Food, more food, and miscommunication!

I guess it must be some part of the curriculum or something, but EVERY school in Korea has gone on a school picnic in the last few weeks. Really, it's more of a field trip with a picnic at lunch, but every school calls it a picnic.

Our school "picnic" was to the Dinosaur museum in Haenam, about an hour away from Mokpo. I was busy doing work for a 3 hour workshop I had to give Monday, so I had to tell my school I couldn't go on the trip. Things have really turned around at my school in the last 3 weeks though, and the Principal offered to drive me to the picnic with him a few hours after all the buses left, which gave me time to get work done, but allowed me to join in for some of the fun.

The Dinosaur museum wasn't as impressive as I hoped it would be, so I don't actually have any pictures from that part of the day! After lunch, the Principal took me back to school and offered to let my new co-teacher come back too since he was bored.

The really story for the blog is what came at 5pm, when the kids all went home and the teachers "celebrated a successful trip" by having beer, soju and snacks in the staffroom. We've told stories and shown pictures of the live baby octopus eating, but this time I caught it on tape!
The video quality isn't great, but it's the best i could do on the small digital camera.

First you'll see our school administrator (in the blue jacket). His demonstration of how to eat live octopus isn't great, but I just want to point him out because he will be the main character in another story I have to tell!
The second man you see in the video is my vice-principal. He was a good sport and tried to give the best demonstration he could on how to go about eating this dangerous snack. Enjoy!



Doesn't that look appetizing? Just stab, wrap, dip and chew, but watch out for squirming legs!
I of course skipped out on this part of the feast and stuck to oranges and melon slices :)


The second story for this week is a bit of a continuation of another story I told months ago from one of my first staff dinners. Last night I was invited to join the staff for Chinese food, as we were being treated by the parent's association to celebrate the new head parent --if that makes any sense! I haven't been to any of the staff events this semester as I was always finding out about them 5 minutes before they took place and usually when I had something else planned for the evening. This week, they gave me more than 24 hours notice and since it was Chinese food and not raw fish, I thought I should go.

Well the school administrator, along with some of the other teachers, likes to drink in excess at these events. He is the one that during another dinner told me I was beautiful and then started making gestures around the chest area. I thought he was making comments about my bust, but apparently he was trying to say that I'm beautiful on the outside, but he is beautiful on the inside and inner beauty is more important. Well, I now I'm sure he was talking about my chest --we had a second miscommunication last night!

After a few shots of soju he found his way to my table and got right into the conversation with me. I don't think he knows a single English word other than beautiful because that's all I heard (he should maybe think about attending the mandatory English classes I give to the teachers each week!). In attempt to communicate better he likes to gesture a lot. I understood the part that he thinks I'm beautiful, and then I had some help from other staff members who translated that he was impressed that I workout at a gym (he likely heard it from other Korean's that work out at our gym -- us foreigners are easy to spot and are often the subject of gossip!) Everyone was surprised to learn I do weights at the gym -Korean women can't lift their own handbags! and the weight room is apparently the last place in Korea you will ever find a Korean woman (except when they go in there for cake and coffee and gossip and hula hoops!). Our communication went like this: I understood the hands by the face and "beautiful", the bicep squeeze and "beautiful", but when he started gesturing in the shape of an hourglass and then sticking his butt out and making an X with his arms, I started to get confused and a bit offended. The women didn't want to translate anymore so I could tell it wasn't good. I of course was a bit shocked that we went from "you're beautiful" to "you have a fat derriere", but they are brutally honest in Korea and don't show much tact. I kept asking "chogum - no?" (small, No = not small, and then no and making an X with my arms -- this is the best I can do in Korean!) So I told the other women it was okay, I understood that he meant I had a big butt. I was really embarrassed and then finally I think one of them felt badly for me because she spoke up and said it was the opposite. She translated for me that "he likes your bum line". Things were a bit awkward for a few minutes, to say the least, and I'm guessing along with skipping English class he also skipped the sexual harassment seminar that every school does at the beginning of the semester.

As if that wasn't enough of a situation, the dining room suddenly turned into a noraebong (karaoke room) and what I thought would change the atmosphere a bit, actually made it worse (but mostly for the Korean women in the room -- I was laughing hysterically!). The TV gets turned on and a song code is punched in and one of the parents was up for a song. The foreigners are always laughing about the karaoke background scenes that play while the words are up on screen. You don't get music videos to the songs, just scenery usually. We've seen forest scenes, skiing scenes, beaches, temples, all things that have nothing to do with the song, but that provide something pretty to look at while people sing. To everyone's absolute shock, the pictures that came up this time were of three blonde, naked females soaping each other up and scrubbing in the shower!!! Korean women aren't supposed to see stuff like that and the females on staff are pretty young and all unmarried so they were just mortified. They immediately turned away and went bright red. The pervert administrator got as close to the TV as he could to get a good look, and everyone else was either laughing uncomfortably or hysterically like myself because it was just so unbelievable! My new co teacher kept apologizing for how uncomfortable the night must have been for me but I just laughed and asked him if he knew what a blog was. I told him this would make a good story to tell people back home!

Ohhh, Korea! Always eating, always full of surprises, and always something to laugh about here!

Springtime in Korea = Cherry blossom festivals a plenty!

We had heard more than once that spring in Korea is the best time of year to be here. We've been pretty happy with fall and winter so far, but we aren't going to complain about spring either! Every weekend and in every town, there seems to be some sort of spring festival going on. Most of the festivals celebrate or recognize something greater, but all seem to attract visitors mostly for the blossoms.

This week Milton and I went to the "cherry blossom" festivals at the University of Mokpo in Muan, and at the Wang-In birthplace and historic grounds near Yeongam. We can't deny that it wasn't the Wang-In Cultural Festival that attracted us, but the renowned display of blossoms lining the road kilometer after kilometer leading into town and on the historic grounds themselves, and we were certainly not disappointed!

Above: The university's cherry blossom festival.

Cherry blossoms at the Wang-In culture festival, with Wolchusan mountain in background.

I spotted a 2 little frogs in the puddles - so cute! They were hardly bigger than the tip of Milty's index finger.

The tree lined streets leading in and out of Yeongam.

La nuit en rose... (my pink bday party)

I decided for my birthday that we should have a theme party, and what better theme for a girl than pink?! Milton was happy to go along with the plan and did most of the work to get our house "pinkified" for the event. Our friends we very enthusiastic about the theme and it turned out to be quite a night! Ah, la vie en rose!

Pink Ladies for the ladies in pink :)

The pink enthusiasts gather for a group shot.

Lots of pink gifts for the birthday girl :)

It came down to a close vote as to who had to wear the pink rubber gloves for the duration of the party. And the winner is...

Lucky Matthew!!! He looks so thrilled about his win!


The boys decided to play a drinking game.

their opponents (and the losers of the game):

A few accessories where sent from home - thanks Emma for making it really clear just how old I am this year!

What good party doesn't end with the arrival of the cops to tell you to shut up?! at least I think that's what they meant by "Bipa. Sleep. No."

It was a pinktastical birthday party! and the rest of the weekend wasn't so bad either. Milton took me for a bike ride Saturday and a surprise picnic. Sunday was a nice lazy day spent in the sun at a cafe terrace where we read some books, wrote some letters, and took in some of the fresh spring air! We didn't make it to the cherry blossom festival but that leaves us with something to do next weekend and something to write next week... so stay tuned!

New Caledonia Pictures

It took more than a little while ( a month to be exact) but here are the pictures from New Caledonia I promised. The beauty of the islands is indescribable, and the pictures barely do the islands justice, but they give you an idea of just how breathtaking New Caledonia is.

February Vacation in Australia et la Nouvelle Caledonie!!!

Life's a beach!

I've been away from my blog for the past month enjoying the sun and sandy beaches of Australia and New Caledonia. I'm going to keep the typing to a minimum and post mostly pictures as they will be a better testimony to what I saw and experienced than what my words can probably describe.

In brief though, the trip was FANTASTIC! We started off with a week in Mt Martha outside of Melbourne (like Guelph to Toronto in size and distance) where and met up with Scott and Emma at the airport and stayed with Allyce, Alan, Riley and Carly. We spent the week at the beach and also popped into the city for some exploring. That week we experience one of the hottest days on record for the last 100 years -- about 42 degrees where we were and 46 in Melbourne!

Our second week we took off with Scott and Emma on a coastal drive from Melbourne to Sydney. Some of the major fires started breaking out that we and we had to dodge a few along the way, but weren't detoured too much. We stayed in Lakes Entrance, where we got out to Raymond's Island to see the koalas, Merimbula, Bateman's Bay, where we saw the kangaroos at Pebbly Beach, a night in Kiama with a trip to the Minnamura rainforest, spent Valentine's Day in Bondi beach and ended our week at the Rocks in Sydney .

Emma and Scott Flew back to Canada from Sydney and Milton and I got on a plane to New Caledonia where we spent 10 great days exploring the "Paris of the Pacific". We stayed in Noumea for the first 5 nights and then spent a weekend on Ile des Pins, and finished our stay at Anse Vata. We had great luck and only had one day spoiled by rain even though they are in rainy season this time of year.

We got back to Australia for 4 last days of vacation which we spent back in Mt Martha with the fam. We did a bit more exploring in the city and in Mornington and ended on a lovely last evening out at a really nice Indian restaurant taking advantage of the variety of foods that exist outside of Korea!

Now it's back to reality - official vacation is over and the new school year started today. It's not so rough though, I have no classes to teach this week until they work out a schedule for the school.

So enjoy the photo journal and feel free to leave comments (following the link just at the bottom of this posting).

The little beach sheds at Mt Martha

Melbourne skyline at dusk taken from Southbank outside of the Crown casino.

Family dinner on our last night all together in Mt Martha.

Dodging fires!

Sleeping koalas on Raymond's Island.

The blowing sand and Scott at Merimbula beach (bay side)

Kangas at Pebbly beach.

Hyam's Beach , a little hidden paradise-- whitest sand and bluest water!

Sista's and bro at the falls in the rainforest.

Bondi Beach a day after the two shark attacks!
Sydney

note: check back in a day or two for the New Caledonia pictures... I'm still in vacation mode and too lazy to upload anymore today ;)