bad blogger

yeah. i know that i am bad bad bad at this. but i promise, the new year comes with many resolutions.

and i am really excited about korea at the moment. i ordered some books online from a store in seoul (whatthebook.com) on tuesday. then on wednesday, i paid for them at an atm. today (thursday) they arrived by courier at 2:25. koreans are too efficient for words.

it should be noted that i have been excited about korea everyday. for 6 months now. still. i learn new things every day and i cant get enough of this place. i will definitely be doing at least another year. i love it here so much, i could easily see myself living here indefinitely. that means you should be saving up to come and visit if you want to see me again. i will be visiting the states at the end of my contract though. but itll be less than a month. then a month or 2 traveling. then i will be back in the land of the morning calm!

for my christmas vacation, i went to taiwan! i stayed with my friend, liz, in her mini house on the top of a 15 story building in taipei. it was an amazing trip! we were able to see loads in just the week we were there. she has a great view of the taipei 101 building – which was at the time the tallest building in the world. if you keep up with architectural news, you would know that the record was beat the monday after i came home. we went to the 101, wulai hot springs, yehliu geopark, and tons of other stuff.

i even ate cobra soup! this was of course after i drank shots of cobra blood, bile, venom, and semen. other regional fare included stinky tofu, pearl milk tea !!!, and these delicious custard apple things.

we had a lovely time. our hosts were so so so gracious. celebrating new years in taipei was nuts. but all good things come to an end, and i had to return to a literally freezing apartment. its not so bad though, as i mentioned. i am still loving the crap out of korea!

first seoul trip

i had a chance to go to seoul on the 19th to go and see the musical RENT. and it was awesome. they had 2 of the original cast members (anthony rapp and adam pascal – the roomates roger and mark) and as we all know this is the last run of RENT and it will no longer be on broadway. i have never seen the play, but have the movie and know every song so this was SO EXCITING to attend. our seats were really great! 4th and 5th row! 

besides that, we spent some time in itaewon – which is a community in seoul that caters to foreigners. and we went out at night in the university club area. holy crap. there are so many people in seoul. 24.5 million in  the metro area. and you never forget that fact. and there are so so so so many foreigners! white people everywhere. it was really overwhelming, trying to take the subway and people all over the place. and not knowing hangul AT ALL. but it was also lots of fun. i think it is one of those places thats great to visit, but wouldnt be so rad to live in. it may be different if you had your own place though… we stayed in a hostel, so there was never a point in the weekend where i could have privacy or two minutes to myself! 

i went with my friend, sybil, and she has been a few times so she took the reins with getting around and figuring out what to do. thank god. on sunday, we went to LOTTE World. its an amusement park owned by LOTTE, and LOTTE owns what seems like half of korea. one can get a bulgogi burger from lotteria, or go shopping at lotte department store, or live in lotte castle apartments. 

anyways, lotte world was amazing. i cannot tell you enough how much i enjoyed it! it is the worlds biggest indoor theme park and only half of it is inside. i really think they had some people from disney come over and do consult work because there are so many similarities! mainly the costumes and the niceness of the rides (it was more disney than six flags, if you catch my drift.) it was super fun, and because we went after 4pm it was cheaper. only like $22 for a pass that included all of the rides. we also went through one of the scariest haunted houses i have ever been to. 

in all, my first trip to seoul was a success. i had tons of fun, spent too much money, and got ranch dressing at a restaurant. im easy to please. and i really like ranch dressing. 

speaking of, you can send packet mix and bottles of ranch to:

 

203 1449-8
dowon-dong. dalseo-gu. dae-gu.
704-803
south korea

 

just sayin!

bijindo island

two weekends ago, some friends and i went to bijindo island and went camping on the beach. it was so awesome. korea has something like 300 islands. i had no idea! theyre so pretty. we had to travel to tongyoung and took a short ferry from there to the island. i went to e-mart and got a 40l backpack and sleeping bag for the occasion and i am so glad that i did!

we slept in tents on the beach. it got pretty chilly at night. there were a dozen or so people, mostly from tongyoung, in the group. i can say for sure that i am totally glad that i came to daegu and not a smaller or bigger city. while it was a really cool area, there just isnt as much to do. and the expat community is soooo small. its nothing for me to see white people walking around town here. there, everyone knows eachother because there is only like 20 of them. they explained it as not getting along with people but not having a choice. yuck! there are a couple of people i have met in daegu that i didnt ‘click’ with but i never see them! a smaller town would super suck.

oh, ashley. why?

ive been getting pretty antsy about coloring my hair lately for a few reasons. one, my hair has been growing out in a major way and i dont have naturally black hair. its really dirty blonde. so it looked like crap. the other biggie is that i wanted to look more american. with black hair, i look korean if you cant see my face. ive surprised people. and its weird. i just want to have my natural hair color, look american, and live my life. 

sigh.

the first thing i did was buy a couple of home coloring boxes. i know, i know. but the salons in my neighborhood dont speak english. and i was being impulsive.  the result was… nothing. it looked the same, maybe a little lighter at the roots. meh.

so i decided to go to a salon. i got my boss to talk to them on the phone and eventually he stopped by to help out. i asked for light brown/dark blonde. i didnt realize there was such a discrepancy of opinion for that color. i even picked out a hair swatch.  i ended up with bright orange hair. seriously. and i wouldnt leave the salon (hahaha) until they tamed it. in the end, they brought me to a strawberry blonde shade and asked for me to come back the next day to finish up the job. the ladies were really nice, they even bought me lunch and refused to let me pay for it. but really, i cannot stress enough how many times i said “no orange, no yellow, no red.”

i had to go into work looking like ginny weasley from harry potter. the worst part is, while i wanted to die of embarrassment over my strawberry blonde hair, koreans think this is beautiful. all of the students couldnt get over ‘how beautiful ashley teacher is’. really. the girls wanted to touch it, and not a soul could understand why i hate it. even my boss tried to talk me out of returning to the salon because this shade is “perfect”.

i give you the photographic evidence here. 

you think i would be happier knowing that the sorting hat put me in griffindor, but some people just cant be pleased.

i went back the next day and say for another 4 hours. thats right, 2 days and 8 hours later i have my lackluster results. my hair is a manageable color. blondish brownish reddish. not thrilled, but not going to do anything about it for sometime. my hair was totally fried in the process. if anyone has home remedy suggestions for fried hair, do share. its either that or i try my luck again with another hair salon for a treatment…

ohh, weekends!

i live far enough from downtown that it is not convenient (or cheap) to go downtown during the week. except for the occasional night out, i tend to stay in my neighborhood. and i have a job! korean children are no fun when youre nursing a hangover!! this obviously leads to the weekend and then it is time to go out, get some galbi with friends, and go to the bars. honestly, i am still learning my boundaries and i really been overdoing my weekend drinking. i am just NOT used to having no last call. its quite a shock to be dancing and having a great time, then go outside and the sun is out. yep, i said it. life sure is rough out here. 

this past weekend, a group of us had a birthday gathering for a couple of expats on a roof and then went out to a noraebang. noraebangs are little karaoke rooms that you rent. think ‘lost in translation’. it is quite possibly the most beloved pastime of koreans. we have some in florida, but nothing to this magnitude. you cannot throw a rock without hitting a building with a noraebang. 

the only problem with noraebangs is that they dont let you bring in drinks. now, its easy enough to sneak them in but we couldnt make it work on saturday. we ended up buying some beers there. after we drank and shotgunned them we figured out they were non-alcoholic. silly wagooks. 

photographic evidence of the last couple of trips downtown. noraebang, rooftop shot with new neighbor, sparklers in front of the bag drink place (i will certainly explain this another time). oh, and vitamin water. i finally found a place today that sells it. if i beg hard enough, do you think they will carry ‘formula 50′? a girl can dream. 

one month down

its hard to believe that i have been in korea for a whole month. all i keep thinking is “I ONLY HAVE 11 MORE MONTHS LEFT??” it certainly doesnt seem like enough time. there is so much to see and do, so many countries nearby… its easy to see why so many people stay for a second year. its still too early in the game for me to say one way or another. 

there are a few things i do know for sure. korean thanksgiving is in october. as an early birthday gift to myself (love those, right?) i will be going on a long weekend trip to japan with some friends. to say i am excited would be an understatement. 

today, me and the girls went to seomun market. i am pretty broke at the moment, as teachers typically do not get paid for a month or more after arrival so i did not spend much money although there was LOADS of stuff to buy. fear not, i get paid on september 10th and will be going back to seomun for some cute apartment stuff. 

korea has no shortage of cute things. for the first time in my life, i am decorating my apartment pink, blue, and purple. i just cant help it. everything has got buttons or puppy cartoons on it. 

cheri just got a care package from her mom which included RANCH DRESSING, so we got some pizzas and watched a few johnny depp movies after the market. a pretty good way to spend the evening no matter where in the world you are. by the time the movies were over, the subway was closed and i had to take a cab home. sitting in the back of that cab, driving along the mountains on the highway is still thrilling to me. looking out over the city at night, glowing lights and neon signs i cant for the life of me read. i am so blessed to be here, to be able to travel, to be able to see this nook of the world that is so different from anything that i have ever experienced. i had the goofiest smile the entire time, not able to get over the fact that this is my life. this is life!

i literally could not ask for anything more.