Getting Out of the House

Well, it took me 5 hours, 3 different neighbourhoods, and 4 stores today but I finally managed to track myself down a new pair of rollerblades! They're women's, they're my size, and they're comfortable, and they were only $95 (a good deal if you've ever shopped for skates!). Running has not been doing great things for my right leg (trip to the chiropractor and orthopedic guy next week) but skating doesn't seem to bother it. I went out tonight on the Tancheon river path as soon as I got back, and (embarassing) after 20 minutes I could barely breathe, lol... With the nice weather lately I want to spend some more time outside, so hopefully this will help!! :)

Shopping, as always, was interesting. The store I finally bought a few groceries in (E-Mart) had NO PLASTIC BAGS so it was either (a) try to pack everything into several small paper bags and carry them home, or (b) box it up like everyone else does.

So here's my shopping 'bag' (which I lugged home on the subway with my new skates and my backpack with the heavy stuff in it)...

The flowers are all out in my neighbourhood now, azaleas are EVERYwhere!! Here they're called Jin-Dal-Lae, and they're so bright and pretty! 

After my shopping and skating I retired back to my apartment to play with my pups... a good start to the weekend I say!

School Today

Though I am now exhausted the day went (mostly) according to plan. The first pickup (bus) of the day was quick since I had only 2 returnees this morning. I got the best bus driver of all, he's friendly, kind to the children, and even speaks a bit of English... we (the 2 kids and I) decided he should have an English name, so they chose Daniel, he thought that was pretty cute and then told everyone at the school when we got back, heheheh.

My kindy kids are cute (there are 10 of them). 2 cried for most of the first class (Sean and Becky), and the rest were good - thank god it was only an hour today! We just had to entertain them in our classrooms while boss talked to their moms, so it was pretty easy. Actually, all of the morning was pretty easy: even the standing and smiling and nodding only lasted about 10 minutes TOTAL! Once the kids were out on their way I had the rest of the morning to prep and plan and photocopy and all that good stuff. A couple more meetings with the boss about the same books and the same pages and the same stuff as the past few days :) and then I had break with Maggie.

She has now decided that when we're in the house "go pee" now officially means "sit on your pee mat and look cute, but don't under any circumstances go pee"... as you can imagine, I am loving this new development! We went for a run after shopping tonight and guess what? She loves running if she gets to run with me off the leash, she was a little speed demon in the park, and you should have seen her race me on the stairs!! It was  adorable, very cute.

After lunch I taught my first 2 'real' classes with boss bopping his head in umpteen times to interrupt me. Needless to say we didn't get even CLOSE to enough of the bookwork done today, but that was to be expected. I love my 2 early afternoon classes, both groups were wonderful and I had a really good time meeting them and getting everything started. Boss repapered our classroom walls over the weekend so there's nice clean paper, also a nice bonus as ugh, they were awful on Friday! Done teaching for the day at about 5 and I*was*wiped! (but very happy).

Went shopping almost immediately this evening (lest I sit down on my bed never to get up again!) for a few things for school. I found the stationary store in the E-Mart (uh-oh for my paycheque) and just bought a few things to make lesson planning and such a bit easier. Mostly I just enjoyed looking around, it was much fun! Also ventured over to AK Plaza a couple of subway stops up from me but (wow) was that ever (mostly) a waste of time. It was fun to see a new neighbourhood but the mall was WAY out of my price range... EVERYthing in it was from Prada or Burberry or Gucci and such, and the grocery store must have been organic or something because WOW it was mah-ni pee-sah-yo (very expensive)!!! Fun though, and I took a couple of videos I'll upload when I figure it out!

So I enjoyed my time after school, and Mags is doing very well in her kennel at home now. I'm no longer worried about her being an only child, I think I have it under control now! I rearranged my apartment because my windows have a bit of a draft that may be contributing to the huge congestion I have going on - it feels SO much BIGGER in here now!! I'll post photos tomorrow, it's late and I'm tired and going to hit the hay I think. Tomorrow after work I (might) go to Costco with some of the other teachers just to look around (and maybe have one of their world famous very-same-as-at-home hotdogs from downstairs!!) and find another new spot near home. We'll see, it's on the 'maybe' list anyway...

So that's all for today, good night!

Home Suite Home

This note is probably going to be the only one I'll have time for today because I have a paper to write, and as it always goes I have today to do it so I need to get crackin'! If I finish early I'll stop and with some pictures, but I wouldn't count on it if you know me and school!! Dinner last night was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed myself and met a bunch of new teachers from my old school (along with my old friend Barb). We've made plans next weekend to go to noraebahng since I had too much to do this weekend to have been able to go and enjoy myself last night. So far so good with the 'if you say you're going to do it you actually have to go and do it!' plan, I'm much happier with myself that way!

So yesterday right before I was ready to leave the boss arrived to move my stuff. He was without his pal so it's lucky I was home or he's have likely tried to do it all himself. He buzzed me when he got here and I talked to him on the ensuite videophone. He told me he was at my door, so I (haha, oops) assumed that he meant the door downstairs, which nonresidents need a key to get into. So I went around the apartment tucking last minute things into bags and pockets and such, and after 5 minutes (maybe more?) wondered where he had gotten to. I thought 'maybe he wanted me to meet him downstairs to move things up?' and put my shoes on, opened the door to find him WAITING IN THE HALLWAY - he didn't even knock or anything, lol, I felt very embarassed but we got over it. We moved the bed and my stuff along with the box for my table up to the 9th floor suite of my home suite home.

Now this may surprise you if you knew me in my grime-loving days, but I took a deep breath going through the door because there was easily a half inch of disgusting floating around on the floors and in the cupboards and stuff, and my skin was just crawling at the thought of living there... the former tenant's mother had obviously never visited in the time she lived here! I say 'she' because there was a pile of very long black hair throughout the apartment, just about everywhere I looked there was dirt of dustpiles or hair, ugh, it was so icky!!!! My tuff little pup adjusted fairly quickly, and once I made the bed I put her toys up there to play and she happily rolled around with her ball while I finished getting ready for dinner. Found myself a taxi just across the street near the train station, and with rushour took about 20 minutes to get about 5kms... should've taken the train!!  :)

We went to a restaurant called VIPS for their buffet, and it was very good. Funny that's the first 'real' dinner I've been to since I got here and it was all foreign food with a foreign food price tag... I'm *dying* for a good BBQ!!! My old boss and his wife were really happy to see me, which was nice. While we were loitering around the buffet he said to me "I don't know if it's okay to say in your country, but can I say you look more better than last time? More lovely, very beautiful than when you worked here before?" Now if this wasn't Korea I'd assume he was hitting on me, but he was simply telling me that I looked great, it was nice to hear. His wife commented "Oh, Shauna, you got skinny one more time, it's very good!" lol... what to say, what to say! I bid them goodnight around 8 as they all went off to noraebahng and promised them I'd join them next weekend (which I'm really looking forward to!). With thoughts of the pile of gross that was waiting for me back at home I walked the rest of the way to E-Mart to get some cleaning supplies.

Weekend evenings seem to be the time many families go shopping, so the store was P*A*C*K*E*D. There were a few hilarious moments when the aisle girl tried to help me find floor cleaner by dragging me from one end of the store (about the size of the Walmart supercentres but on 3 levels) and back again as she tried to decipher what I was asking for, lol.... she was pulling my shopping cart by the basket through the throngs and I was holiding onto the little key fob that dangles off the handle, like a little kid hanging onto mommy's apron strings trying not to get lost, lol. I was giggling almost the entire time as people looked at us quizzically, mamma duck and her strange looking baby duck moving through the sea of people.

About 90 minutes and a friendly taxi ride later (a driver who, incidentally, told me that there was actually an E-Mart within base-fare range (2km) of my apartment and I didn't need to travel the 6km to the old neighbourhood - woohoo!) I got back home armed with a mop, broom, and various other kinds of cleaning supplies, as well as some hangers for clothes and a couple of storage boxes. I am going to spare you the details, but I turned up my music and cleaned this place nonstop from about 10pm until 2am. Now that wouldn't be a big deal at home, but my apartment (I counted) is about 16x15 heel-to-toe steps with my size 8 feet, plus the bathroom and entrance (maybe another 10 paces x 7 paces total?). After using 4 rolls of paper towel, a WHOLE bottle of bathroom BAM, 1/2 a bottle of windex and 1/2 a bottle of kitchen BAM and giving myself an achey lower back I finally had done enough to feel like I could live in the place comfortably... and I was very happy with myself! I unpacked most of my suitcases over the next hour, finding new homes for things and being mindful not to clutter up my little space. There are 4 stickies on my fridge door (it's not magnetic, so I'm going to remain the reigning queen of sticky-note usage!) labelled with things I would like to pick up, including a multi-drawer shelf and little bins/boxes to go in some drawers so they can be organized nicely, and food, at some point I'm going to have to buy some food!

That said, my apartment has (at this point) come furnished with a bed (pillow and quilt), a table (desk) and chair, a TV with stand, a wardrobe (that was delivered to the wrong apartment and will arrive some time today) and appliances (fridge, washer, 2-burner hotplate). I have to check my contract, but I thought I should be supplied the very basic of kitchen supplies, a pot, a pan, a cup maybe?? At this point I have 2 sets of chopsticks/spoons and 2 mugs, and that is IT. I'm not going to buy much that's complicated to cook until I know what I have to buy, as that stuff is all a little more expensive and I can buy it in stages.

So as I sit now typing this note out (internet should arrive at home this week sometime, along with the wallpaper guy to replace the disgustingly dirty badness on the walls right now!) I look around my apartment with the tidy bed, the scented candles burning and puppy curled up in her new bed and I'm happy... this place will work just fine, I'll love it here! Oh, and photos will follow because I FOUND my phone cable!!! :) (turns out the other cord is for my other camera, which I also brought... duh!). For today though I have to pack it in and get to work before it's already dinner time and I'm panicked about getting my dumb paper done. Have a wonderful day, talk soon!

Walkin' Walkin' About Town

I left the house again this morning around 8:30 after noticing that my computer battery is running quite low. No real plan for what to do, other than running out to the stores. Since I haven't been on the subway yet I thought I'd run over to the 'new' (since I was here last!) subway stop in my old stompin' grounds in Suji. The station is about 1/2 block from my apartment, so conveniet, it's great! Of course I stopped at Starbucks and had a Vanilla Latte (Korean thing I guess), which was FABULOUS, and kept my hand warm on the way to the subway station! After much figuring out on the new subway ticket machines (a whole lotta buttons with a whole lotta writing!) I finally figured out how to buy my ticket (whatever happened to the ticket man??) and easily made my way down to the platform. When the train came my frozen bottom was VERY happy for the heated seats, and it was another moment of giddy happiness when I relaxed into my seat and looked around the train... life is so good.

I popped out of the station at a familiar shopping centre, and walked across the street to a new E-Mart (the local version of Wal-Mart) where about 20 store employees were clearing snow with shovels and brooms... unfortunately it didn't open until 10 and I still had 45 minutes to wait, so I decided to walk the few blocks (6 or 7?) to my old neighbourhood. Found the old pet store where I got Mags and bought puppy food and mats, wandered for a bit and then walked up to the computer room so I could check in. I noticed a pet shop in my neighbourhood last night so I'll check in there later to book her soon for a 'hair and nails' appointment on the weekend!

Well, it's just after 10 and the stores are open now, so I think I'll wander over and do my bit of shopping. I'll upload some photos once I've got my computer plugged in, I want (of course) to be able to edit them before I just slap them up. Soon you'll be inundated with more pictures than you can stand about what's going on around me - just wait for it!!  :)  More soon... S.