Christmas? no. Philippines? YES

Hello world,

So I haven't posted a Korea update in a while, so I'll start with a quick summary of the past few weeks:
-ate more Galbi (Korean BBQ)
-had some Crab
-went to Lotte World, which is like Korean disneyland, but smaller.
-went to work
-watched the grinch stole christmas in class
-cleaned my house on Christmas Day
-put way to much stuff in a backpack that was too big for a 10 day trip
-flew to the Philippines

And perhaps that's where I'll start the real blog?

We arrived in Manila at about 12:30am Philippine time (1:30 am Korea Time) on what was my boxing day. I started my trip with a friend from the other Poly School in Ilsan. As we disboarded the plane, we were struck by the heat and humidity. I was instantly reminded of Ghana.

Now I should say, that a few years ago my family went to Mexico for Christmas. Though it was warm in december, I wouldn't qualify it as hot. It was still, wear a sweater at night kindof temperature.

Here, it's the opposite. Well, not really the opposite. Just Really Hot. All the time.

Anyways, as we took our cab to the hostel, we drove past crowds of people milling about on the streets. Manila is a big city, but unlike Korea, there are a lot of small single family dwellings. However, Like Ghana there are a lot of little stores everywhere, and on this Christmas night/early morning, many people sitting on plastic lawn chairs on the edge of the streets.  At the hostel I checked in, emailed my parents (Christmas morning still in Canada) and went to bed. As we got off the plane I had heard some girls arguing about whether or not to go out after arrival. And in fact, in the Hostel some random guy did wake me up by saying "American Girl, why are you in Bed" but as I explained to him, before he realized I wasn't the girl who he'd hanging out with earlier in the evening, it was now 2 am in Korea and I was tired.

Anyways, I woke up quite early the next moring, and spend some time repacking my backpack. Yep, still had too much stuff. Eventually my friend woke up and we took off to explore Manila for a bit. We had brunch at a Cafe that might have been bohemian in 1979, when it first opened, but was now a bit overpriced and slightly pretentious. After my Eggs Benedict (which I did enjoy) we caught a Cab to a bus station where my friend would get his ticket in the opposite direction as myself. The Cab driver definately ripped us off, but at that point I didn't know what standard was. And it was my fault for not having him run the meter from the start.

We caught a different (and much cheaper) cab back to downtown Manila, and found ourselves at 'Intramurous' and St. Francesco? Fort.  It's a beautiful clash of modern landscaping, with palm trees, green green grass and pretty water fountains; and a 16th century spanish fort. We wandered a bit, looking at some canons, and checked out the Rizal Museum. Rizal was a Philippino hero (in fact, today is actually the philippino national holiday "Rizal Day" who died as a martyr seeking independence for his country. So he was kindof a big deal. At the end of the museum there was a man with a guest book: the catch being the final column of the guest book was titled: Donation. I made my obligatory money drop and continued on my way. I think I`ve figured out the Philippean Peso, but I`m not sure yet. About 43 pesos = 1 USD = 45000 KRW. This is kindof confusing, because everyonce in a while I think in Korean Won and think it`s okay to drop a few hundreds down, but then I remember that 200 pesos = 5 dollars, and my mind just can`t make that adjustment between 700 pesos being 15$, or 700 KRW being 75 cents.

Anyways, after the Fort we walked for a while until I got to a bank, then we kept walking, found the bay (no beach here) got a little lost, found our Hostel and I departed for the bus to my next destination. This turned out to be much more of a journey than I thought it was going to be. PS. Journey was totally a vocabulary word I was teaching my kids this week. But, after a crazy taxi ride through some heavy traffic, a long line up at a crowded bus station, and having some guys get mad at me because I didn`t tip them for letting them move my Bag 3 feet; I was on a bus. The bus, of course, was also stuck in the same traffic my taxi driver had succumbed to, and it seemed to take several hours to leave the city (also like Ghana!). Eventually I got dropped off in Lian, where I got in one of those motorcycle side car things and was taken out to the random beach resort I`d found online.

When I finally arrived I was late and a little stressed out from my journey, however, the resort owners treated me as though we were old friends. The resort has maybe 20 units, and most of the others here are either philippino families, white men with their philippino families, or older british folk who might be friends witht he Owner.

I was offered a choice of rooms, and am happy to report that I`m enjoying the pool, hot tub, and beach.

Well, that was probably too much for now, but I`m sure my parents will appreciate the details.

Food Poisoning

The verdict on my friday morning food poisoning was that it was the oysters we ate at dinner on Wednesday night. (see the silver in the photos in my last post). My 2 other teacher friends who I ate with also suffered the same sick morning/day.

Todays news: I saved an unwanted keyboard from the trash today. It was one broken key, but otherwise works fine. You normally here about people recovering tables, chairs, or couches, but I'm pretty happy with my keyboard.

Weeks 4 and 5!

Week 4 and 5

Another full week of teaching. I have a couple classes full of nice, quiet girls. I also have a couple classes full of boys who are desperately in need of an ADHD diagnosis. This makes my day quite the roller coaster ride. They way classes work is there are 3 or four blocks in a day. Each block is designated to a grade, and depending on how the student does on a test, they are separated into one of 8 classes.  Once placed in a class, the students may level up, but they never level down.  The most advanced students end up in the Magnet program.

American Thanksgiving was the focus of the week. On Thursday, which is apparently the official thanksgiving day, I went out for Indian food to pay tribute to the country that Christopher Columbus thought he had discovered. Friday night we went out for something I though seemed similar to Chinese hot pot. There was a large pot of boiling vegetable broth in the middle of the table, and we were given a giant tray of vegetables and mushrooms to cook, as well as thinly shaved meat.

Saturday morning I went into Seoul for the first time all by myself. I met a few friends, and we explored Namdaemun market, looking for Christmas gifts. Namdaemun is a few large square block crisscrossed by narrow alleys filled with small booths and restaurants. There are several big buildings that seem like multifloor department stores, but also contain small booths. On the second floor of one of these buildings we found the Korean Folk art section. There was also a large house wares section on the 3rd floor, and a nearby fabric section. There were other buildings filled with accessories which you could buy by the giant box, seemingly straight from the manufacturers.  There are other, nicer shopping areas in Seoul, but I think I would head back to Namdaemun if I want to buy fabric or random black market brand name stuff.

 On the weekend I was invited to two Thanksgiving dinners. One was a big event with a lot of the current and past teachers from my Poly school, plus a few other teacher friends. I met a few of the other Canadians who used to teach at my school. The dinner itself was potluck, but I just brought Juice and cups. A few people put much more effort into their cooking, and there wasn’t turkey, but 3 roast chickens proved more affordable and similar enough. The next night I went to another, smaller dinner with a few couples who I’ve met since I’ve been here. For this dinner I brought mashed potatoes, which were barely touched due to the amount of other food there was. Once again, we had chicken, but also a cheese plate, salad, bread, stuffing and stove top, Egyptian carrots, chocolate cake and pumpkin pie for dessert.

Monday mornings are no longer filled with the dread that a 8-5 workweek often provides. Knowing that I can sleep in until 11:45 and still make it to work on time relieves a lot of stress. Mostly I have been using these mornings for visiting a café with free internet, cleaning the apartment, and doing laundry. Or sleeping. And watching Dr. Oz on television.

Tuesday was Korean language class again. Our weekly lesson at Papa Johns Pizza is pretty casual, but I’m learning to read Hangeul!  I don’t know what the words mean yet, but at least I can sound things out. Also, Tuesday I got my official registered Alien Card. I am now legit to live and work in Korea. I also got a multiple entry visa for my passport, so I’m set to come and go from Korea as I desire.

Wednesday night we went out for what was supposed to be Fish and Beer. We ended up eating Sashimi, spicy octopus, and drinking Soju. Note to self: no more Soju on school nights.

Friday I got food poisoning. I used one of my unpaid sick days and called in. The ‘calling in’ part was a bit of a worry for me. For one, I don’t have a phone yet, or internet in my apartment. Second, I was having trouble staying on my feet for more than a minute, and I wouldn’t be able to make it to a pay phone. Luckily, I was able to drag myself to the apartment of another teacher in our building, and they were able to get a hold of someone at the school. My biggest concern with being sick was that I was having trouble keeping down any water, and I knew I was quickly becoming dehydrated. By 3 pm I managed to make it downstairs and got some PowerAde, and after drinking that I started feeling better. In fact, I was thinking about getting ready to head into work for the last few classes. But then I tried standing up, and was still too light-headed to last 2 minutes on my feet. And back to the bed for me.

To end on a happier note, I went back to the Kitty Cafe on Thursday night. Yay, Kittens! OMG so cute. I picked up this one kitten and she fell asleep in my arms. aww...