An Ocean Away

So yesterday I met up with Deborah and Tiffany in 명동 after work. ^^ Because of midterm exams, I don't have classes to teach at all this week and everyday, they told me to go home at 12:30pm. ^^ So today after work, I met up with Deborah at 3:30pm in Myeong Dong for some shopping. ^^ Deborah wanted to get a long t-shirt for hiking, but all the stores are starting to sell long sleeved shirts for the winter. However, both Deborah and I bought headbands. ^^ I got a feather headband which is so cool! ^^ I'll post pictures later. ^^


Oh! And I was reunited with this shirt again. ^^ Saw it the first time in COEX mall, and yesterday saw it again in 명동.....could this be a sign that I should get it? Is it calling my name? *lol* What do you think? Should I get it? ^^:




We met up with Tiffany later at around 6:30pm and we went for Japanese food for dinner. ^^ It was soooo good! ^^ And it was around this time that I found out I should stop eating so much spicy food or else risk messing up my stomach. Yikes! Thanks Tiff the info! I don't want to get stomach ulcers or heart burn or anything like that. I'm going to decrease the amount of spicy food I ingest. ^^

After dinner, we stumbled on this awesome store called Kosney. ^^ They have the BEST random things ever!!! ^^ So cute and unique! ^^ It's the best place to find souvenirs for people back home. ^^ Just for the hell of it, I bought fake bread that's also a card and cellphone holder. ^^ It even smells and feels like bread too!!!! Check it out!

For more pictures of our night in 명동, check out my slide show!!!!! ^^ Just double click on the slideshow pictures and you'll be taken to my photo album with a LOT of pictures. ^^

I forgot the exact day that I met up with friends this past week. So I'll just tell about it in no particular order. ^^

Met up with Joa and her guy friend some time this month. *lol* ^^ Met them in Sinchon and went out for Korean style bbq. ^^ It was delicious but the meet was a bit fatty. ^^ Afterwards, we went to Red Mango for some good yogurt. ^^ Had an awesome time hanging out with Joa and her friend though. ^^

















Later on this week, I met up with Dalki twice. ^^ First time we wen to COEX mall and did some hopping and eating at the fusion restaurant called Omuto Tomato or something. ^^ Pretty good stuff. ^^ Then the second time, it was in Myeongdong yesterday where we shopped and ate at this Shabu Shabu place. ^^ Yummy!! ^^



















Oh! Right! This past Wednesday, I met up with a bunch of SMOE people again at 신당동 for some good good 떡볶이. ^^ It was fab to see everyone again. ^^ I shared a pot of 떡볶이 with Jenny, Samantha, and Grisel and we were still hungry afterwards that we called for seconds! *lol* Yes we can sure eat! ^^















After 떡볶이, we went to Red Mango for some good ol' yogurt. ^^ Yummy! I ordered a medium size thinking it would be just like medium in Canada, but hell no! It was soooo big!!! No wondered the guy behind the counter chuckled after I said no, it's for me only. But still, it was ooo good. And I don't care if I'm a glutton. I'm a proud glutton. *lol* ^^


















































I also met up with Yohan, my friend from L.A this Thursday. ^^ It was so spontaneous because I didn't expect to meet up with anyone that day, but we met up at Starbucks for coffee. ^^
















On Friday night, I met up with Tiffany, Jason, and DJ in Sa Dang for some good ol' Korean BBQ and ice cream afterwards. ^^ It was so good and the company was so good. ^^ So much fun with them. ^^

Sorry, again I've neglected this blog!

Anyways, so just to recap about last weekend, I went to the Fo Guang Shan temple bright and early on Saturday. ^^ Yayz!!! ^^ *lol* I got there an hour early and helped around. ^^ There is really nothing much to talk about the Seoul Fo Guang Shan temple except that:

1) They have fa hui at 11am on Saturdays.

2) Majority of the time, there are only 7 devotees who come to the dharma service.

3) There are 3 shi fus running the temple.

4) The main chef in the kitchen is a Korean lady.

5) BLIA YAD Seoul is non-existant.

That day, I basically stayed at the temple from morning until around 7pm in the evening helping around, etc. I learned that in Korea, Koreans like to make rice offerings. Interesting, eh? ^^ Anyways, nothing much going on at the temple. ^^ *lol*

During my subway ride home, I got a text from Samantha about meeting up in NoWon for dinner. ^^ So I went up there to meet up with her and some other SMOE people. ^^ NoWon turns out to be VERY big! Omg! The subway feels like its neverending! So many flights of stairs! But I finally made it and Sam took meet to where everybody was eating. ^^ Because I already had supper at the temple, I didn't eat anything. ^^ While we were eating, this random Korean guy with a guitar came over to our table and start playing. Dialogue between John and Random Guitar Guy:

Random Guitar Guy: I can play any English song to you.
John: How much do you charge?
Random Guitar Guy; *silence*
John: Alright, Can you play some Coldplay? Let's hear some Coldplay.
Random Guitar Guy: *silence* I'm sorry, I only know one English song "Land of the Rising Sun" and the rest are Korean song.
John: Oh.........ok, let's hear that then.
Random Guitar Guy: *Begins song and started bellowing at the top of his lungs*

I swear, it was very amusing. *lol* I just loved it!! Here in Seoul, there are so many different characters walking the streets that it just adds color to everything. ^^ AHHHHH I love it here!! ^^ So Saturday night was indeed a great night! ^^







So that was Saturday. ^^ On Sunday, I met up with Jessica at COEX mall. ^^ It was my first time going to COEX mall so it was awesome seeing everything for the first time. ^^ They were having a free concert outside but when I got there, they've already wrapped up. I don't even know what group was up there. *lol* Oh wells. So I met up with Jessica at COEX and we went for lunch first. ^^ We couldn't decide on a restaurant so we went to the food court and I had cheese kimbap and Jessica had some kind of rice. *lol* Then we went to Uniglo and I bought a sweater and top and two pairs of jean leggings. ^^ I also bought another top at this little boutique in the mall. ^^ Yeah, I love shopping. ^^ I also saw the boys from 웃찾사 초코보이 performing by the music store in the mall. ^^ They are indeed so funny. ^^ A lot of people were gathered around to watch them. ^^ I took a video of them. ^^ Check it out! ^^



After COEX, I took the train to 길동 because one of the girls I met at the temple was having a hot pot get-together. ^^ i've never been to 길동 before so I was surprised to see how different it is from the rest of Seoul. 길동 is a much older neighborhood with very few apartment buildings.
I had an awesome time at Sandy's house though. ^^ They are really cool people, but I had to practise speaking mandarin to them. I suck so bad at mandarin. *sigh* We had a lot of lamb and veggie for the hot pot and after hot pot, Sandy and the others demonstrated tea ceremony. ^^ It was so cool and the tea tasted so rich and good!!! ^^ I wish I can learn. ^^ So we ended up talking and drinking tea and we completely lost track of time. I ended up missing my line 6 train by an hour, so I had to take a taxi home from line 7. *sigh* But at least the taxi driver was very nice. ^^



I just realized that I've already been in Korea for a month!!!!! ^^ Wow! How time flies!!!!!

Gonna meet up with Joa tonight in 신촌! ^^ It'll be my second time going there. *hehe* We're gonna meet up for din din and then, who knows what else later? ^^ Afterall it is a Friday. ^^ *lol* But since I'm not really a party person, we'll see what my mood is. ^^ If I'm too tired from sitting at my desk all day, then I might go home and crash afterwards. ^^

Currently I'm sitting at my desk again. I am going to make it my point to produce more lesson plans.......But it's hard because lesson plans make me very very sleepy. Brainstorming makes me sleepy.............*yawn*

Yesterday I took the subway to Konkuk after work to pick up my package from Gwanghee. ^^ The package my mom sent me finally came!!! ^^ Thx mom!! ^^

My gift to you: My First Movie. ^^

So, I've decided that the best solution is to direct everyone to click on my "slideshow link" to see my most recent picture updates. I will no longer post pictures directly on my blog because it takes up too much space. I will reserve my blog for entries and video clis only. ^^

Already that's it! ^^ I've just updated a lot of pictures on my slideshow so just click on the picture and check it out!!! ^^

Well, I've been sitting here in the same seat in the same office for the entire day just waiting for 4:30pm to arrive. *sigh* There are no classes today because the students are writing their National exam today. I've been staring at this dang computer screen trying to come up with lesson plans but ended up looking for more karaoke songs for the "Last One Standing" game that I hope to do with my kids. I've been nodding off like crazy because I'm so bored. I'm sure the other teachers thought I was a bobble head or something. *sigh* Ah, only an hour more to go and I'm outta here!!! ^^

So, they say fall has come to Korea, but to me, it still feels like summer. It's no longer hot hot, but the trees still haven't changed colors or anything like they do in Canada so it just doesn't feel like fall to me here. There's a slight breeze but it's a comfortable breeze. ^^

So far I've only met up with 2 people -- Gwanghee and my orientation friend Jessica. ^^ I've hung out with Gwanghee more because he's been taking me around Seoul every Sunday. ^^ I think we're going to InsaDong this Sunday. ^^ I'll be meeting up with Joa on Friday after work. ^^ Hmmm.....going to the temple for dharma service on Saturday morning at 11am........then meeting up with Jessica at 3:30pm to go to Korean class. ^^ It's free!!! ^^ Oh shoot right! I'll have to reschedule with Dalki for Saturday then......hmmm....Meeting up with Gwanghee to go to Insadong on Sunday. Meeting up with Jinkyo next Thursday for dinner. Hmm.......

There are still a lot of people I have yet to meet up with again.................

My butt's got calluses from sitting on it too much. TT___TT

Woops! Looks like I’m falling behind again. Sorry for the delay. I have 30mins to type up something before I leave work to meet Jessica in 명동 for some good ol’ 칼국수 and maybe shopping. ^^

So just to recap, I successfully completed my first week of teaching last week. I can say that the majority of the time, it’s been pretty engaging. ^^ I had loads of fun leading the activities, however I almost lost my voice because of my over enthusiastic response to my activities. I’ve been getting pretty good feedbacks about my classes, however some teachers were saying my classes are too loud. *lol* The principal walked into my class one day while we were wrapping up, so I had to dive into a back up dictation activity to kill the last 5 mins of class time. *lol* ^^ I think she liked it because she told the other teachers to follow my example and make good use of class time. ^^

I have some favourite classes, but there’s one class, 201, who are enthusiasm killers. A lot of the students in the class don’t even know how to form complete sentences so they are bored, don’t give a crap about English, sleeping, and they’re not willing to participate. *sigh* What to do with them………..

So I had another chillaxing weekend. ^^ On Saturday I stayed at my apartment because it rained and I didn’t feel like going out. ^^ Then on Sunday, I met up with Gwanghee again and he took me to 경복궁. ^^ We spent the entire day there looking around and taking pictures. ^^ I took so many pictures and videos that my battery died before we even reached 명동 . TT_TT *sigh* So sad. We saw the changing of the guards at 경복궁 though. ^^ After 경복궁, we took the subway down to 명동 to have lunch at this famous noodle place called 명동 교자. ^^ There were two branches downtown but both have HUGE line ups!!! ^^ It snaked all the way outside! But it was oh so worth it. ^^ The 칼국수 were so good and the 만두 was yummy yummy. ^^ I hope to go there again tonight for dinner with Jessica. ^^

So this week, I’m not expected to teach in the classrooms because the teachers are having reviews with their students. ^^ So I get to sit at my desk and make lesson plans after lesson plans. Oh joy……….

Oh! I’m off work!! ^^ Time to head back to the ol’ apt, put away my stuff, and head on out to 명동!!! ^^ I’ll update more later. ^^

Update** Alright, it's close to 10pm and I'm back at my apartment. ^^ Just came back from dinner with Jessica at 명동 교자. ^^ It was so yummy and oh so worth the trip. ^^ We walked around a bit afterwards, going up to Uniqlo. But we didn't buy anything. It was too late and I didn't wanna make bad choices anyways. ^^ So, I'm gonna make another trip down there on the weekend. ^^ I can't wait! ^^ Hmm........yeah that's about it. I can say that I've successfully took the subway all the way to 명동 from my place. ^^ Transfered 3 times, but it was all good. ^^ *sigh* When I was in 명동, I wished that I didn't live so far away......actually I wished I can live in 명동.......

Now! Video time!!!! ^^

Alright, this is gonna be short. But I forgot to mention that last Thursday, one of the teachers took me to 신당동 떡볶이 alley for dinner and oh my tummy, it was the best meal I've ever had!!!!! ^^ Yummy Yummy Yummy!!! I'm just salivating just think back to it. ^^ Anyways, here are the pictures. ^^

I’m sorry for my sporadic updates. So much has happened recently and I’ve been so busy that there just wasn’t any time to sit down and chillax.

Just to recap, I met up with Gwanghee and we went everywhere in Seoul. ^^ Well, not quite everywhere. ^^ He helped me find Fo Guang Shan temple ^^ He also took me to the Kyobo Bookstore so that I can get my English teaching books. ^^

Anyways, so our first stop was Fo Guang Shan temple. ^^ We got off at Dong Dae Ib Gu and made our way out the #2 exit. ^^ Then I spotted a sign that said Fo Guang Shan pointing into a tiny ally (yay). ^^ So we walked up the ally, but when we got to the entrance, the door was locked. Good thing I had thought to copy Fo Guang Shan’s number so Gwanghee helped me call them. ^^ While he was talking to them, I saw a shi fu coming down to open the door. ^^ Yay! ^^ Then I saw another shi fu (I recognized her right away because of the Seoul FGS website pictures) ^^ come down to greet us and wow! ^^ I can finally practice speaking mandarin with the venerable there!! ^^ The venerable took us to their guest room and I gave one of the venerable the souvenirs I bought over from Canada. ^^ They then asked me questions about when did I arrive in Seoul, how long will I stay here, what am I doing here, etc. They then told me that Venerable Chueh Yu was in Seoul too but that she’s leaving later on tonight. So one of the venerable helped me call Venerable Chueh Yu and I got to talk on the phone with Venerable Chueh Yu. ^^ Afterwards, they asked me and Gwanghee whether or not we’ve ate yet, and I told them that we’ll go out to eat. But one of the shi fu had started to make noodles for us so we stayed for lunch. ^^ And oh my goodness! ^^ She made sooooooo much noodles for us!!!!! *lol* Gwanghee was surprised too of course. *lol* The shi fu sat down with us and we ate together and I tried my best to speak mandarin and she tried her best to speak English. ^^ We were both horrible at it though. *lol* Oh well, more practise makes perfect. ^^ Anyways, afterwards I helped wash the dishes and then the shi fu showed me the main shrine. ^^ It felt so good to be able to be in the main shrine again! ^^ The shi fus told me that even though the shi fus will all be in Taiwan this coming week, Seoul BLIA YAD will still be meeting for Dharma classes. ^^ So I think I will join them on Saturday at noon. ^^ Later, we went back up and the head venerable came out and gave us souvenirs. ^^ It’s so cute. ^^ It’s a little monk on a cell phone string. ^^ I put it on my bag right away. ^^

Afterwards, Gwanghee took me to Kyobo book store to get some books and teaching materials. ^^ Omg! Kyobo bookstore is BIG!!!! Way bigger than Chapters in Canada!!!! Wow! We found the English section and I picked up two books. ^^ One is a discussion book, and the other one is a drama book for the classroom. ^^ Kyobo book store is like a freakin warehouse!!! Freakin big with a LOT of people milling around!! *lol* After Kyobo, Gwanghee and I walked to downtown Seoul. ^^ It was awesome because we passed this big square with fountains and a lot of kids running around playing in the water. ^^ It was so funny and the kids over here are very very cute!!! ^^ So chubby! ^^ *lol*

We also saw a Korean drama exhibit where the different Korean channels here have displays of their dramas all together. ^^ There were sets and costumes for people to try on and take pictures in. ^^ It was so much fun. ^^ We went into this haunted house set and one of the workers reached behind a book shelf and put a fake skeleton hand on my shoulder! Darn him I was feeling like there was something on my shoulder the entire day! *bleh* *lol* After the film exhibit, we went to an arts museum and saw a lot of Korean folk art and paintings. ^^ It was amazing!!! ^^

After the film exhibit, we went to an arts museum and saw a lot of Korean folk art and paintings. ^^ It was amazing!!! ^^ Afterwards, we walked towards Central downtown. ^^ I got some cappuccino shake from Baskin Robbins and it was soooo small but costs so much. What a rip off. *sigh* Oh wells...........

We walked past the pit that was supposed to be city hall. They are in the process of rebuilding it so it’s still a pit. There was an open air free concert right by city hall but it was wrapping up when we got there. They later had this Christian concert which we didn’t bother staying for. It’s not that I am anti-Christian or anything, but Korean Christian are so hardcore, it gets scary.
We walked past Myeongdong later but we never got around to doing any shopping. I was almost broke (I need to exchange money baaaaaad) and Gwanghee had to meet up with KiYong for dinner. Oh wells, next time. ^^ I have an entire year to explore everything. ^^

Ahhhhhhh!! I start teaching classes tomorrow. I wonder how that’s gonna go?.........wish me luck!!! Getting a little nervous..........

PICTURE TIME!!!!!



































Seoul Fo Guang Shan! ^^

































Going to JoongGak and Kyobo Bookstore! ^^





































































































Arrived at Kyobo Bookstore. ^^





































Feels like a subway in here but nope, it's a bookstore. ><
































I bought 2 books!! ^^

























































































































*haha* Cute chubby Korean kids playing in the fountain. ^^



























































































Drama Festival. ^^ All the main channels in Seoul set up drama sets here. ^^ Pretty cool. ^^