The Beginning of the End

My director booked my flight for the 19th of March. A year long adventure is slowly dwindling down. I can't believe how fas tit went by and how much I have been able to see and do.

My trip to the Philippines was a blast. It was a great way to get my mind off of not being at home for the holidays! ; )

Molly and Fliss are back for round two and still trying to get me to sign on for another one. My director offered to keep me on for the summer. I wouldn't get a raise but she'd take care of my round trip airfare. I turned that down as well, realizing that figuring out where I am going to live for school is going to be top priority.

Katie turned out to be pretty cool. Having a co worker who I can speak quickly is turning out to be a great addition to my work day!

My birthday is around the corner. This weekend we are going to go sledding at an amusement park in Gwangju. I am pretty excited to get outside and enjoy some of the snow.

The weather here has been pretty good. No -25 plunges- just brisk winds and a little bit of snow here and there. I am considering myself pretty lucky but those from the south are hating it!

I have all my pictures on Facebook if you haven't seen them yet.

The thought of going home is a little overwhelming. I should be really excited but it's a big change and I am a little bit nervous despite knowing there will be welcoming arms at the airport!

I have my best friend's wedding to plan and budget for, I have to get a job and I have to figure out school (if I get in... fingers crossed).

It's enough to make me want to hide out here for a bit longer. Even writing this little update has gotten me in a little tizzle. I packed up some summer clothes and extras bags to send home early so I could fit souvenirs in my suitcases for everyone.

Chinese New Years is coming up and I am going to stick around Korea despite a 3 days holiday. I want to save money! But if I find a cheap flight, who knows I might just see Hong Kong with everyone after all.

So let the countdown begin. March 19th. See you all in Newmarket = )

Love you all,

xoxox Dominique

My New Favorite Season

With Fall settling in nicely, it isn't hard to understand why most Koreans will agree it is the best season in this country. After the whirlwind vacation I had with mom and the weekend-stealing illness I that just passed, this weekend was the first I've had to really enjoy it solo.

I think the Korean Fall is similar to what we see in Ontario except it's so much longer and warmer. This weekend I was dressed in shorts and actually got really hot at points. This is the run down.

Friday, Molly and I went to Speaks and just hung out. I called it quits early and went home.

Saturday was the World Food Fest at The Kim Dae Jung Convention Centre. Molly, Holli, Jess and Vaneeta showed up and we ate everything. Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, food from North America and best of all Greek!

The food was all prepared by volunteers and there was also performances by various nationalities.

We had a really nice time.

One of the performers from India.

jMy favorite! Taek Won Do.

When we finished stuffing our faces we went back to Holli's apartment and she showed us to a really nice park in Sangmu. By that time, it had trickled down to Molly, Holli and I so we were able to rent this crazy bike cart.

Normally, it is used as a romantic date prop but the three of us loaded into it and pedaled for 40 minutes while enjoying a bottle of wine.

After our work out we headed out to dinner. Shabbu Shabbu was on the menu and I enjoyed every bite. Downtown was the next stop and we proceeded to do what we do best. Party.

The first time I looked down at my watch it was 5am. I went home after that and slept until 2pm the next day! What a waste.

Sunday was beautiful and I walked around for a little bit and met up with some people for an early dinner and then called it quits. I fell alseep at 7 last night and woke up today at 5am.

Got a lot done already. Gym, laundry, groceries and now this. I'm not going to make 5am a habit anytime soon but it does have benefits!

Missing everyone on the Gobble Gobble weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving

Dominique

Half Done or Half Left?

Fast approaching the half way mark in Korea. In some ways I'm not surprised and in other ways I can't believe it's already here. I am completely settled at work. I have my routine, I have my classes and besides Kerry and the addition of an American-non-native- English speaking teacher, the staff is the same. That slows down time a bit. What makes time fly here is the constant go, go, go I enjoy all too much. Every weekend is packed with as much foreigner attention I can possibly get. I'll go anywhere but my small apartment!

My mom comes in 9 days! She is so nervous but hiding it well enough. I am trying to convince her of how easy it is to get around Korea (really all she has to do is hop on a bus) but she still insists on a print out of exactly what to do and where to go. I guess I don't blame her!

The print out is entitled The “Get to Dominique in Gwangju” Procedure for obvious reasons. lol.

This weekend was not too exciting. Saw the movie Killers on Friday and then Saturday went out for drinks. Sunday Molly and I shopped. I bought a pair of wedge sandals which was pretty cool. They are adorable. Work is kind of sucky, it's Monday morning and they've changed my schedule which does not at all coincide with the curriculum but whatever, I voiced my opinion and when kids drop out I'll just say I told you so.

While the temperature home may be dipping it is still hot here. The humidity has lessened a bit but we're still hitting 30s- it's awesome. Finally a real summer! I don't think I'll be getting a new foreigner teacher buddy anytime soon. My friend had an interview and my director turned him down because he was a guy and also being his second year in he was asking for 2.4 million which is modest but she is cheap. Right now she has hired the american non English native speaking girl Irene. Her pronunciation is just as bad as the Koreans and she knows less about grammar then my Korean co workers but she is way more cheap than another me. I am curious to see if my kids that were given to her stay. Some moms have already called to complain. I might be being a little unfair but it's Monday morning and I am grumpy. My camera is back in the shop getting fixed well into week two and it might not even be fixed for mommy's arrival.

So incredible!

Needless to say I am looking forward to vacation and the Island life, I've included some photos of Jeju where Molly, Fliss, me and mommy will be vacationing. The most beautiful part of Korea for sure. It is a 4 hour ferry ride but well worth it for 3 nights and 4 days of fun. I just hope the weather cooperates.

Anyway I am going to have another coffee and try to improve my mood. xoxox D

My Crazy Korean Vacation

Click on the link to see the map of where we journied.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs250.snc4/39827_698560962950_187903987_41906044_6352925_n.jpg

xoxox Dominique

I know it's taken me a little while to get around to this but I had to wait until I was in a really good writing mood. I'm sorry to admit I'm not really in the zone but I am running out of time before I start to forget the little quirks that made vacation so special.

I should start off by differentiating between vacation and adventure. I was on vacation but was in no way having a vacation while touring Korea. Holli and I had an 8 day long bus and love motel filled adventure. I took some notes on my iPod touch along the way so I could easily break it down when it came to writing it all down. Unfortunately even with my notes a know a lot of what I did won't be as detailed as I'd previously hoped but here it goes anyway.

We left Gwangju around 10am on Saturday destined for Nonsan. In Nonsan we visited a really old Buddha statue and Temple. The kick off to our vacation was really amazing but it lacked a lot of English explanation. I was a little nervous that this would end up being typical of all the sites we visited but as we continued onward my reservations subsided and I was happy to discover there would be enough English to get by. I tried to buy a really cute bracelet from a vendor there and broke it into a million pieces, super awkward and I felt obligated to spend a lot of money on subsequent bracelet because he didn't charge me for the first!

From Nonsan we travelled to Daejeon and spent the night there. We hopped on a night city tour bus and we were taken to a Foot Spa, Dam and a light/ beer festival at Expo Park. The tour was meh but we checked it off our list. Now to the Love Motel explanation.

Koreans don't leave their parents houses until they're married. Korean parents also don't really keep tabs on their children once they hit adulthood so0o0o0o a love motel is a convenient and cheap way to spend a night(s) with your partner with out the hassle of parents. The one we stayed out came equipped with his and hers robes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hairspray q-tips, soap etc. The room also had a nice flat screen and computer! Koreans know how to do it up! We slept and the next morning we left for Gongju.

Me and my Nazi ways had Holli up and on the 7:47 bus! lol... 7:47- also typical of Koreans. Holli is among the normal population who like to sleep in but had the misfortune of being stuck with me for vacation. Minus Kamille, and the occasional bad hangover Colucci's really don't know how to sleep in properly. As some some close friends already know!

Once we arrived in Gongju I lied to get us onto a free all day city tour. We showed up to the city centre at 10am and didn't make it onto the list of families who would be given the 'name tag of acceptance' to wear around our necks so I lied and said we had in fact made reservations but there must've been a mistake. A little humming and hahing later we got our name tags and started the tour. I won't get into detail, you can go through the photos on FB but we did 3 museums, a tomb site and learned how to play and sing traditional Korean music.

After spending the whole day in searing heat and unforgiving humidity Holli and I were bagged so naturally we hopped onto another bus to Seoul (2hours) and then transfered to Gangneung (another 2 1/2). It was about 1am when we arrived at our next stop and we needed to find a place to crash for 6 or 7 hours haha. Out of the 5 places we stopped in at only one had vacancy and he wanted to charge us 110,000 won. Which is like 100 dollars! At home that is a noraml- well actually really good price, but here the motels run around 40 dollars a night. I was able to talk him down to 60 and Holli and I crashed hard. Waking up again early we were off to settle down in Yang Yang for a couple of nights.

Staying in Yang Yang we did a ton of stuff. Again I won't get into details, my photos explain a lot. We drank mineral water from a river well, we hiked and saw waterfalls, we spent the day at the beach we saw temples we bathed naked together with korean women- ok, that I'll elaborate on.

Koreans have a way different take on nudity than we do. Even at the gym it is no big deal just to be naked and walk around sans towel. At Naskan beach we discovered a hot sea water spa. Holli and I went down thinking we could just throw on our swimsuits and hop in. We got to the change room and everyone was naked. There would be no bikinis, there wouldn't be anything but a dish cloth to wrap your hair. So the Koreans stared at us, we stared at the Korean girls and we both tried desperately not to lower our gazes when we talked to each other. We even met a mom daughter trio who were hanging out together- try to wrap your head around that!

Another huge adventure was getting to the DMZ. Holli and I had to hitch hike the last 30km to get there and totally lucked out because the family that picked us up not only took us to and from the observation tower but took us to a traditional Korean village and a really cool temple we otherwise would have never been able to get to without a vehicle. Having again pretty well exhausted ourselves we head into back into Seoul. My friend Rhys was generous enough to put us up for 3 nights in his extra room while we experienced the capital of Korea. We did a day long City bus tour and then spent a day shopping!

Which then brings us to rafting and bungee jumping on Saturday. Rafting was really fun, although not as epic as the swells on the Ottawa river but thankfully bungee jumping off a near by bridge gave me the kick I was looking for. Bungee jumping is wicked!! There were 21 of us who paid and no one chickened out. Quite the success. Another exhausting busy day brought us to Saturday night where my 'vacation' ends. Holli stayed and partied in Seoul and I went home. It felt so good to recognize Gwangju and know that my bed would be waiting for me!

So that's it. Brief but take some time to look through my pictures. We had quite the ride. I don't think I will be taking a bus for quite some time though. lol.

I have the Korean thanksgiving coming up Cheosuk and mom comes in 5 weeks. Everything thing else is the same as usual. I have a map and my jumping vid for your viewing pleasure.

Click on the link to see the map of where we journied.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs250.snc4/39827_698560962950_187903987_41906044_6352925_n.jpg

xoxox Dominique