pine needles in the sun.

2) The sound of cicadas. 

3) Salmon and avocado for breakfast - doesn't get much better than that!

4) I get to cook for someone, which is always nice :)

5) I finished planning Summer Camp.

Lacklustre Tuesday

So, last night for dinner I had Vietnamese shabu-shabu. It's similar to Korean shabu-shabu, but tastes a little different, doesn't have a noodle or rice course, and you use the meat and stuff you boil to make rice paper spring rolls. Courtney would have loved it - so sad she's back home now :( I'm going to try and cook dinner at home tonight. In the past 18 days I've cooked dinner once. Yeah, one time in two and a half weeks. I don't really miss it or anything, but sort of feel like I should. Plus, I have an avocado to use. I suppose I'll have it for breakfast if I end up being out, though.

I'm feeling a bit lacklustre today. I think I need to do some exercise! My diets been fairly good, but not as good as I'd like, so I'm going to work on cleaning that up and do a strength workout and some sprinting this evening. And maybe a quick nap - I'm sleepy. Though, exercise will help with that too.

I've got no teaching again today. I've been hard at work designing English summer camp, though. I'm nearly done, and it's looking good. I think I've got a good mix of writing, movies, speaking, crafty art type stuff, role-plays, etc. It's not as ambitious as I'd originally envisioned, but I think that's probably good. I don't know how many/which students are signed up (I don't think they are yet), so I need the plan to be really flexible with regards to class size, level, and how much freedom I can give the groups to do their own thing. But, so far, it's looking good.

And tonight I feel like watching a movie. I might finally get around to watching the latest Pirate of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp is always good for lacklustre recovery :)

Today's 5:

1) It's warm, but breezy today - it's quite lovely.

2) Dinner and a movie at home, sounds good to me!

3) I've got most of Summer camp planned. That means I can concentrate on getting ready to go to Japan.

4) I've bought some Korean plums to try - yummy hopefully

5) I have super chocolate cravings and I'm not giving in.

Monday's 5

Wooo, this my 200th blog post! Who ever thought I'd keep up with it? Least of all me!
Well, today so far has been completely uneventful. I came to work at 9, so have to work till 5 (instead of my usual 8-4), so I'm just hanging out waiting until 4.45 when I can go and catch the bus. And it is hot today!

Hmmm, 5 things that are good about today:

1) No fish at lunch

2) I've started planning Summer camp and it's looking good. I spent this morning making a board game. It was fun to make, hopefully it's fun to play.

3) I'm reading the second book of 'The Land of Oz' series. They're weird. I'm not even sure they are good books, but it's entertaining enough for the moment.

4) 15 minutes until home time.

5) 200 blog posts! That's awesome :)

Weekend update Monday

Yet again, another amazing weekend! I did so much, I'll probably forget to write about a whole bunch of it!

Ok, Friday night:

Andy came and picked me up from home and we went and got some dinner. Ended up getting steak as a take-away and eating it in the park - best picnic food ever! And Andy is happy to eat his steak as rare as me, so it was delicious! Then, we drove for almost three hours to get to where we were staying on the East Coast. The hotel was right across the street from the beach - you could hear the waves all night.

Saturday:

Had a local speciality - some sort of mussel soup, and some seafood pancakes for breakfast. Korean food is amazing when you know what to order (well, when Andy knows what to order)! Then, Andy and I went and looked around some docks/ a fishing area, and then went to the beach. It was a bit overcast so the sea didn't look very inviting. I didn't go swimming, but I did fall asleep on the beach. Then it was lunch time - we went to a seafood restaurant where we had a bunch of raw local seafood. Some of it was nice, but some of it (like icy fish soup and raw octopus) was just 'ok'. Then, in the evening we went to a huge festival. It ran along both sides of a big river and there were tents and stalls and shows and displays of EVERYTHING! We walked around for a bit and then randomly saw a circus show. It was really good! I've seen quite a few circuses and stuff, so amateur stuff can be sadly unimpressive to me, but this circus was great! The 'special effects' and set and stuff were basic, but the performers were really talented, and did some things I've never seen. One guy juggled two balls with his mouth! And a guy balanced on a tightrope on a ladder! It really was a lot of fun.

Then, it was time for more food! There were lots of places cooking pigs on spits over hot coals, so I *had* to eat that! Apparently there was also whale meat - it just looked like pork belly to me - and I sort of wanted to try it, but then I wasn't sure I felt good about eating a whale. It might have been an endangered one or something. But, the pork was delicious! And now I've made myself hungry :) After eating, we walked some more, and ate some snacks and what not. A great day!

Sunday:

Andy and I went to the fish market in the morning and had a look at all the fish. Then, for breakfast we had two huge fresh crabs! Andy says they were local. They were alive in a tank, and the guy fished them out, killed them, and steamed them, and then we ate them. It was really delicious! And quite an experience. Then, we started the trip home. We decided that instead of taking the direct route home, which would take about 3 hours, we'd go the scenic route, which was about 5 hours. Well, it took us much longer than that! 

Andy drove along the water front whenever he could find roads that went along it. We stopped to watch some surfers at a beach and eat some pecan pie. Then, more driving and a stop at Naksansa - a Buddhist temple built on top of a hill/mountain overlooking the ocean. It was an amazing spot and we walked around there for a while, admiring the view and the buildings. Then, on the way down, they were serving noodles for lunch for free, so we got some. Pretty yummy, actually. We also drank from one of the random fountains all over the hill.

Then, more driving! And we went to Seoraksan National Park. By this point it was raining, but that didn't stop the adventure. We went on a cable car up one of the mountains and up into the clouds. We walked up a path to a big rocky outcrop overlooking a big drop off. Well, I assume it was a big drop, it was too foggy to see. Andy was very not keen on the height :) There were lots of squirrels and they were really unafraid of people, one came really close to my foot. After coming back down off the mountain, we looked at a map and decided spur of the moment to walk to a waterfall a couple of km away. The walk was really beautiful - through 'proper' forest and rivers and stuff. We walked and climbed, and got to the waterfall, which as it turns out was not that impressive. On the way back we saw some native fish, and a mountain frog, and more squirrels. It was great!

Then, more driving, plus a BIG stop at a rest area to try and wait out some of the awful traffic jam heading back to Seoul. That part was a bit crappy, but not too bad. I eventually got home at about 11pm, so got a good night's sleep and now I'm at crappy work!

Anyway, it was a fantastic weekend. Andy was amazingly good company, and great fun. I'm so glad we didn't just take the direct 3 hour dive back to Seoul! The 10 hour version was much better :D

Photos will be in the next post.

Off to the Sea Friday

Yay - it's Friday! It's been a pretty good week all round - apart from Courtney leaving - and the weekend looks set to be awesome too. There are possible thunder storms predicted late tomorrow, but I love the sea in stormy weather, so that just makes me happy.

Sadly, the shabu shabu place was closed for Courtney's leaving dinner, but we went just across the road to a Chinese bar instead. I find the food quite horrible, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. Basically it just served seafood, chicken, or pork battered and deep fried in different sauces. All are pretty sweet and oily. Not ideal, but not inedible. I think the plan for tonight is steak, so looking forward to that!

Andy and I are leaving later this evening to drive to the East Sea. I'm not sure how long it takes to get there, a good 2-3 hours at least. But, I get ALL DAY tomorrow by the sea, and Andy says it really good water, and the beach is a nice one, so I'm happy. There will be photos :)

Today's five:

1) There was no bony fish for lunch at all this week! Major success!

2) I bought some new bras from E-Mart yesterday. I've read that lots of western girls can't buy underwear in Korea, so I must be really lucky because it fit me really well. And it's so cheap!

3) Korea has huge spring onions and massive ants. This amuses me. The spring onions are about the size they must have been when dinosaurs were around. I think if/when I return to NZ the spring onions will look like chives! And as for the ants? Ew. Very big. I went and sat outside at lunch time, and now I keep imagining there are massive ants crawling on my legs.

4) No teaching yesterday or today. I think I've almost read the entire internet.

5) East sea weekend!

Mermaids on a Thursday

So, I was just googling something completely unrelated. "How to teach gerunds" was where I was headed, but a typo resulted in "how to be" instead of "how to te[each]", and what pops up in the google suggestion thing?

"How to be a mermaid". 

Well, this simply had to be clicked. Turns out there are women out there, fully adult, normal looking women, who get latex mermaid tails custom made and go swimming in them. For real. There's even a convention, and possibly some kind of competition to be 'the worlds best mermaid'. Wow, the things I never knew. I did always want to be a mermaid when I was little. I had the mermaid Barbie - it was the best one!

She was so cool!

Haha, annnnyway. I, for some stupid reason, decided to eat some Oreos this afternoon, and now I feel so sick. Seems like the longer I keep up this no grains/minimal sugar thing, the worse I feel when I do eat them. God, I wish I'd just learn now and stop even wanting to eat them occasionally. Erg, I really do feel sick to my stomach :(

Today, at school, there were more unexplained alarms, and all the lights were turned off and the internet went down. I don't know what it was, other than turning off the lights in the teacher's room, everyone ignored it. I guess I should just ask someone what's going on, but I'm too lazy. Probably because I ate those stupid Oreos. 

So, tonight is Courtney's last night in Korea. I haven't seen her for a few days. It'll be sad to say goodbye to her tonight, but it is good that she'd going back to her family. We're all trying to go out for shabu shabu again, but I am predicting the place will be closed by the time she finishes work. It doesn't matter though, we'll find food somewhere.

In other news, Andy booked tickets to Japan this morning! So, Japan trip in July is go! I'm super excited and REALLY hoping that I'll be able to eat ramen without feeling really sick. I definitely want to eat it while I'm in Japan, but I might have to keep it to a minimum. We'll see. Definitely no Oreos!

I've hod no teaching again today. Hence the mermaid exploration. I also learned why the sky looks blue and how to correctly use bobby pins. Yeah, who knew there was a 'right way'? Me neither. Ha, and they pay me to do this. I'm really starting to hope my school has funding for me to stay with them another year. I'm not ready for my Korean adventure to be over yet - things are just getting interesting (plus my savings account is SO happy). Well, even if this school can't keep me, there are plenty more (just I've got a pretty sweet deal here, and although I complain of boredom, who wants to do more work than they have to? If I can sign on for another year, I might take an extramural uni course or something. You know, for fun.).

Anyway, it's THREE WHOLE HOURS until I can go home. I need something to research...

Lol, assuming anyone bothers to show up to this last after school class. 

Ok, enough rambling. Today's five:

1) Japan flights are booked, and the old tickets are being refunded. Excellent!

2) I sat under a big tree at lunch time today and it was so nice. It is very hot outside, but in the shade with the wind blowing, it's really lovely.

3) I managed to sleep until 7am this morning! I did wake up at five, but I got back to sleep again.

4) I haven't spoken to a single person since 8am, when Andy called to tell me about the Japan flights. That was seven hours ago.

5) Mango is delicious and so is avocado.

Not much Wednesday

Not a great deal to report yet today. Most exciting thing to happen is the fire alarm going off. Everyone just ignored it though, so I assumed we were't about to be consumed by a flaming inferno. Mind you, it was lunch time. It's probably take more than a fire to pry these kids away from their lunch!

So, yesterday Andy came around in the evening and we went for some 'Japanese' food for dinner. I say 'Japanese' because I'm pretty sure it was Korean-Japanese fusion. It was nice, anyway. Andy ordered because the whole menu was in Korean, and he got three-ish different things to try. There was a grilled pike and anchovies, a selection raw flounder, and some sashimi type stuff. It was all extremely fresh (like just caught out of the tank, filleted, and served). I enjoyed it heaps. Andy thinks it's weird that I don't eat bread, but so far I haven't had any problems when eating out. 

Also, once again, only one student turned up for my after school class. I told Mr B this morning, and he said that Thursday would be my last one. I feel guilty, like it's my fault the kids weren't coming. I really was trying my best to make the classes relevant and fun, and I was putting a lot of effort in, but I guess it was still no good. I'm also a bit worried that Mr B blames me. It's so hard to tell because he never talks to me about anything. I just hope that if there was a problem, that he'd tell me.

And I'm going to the East Sea this weekend! I'm not really sure what to expect, but if it's warm, sunny, and I can swim and sit on the beach, I'll be happy. Also, tomorrow is Courtney's last night in Korea and we're all going for shabu-shabu as a goodbye dinner. So sad!

1) Trip to the East sea id booked. Weekend of sun and sand, here I come!

2) Sun!

3) Nice chicken for lunch

4) I love wearing dresses.

5) Turns out if you book tickets to Japan using Korean websites they're almost half the cost of using English ones :)

예쁘다 Tuesday

So, this morning I was waiting for the bus, and an old lady walked past staring at me hardcore. I gave her a massive smile, and her face lit up, she gave me a huge smile back again and said "예쁘다", which means "you're pretty". Haha, kind of made my morning :) Another Korean lady in a restaurant told me I was beautiful on the weekend, too. My head is going to get so big in Korea! I also got told I was 'tall and skinny' by two different people. I guess the difference is: Westerners might think it, but Koreans just say it. At least they're saying nice things to me.

OK, today's five:

1) I got a great night's sleep last night. I managed to break the 5am wake up, and lasted until 5.40. Not great, but a start.

2) I've got 3 classes to teach today, plus an after school class. Yay!

3) Plans for a replacement Japan trip are under way. I won't reveal the details yet, in case I jinx it. But, it has the potential to be awesome!

4) Gorgeous weather today! Blue skies, sun, the works. I'm hanging out with Andy after work today, maybe we can go somewhere with water like a lake or river. Might be nice.

5) I had one kick-ass breakfast this morning. Left overs from dinner last night! Grilled salmon with avocado and mango salsa. Flash and delicious (and grain+sugar free). Perfect!

No, you can't have my number Monday

Another great weekend in the ROK. On Friday night Andy picked me up from work and we went to Costco in Seoul (which make 'The Warehouse' look like a Four Square). Then we had dinner by the Han river in Seoul. I didn't take any pictures, but the view was great - the lights from Seoul reflecting off the water looked amazing. We were going to meet up with Courtney and her workmates, but things got all messed up on her end, so I just went home to bed instead.

However, I keep waking up at 5am! So, if I go to be at around 11, get to sleep around 11:30, I only get about 5 and a half hours sleep - which is SO not enough for me. This has gone on all week, and I'm pretty tired now. I need to try and get to bed around 9pm if it's going to keep up. Not cool!

Anyway, on Saturday Courtney, Andy, and I went to a Korean folk village. It was pretty cool! They have traditional style Korean houses, tools, etc., etc. It was interesting and some of it was really quite beautiful. I especially like the stone carvings and the trees. After that we went to Andy's house and his mum mad us dinner. And she had made everything! All the pickles, sauces, and everything was home made, and in many cases, home grown. It was awesome! My favourite was a sour plum and chilli pickle - it was so good. Andy's parents really really sweet and it was nice to meet them. They didn't seem at all phased having two white girls wandering around their home :)

I liked this - apparently it's to ward off ghosts.

On Sunday I went to the Rose Festival at Seoul Grand Park with Laura. It was a large garden filed with roses and flowers. It was a lovely display of flowers, and there was also a walkway along the lakeside, which was nice. We spent a few hours wander among the flowers and taking photos, and then went to get some lunch. We had Mexican for lunch, and it was yum. Then, I met up with Courtney at the cinema and Laura went home. Courtney and I saw Men in Black III, and it was ok. It was funny in places, but lacked the spark of the first one. And the baddy alien was totally disgusting! It kept me entertained, though, so it was all good. Then, we met up with Nyasha, had some dinner, and caught the bus back to Osan. I managed to get to bed by 10.30, but still woke up at five this morning. Blegh.

And now it's Monday again! I get to teach two whole classes today! Woohoo!
This morning on the bus, I had my headphones. This guy hands me his smartphone with the massage "Can I take you number" translated into English on the screen. I was just like "no". Whatever he wanted, I didn't.

Today's five:
1) Cherries for breakfast.

2)Teaching time at last!

3) There was no bony fish at lunch.

4) I'm going to go ask Mr B if I can go home. I need to sleep so badly!

5) Salmon and avocado for dinner. Perfect!

Cake for breakfast Friday

I had a nice evening alone last night. It was good to just lay on my bed, put on some music, and stare at the ceiling for a few hours. I also made myself cry a bit to see if it would help. Might have. I'm feeling a bit better today, anyway. I'm doing lots of thinking and I'm learning some stuff about myself that I want to work on changing. Not bad things, necessarily, but stuff I do that makes it hard for people to really get to know me. Like I think I'm too strong and independent at times. I need to not make people feel like I don't need them at all. Which is a problem, because I don't want to need people, because when you need them and then they leave, it's awful. Buuuut, better to have loved and lost and all that crap, right? Meh.

Anyway, today's top five:

1) Luke again gets a special mention for providing the best email conversation. Made my day more interesting.

2) I had cake for breakfast. Not a part of the eating plan at all, but this week, anything goes. Next week = back on track.

3) Lunch was not bony fish. I consider this a huge success! Yesterday's was :(

4) Mr. B. is being REALLY nice to me lately. He was totally dedicated to getting my aircon fixed, and he says hello to me every morning, and he just told me that all the questions I wrote for the end of semester test are 'wonderful'. I either did something right, he's in a good mood, or he wants something. Maybe my consistently sunny disposition is finally winning him over.

5) Big group dinner tonight - we're going for chicken. We = Courtney, her work mates, her Mike, work Mike, Andy, and maybe Nyasha and her workmates. Should be a fun night!

It gets weirder Thursday

What the eff is going on with my life right now? I did not seek any of this out! It's actually really funny if you're not me :D Ok, it's kind of funny to me too. Only I have to deal with feeling constantly ill to my stomach and being able eat about 5 mouthfuls of food before wanting to throw up. Stress is not so good. If I could just skip this shit, that would be great. Anyway, latest interesting thing: Luke just emailed me out of the blue. This is not especially amazing, but the timing is uncanny. For those of you who don't remember, Luke is 'Mr Palmerston North' from over 4 years ago. Haven't seen or heard from him in years, and he just emailed me to ask how I was doing. I have no idea where he is or what he's doing now - I'd be completely unsurprised to hear he's got a wife and kids, it was what he really wanted years ago. But, then again, people change.

Anyway, I'm going to buy a couple of nice chocolate bars or something and just spend some time alone this evening. I've been so busy lately, I've barely had time to think and I think it's time for me to take some time out and let the thoughts come. Might be healthier. Might be time for me to be 'not okay' for a few days.

Anyway, today's five:

1) The lovely girl in my after school class - it's her birthday today. I've planned a birthday lesson with a big game of ESL 'Cranium' and bought a cake for the class to share. If nothing else, the cake should go down well.

2) Tomorrow is Courtney's leaving party. I'm really sad she's going, but happy that I can go to a party to say goodbye.

3) I was really early for the bus this morning because I went to get the cake, so I stopped in at Cafe Bene and got an iced blueberry tea. It was so nice, and a really relaxing way to start the morning. Maybe I should have a hot chocolate this afternoon.

4) Um, so no one showed up for after school class. Which was good in two ways: I got to go home early AND I got to keep the cake :D

5) Luke's email was actually really nice and it was good to catch up.

Here's some tuna pics:

Ok, not tuna, but cake!

Butterfly Wednesday

The post title sounds transformational, doesn't it? Well, sorry to disappoint - I just saw some butterflies :)

I'm feeling a little more settled today, but not by a whole lot. I'm still finding it a bit difficult to eat much. Lunch today was one of weirder concoctions I've had in Korea - fried chicken tenders covered in hot (sweet) fruit salad. It wasn't horrible, but I'm not really a fan. So, I picked all the chicken out and ate it, then started on the salad. A few mouthfuls in though, and I almost couldn't swallow. I think the poor teachers at work think I'm anorexic or something. A good appetite is kind of a sign of good health here.

Anyway, because Courtney forgot her bank card some time over the weekend and I paid for everything for her, she's taking me out for tuna tonight. It's a bit pricey, but it's delicious all you can eat raw tuna served in a bunch of different ways. I've had it once before and loved it. I have to remember to take photos this time.

Today, no teaching again! Mr B. just told me to work on the English exam questions. I finished them a few hours ago and have spent the last little while emailing friends and looking at photos on Facebook. I had a pleasant lunch time though. I went outside and sat under the trees. There were about three different types of butterfly flying around, a light breeze, and the biggest ants I've ever seen.

It's only Wednesday, but my weekend is already looking packed. Mike is throwing Court a leaving party on Thursday or Friday, C and I are going into Seoul to go to T.G.I. Friday's for dinner and to see Men in Black III, and then I'm going to the rose festival with Laura on Sunday. Should be good!

Ok, today's five:
1) Tuna!

2) Butterflies.

3) My aircon got fixed - yay!

4) Sun is good.

5) Late start in the morning :)

Pretty crappy Tuesday

Well. On top of sad life news that I'm not going to write about (suffice to say, July in Japan is NOT happening), Mr. B. just told me he thinks the lesson plan I made for our open class next week is "maybe a little bit boring". Uh huh. He said it has no whole class games or 'sing a song', which apparently makes it boring. It has a video of a guy blending an i-phone, a dog riding a skateboard and a guy who can smash toilet seats with his head - how is that boring? When I asked him what he would like changed, though, he just got confusing and started talking about group leaders and that 7 minutes was too short - seriously, I had no idea what he was trying to say. English was coming out of his mouth, but it made no sense. I said "Mr. B., I don't understand. Do you want me to change the activities?". Then he said "no". Oooookay. He said we can do a run through of the lesson early next week and then change it if need be. That actually is a good plan coming from him.

I just looked through it again, and I think I did a good job. But, I kind of HAVE to think that today, or I might throw up :)

Point in Mr. B.'s favour - he remembered about my airconditioner. He told me last week to make sure I'd taken the cover off it, that that might be why it's not working. I went home and checked, and it didn't have a cover. On Monday morning, he actually remembered and asked me about it! I said that no, it still wasn't working, so now he's organised for a aircon service man to come around tomorrow after school. Originally he wanted me to give him the passcode to my door so the service man could go in at lunchtime today, but after some explanation I got him to understand I didn't want a strange man in my house when I wasn't there. Mr B. thought my problem was that they'd know my passcode, but I don't want people in my house when I'm not there. All my stuff, including laptop and a fair bit of cash is in there. Anyway, it worked out in the end. Apparently they guy will be around after 6pm tomorrow. Hopefully then I'll have some cold air.

Now, because Japan has to be cancelled I need somewhere new to go for my summer break. I will go to Japan, but not now. I could go to a beach resort area of Taiwan, back to Hong Kong (DisneyLand!), or check out Macau. I could go all the way to Thailand or buck up and try the Philippines. Or stay in Korea and visit the East coast. A few people (mainly Koreans) have told me recently how great the east coast is. Today is not the day for these decisions, though :) Maybe staying and exploring Korea is a good idea.

Ok, in the name of continuing wellbeing, here's today's five things. I'm warning you though, they might be a bit pathetic.

1) I enjoyed listening to my music on the bus this morning.

2) Mr. B asked me to write the listening section of the end of semester English tests, so at least I have some work to do.

3) I look really nice today.

4) I'm seeing Courtney for dinner tonight.

5) Today was one of the weirdest days of my life. I'm not sure if the universe is helping or laughing its ass off. Seriously, WTF?

Wonderful weekend Monday

Oh. My. God.

My body now hates me.

You know how I said how when some people stop eating wheat and sugar and then after some time they eat it again and get sick, but that didn't happen to me? Well, guess what? It happened to me. I ate almost nothing but sugar yesterday, and it was awfully amazing. I kept getting all energized and feeling like I wanted to run around, and then I'd crash and just want to sleep, then eat, and repeat. Then, last night, after my day of sugar, I couldn't sleep. It took me hours to fall asleep, then finally fell asleep at maybe 12.30, 1am. Then, I woke up at 4.45am with both my hands gone totally numb (little finger on my right hand was scary numb), and couldn't go back to sleep. So, I got maybe five hours sleep last night, max. Also, this morning, my digestive system hates me and I've got an upset tummy. I'm going to try my best NOT to do that again. But, and interesting experiment.

And now, the events leading up to the Ultimate Sunday of Sugar!

Friday night I met up with Andy for dinner. Yet another things my stupid brain wanted me to weasel out of but I didn't. (Seriously, what's up with that? That's three things I've not wanted to do but made myself and they've all been great. Lesson = learned!). Anywho, Andy is a Korean guy I met on the horse racing/Seoul Zoo meetup I did. He lives about 10 minutes drive away from Osan. So, he came and picked me up and we went for dinner. We didn't end up having Korean food, but we did have some rather delicious steak. Then we went for a walk in the park and he took me home. Nice night out :)

On Saturday I spent the day just playing StarWars, cleaning, shopping, etc. Then, in the evening, Courtney and I were meeting up for Shabu-shabu, and I invited Andy along to meet Courtney. Again, good food and good company. After dinner we went to an awesome park for a walk. It had a little river, and all these lights that changed colour, and frogs! While we were at the park, Courtney brought up the idea of having a picnic the next day, so we decided to do that.

Sunday morning I had a chat to Mum and Brook, which was great. Then, in the afternoon, Andy came and picked up Courtney and I and we went to the American Air-force Base where Andy works. Neither Court nor I had ever been anywhere like it. You can't just go there, as a civilian, but Andy was allowed to have us a s guests. He showed us around and we had lunch at an American restaurant. 

The air base was pretty interesting. It's just like a little town, but walled off and there's the odd person in army fatigues with a massive gun wandering around :D It's all very orderly, and very beige! I got the feeling that the air force people could probably be on a base just about anywhere in the world and it'd look pretty much the same.

We went to this American chain restaurant called 'Chillis' for lunch. Quite funny because I've just been reading about that same restaurant in the book about food manufacturing. I was keen to see what it was like. Well, all the prices were in American dollars, and we had to tip - which Court had to work out for me because I've never done it. I ordered apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream, which was about the most American thing ever :) And a total sugar overload. It was very nice, though. Haha, but both Court and Andy were a bit confused at me ordering dessert for lunch, and kept offering me their food too. The flavours in my apple thing were all really intense, and while it was nice, I don't want it again. It was sweet, creamy, salty, cinnamon, vanilla, and a tiny hint of apple. And so much sugar it burned!

After lunch we went to a buddhist temple up in the hills and had a walk and a look around. I don't know how they do it, but Buddhists make their areas so peaceful and calming. I went inside the temple, and the sense of peace was almost overwhelming. I just wanted to sit there, smell the incense and take it in. But, Court was waiting outside, so I didn't. Maybe another time. It was really nice up there, though.

Then we went down to the river and had an afternoon/evening picnic. Which just means we sat on a blanket on the ground for hours talking, and C managed to drink an entire bottle of wine herself. So, by the evening she was pretty happy :D

So, to finish off the evening, C and A had a small dinner (I was too full to eat anything!), and then about 10pm we called it a night and all went home. It was a lovely way to spend a Sunday. Both Courtney and Andy were a lot of fun and are such nice people. I'm super glad I've met both of them.

And that is all for the weekend. And no more sugar for me for a day or two. I'll have to be better socially - I can't go sugar overdosing every time I'm out with friends!

OK, Monday - Today!
Again, no teaching for me at all. I'm going to have to start writing another article or something, before I go crazy. Well, summer holidays are coming, so I do need to start planning summer camp in the next few weeks. Although, it makes it a bit tricky when no one knows what level or how many kids will be in the classes, but I can deal with it.

Today's five:

1) Some Maroon 5 song was playing at lunch. It was Awesome with a capital 'A'. Some of lyrics went something like: "Those fairytales are full of shit. If I hear one more fucking love song, I'll be sick". Hehe, played at full volume throughout the school. Made me giggle, but no one else seems to notice.

2) The lovely not-all-there-kid (Not the always-says-hi-to-me-kid) loves soccer. Seriously loves it. He comes and talks to me about soccer in 99.9% Korean with the odd English word thrown in. Today he was standing on the field and the ball rolled over to him. The other boys asked him to kick it back, and then let him join in their game. Wow, he was so freakin' happy it makes me smile just to think about it. He kept looking over and giving me the thumbs up :)

3) Babies laughing are awesome.

4) I went for a lovely walk in the rain.

5) Life is good.

One class on a Friday

It's much cooler today than it has been for the past little while. I wonder if it's going to start raining soon. Apparently the really hot, wet, muggy weather should start soon and last through until August. Not really looking forward to that :)

Today has been just another normal day. I did get to teach one whole class this morning, though. Quite exciting. Sadly, lunch was not. Icky baby frankfurter sausages in sweet bbq sauce with smooshy noodles, seaweed, and some mushed gross spinach thing, along with spicy bony fish soup. My broccoli was nice,

Tonight I'm going out to dinner with a Korean friend I met at the meetup a few weeks ago. Don't know where we're going... mystery dinner! On the weekend I'm getting together with Laura to go to the rose festival at Seoul Grand Park. I'm quite looking forward to that, it should be really nice.

Today's five:

1) Got to teach a class, so for 45 minutes I was not stuck at my desk.

2) Going for dinner tonight - hopefully get to try some new Korean food.

3) I started reading a really interesting book about the food industry and all the things they do to design the 'food' they make so that people want to eat more of them. It's fascinating! The book is quite good in that it's not trying to vilify the industry, which I appreciate. I mean, I think what they're doing is disgustingly unhealthy, but people want it - badly. They're not evil, they are just working on such a different mental planet from someone trying to eat 'natural' foods.

4) Had a great bodyweight workout this morning.

5) I got a seat on the bus! Second to last one :)

Memorial Day Yesterday Thursday

Yesterday was a day off work, and I had an amazing day! Courtney invited me to come along with her and some Korean ladies she knows to go into Seoul. My first thought was "nah, how can I get out of that", and then, once again, I was like "Shut up Sam and tell her yes". So I did. 

I met up with her and the ladies (5 Korean ladies and 4 of their younger children) at Osan City Hall in the morning where we caught a bus and then the train into central Seoul. We went for an awesome walk around some traditional Korean neighbourhoods full of lovely architecture, greenery, and cute little shops and galleries. The sun was out and everyone was so nice and friendly. Some of the ladies spoke great English and others were more unsure, but all were funny and great company.

After walking for a few hours we went for lunch and I tried ice cold noodles. It's a common summer dish in Korea. It's a lot of noodle, as Courtney put it :) I enjoyed it, but it wasn't good enough to want again. After lunch we got some Hagen Daaz ice cream - I got dulce de leche flavour and it was amazing!

Then we walked over Insadong, a traditional shopping area of Seoul and looked at all the handmade fans, jewellery, art, and snacks. I got a bracelet that I love from an old Korean guy making them at his stall. The we were all knackered and sunburnt, so went back to Osan.

Nyasha called Courtney on our way home and wanted to have dinner, so we asked the Korean ladies for a recommendation. We ended up going to a shabu-shabu restaurant, which is so cool because I've been meaning to find one and go for ages! Nyasha, Courtney and I had a good catch up and at ALL the food!

Shabu-shabu comes in three courses here. First you eat the meat and vege boiled in the broth, then you get noodles and boil them in the broth and eat them, then you make a thick rice porridge out of all the leftovers and eat that. All for $11 a person. We were all stuffed!! It was very nice, too.

So, from start to finish, a lovely day!

Back to work today, though. Another day with no classes. I'll try for after school class AGAIN today :) I have been pretty busy at my desk though. Mr B. says we have another open class on Wednesday the 20th, so I've done all the lesson planning and materials prep for that. I just finished. But I'm not going to give it to Mr B. for a few days. He always seems a bit annoyed if I'm too quick to finish things for him. Maybe feels threatened or something.

OK, today's 5:

1) fantastic day yesterday

2)Lots of sun!

3) Had some good work to do today.

4) I finally remembered to tell Mr B. my aircon doesn't work. He made a phone call, don't know what'll happen now.

5) I've got bacon, letuce, and avocado in my fridge! Bring on the breadless BLA for dinner.

*       *        *

So, one kid turned up for class (and then another one after about 25 minutes). Mr B said to just finish at 5:30, so she spent a good 20+ minutes writing this message on the board. It was a really good effort for her!

And here's the cute beagle puppy: