High Tea and the Ocean

A couple of days of catch-up in this one. First we start with High Tea at a very fancy hotel. Mimi really wanted to do this while we were in the British Isles. It was a bit spendy, but worth it.

What we've been up to

Yesterday I woke up and felt better, so I went with the others to Howth (rhymes with "tooth," not with "mouth") to see the ocean and go hiking. Unfortunately, I think I overdid it a little because I ended up back in bed at 8PM with chills and fever. Or maybe that fever was a sunburn... Hard to say, but I felt like crap anyway. I'm going to take it a bit easier today and drink lots of fluids, and hopefully I'll stay on my feet.

Oh hey, did I mention that I got a minor sunburn? We all did. IN IRELAND.

It was gorgeous, and it's shaping up to be the same today. I guess we're just lucky with the weather.

Sick

Sorry for the lack of posts. I'm sick. Hopefully I'll get better in time to enjoy Dublin a bit, but right now I just wish I were home. That's all. I'm going back to sleep.

Vermeer

Yesterday we took a train to Hague (or Den Haag) because everyone wanted to see Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. You know the one. It's famous.

Cheesy cheese

I have been well and truly converted on cheese. I used to think I didn't like it that much, and even if there was some that was okay (gruyere... yum), I certainly didn't like goat cheese.

Yeah, no. Cheese is genius.

PRIDE

I took a frankly insane amount of pictures at the Pride parade, so I'll just throw a few of my favorites up here.

Paint Your Palette Blue and Gray

We went to the Van Gogh museum with our roommates.

The guy on the bunk laughing at Stellar's antics is Darren. There's also Alvin, a Chinese-Canadian drummer who is very cool. The museum was amazing, but unlike the Orsay, when they say that there are no pictures allowed, they aren't fooling around. No pictures this time.

Canals and Bikes

Everyone else wanted to sleep in, so I wandered around alone this morning. I tried to get lots of pictures so you could understand how cozy and beautiful Amsterdam is.

AMSTERDAM!

Guys guys. I love Amsterdam. I haven't even been her for a day, and I can already tell. Everyone is friendly and speaks English. The canals are twisty and full of adorable antique boats. Our hotel is cozy and comfortable. There are bikes everywhere. And all the natives and tall and beautiful.

Third Time's the Charm

Today was our time to make up for the things we missed during the week. Namely, the Musee de Orsay and the Catacombs, both of which had foiled us with their long lines before. I especially wanted to see the Catacombs, since I had tried and failed to visit them when I was in Paris with Tyson. First up was the museum, for which we got up at an ungodly hour.

The line was long, but not as long as before. Stellar wigged out when she saw what was inside. There were some of her favorite pieces by her favorite artists. I recognized almost none of them, so I just went along for the ride and enjoyed the new experience.

Laundry and Impressionists

Laundry day.

We were perplexed. The soap dispenser was on the other side of the room from where you put coins in, and the machine ate three of Stellar's euros. We managed to get our clothes clean though.

Out on the Town

Some select photos from last night. Check out how red Stellar got.

The Best Crepes in Paris

On Friday night, after spending the day at Versailles, we wanted to get some more cheese and baguettes and have a picnic dinner on a pedestrian bridge. Apparently lots of people hang out on this bridge at night, play music, eat food, drink wine... But we got back pretty late and we were exhausted, so by the time we went back out all the boulangeries were closed. We went by the bridge, but we'll have to wait for another night to join in the fun.

PARIS!

Parisian food!

EDIT: Sorry. I was going to edit this post with a recap of the last few days, but as soon as I uploaded the video the internet crapped out. Then whenever I tried to finish it, I kept running out of time! Then by the time I returned, there was more to recap! I need to learn Mimi and Stellar's method of shorter and more frequent posts.

Blogless

As anticipated, we're keeping busy and I have far less time to blog than I did in Korea. It doesn't help that we only have Wifi in the (tiny) lobby of our hotel and not in the room. I'll try to keep you updated and share pictures and whatnot, but the updates are probably going to be fewer and farther between. They might pick up in Amsterdam and Dublin if we have more convenient internet.

As for tonight, I need to sleep. Just checking in to let you know that we're here, we're fine, and we're keeping busy.

Not afraid of heights

Eun-mi took me to Nami island today. The travel time was a bit much for a day-trip, requiring a 45-minute bus ride, a 20-minute subway ride, an hour-and-a-half long train ride, a taxi, and a ferry to get there. Whew. But it was completely worth it! We got to spend some quality time together, the weather was gorgeous, and I got lots of pretty pictures that you unfortunately cannot see. Sorry. I have a few from Eunmi's camera though!

Final week

I'm back in Suwon, and, like an idiot, I have brought all of my (numerous) electronic cords... except the one that hooks my camera up to my laptop. So no pictures until I'm back in Seoul. Sorry.

As I shuffled through the door to the daycare with all my bags, a few kids poked their heads out of their classrooms to see who was making all the noise. The ones from Eunmi's class peered for a few seconds, then suddenly burst out into the hallway with cries of, "Christina!" They had to be herded back into the classroom. They're as happy to abuse me as ever, and I stayed for the last part of the day.

We had Chinese food delivered for dinner, and I gorged myself. Korean delivery Chinese food is better than Chinese restaurant Chinese food! Our meal included really excellent ja-jung-myun (sp?), so I took a picture to make Stellar jealous. Now that picture is trapped on my camera. Boo.

I'm going walking today to explore the area around the new apartment. Last time I was here, I never entered or left the place except in a car. Uncle says there's some nice hiking in the hills behind the complex.

Fountains

Now that I have found my tiny shorts and sports bra buried deep in my drawer, I can face the heat without dying. I also found my flip-flops, and quickly noticed that I have been wearing my sneakers for far too long; I have a pretty impressive ankle-tan-line.

I decided to start things off at City Hall, since I hadn't been there since the first World Cup game. I couldn't get pictures that night due to rain and limited pocket space, but here's what it looked like:

Not so impressive in the daylight, and minus the throngs of red-clad, screaming fans.

Soju Night

Last night, since I finally felt well enough not to go straight to bed and stay there until noon the next day, I stayed up with Kris. After everyone else had gone to sleep, we rifled through the secret cupboards (that are too high for Eun-hyuk to find) and put out mangoes, chips, crackers, and a bottle of soju. We talked and laughed for hours.

Just as we were getting into our third shot of soju, we heard something. Eun-hyuk was toddling out of his room, looking for his mommy. At first he looked upset, like he wanted her to comfort him. Then he spotted what we were up to, specifically the shrimp-flavored chips we had out. An impish grin broke out over his face while Kris tried to distract him. While she made up a story about a wolf outside the window, I quickly stuffed the food under the table. She finally managed to shoo him back to bed, and we broke down laughing.

Later, Sunghun joined us. I think this was because we woke him up with our impromptu karaoke session. Kris wanted to hear Park Jaebeom's version of "Nothin' On You," so I taught her the magic of Youtube. Then we kept finding new songs, looking up lyrics, and singing softly along.

I think I will go to Suwon on Thursday, which makes this my second-to-last day in Seoul. I'd better make it count, so I'm busting out my guidebook and trying to find a place I haven't been yet. I'll tell you about it tonight!

Wandering

It occurred to me that these are my last days in Seoul. Soon I'll be going to Suwon. I'll stay there for about a week, since I haven't seen the family since before I went to China. By the time I come back, it'll be just in time to pack and head back to the States. I suppose I could seek out more museums and mountains via the guidebook, but 1) I'm lazy and 2) I often have more fun just wandering aimlessly and seeing where I end up.

Monsoon Season

Sorry I've been missing. I've had a cold (probably picked up from the Wizville kids), and it's monsoon season, which means it's so humid outside that I'm in serious danger of drowning. I've spent most of the last few days sitting around, watching Margaret Cho on Youtube, and reading Sherlock Holmes. You haven't missed much.

Goodbye Wizville

If my biological clock ever kicks in, would you all remind me not to get knocked up? Like, ever? I don't think I'm cut out to do the kid thing, whether that means teaching preschool or spawning one of the little buggers myself. My policy is that I love playing with kids as long as they're not total brats, and as long as I can give them back to their parents any time I want. I think I'd make a better "Cool Aunt" than a mom. 

Okay, okay, I'm not a complete Scrooge. Most of the kids are really sweet. And even though I was only there for four days, they made me a goodbye card that everyone signed. They also gave me cookies, and even though they all had nuts in them, it was the thought that counted. I went away glowing.

I gave the cookies to Harmuni and Eun-hyuk. The kid was ecstatic. I think he's figuring out my "no touching" rule. Today he sat down to watch me type, and after I gave him a few pointed glares he kept his hands to himself. He also went away pretty quickly; I think it takes all the fun out of it if he's not allowed to bang on the keyboard and piss me off.

I'm trying to resist re-watching Queer as Folk immediately after I finished it for the first time (it was that good). To distract myself, I'm watching Aliens and reminding myself why it's one of my favorite movies of all time. As my Dad has heard me rant before, I love Ellen Ripley and I love Vasquez (even if she did start the trope of the butch Latina who dies in every action movie). I think I'll get "El Riesgo Siempre Vive" tattooed on myself. It's a little punchier than my other favorite line:

Hudson: Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?
Vasquez: No. Have you?

Sad Day for Soccer

I went and watched the match against Uruguay, not at City Hall but at a place nearer to home. I figured it would save me a long subway ride back in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, the Coex Mall venue was a lot less fun than the City Hall one. At that first game, everyone had been on their feet, jostling for position and cheering wildly. This game was far more... civilized, which is not a good thing for a screening of an international sporting event. I mean, obviously no one wants riots in the streets, but the spectators there might as well have been at a picnic.

Wizville

Ugh to getting up at 7AM to go to work. How did I ever used to do this when I was in school? I even have to go to bed at a halfway-decent hour, and I've started drinking coffee in the mornings (Starbucks coffee full of chocolate and milk with whipped cream on top, but still).

I've been to Wizville Preschool for two days now. Doug left me a fantastic lesson plan and schedule, so I have instructions for everything I need to do. It was very helpful, but I was still nervous about teaching, especially since the kids are a little bit insane. My main class is Sinsaimdang, which consists of twelve kids who are all five or six years old. Some, like Shirley, are adorable. Others are driving me insane. But I can keep them under control more or less, and Doug's partner Monica is there to help me when things get out of hand.

China

I tried, I really tried to keep a detailed diary of my trip to China. But Kayli had so much for me to do that I never seemed to have time to sit down and write. Once I had fallen about four days behind, I realized that I probably wasn't going to catch up. So this will be the abbreviated version of Christina's nine days in Beijing. 

Dae-han-min-guk

I would love to make this a long post, but it's midnight-thirty and I have to get up in six hours to catch a flight, so I'll give you the abbreviated version.

Sam arrived on Friday very jetlagged but very excited. It was so nice to see her, a total blast from the past. When I was waiting for her at the gate, I kept worrying that I'd let her go by already because we hadn't recognized each other. But then I saw her, and I knew her right away. She conked out as soon as we got back, but she got up early today to spend the morning in Seoul with me.

Of course, after weeks and weeks of sweltering heat, today it decides to pour down rain all day long. We walked around, did some last-minute shopping for Sam, saw some old Korean palaces (pictured), and generally got soaked.

I saw Sam off and headed to City Hall to watch the Reds play Greece in the World Cup. I got myself a nice jersey-style team shirt and someone gave me a big inflatable hand for free! I elbowed my way up near the front, watched the game on the big screen, screamed and sang, and drank beer with a group of Americans that I met. Koreans have a little more freedom than most in making up cheers, because there are so many permutations of the country's name that you can fit it into any tune. In different songs we used "Korea," "Hanguk," and "Daehanminguk," and some songs used more than one.

Oh yeah, and it was still pouring. Everyone got soaked, our team won, and someone handed me a free can of Coke as I was staggering back to the subway station. A good night.

I probably won't have time to post anything tomorrow, which means this will be my last post until the 22nd! Damn China and their hatred of Google. I'll keep a diary and do a massive catchup post when I return. Until then!

Class

Yesterday I slept in to recover from my little excursion, and when I woke up I figured I would soon go out and continue exploring Seoul. Yeah, that didn't happen so much. First thing that happened was I caught Mom on Skype. She had to go to work, but soon after we hung up my Dad logged on. We talked for a while, but then he had to get back to work.

As soon as I finished with him, Stellar came online. We chatted for a long time about our travel plans and gushed about graduation and next year's grad school.

Then she had to go to bed, but as soon as she did so, Mimi was there. We talked and laughed about the state of young adult literature these days and pined for the eras of CS Lewis, Brian Jacques, and Garth Nix. When reminiscing about our favorite books to read as middle schoolers, Mimi brought up Laurens Van Der Post's "A Story Like the Wind" and "From a Far Off Place," which are violent and philosophical epics about a French boy, a Portugese girl, their dog, and their bushmen friends growing up in the depths of Africa and surviving in the desert for years while fleeing assassins who want them dead due to various political intrigues. I told her that her definition of "young adult literature" does not resemble our Earth definition.

By then it was late over there in the USA, so Mimi logged off. Just then, Kayli came on and we spent a few hours working out the kinks in our plans for when I get to China. When we had finally booked all our hostels and verified all our timelines, I said goodbye to her, ran through my emails, looked at the clock, and saw that it was 8:00PM.

Damyang

I have conducted an inadvertent experiment, and I have discovered that the number of days that I can disappear from Blogger, email, and Skype before my Mom calls Kris to ask if I've died is... 2. Sorry for making you worry, Mom, but I had a good excuse. You see, I've been in Damyang! Where they apparently have no internet! What? I didn't tell you guys that I was going to Damyang and please not to worry if I didn't update?

...Oops.

Well, I'm back. And since I didn't have internet, I wrote out journal entries in Word so I could post them later. Unfortunately for those of you who actually have things to do, writing in Word somehow makes me very verbose. These entries are not so much the picture-and-caption format of my normal posts, but more like long-narrative-with-pictures-added-in-later. You have been warned.

In which I go to a water park, meet Eunmi's friends, and discuss Taylor Swift in more detail than I probably should

There was no wi-fi in the hotel room at Daemyung, so today is a two-day catchup post. Sorry there are no pictures for most of it, but I could hardly carry my camera around at the water park, could I?

The car ride to the resort was only about an hour long, but it still managed to be hellish. It was sweltering hot, and I got carsick in record time. While I sat back, looked out the front window, and tried to dissociate from my nauseous body, I stuck my earbuds in because if I have to listen to Eun-hyuk's English phonics tape one more time I swear I'll stab myself in the face.

When we got to the hotel room, I flopped onto the couch and mumbled to Kris that I would not be moving for the rest of the day. She, having one four-year-old to deal with already, took none of my crap and dragged me out to the water park. Still hot and still uncomfortable, I tried to get in the spirit of things and took a plunge down a huge water slide.

As soon as I hit the water, to quote my favorite WWII history book, "it was as if someone had passed a magic wand over me and said, '[Christina], you feel great.'"

Staircases

I braved the heat today and climbed Namsan.

Remember? The mountain with the tower? I went there once before, at night with Kris and her family. But I wanted to climb it when it was still light out, and take the walking path instead of the bus.

Uuuuugh...

Bluuuurgh...

It's hot and humid out, so much so that I got soaked with sweat just from walking a few blocks down to Gangnam for lunch. Now I'm sitting at home in a thin cotton dress, trying to get cool while I try to figure out the chances of Harmuni walking in on me if I decide to get naked.

On top of that, it seems that I have forgotten to take my allergy meds for a few days, and that's finally caught up with me. I have a roll of tissue next to me and I'm blowing my nose intermittently and sneezing. Luckily it's not too bad yet, and I will definitely go back on the nasal spray tomorrow.

On the bright side, nursing my nose and my heatstroke give me a chance to peruse the archives of several blogs and message boards I have just discovered. I would link some of them, but I have recently been informed that not only do my school friends, my parents, and my Emo have the link to this blog, but so do my Dad's entire family. Eep. I'm imagining getting called out on my profanity and vulgar references at the next family reunion.

Phantom!

I was so excited for today! I love Phantom of the Opera! Even though its leading lady is kind of useless and it glorifies a sociopathic kidnapping murderer... the music is a part of my childhood and I'll always forgive it its faults.

One thing I was asking myself was, what language would it be in? Were all the performers fluent in English? Had they learned the whole play phonetically? Would they do the dialogue in Korean and the songs in English (because obviously it would be way too much work to translate all the songs into Korean, keeping the meaning and syllables and timing intact...)?

Uh, no. I was wrong. The whole thing was in Korean, even the songs, and they sounded great! I was very pleasantly surprised. Good thing I know the play backwards and forwards, so I didn't actually need to be able to understand what they were saying.

The only time the translation got to me was when they sang that refrain: you know, "He's here! The Phaaaantom of the Ooooperaaaa!" This is because they didn't translate the names, including titles, so it came out as, "Yeogi! Duh Paeeentum ob di Oooopeiraaaa!" That made me giggle a bit. The rest was fantastic, and it sucked me right in.

This and That

The problem with blogging is that when you spend a month updating daily, you feel really guilty when you miss a few days in a row. I don't even have any real work to do, and still I manage to slack off!

After Saturday night's outing, I failed to mention that the subways stopped running while I was on my way home. I ended up dumped off at a stop with no connecting lines and with very little idea of where I was. I walked a few blocks looking for a bus stop, but I finally gave up and hailed a cab.

By the way, this is the first time I've ever hailed a cab! I felt pretty proud and worldly until it occurred to me the ridonckulous level of privilege that has allowed me not to have need to hail a cab until the age of twenty-two. Oh, well. I managed to tell the driver how to get where I was going even though I utterly failed to understand anything else he said during the ride.

Motorcycle!

Guys, guys! Motorcycle!

Okay, that's Stella riding it, but we all got a turn and I was the best at it! (By virtue of being the only girl who wasn't terrified of going fast enough to have to pick up her feet.)

After Korean class we all went to the waterfront to play basketball, and one of the students (a man who works at some kind of proofreading service, and whose name I forget) brought his shiny motorcycle. He said that he had brought it to teach some of the boys to ride, but the boys were all playing basketball so he ended up with four girls to teach instead. I got it up to third gear and zoomed down the waterfront path! It was SO COOL!

Turns out I still didn't know how big Seoul is

I met Jessie for lunch at Jeongbalsan station. Turns out that's a two-hour subway ride away from home. Jeez. So I was late, but not to worry. Jessie took me out to a buffet-style restaurant before showing me all around her neighborhood.

We bussed over to a huge street market where we wandered, examining bowls of live sea creatures and observing open-air butcher shops. On the main street adjacent to the market, one of the candidates for mayor was giving a speech from the top of a campaign bus.

Next we went to a place that was either a museum or an art gallery - I'm not sure which. It was definitely about the Joseon emperors' tombs, but most of the exhibits were modern art based on the Joseon dynasty. It was all really interesting, and some of it was a little spooky. It didn't help that two attendants in black clothing were following us everywhere (I suppose they were making sure we didn't touch anything). They kept their distance, but it was still unnerving. Especially when we walked through a dark, narrow hallway draped with silk partitions while numerous grandfather clocks softly struck six (the death hour, according to Jessie), that feeling of being followed isn't really pleasant.

Finally we went to a huge park on a lake very near Jessie's apartment. It was gorgeous there. There were cute little walking and biking paths, bridges so you could completely circumnavigate the little lake, docks and islands, sports courts... I would go back if it wasn't two hours away. Yeesh.

Horrific depictions of torture = fun for the whole family?

This morning I declared today to be Twentieth Century Korean History Day.

JESUS CHRIST what a depressing idea that turned out to be.

I went to Seodaemun Prison Museum where Korean resistance fighters were imprisoned during Japanese occupation, and the Korean War Memorial near Itaewon. The prison museum was... interesting. Pictures under the cut are not for the squeamish.

Don't Panic (now where's my towel?)

This morning I woke up and got online. This was waiting for me on Skype:

Stellar: Wow Christina, have you been up on the news about the potential war within Korea? This is insane.. I hope you are updated about it because its getting a bit intense: if you don't know here is a link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/world/asia/26korea.html?hp 

Luckily, I was pre-warned, so I didn't freak out. Stellar was still online, so we got to have a talk:

Christina: Hey, this is funny. Last night Sunghun was talking to me about this stuff, asking if I had heard anything from back home, and now I see this first thing when I log on. It's pretty scary, but the general consensus in Korea is that it's mostly posturing on the part of government officials because elections are next week. Re-declaring North Korea as their "archenemy" is them trying to remind people of the constant danger, the same way Bush tried to stir up fear after 9/11.
Stellar: I know, its kind of scary though! How is everything going?
Christina: Things are fine. There are banners everywhere for the election, and little campaign cars are all over the streets blaring music and info about the candidates. It's kind of hilarious.

Stellar: LOL.. Korean style campaigning. Gotta take in the hilarious moments :)
Christina: They apparently get pretty worked up about the whole thing, so I can see the stuff with North Korea blowing over afterward (as long as Kim Jong Il doesn't decide to be a genocidal dick). I have to say, that line from the article about turning Seoul into a "sea of fire" gave me pause.
Stellar: ME TOO. I tried to translate that into Korean and I was like..oh ok it makes sense. But in English...ahem..right.
Christina: Yeah. It sounds pretty evil-dictator over-the-top. You can totally imagine some ridiculous sci-fi villian going, "If you do not bow to our demands we will turn your precious planet into a SEA OF FIRE! MWAHAHA!"
Stellar: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAA

So, yeah. The news is scary, but Seoul is still intact. Here, I will show you it!

Visa success!

Woooo! I finally found the damn travel agency, and I can pick up my passport with a shiny Chinese Visa next week.

I didn't have a specific destination in mind today, so I decided to start at Wangsimni station and go from there.

Macro Time

Um, sorry. It's raining, and I didn't want to go outside... so I wasted a day. But Kris tells me that it's the beginning of the rainy season so I'll probably have to just suck it up pretty soon.

In the meantime, please enjoy these macros that I collected from LJ:

Why, yes! I am a complete dork! Thank you for asking!

I wasn't joking

Ahahaha. Yes, I really did sleep in until noon, and then proceeded to spend the rest of the day in front of my computer. But that wasn't entirely my fault, because I caught Stellar on Skype (Stellar!!!!!) and I had to catch up with her. For... three hours. Yep.

So, sorry for the lack of real bloggage. I'll try to have something more interesting tomorrow. But oh, hey! What's this I see?

It's the aquarium! Newly filled with water and fishes! The sad buckets of emptiness and failure have been replaced by triumphant flower arrangements of oceanic magnificence!

Yeah, uh... that's all I got.

Catch-up post

The last two days have been jam-packed, and I'm going to cover both in one post. So brace yourselves; this is gonna be a long one.

I'll start with our trip to the beach. We left Suwon on Thursday night with a car full of bags. I didn't know what was in the bags, but I kind of wondered why they needed to pack so much (spoiler: the bags were full of food).

At a rest stop, Aunt Jung-hee noticed that I didn't have a coat. I had stopped carrying one around since it started getting hot recently; it gets a little chilly at night, but I'd rather be a little cold than have to haul a coat around. Well, she got worried about me and gave me a jacket to wear. I'm glad she did, because I can now say that I have found the least-flattering jacket on me ever.

Technical Difficulties

My laptop still won't connect via ethernet cable. Grrrr... I'm really hoping that this is just one of its sporadic hissy fits, and that I haven't actually managed to break the network adapter. Anyway, I decided to give up on the thing for now and just transfer all my pictures over to uncle's desktop so I can write a blog post. Because that's how much I love you.

Hey look! It's the new and fancy apartment!

Please stand by...

I'm back in Suwon, and I'm having some technical difficulties. My photos are on my laptop, but I can only get internet on my uncle's desktop for some reason. (There may or may not be a problem with my network adapter. Sigh.)

Hopefully all will be well by tomorrow, or Friday, at which time I will post a double-update.

I'm only happy when it rains

Is it weird that a gray, drizzly day like this can lift my spirits?

Something about walking in the cool air and feeling the mist on your face. I dunno. It probably means I've been living in the Northwest for too long.

Robin Hood

Hello all. I have some kind of stomach bug, so instead of photos of my adventures today you get another movie review. This time it's Robin Hood: the origin story that might as well have been an original picture.

Now, here's the thing. I went into this movie expecting not to like it. After all, my first exposure to the story was Disney's version, and I frickin' love that movie. I know it was low-budget and silly and turned everyone into anthropomorphic animals, but I didn't care. It's still one of my favorite Disney movies and I think it may have been the source of my bondage fetish.

Yeeeeaaahhh... 

Seoul Forest is not a forest

Seoul forest is not, in fact, a forest. It is most definitely a park. It is a nice park, and a large park, but it is not a forest. And honestly, I can't see how people could get confused about this. There are legitimate forests in Korea. Heck, there are legitimate forests in Seoul!

Aaaanyway. That's where I went with Honey and Kait today.

Basketball

Korean class in the morning, which is fast becoming my favorite (and kinda only) way to meet people. After the lesson some of my classmates and the teachers walked down to the waterfront to play basketball. I haven't played in years, but I think I held my own! It didn't hurt that the Korean girls literally shrieked and ducked whenever someone passed them the ball, so compared to them I was a frickin' WNBA star.

Joong-guk Visa

I walked to the Chinese Embassy today to try to get the paperwork for my visa. But as soon as I turned down the side street, a lady ran toward me waving business cards. "Joong-guk visa?" she asked over and over, "Joong-guk visa?"

Joong-guk is China. I learned this because Eun-hyuk has a giant map of the world on his bedroom wall. "Yes," I said warily. The lady continued to babble at me in Korean while I repeatedly tried to tell her that I couldn't understand a word she was saying. Finally she handed me a business card and I figured out that she was from a travel agency. It turns out you can't go through the embassy directly; you have to talk to a travel agency. She led me to a little shop where a man (who, thankfully, did speak English) explained all this to me as if it should have been obvious.

On the embassy's website it said that you could get a visa directly there, so my bullshit detectors were going off. I took an application and left. I found the embassy, which had a big sign on the front saying, "You should apply for visa through travel agency." Oh. So much for my bullshit detectors (I've gotta get those things replaced). But still, I wasn't going to hand over my passport to a bunch of people I didn't know the first thing about.

Bleh. I guess I'll work on finding a place where I can get a photo printed out, and get my passport photocopied.

Food Time

My "students" took me out for dinner and coffee today. They insisted I try dakbukgi and soondae.

The red stuff is dakbukgi: spicy rice cakes in ramen. It was pretty good. The soondae are the black things on the right, and they were a little scarier. I heard them described somewhere as "blood sausage," which sounds awful. Turns out they're just sausage skin stuffed with black noodles. Very odd, but not too bad.

After getting my butt kicked repeatedly by online flight booking (Orbitz and China Southern Airlines can kiss my half-yellow ass), I finally managed to book a reasonably-priced flight to China. I'm so excited to get to see my girl Kayli next month! Now I just need to get that visa.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I talked to my dad about my recent Joan Baez obsession. Apparently my taste in music is uncool, and not in a "you kids with your rock and roll" way, but in a "I remember when that came out and also when it went out of style" way. I am uncool by the standards of my dad when he was my age. Haha. Ouch. But apparently he was never much into what he dubs "hippie music." I think he was a little more funky. (Oh, great. Now I have Mr. Jones by Counting Crows stuck in my head.)

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming

I very much appreciate all the concern I've been getting for the past few days. It's nice to know that I have at least three people who will mother-hen all over me from across the Pacific. But I want you all to know that I'm not being stubborn; I really honestly don't need to go to the doctor. I feel better, and while my eyes are still a little bloodshot they no longer look like alien-eyes. And I'm back outside.

Look! It is me outside! For realz guyz!

Still not dead

I'm feeling better, but I spent today sleeping and lounging around again because I still don't feel great and my eyes (both of them now) look like demon-eyes. But they are not as red as yesterday, so if they're any better tomorrow morning I'm going to confirm that I don't need to go to the doctor.

It's so nice out. I really hope I feel up to leaving the house tomorrow because I feel like I'm wasting this beautiful week on being sick.

"Take these eyes, I would rather be blind"

So, you might have noticed that there wasn't an update yesterday. And there's not really one today. That is because I have a cold, and also pinkeye.

Yes, my right eye is bloodshot and dripping yucky stuff out of it. I'll spare you a picture. Anyway, I generally feel like crap and now I look like I'm infected with the zombie virus, so I've been sleeping in and lounging around in my jammies. I suppose this is as good a time as any for this to happen, when I have nothing to do anyway and I have Harmuni to make sure I don't starve.

The fun part is that I don't know what caused it. If it's viral, my cold could have brought it on. But it also might have been my new eyeliner. Or the swimming pool. Or the fact that I'm living with a four-year-old.

Anyway, I hope it goes away soon. Waking up with your eye glued shut sucks.

(The title of this post is pretty self-indulgent of me. I think maybe one person might get the reference. Haha.)

Christina in Korea: Mother's Day Edition

Whoa! It is Mother's Day, and I am just a little out of hugging range of my mother. How sad. I will have to give hugs with interest when I return. Also, I will now get mushy in full view of the internet.

My Mom is really, really awesome. Even now, she is my best friend and the one I call when I'm in trouble. I call her for two reasons: 1) she makes me feel better with alarming speed and 2) when she gives advice, she is always right. I mean always. I think I can count the number of times she has been wrong on one hand, and that's including that one time that she said we had milk and we didn't.

I never went through a rebellious phase when I was a teenager. Not even a little. Some people would attribute this to my natural distaste for conflict, but I think it's because I genuinely had nothing to rebel against. My parents provided everything for me, allowed me to do anything within reason, and made me happy. When I went through rough times outside of their control, they were my greatest support. 

Despite having every reason in the world to tell me, "I worked my way through college and pulled myself up by my bootstraps, so you should be able to do the same thing!" she instead made sure I never had to worry about money while I was in college. Since I have made friends who do, in fact, have to worry about money, I have become excruciatingly aware of just how uncommonly privileged I am.

My Mom is my role model, and I'm not just saying that because it's Mother's Day and that's what you're supposed to say. I look up to her and hope that, faced with the same adversity that she has conquered in her lifetime, I could be as clever, brave, self-reliant, resilient, loyal, and loving as she has been. I love you Mom, today and all days.

Seven Luck

Korean class in the morning. I saw some of the girls I met on the hiking trip - Rachael and Cait. They wanted to go to the foreigners' casino later that day, and of course I was all over that. But before that I killed a little time in Myeong-dong.

Dude. They have clowns. Why doesn't Saturday Market in Portland have clowns?

Korean hikers are hardcore

Oooh! After fiddling with it for a month, I figured out how to set a timer on my camera!

I also figured out how to put my posts behind cuts! Now my front page might actually be navigable! Technological wonders will never cease.

The Karaoke Conspiracy

I have somehow become Eun-hyuk's Beyblade opponent. Permanently.

And another thing...

I'm back in Seoul, and I spent the day playing on my computer and flopping about in bed because I feel awful. I think one of the kids at the daycare gave me a cold. Anyway, I feel better than I did last night so hopefully I'll be fine tomorrow.

I figure I'll use this time to add a few addendums (addenda?) to earlier posts.

The fashion. Okay, okay I was exaggerating. Not ALL women wear the same thing. There are women who wear jeans and T-shirts, who have boyish haircuts, and who wear sneakers. They are somewhat rare, but after enough people-watching to get a good sample size I have to concede that they exist. There are also quite a few foreigners depending on what part of town you're in, although they all stare at me as though trying to figure out if I'm likely to speak English if they talk to me.

Also, I haven't talked about the men here (expect to note that they all seem to prefer their adorable Korean women to Western feminists). All the Americans I've talked to complain about how Korean guys are effeminate and wear tight jeans and flamboyant colors. Whenever this happens I don't miss the opportunity to tell them how much I enjoy it. Seriously, I love femmy boys, especially the ones with nice legs. I wish the tight-pants look would catch on in America. Then I could ogle more hot ass and the boys would finally understand how much it sucks to try to stuff yourself into those things (boys, you have it good with your baggy pants. Don't you forget it).

Now, when I went hiking I mentioned the old ladies (ajumas) in their hiking gear and enormous visors. I'm afraid I was a bit dismissive of them, which I shouldn't have been because those ladies are frickin' hardcore! I wandered off into the woods so I wouldn't end up on paths clogged with slow, frail grandmas, and when I reached the top they had beaten me there! And remember that really steep rock wall that I was too scared to go down? Well, while I sat at the top I kept watching the ajumas coming up the other side of the mountain, passing me, and going over to the other side where the wall of doom was. I kept expecting them to reappear when they realized how steep it was on that side, but not a one of them did! There was nowhere else to go, so they must have gone down the scary rock wall. I have nothing but respect for them now.

Okay, that's all I can think of and I want to go to bed. I have this month to continue bouncing around Seoul before things kick into gear. At the beginning of June I'm going to see Phantom of the Opera with Eun-mi, then I'm going to fly over to China to spend a week with Kayli in Beijing and Shanghai, and then I'll be subbing for Doug's class while he's away. Crazy times.

Children's Day

Yesterday I actually got up at a human hour and went back to the daycare.

A Day with Family

I slept in way too long yesterday, and when I woke up I found that someone had put plastic wrap over all the breakfast dishes and left them out for me. Aw. Eun-mi and Auntie were at the school, but Uncle and I had breakfast-as-lunch together and tried to communicate.

Then we headed over the the school, where I think the kids are starting to recognize me.

I kept trying to get candid shots of the kids, but it's impossible. As soon as they see the camera they're all over it.

Everland

I was exhausted yesterday and this morning I slept in til noon, so you get a belated account of my adventures with Eun-mi in Everland.

The place was huge and gorgeous, but really crowded. This is the tulip garden. On stage in the foreground are a brass band dressed as bees. Korean entertainment is really weird...

Busy Saturday

Because I was not proactive enough to write up the first half of this post earlier in the day, this will be another experiment in blogging while under the influence.

Gwanaksan

Well, the sun is back which means it's time to find another mountain to climb. Today's was Gwanaksan, which is in the south part of the city nearer to home. The guidebook said that it was right next to the University, so I got off at what I supposed was the correct stop and poked around.

Well, it didn't exactly look right. There was a University all right, but not a mountain to be seen. It took me an hour of wandering around and double-checking my maps to realize that I was supposed to be at Seoul National University. The place I was currently at was Seoul National University of Education. They were only three subways stops away from each other. If I had had access to a desk, my head would have impacted it at great speed.

So I scooted down to the correct stop. Oh, yes. This looks much more promising.

I am incapable of writing a bad paper

Remember a few days ago when I was complaining about what a hard time I was having writing that stupid paper for my single solitary class? Remember how I said that I laboriously dragged six pages out of my skull while feeling sure that the finished product would be barely readable? Well, here's the email I got back:

Thanks for the paper, Christina. It sounds like you had a great experience and learned lots. Your paper was well written, a skill that is becoming somewhat rare these days.
All the best in vet school!
Traci

Ahahaha! This is awesome. Even my on-vacation, no-effort, un-proofread papers get compliments. I am like unto an essay-writing god!

Rain

Ugh. Sorry about the lameness of my posts recently. The weather's been terrible, and since my main mode of transportation is my feet that tends to mess things up.

Today I really tried to go a to a museum (I figured if I could get inside, I could learn about Korean culture while staying dry). I packed an umbrella from the cabinet, but when I exited the subway station it was barely drizzling. Everyone had umbrellas up, but not me! I walked in the rain like the proud Oregonian I am. Well, eventually I realized that I had no idea where I was going and the rain was getting worse, so I grudgingly pulled out my umbrella.

It was tiny and flimsy. Apparently my reliance on Dad's enormous golf umbrellas has made me forget that not all umbrellas are created equal. I wandered around for about an hour and a half getting cold and wet, and never once did I even see a roof in the distance that might have belonged to a museum. I have a high tolerance for being lost (I kind of have to), but being lost in the rain and cold is just unnecessary, so I bailed at the next subway station I found.

So, yeah. Lame. But it's supposed to clear up by the weekend, so hopefully we'll be back to regularly scheduled programming.

The Hurt Locker

So with it raining and blowing outside, but with me not feeling up to another entire day in front of a computer screen, I opted for an enormous theater screen instead and went back to the Megabox theater in the underground mall. I saw The Hurt Locker because hey, I'd heard a lot of good things about it and it won an Oscar so it couldn't be too bad. Plus the only other movies in English were some BS featuring Jennifer Aniston and Kickass (although I saw a preview for Kickass and I might actually have to watch it now just to see that purple-haired girl pull off that sweet bullet-time fight scene).

Pajama Day

You know those days - the ones where you never leave the house, never put in your contacts, and never change out of your pajamas? I love those days. Okay, I actually did put my new tie-dye dress on over my PJs, but that's just so I could eat meals in the kitchen without showing my nipples through my tank top.

Oh hey, it's an actual picture of me in an actual dress that I actually bought! Haha. God, I look like a boy in drag.

Frisbee

Yesterday I had planned on sleeping all day until Drew texted me at 11AM asking if I wanted to go to the park. Well, by then I was already getting bored with my sleep-all-day plan, so I happily accepted.