Monday 18 November 2013

My Very Own Top 40 List!

The List:

I recently read an article titled "40 things I've done in a drunken stupor that are not crack cocaine" and it made me laugh really hard.  Anyone that knows me knows that I am obsessed with lists... I have been inspired to write my own!  Not all of these were done under the influence..  I don't need to be intoxicated to make a fool of myself.

40 things that seemed like a good idea at the time

40. Grilled peanut butter jelly & bacon sammiches
39. Talking to the French Africans in Ol'55 & admitting to having kakao talk
38. Soju
37. Eating an entire jar of pickles (No regrets)
36. Wearing a sweatshirt in public that says "Let's Make Out" on the front
35. Instigating a dance off with an ajoshi on the beach
34. Drunk dialling my best friends from Korea
33. Drunk skyping my best friends from Korea
32. Passing around a 2-6 of Crown on Canada Day with no mix
31. All of my ex boyfriends.
30. All of the bacon.
29. Drinking all of the wine.
29. Not buying more of the wine.
28. Grocery shopping at Homeplus while drunk & hungry.. Nobody needs that many rice krispy squares!
27. Wearing heels anywhere in Busan
26. Mentioning the world Israel whilst Alistair is intoxicated & within earshot
25. Having this couch delivered to my apartment building knowing full and well that the elevator does not go to my floor.
24. That time I woke up with mystery cheese cake in my bed.. wait no, that was excellent.
23. Not bringing a tent to either Goeje or Namhae.. who brings a tent camping or checks the weather report, I mean really?
22. Not bringing sunscreen or a towel to Goeje or Namhae.. because you know.. summer?
21. Those dried cuttle fish bits did honestly look like turkey jerky.
20. I really thought those dried fish were potato sticks...
19. Live Octopus.
18. Pull tabs: They hurt so good.
17. Hiding Lucky beers all over my room like drunken Easter Eggs.. I did not find all 12. When I return to Canada there will be lovely self gifts to discover, granted my mother doesn't find them first.
16. Making this Santa's day
15. Boozey baking at 11 am..
14. More pull tabs.
13. .... 
12. Learning the hard way that duct tape really doesn't fix everything.
11. Baconaise.
10. Chopping my hair off.
9. Every time I think it's a good idea to cut my own bangs.
8. UVic's Beerology... can you say Care Bear drunk?
7. Only packing four pairs of jeans to Korea.
6. Ignoring my own intuition.
5. Student Loans.
4. Every instance I've tried to ride a bicycle.
3. UVic Idol 2010 & 2011.
2. Leaving my aircon on in my apartment for the entire month of July ($250 utility bill... yikes!!)
1. Allowing Johann & Mark to convince me that the globe in front of the Lotte Motel was an accessible space available for rent.  The revelation that that was not true was actually soul crushing.  Who wouldn't want to throw a party in a globe?!

October in a Nut Shell

Evidently I am not so great with updating my blog.. I've signed into this website probably two or three times a week and stared guiltily at the post box in front of me.  It's not that there's nothing going on of interest, or that I don't want to.. I just keep getting distracted by adorable animal videos that my coworker Victoria posts on my facebook.  I am not joking, watching adorable animal videos takes up a far larger chunk of my time than is appropriate for an adult... do I care?  Not really.

My last post was October 9th, and I believe it was a photo post. I don't have photos to add to this post.. sarry.  I will post a few short snap shots of my 6th month in Korea.

The Busan Scavenger Hunt: Saturday, October 5th 2013
Once a year there is a city wide scavenger hunt held in Busan.  Teams of 5 are given lists of tasks that are to be completed & recorded via film or video, then judged my a panel.  Teams are expected to wear costumes, too.  It's basically one drunk messy day of shenanigans that probably horrifies most innocent Korean bystanders. Jenny, Ethan, Mark, Adam and I formed a team which we called "Late For The Ark".  We all wore animal onesies bought on Gmarket.co.kr  I had ordered a Unicorn onesy, but two Dinosaurs were sent instead.  I wasn't terribly thrilled to have to match another team mate, so we attempted to peg on a big pink bow... I was a cute little dinosaur anyhow.

Challenges included wearing a dead octopus as a hat, acting out a mission impossible style spy sequence in a convenience store, making a convenience store employee do a love shot with us, filming a 3 minute short on the benefits of soju (Mark nailed this, when the video is available I will definitely post), kiss both ends of a penis fish, carry an ajumma across an intersection (we didn't feel comfortable doing this one.. ajumma's rarely speak English), take a photo with someone "old as fuck", serve strangers food in a restaurant (Tony hooked us up), roll around in the surf taking a baywatch photo, find a korean with a beard and bow down to them... and many other hilarious things of the like.  We did not place, but we made some hilarious memories.  Sometimes it's just the best thing to get silly, I know my family enjoyed the photos I posted on facebook.

One year: October 8 2013
October 8th marked the one year anniversary of my father's death.  There was a typhoon, so lots of rain and wind, to match my mood.  My lovely friends Karlee and Amanda skyped in with me knowing full well how depressing the day was bound to be.  I was quite ill, so I actually had a day off to rest which was appropriate.  it was a day of solid reflection, and might have even been a cornerstone.  I feel like I've come to a point here where I can talk about my father openly.. and while I miss him dearly, I do not seem to cry as much.  When I do, it's because I am just so happy to have had him.  I am happy to have my mother, and my brother, who keep me grounded.  We are still strong together, and he's definitely still chilling in our family home, so there's that too.  He likes to make his presence known.

Canadian Thanksgiving : Sunday October 13 2013
I decided that I would attempted to serve up a glorious Turkey feast in honour of the fall harvest... Saturday October 12 Kristy, Charles, and myself set out for Costco to pick up the necessary equipment for this foodgasm fest.  I managed to buy a massive Turkey Roast, 5 packs of bacon, croutons to make stuffing, various vegetables, and film for my new Fuji Instax8 camera.

I borrowed the lovely Jenny's mini oven to cook the turkey, and managed to pull off the rest without a hitch. Many people brought food, desserts, and wine. There were about 16 people in my apartment at once - which I would not have thought possible!  It was a really fun evening with some really amazing people.  If I can figure out how to scan photos at work on our Korean hardware, I will share the Instax shots.  I really missed Thanksgiving with my family, because last year's Thanksgiving was truly the worst day of my life.. but I am thankful for the new friends I have made here that helped me get through the holiday with a smile.

Birthday!!: Wednesday October 16 2013
I turned 24, but in Korea that makes me 25?  Apparently I was one year old already when the doctor's cut me out of my mother's uterus -which makes no sense considering a pregnancy only lasts 9 months.. KOREA!!!.  I had to work on my Birthday, but it was fun.. my babies sang happy Birthday to me and a few even brought me gifts.  My primo Ivy class bought cake!! I was very excited. Afterwork I went to dinner with my coworkers to the Fuzzy Navel in Seomyeon.  I had Tacos, I had a margarita.. it was excellent!  After dinner, I went to HQ bar for some Trivia then to Ol'55 for some live music :)  I hung out there with Paige, Brinn & Davis until bed time.  It was an excellent Birthday :)

OPEN CLASSES OF DOOM!! Thursday & Friday October 17/18 2013
Every foreign teacher's biggest headache has got to be these stupid open classes.  The children learn songs & practise the same subject matter over and over and over and over until they get really bored & start dicking around.  My coteacher knew this would be the case, so we brainstormed fun games to play everyday to trick our kids into believing what they were learning was not the same boring shit.  We did a lot of role playing, word puzzles, and even showed them cartoon clips that involved various jobs in the community, our very exhilarating topic! I was very tired on the Thursday but White Class, my 6 year old angels, were perfect.  The parents were very pleased, and so were my Korean keepers.

Friday was a bit more stressful, because my 4 year olds don't always stay in their seats... or raise their hands.. but their parents were surprisingly patient.  They were very pleased with the demonstrations of what school life really isn't like at SLP :)

Parents from both classes took my photograph with their kids, and themselves.  One grandfather took a photo with me too, it actually made me feel very proud that they found me worthy of that.  They invest a lot of trust, and not to mention money, into their children's education.  To me, it was kind of a show of good faith.  The kids had fun, I had fun, the parents smiled and I didn't get deported.  Huuzah!!

Double Birthday Celebrations: October 19 2013
Exactly 7 years after Rebecca Anthony & I threw the world's most destructive and hilarious highschool house party to celebrate our 17th turn around the sun, my good friend Mark & I realized we shared the same Birthday.  We decided to keep it pretty chill and kick it around KSU.  We met our good friends from BBQ and then moved on over to Eva's Ticket for drinks and silliness.  I had a really good time talking that I barely ate a thing, after a few mandatory Birthday shots from my favourite barkeep Eva I was swerving on my feet.  Ethan & Karina made sure I made it home okay sometime before 2.  I woke up with my boots on & a massive bottle of water beside my bed... but no hangover!  It was a pretty spectacular evening from what I do recall.  I know at some point I had a kebab because my dress showed evidence of that in the morning.

Busan Fireworks Festival/Halloween Weekend:
I dressed up as mono.  I wore a sweatshirt that said "Let's Make Out" with a hello kitty sars mask.  I thought I was pretty clever, but my friend Herman stole my sweater midway into the evening.  I decided to wear my simple black jersey dress, a sheer lacey cover up & a black lace & gold masquerade mask.  I told people I was a ghost.. whatever, it worked.  I spent the first half of the evening with friends watching the fireworks from the rooftop of a hairdresser's shop in Gwangali.  The fireworks were unbelievably beautiful and I was thankful fro the company I was with.  I really have made some wonderful friends here in Busan.  I have a funny video of Alistair discovering what we're pretty sure was a UFO.  it was probably a remote controlled zephyr filming the fireworks, but aliens sounds like more fun.  We'll stick to that!

My night was a bit dramatic, and that kind of annoyed me.  I'm really starting to learn what sort of person I can & cannot go out on the town with.  I think that I am much too... flighty.. to really be able to focus my attention on one singular thing when these outings fall on exciting holidays, such as Halloween.  I had written a full summary of my gongshow evening but decided in retrospect that it was far too negative.  I'd prefer to remember the end of the night, when I made a new friend & got myself home responsibly in a taxi cab at a decent hour with a smile on my face.  Korea, as a whole, has been a fantastic experience thus far.. that is how I want to share it, & remember it!  This blog is not the appropriate place to put specific people on blast (if such a place if ever were to exist).

Casinos:
I've recently discovered that I am good at roulette - well as good as anyone really can be at a game of chance.. I guess I am lucky? Kristy loaned me money just to play for fun, and we ended up winning our dinner's worth.  Kristy's boyfriend Tim left Korea a week ago, so to see him off they had a day at the casino, BBQ in Gwangalli and drinks on the town.  We won enough that we were able to go.  I ended up leaving Sharky's mind you, some D-bag told me that while I have a beautiful face I could do to lose 25 pounds.. THEN HE GRABBED MY FUCKING STOMACH.  He apologized a few days later, but I really can't explain the shock of it.  I was so angry, and sad, and actually started to cry.  I'm sure in time I will let it go, but for now... ugh. No, just no.  Bad drunk man! Bad!  I left, I went to KSU where I met up with Graham instead.  When shit like that goes down, all you really need is to be around someone who knows you.  It was nice to sit & catch up with him, & ofcourse go to Cheesy Kimchi.  Tony's place always puts a smile on my face.. and for some reason old Korean dudes always want to take my photo? Anywho... We found the SICKEST Vancouver Grizzlies sweatshirt in Jangsan the next day.  Stoked that franchise made it's way into Busan. Mike Bibby, it's all about Mike Bibby!!