can't talk... in italy

HEEEYY!!!

super fun happy slide!

Q: What do you call a sheep with no legs?
A: A cloud.

I know jokes in those Christmas bon-bon things are usually lame, but that has to be the worst joke ever. I don't even know why it's supposed to be funny! And yet every year, millions of people spend money on these glorified wrapped up toilet paper rolls (yeah, I saw Play School, I know how they make it!) all for crappy paper hats, lame jokes, and nail clippers!

But yeah, I haven't posted for a while - been busying eating, charading, wrapping, crapping (craps the gambling game, not the other one) darting, and verbifying everything. Plus the whole christmas thing, but that excuse is like 2000 years old anyway. Anywhoo, I'm staying at my Aunt's place in Romsey, which is like an hour out of London - we were kinda even lucky to be here, since there were a number of ridiculous delays here, and some planes got stuck at Heathrow airport because of the fog. So since we've been so far away from London, unfortunately we haven't been able to do any celebrity spotting, so alas, nothing to top the Donald and Sean Penn in New York. We did manage to go to London for a day, which is a pretty crazy idea around this time of the year, since it was pretty busy. We didn't do the touristy stuff though since we did it last time, so it was mainly for my brother to check out some of the art and design museums.

Sounds meh, right? Well, that's what I was thinking, until I saw the Super fun happy slide(s) in the Tate Modern Museum! They were huge - the longest one was like 58 metres and starts on the 5th level of the building all the way to the first floor.To play use the slide though, you have to get tickets to use it. I tried to get tickets to the biggest slide, but the earliest tickets I could get for a chance on that slide was like four hours later. I didn't think I could really find a way to entertain myself in an art museum for four hours and sacrifice a day in London to justify going on a big slide. Fortunately, when we were heading off to see some art stuff, a guy offered me his tickets for one of the slides, since he couldn't be bothered waiting.



Despite the coolness of slides, in particular super fun happy ones, I'm kinda glad they're not a standard means of transport around buildings. I don't think I'm ready to be regularly seen giggling giddily like a little girl in public.

“I’m fighting for something real for the first time in my life”

Move over Raise Your Voice. I think I’ve found an even more clichéd movie – It’s pretty much Raise Your Voice 2 since it’s also based at a school of arts. So, if you love clichéd teen movies (you know who you are), you have to watch Step Up. During my long, delayed flight to London, I decided to watch it, since I figured if I fell asleep at any time in the movie, when I woke up, I would still know what was going on, and what was going to happen. Boy, was I not disappointed.

There are so many clichés in the movie, I don’t even know where to begin. Well, the two protagonists are from two totally different worlds: The guy comes from the wrong side of the tracks (which, as we see in the movie, is the result of coming from a broken home with the standard alcoholic/negligent foster dad) who at first hates the rich girl. Little does he know how much they have in common.

Despite the rich girl seemingly having everything – she attends the prestigious arts school, has good ethnically-diverse friends, and also the prick of a boyfriend – her mother doesn’t believe in her dream of becoming a dancer, but we find out in the end that she does in fact, truly care, but is just being overprotective and only wants the best for her daughter.

A million clichés later, including the guy finding something he truly believes in, a comic-relief sidekick, tragedy, and everything going smoothly until exactly two-thirds of the way through the movie when it all appears to fall apart. What's going to happen in the end? Will she be offered her dream job of being in a theatre company? Will he, guy-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks, learn the error of his ways, and find the one way to escape his movie-rate thug life? Who knows? It's not like it's an overclichéd teen-dancing movie!


...Oh wait...

food!

I can't be bothered writing anything that blogworthy, yet I feel obliged to post a blog since it may be the last time for a while I'll be able to blog - I'm in the JFK airport in New York, waiting for our flight to at 7:30 to London. Fortunately, almost everywhere here has WiFi, (I think it's pronounced why-fy, not "whiffy") so I'm on my MacBook trying to use this unlimited internet before boarding and going to London, where I've heard I won't be able to access the internet as much. So anyway, I've just decided to post pictures and captions to one of my hobbies- food!


I found this everywhere in Tokyo - It's apparently beauty tea supposedly making you, well, um, more beautiful I guess...


Just goes to show that you can find almost anything in vending machines in Japan, no matter how questionable, tacky, and closetly-homosexual.


Yay Mos Burger! I don't know if it was the perfectly-stacked, round burgers, or the amount of effort to find one of these places, but it was pretty good...


The vending-type machine in the Ramen noodle place - In an effort to rid the restaurants of waitresses, you purchase tickets for your food through this machine... and then give the tickets to the waitress...


... and moments later, steaming hotRamen!


We went to this robatayaki place, which is pretty much just cooking things over hot rocks or embers or something. kinda like a Korean BBQ, only in this photo, less ribs and beef, and more tentacles.


A huge day for me - my goal was to eat as much stereotypically-American food - so ate this pretzel, which really did make me thirsty! Later that day I also had a hot dog and a chilli dog, and a huge-arse steak, though wasn't able to finish it as well as my brother...

I even ate at a diner, with booths! Though oddly, I felt the need to order cereal during the afternoon, talk about nothing, and ask what was the deal with a number of things while I was there.

Next goal on my list of stereotypically American food-related goals: become obese!

tv & celebrities in new york

Boy, it's only been a couple of days since my last blog, but boy, the stories I could tell...



...Well, I guess I should tell you what's happened then. We've been doing the standard sightseeing thing lately of popular attractions and all the like. Today we we walked down Fifth Avenue, which is pretty much the rich street here with all the fancy shops and stuff, and apparently costs a fortune to get a shop on the street - apparently, there are quite a few stores that lose a lot of money since they don't attract enough customers to the store, but keep their shop anyway for the prestige associated with being on Fifth Avenue. What's really weird is that there are a bunch of Target ads all in Times Square, and there isn't even a Target in Manhattan!

Anyway, the highlight of the day shopping-wise probably would have been the NBC store, since it had souvenir stuff from The Office, Scrubs & Friends. After wondering why I loved the store so much I came to the realisation that two major facets of my life are watching TV and shopping, and this just combined the two. I was a little sad, but consoled myself with buying some stuff in the store. I was so close to actually buying actual Scrubs-Scrubs, but decided against it, considering I probably wouldn't wear them and that I'm too lanky to wear them anyway. Plus, I'm going to the CBS store tomorrow, so hopefully I can pick up some Amazing Race stuff.

Also went to the NBA store as well - two levels of unbelievable basketball merchandise, with jerseys, bobbleheads, a lego Lebron James, action figures, clothing, and Basketball Baboushka dolls. It was every basketball-lover's dream... too bad it was wasted on me. So after perusing (which is another facet of my life, mainly because then I can say it more) for 20 minutes , I ended up just sitting in the store for another 40 minutes twiddling my thumbs and wishing I enjoyed organised-competitive-physical group-activities, or "sports", if you will.

I wonder if video games will ever be considered a sport? I watched this documentary on the plane to the US about a guy who was a professional video game player, and has a contract and is a millionaire already. Apparently in South Korea it's also pretty huge, with people going to stadiums to watch other people play. I remember seeing it being covered on TV in Korea. I can't wait till that trend hits Australia. I'd love it if I could be paid to play Guitar Hero - then I could be a professional rocker without even knowing how to play an instrument.

Probably the coolest & noteworthy thing in New York though is celebrity spotting that's happened so far. It's way cooler than Australia since you see people other than Toadie from Neighbours. But anywhoo, while we were eating a restaurant near the hotel, Sean Penn came in to the restaurant and sat a couple tables away from us. I tried to do the keep-cool-and-pretend-it's-nothing thing, which pretty much means I tried not to stare too blatantly, and glanced repeatedly instead. Was also too afraid to ask for an autograph or take a picture since he seems like a kinda edgy guy anyways.

Also, after while visiting Trump Tower to getApprentice-related photos, I got to see the biggest celebrity there - you guessed it, Trump's hair! And also the guy attached to it! The acting cool thing didn't work this time- mainly because everyone else was staring and taking photos, so me and my brother decided to join in on the fun:

live, from new york, it's saturday night!

Man, it's been a long couple of days. Actually, more like one really long day and one shorter one. We left Tokyo on Friday around 7:00, and arrived in New York at midnight on Friday. Doesn't sound like much of along day, but we went over the international time line, so in between those seemingly short 5 hours was 10 hours on a plane to Dallas, 2 hours in the airport, 2 hours to New York, a fat guy sitting next to me taking up all of my armrest and intermittently leaning on my light button on the plane, and a number of plane/landing delays in between. It does feel weird to not be in Japan anymore, so I'm trying to look on the bright side. Not so much the bright side, but focusing on the sucky things on Japan so I don't feel as bad...

1. Couldn't find a Nintendo DS anywhere in Japan! apparently they're sold out in the country! I doubt there are shortages overseas, in fact, in Australia, they seem to be everywhere! Why didn't they spend that manufacturing time making Nintendo DSes for Japan, in particular the light blue one that you can supposedly only find in Japan? Shame, Nintendo, shame.

2. For a place notorious for it's crazy TV, I didn't really find that much crazy TV. Well, there was that show that involved two people trying to set the record for eating as much sushi humanly possible, and eating around about 100 plates of sushi at a sushi train restaurant, but still, not that zany, and only shown during the afternoon/night!

3. Banana Fanta. Eeew...

Anyway, New York's been pretty cool so far. I did enjoy some New York pizza, so I just have to eat a pretzel, and a hot dog from a questionable street vendor, and I'll be able to check everything off my New York list. I think I should have put an extra check box for watching Saturday Night Live live from New York as well. It's not the best show, but I think it sounds cool to have done it anyway.

also, my phone's working now, so I should be able to get any messages, should anyone wish to tell me how they're going in Guitar Hero, Starcraft, or anything else noteworthy. I've heard that international roaming doesn't accept SMSPup messages, or anything involving Gilmore Girls, so if you do message me, you might have to just use your own phone and avoid any Lorelai references...

By the way if there's anything you might want from New York, let me know -I expect to be receiving requests anytime now...

towel origami

What does patience, persistance, and a chillaxing (I don't care, I'm going to keep using that word until it catches on) night in a Tokyo result in?



(by the way, it's supposed to be a chicken...)

why i won't be on australia's funniest home videos

Today we returned to Tokyo after spending a couple days in Kyoto - Kyoto was pretty cool, got to see the Gold Temple, which was surprisingly all covered in gold, and the deceptively-named Silver Temple, which isn't silver at all.. Unfortunately, we tried Geisha-hunting with little success, but on the plus side got to try some quality tempura and teppanyaki.

We got back to Tokyo at around 1:00, and tried to find Mos burger - think of a classier McDonalds, but with good burgers, and that's Mos Burger - they cook your burgers to order, and they are made so meticulously and everything! Anyway, for the second largest burger chain in Japan, it was surprisingly hard to find ,but we managed to come across a small one, which was cool but didn't have the full menu. I just wanted to see if they had their Takumi Burger, which is a 10-level burger with like imported Australian beef, avacado, and other stuff as well.

The rest of the day I spent having flashbacks of Big, and tried to remember all the notes to chopsticks, thanks to the funky stairs in the Sony building!

In the end, I decided against trying to play a song, out of fear that I'd trip and break my neck on the stairs. Then it'd be REALLY akward, since the stairs would make the beepy noises as I fell, kinda like the sound effects you hear when people get hit in the balls on Australia's Funniest Home videos. Awkward.

yay japanese tv!

i feel violated... and not in a good way...

I thought I'd be nice and share what I wrote this on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto...

I feel so violated. And not in a good way. i thought today was going to be just an ordinary day, holiday-wise. The plan was to check out of our hotel, catch the bullet train to Kyoto, and depending on what time we get there, some sightseeing. Seems like a typical holiday-day, right?

That is until we stop at the Shizuoka station, and the guy to my right hops off. Here I am, listening to my iPod, until someone says "excuse me" in Japanese and sits next to me. He takes his jacket partially off, and puts it on back to front, so his hands are going through the sleeves and so the back of the jacket is covering his lap. Sounds a little weird, right? But nothing too out of the ordinary. Until he pulls out his magazine to read... or ogle.

It's a porno - from the quick awkward glances I had (I felt uncomfortable just asking him if I could also have a proper look, or share the experience) It's nothing too hardcore - it had no bukkake or anything - but still... AWKWARD. Doesn't seem like appropriate bullet train reading material if you ask me.

His hands are now officially under his jacket, so I'm fully conscious of him trying to jack off when I'm right next to him... I'm too afraid of even looking in his direction, even to look through the window to look out for Mt. Fuji.

Well, in the end, I'd just like to say that I still haven't seen Mt. Fuji, but maybe on the way back by bullet train I'll keep an eye out...

posse-less & waiterless in tokyo

Finally in Tokyo, and man is it all neon and bright at night - pretty cool though! We ended up arriving in Japan an hour later because of the plane delay, and finally got to use my Japanese! Finally, 3 years of uni paying off! It's a little disheartening though, I knew my Japanese wasn't that good, but everytime I say something, everyone will try to respond immediately in English, which is good because I can understand them, but kinda sucky since I always end up going back to using English anyway...

Since we arrived later, we ended up getting to our hotel at around 10:30 at night, so most things were closed, and couldn't find any huge place to eat. So, ended up right in this great little fast food place right next to the hotel that was open 24 hours, and had neon signs... and golden arches. Yeah, I can't believe my first meal in Japan was McDonalds... I did have a Filet O'Prawn Burger (I'm guessing they don't know what the Filet O' part means) which isn't found in Australia so constitutes something uniquely Japanese, so I ended up doing better than my brother, who ended up with a Bacon burger. There's just something about salty, crispy strips of pork by-product my brother can't get enough of....

So other than that, ended up doing the touristy thing today - (I'll try to post some pictures soon)Went to a Japanese shrine, and and then spent over an hour hunting down some Harajuku girls in Harajuku - hey, it was harder than it sounds! It also means I'm still working on developing my Harajuku posse, so if you know anyone who's interested, let me know! Also went to Shibuya, and saw the huge pedestrian crossing. It's that one where you see like a wave of hundreds of people crossing the street, like in Lost in Translation - we even went up Starbucks to take photos of the crowd, just like what they did for the movie as well (Thanks IMDB!).



The other highlight of the day involved going to a Ramen noodle place, where instead of ordering from a waiter (well, waiters are so 2005 anyway!) you have to buy tickets for the food you want.... and then give it to the waiter, who will give the food to you... I guess they haven't really worked out the whole automated service thing yet. Guess they were afraid of robots taking over too...

yay holidays! well, almost.

it didn't really hit me that I was going overseas and on holiday til like this morning when our taxi came, but since I'm at the airport now, I'm kinda pumped. I always wondered why there are so many shops that sell luggage in the airport - don't you think you wouldn't be ready for a trip if you are just getting a suitcase to carry all your crap the day you leave?

Also, some people may be happy to hear that I beeped - I know it doesn't sound like much, but my last trip to Korea I was the entertainment at the airport since I continually beeped. Well, I didn't make beepy noises, it was the machine, and apparently my belt. I'm starting get the feeling it's me, not the belt since I even pre-emptively was beltless and still beeped... maybe I have too much iron in my diet... better lay off the bacon...

Anyway, my not-so-adventurous adventure is supposed to start in 10 minutes as I board the plane, but according to that big booming voice making announcements about plane times(God?)the airport's been closed due to weather conditions - just looking outside, all you can see is smoke, and even inside the airport it's getting pretty smoky and stuff. Being stuck in the airport for a day just sounds like the plot of a crappy Disney movie - You know, our plans are ruined, but a bunch of people from different backgrounds and stuff come together for the ultimate adventure, one they couldn't possibly expect to have if they did go overseas! And inevitably, hijinx and hilarity ensues.

I hope there's hilarity and hijinx on this holiday...

it's narin getting ready for overseas!

Wow. I can't believe I'm going overseas in like less than a few weeks. The trip should be pretty cool (don't want to overhype it) - I'm going to Japan, the US, UK, Italy and Thailand. Seeing I studied Japanese and all, I'm supposed to be working out what we're doing for the Japan leg of the tour, but one thing I've discovered is that learning a language doesn't really help you learn about places to go...

Last time I went overseas, it didn't really strike me that I was going to be in a whole nother country til I got there. I thought I'd try the blogging while overseas thing, since the theory is that I'll have more interesting things to blog about with more things happening overseas. At the moment, I've just finished applying for a job overseas, and got my results from my uni subjects... nothing blogworthy at the moment.

One blog-worthy thing though - YAY Guitar Hero! I got Guitar Hero 1 & 2 for my birthday, and it does indeed rock. I was wondering if exposure to rock, and not-so-heavy metal would increase my interests in more non-hardcore music. I don't really think it has. Not really hating the heavy metal music, but not seeing me wearing a 'I heart heavy metal' T-shirt anytime soon.

i need something to blog about...

aah, it's back to the same problem I had with my first blog... my lack of things to blog about. I figured I'd be blogging more once I go overseas, but since I'm in between uni and overseas at the moment, my mind is blank. I would try to do one of those stream of thought type blogs but I don't think my thoughts are that insightful or witty enough to constitute that. I takes me ages to say something witty, and those witty thoughts are way too few and far between. Plus, I'd write them here, but it'd become one of those scenarios where it's only funny when you're there.

I did make an effort though to congratulate two guys I know on their new jobs as snackbar/ticket-sellers at Village Cinema. I just had to make sure I was the first one to congratulate them on becoming the newest Village People, but I don't think they really got it.

So, I'm just wondering, is there anyone who's reading this blog? Well, other than me-from-the-future, I guess. But everyone else, what's the wittiest thing you've said lately?

one last korean thing...

before I start posting about all things non-Korean, I thought I'd put this up - it's the video of me on Korean TV - the one where they made me play basketball but didn't even use the footage!

it's narin!

I was wondering why I haven't blogged for ages - it seemed like fun in Korea. Then I kinda realised it was because I couldn't think of any more appropriate posts for a blog about being in Korea seeing I'm not actually in Korea anymore. So hopefully this name change fills me with inspiration to write stuff that's somewhat interesting and original.

So, what's the deal with peanuts on airplanes?



... Alright, I'll think more and get back to you.

mmmm... more kimchi!

Aaaah, those Koreans, thinking of more ways they can enjoy Kimchi! Well look no further, there's now kimchi chocolate! That's right, you don't have to wonder anymore what spicy sour pickled vegetables would taste like when combined with the sweet creamy cocoa goodness of chocolate!

I was kinda disappointed when I tasted it - There are no vegetable bits in the chocolate at all! It just tastes like mediocre chocolate with a spicy aftertaste...

i've got seoul, but i'm not a soldier...

Back in Australia, but thought I'd fill everyone in on what happened during my last few days in Korea. After our televised goodbye, a few hours later we ended up out our backpacker's, before heading off to a market in Insadong. We decided our shopping needed a purpose, so did a Kris-Kringle type thing where each person had to buy something really tacky for their person. Then, everyone had to wear their tacky thing our for dinner- It turned out well for me since I was stuck with a not-so-tacky fake Le coq sportif T-Shirt while others were stuck with pollution masks, weird asian sun-visors and and weird headbands.

So we went out to a place every patriotic Australian would go to when overseas- Outback Steakhouse. It was our duty to go and try real Australian food that everyone keeps talking about - so real and authentic in fact, that most of us had never even heard of Outback Steakhouse until we arrived in Korea. Littered on the walls were heaps of crocodiles, painted still-life pictures of Vegemite - everything you'd see in your normal restaurants here at home in Australia!

After eating non-Korean food, we felt we had to fulfil our Korean quotient and do something Korea-related that night, so we went to a norebang, which is pretty much a karaoke box/ private karaoke room, but called something different, probably because of the anti-Japan sentiment in Korea. After stocking up on alcohol from a 7-11, and finding a norebang that wasn't trying to rip us off, we ended up seeing till the wee hours of the morning... Well, not so wee actually, just til maybe 1:00.

The night was still young, so we tried to find a club or bar to go to afterwards, but after walking around for maybe half an hour, we couldn't be bothered and settled for a print club shop - it was a store which had heaps of those passport photo-sticker machines - it had all these free props to use so we kinda got into the whole spirit and did the whole poser thing - it was quite fun actually! Didn't expect to get so into the photo posing thing after the last few camera-filled days- I guess I must be getting used to them...

no cameras!

I don't know how it works in Korea, but I heard that in Australia if you have a spoken part in a TV show (other than the news) you get paid for it. I wonder if they have the same rule there when you have to act. Our last days in Jeonju (the province we were staying in) felt like we were filming a standard show starring us as stereotypical, ignorant foreigners. As soon as we finished eating at Gran Piatta for our farewell dinner (weird, since the last day eating in Jeonju was at the same restaurant that I went to on the first day... read into it as much as you want) we were rushed away to go to one of the other student teacher's houses. We had to be prepared to be filmed with all the 'guys' hanging out watching TV - but not our choice of course, it just happened to be a certain channel that coincidentally was the same channel as the TV station that was filming us. So we had to watch this news program about getting a fire massage and vocally express our surprise and disdain, laughing and pointing at the TV, you know, like what you do normally in your own home....

As we were watching TV, the doorbell happened to ring - what? who could that be at this time of night? Wow, it was some of the students from one of the student teacher's schools! and they brought... ingredients for making Bibimbap! And they want to make it with us? wow! What a great, unexpected way to finish our time in Jeonju! Oh and by the way, if you don't know what Bibimbap is, well, don't worry I "don't know either"- it was part of our "ignorant foreinger" speel we had to act up to, even though we ate it every second day in Korea, and were shown how to make it on one of the organised culture excursions.

So the next day, after our unexpected but really fun bibimbap day, we headed off to our bus taking us to Seoul - it would have been a really bittersweet, teary moment for everyone if the cameras weren't there either. As I was putting my luggage on the bus, I was told by the TV show producer to take it off, because we had to use it to film - You see, we were all supposed to get on the bus, and get off, pretending it was our arrival in Jeonju! It who cares if there were some continuity problems, such as one of the Monash people in full South Korea soccer fan costume, including tattoos on his face and a bandanna! Then we had to film a scene where me and someone else were meeting our supervising teachers for the first time, finding out about what schools we were going to, but we had to act all suspicious and cautious of the English teachers - we even had to do that shifty eye glancing thing, where they zoomed up on our eyes and had to keep looking left and right...

Anyway, glad that filming thing's over - hopefully that gives them enough footage so they don't have to use the film from our culture tour of me and Emily running towards each other in slow motion for a loving embrace...

worst temple stay ever...

We were expecting a nice, casual, two day tour around the lovely province of Jeollabukdo - We all needed a couple days to relax after our hectic timetables - I was really looking forward to sleeping in longer than 6:30 in the morning, so all the monash students were pumped about the prospect of doing a two day tour with the other Australians, even if there was going to be a camera crew following us everywhere we go.

So it started out great - we went to this garden in Namwon, which is the equivalent to Verona in Italy -it's the setting of a love story between a nobleman and a prostitute, like Romeo and Juliet, but without the mass suicide pact in the end. So we took pictures, and at the bridge where Korean Romeo and Juliet met, we staged a scene where two of us ran in slow motion to meet in the middle for a loving embrace, and weren't that pissed off when we found out the TV station was taping us either.

After visiting a couple more places in the pouring rain (I finally worked out why it's called monsoon season) and being absolutely drenched, we ended up at our final destination - the Naesosa temple, in the middle of a forest. It was very picturesque, and looked so good! I was looking forward to some meditation and relaxation. So we ate dinner, got dressed into our orange monk-in-training clothes, and got ready for a talk to the head monk.

I can pinpoint the moment I realised it wasn't going to be the best time ever. It was during our meditation/dharma question time, where the head monk was asking us philosophical questions and we were supposed to be there pondering. We were all supposed to be sitting there with our legs crossed and our backs straight. One student teacher Julia, wasn't sitting as straight as the monk liked, so he grabbed his bamboo stick and whacked her on the back. She screamed, and in the middle of screaming, was trying to explain that the monk had hit her on her fractured pelvis.

I just wanted to go to bed, but we ended up staying up till 11:00, we had question time (I really wanted to ask what the sound of one hand clapping was) and lantern-making time, and then had to walk around a pagoda for 30 minutes, and it wasn't a huge pagoda, so we were walking around for quite a while. I just wanted to go to bed, since we all had to wake up at 3:50 for 4:00 morning prayer!

I was looking forward to sleeping - the women's quarters were quite new and big, so I expected something similar for the men's room - I dont' know if room's the right word because it suggests that there is space - there were only 5 guys, and we took up the whole room, so if we rolled over, we would be on top of each other. The ceiling was about two heads shorter than me, and had the lovely scent of fresh paint. mmm, musky! To top it all off, there was a power generator just outside our room that kept buzzing all night.

I managed to get an hour's sleep before being woken up by the monk's knock on the door. we only managed to wash our faces before we headed off to morning prayer. It was maybe an hour of standing and bowing and kneeling and standing and facing another direction and bowing again. when we finally left, we ended up going for a walk through the forest, which I hear was good for those who were awake/not shitty to notice, and went back to "meditate". Turns out, meditation is really just sitting in silence for an hour or so. Kinda like that game dead fish you play in primary school, but less fun.

By breakfast time, we were all really shitty - my teacher who came to visit us from Australia was absolutely pissed off that we were forced to do this, and especially pissed off that they would hit anyone. breakfast was supposed to start at 6:00 but we didn't end up eating till maybe 7:00 - we were listening to all the rules we had to follow when we received the bowls, a way to unpack the bowls and clean them. One thing that was lost in translation for most people was that you had to eat everything.

One thing about temple breakfasts is that you don't waste a drop of food. So once you're done with eating everything, you pour your bowl of clean water into your bowls, and use a pickled radish to clean your bowls. After you repour the water into all the bowls and scrub with the radish, you're supposed to empty the water into these large communal containers. If there is a single speck of rice or rice fragments, they distribute water in the large containers to everyone, and everyone has to drink it. So, if you find any specks in your dirty water, you're supposed to drink it. and eat the scrubbing pickle. So the girls ended up leaving some of their food, which meant that they couldn't get rid of their scraps, otherwise we'd all have to drink it. After drinking the gross cleaning-pickle water, I don't think I can look at pickles the same way anymore...


Can you tell that this photo was taken as soon as we left the temple?

mmmm... kimchi!

You know, even if I don't become a teacher, at least this trip will help me get 1 step closer to fulfilling one of my life goals: being on the amazing race contestant. Since I've been here I've been exposed to kimchis of various residues and thickness: cabbage kimchi, radish kimchi, weird-leaf kimchi, squid kimchi, fermented kimchi, tofu kimchi, water kimchi, kimchi soup, and dumplings stuffed with, you guessed it - meat! I mean kimchi! I've also got to go to McDonald's before I go since there's also a Kimchi burger too...

So, I think I'm more than experienced enough for the food-eating challenges - if Kimchi wasn't enough, I've had coagulated blood soup, chicken stomach, marsh snails, and this thing called mogwart - It's this weird herb that smells and tastes like indeterminate green vegetables, but they put in all their "desserts" like rice cakes and stuff.

I think the moment I realised I could make it on the amazing race was when I was in a Korean barbeque restaurant, I saw these little pecan-shaped things in what looked like butter, so I ate it, and later found out it was silkworm larvae... not that bad, but tastes kinda like crab roe with a semi-soft prawn-shell coating... mmmm, yum!

Korean TV

Been pretty slack on the updates - I've had school every day - so my day starts at 6:30 until 5:30 - almost every night since I've been here I've been invited by someone to go out for dinner - yesterday (thursday night) was the first time in over a week I didn't actually do anything! I was so excited - I got to go to sleep at around 10:30!

Today I've got a open class presentation, where English teachers from the surrounding area come to watch our demo team teaching class. Apparently there's like 20 teachers coming in to watch a class. Originally, we were only going to have the year 9 students (all 5 of them) but the principal decided to make it a joint class with both year 8 and year 9 students - so now we have a total of 7 students! So it looks like there will be 3 teachers for every student! My supervising teacher has stocked up on lollies, so hopefully they'll be on a sugar high and want to participate and not be worried about be watched... Apparently our presentation will be videotaped as well! urgh! stupid cameras!

So I heard we're going to be filmed again by a Korean TV station to record our last days in Jeonju- me and the other guy teachers are "going" to someone's house, where "our" students will be, and have a final goodbye party, where the students will make us some Korean food. Then, they'll record us leaving and our "students" waving goodbye and being all teary-eyed...

I can't believe how much effort that's going into all this stuff - they record for like a couple hours and they end up showing only a minute or so - Unfortunately, this means I haven't been stopped in the street yet by millions of girls asking for my autograph *sigh*.

Speaking of TV I was so excited when I saw a show that I knew on Korean TV - it was dubbed in Korean, but it was still funny and understandable... I managed to record it on my camera so you can hear me laughing in the background...

mental note...

When you see something that looks like potatoes in tomato sauce in the school cafeteria, and you think it's good because everyone else seems to be piling it onto their tray, don't! You'll soon find out it's just Kim-chi type No. 52, this time made of radish (not potato). And yes, it is spicy. And yes, people will think it's funny you piled on so much onto your tray but only ate one piece...

my 15 minutes are up...

my 15 minutes of shame were short-lived. Probably because it wasn't even 15 minutes, more like a minute and a half. I tried to record it with my digital camera, but you can't really hear much and all you hear is me going "oh! that's me! wow!" pretty much the whole time... But I heard we're getting a tape from the TV station, so at least I've got something to show of it when I get home... I'm also annoyed because they only showed the first bit where I'm teaching and didn't show anything from when I was outside playing basketball with the students. All this physical exertion for no apparent reason? urgh! Since then, I haven't been doing much - just teaching classes and subjecting kids to Vegemite - it's a shame that the national food of choice tastes kinda sucky. What else? um, nothing much, just got married and stuff - nothing flashy, just a small wedding in Korean costume. I also had to wear a hat being the groom, which didn't look as bad as I thought, considering I can't normally wear hats. So I expect lots of wedding presents when I get back!

do wombats have tails?

Do wombats have tails? Let me know, because I may have just told everyone in the area that they don't. During my first day at one of my schools, I was doing a lesson with my supervising teacher when she received a call - It was KBS, and they were doing a news segment on this whole teaching practicum in Korea. I kinda freaked out and couldn't stop laughing about the whole situation - I think my students think I'm kinda weird.

Anyways, me and my supervising teacher freaked out and had to plan a whole new lesson for the day - we were originally going to do just an introductory lesson where students just ask me questions about Australia and that's it. We also had to change the class because originally it was just a year 9 class, but we had to change it to make it a class for the whole school (sounds impressive, but it's a country school, so there are only 11 students) just so it would look better on TV.

After working out the perfect lesson plan, we didn't even end up using it at all. Instead, the cameraman just wanted to get enough shots of me at the board and then wanted us to 'play an English". I don't even know what game it was, I was explained the rules in the few seconds before we started, and then played - it was kinda like Uno, but not and really lame.

I'm so glad it's being aired on Korean TV because I swear I made an arse of myself. I was asked why this was a good program, and my explanation was too long, so had to shorten in to 15 seconds, and I must I look totally out of it. Then, they interviewed some Korean students and asked them to be really pumped and scream and get excited about me coming in. I don't know what it says about me or my teaching, but all the students refused to act really excited about me coming in!

After about 10 more minutes of that, I had to show how much I was bonding with my students and play basketball with them for 15 minutes - They so don't know me at all! I hope there's some clever editing because I must of only hit 2 of like 15 shots, and then I was asked to dunk the ball. Would you call it a dunk when you can't even reach the ring and miss as well? Hopefully they cut and edit it so I look good, or maybe they'll add some stupid sound effects...

me & kim chi at the gran piatta

"We want you to feel comfortable in Korea, so we'll take you to an Italian restaurant today, okay?"

Didn't really expect to be eating just non-Korean food on my first day in Korea. I had this bread-cakey thing my host teacher bought for me for breakfast/lunch, and then for dinner, she was taking me to an Italian restaurant? What, no kim-chi? We are in the land of Kim-chi after all...

But after eating at Gran Piatta, my concerns were put to rest straight away - I ordered a "Korean-inspired" octopus risotto, while everyone else ordered pasta and veal. After an entree of soup, we were served a side of freakishly-sweet Asian bread, and kim-chi! Wow, kim-chi land doesn't disappoint!

my "risotto" wasn't very risotto-y either - I thought it'd be all mixed together and have a creamy sauce or something, but it was just a stir-fry with a side of rice, and also a side of Korean noodles - not mixed together or anything! it was freakishly spicy as well - couldn't end up finishing it because I went all red and stuff.

thinking my night at the Italian restaurant couldn't be any more culture shocky, I went to the toilets, and found ice in the urinal... not like an ice block, but like someone emptied a bag of ice into all of the urinals. WHY? Why would you need to cool it down!?



Oh well, guess I have little else to be surprised about when I try "real" Korean food. Bring on the Kim-chi!

boy are my arms tired..

25 Hours. 4 countries. 3 Plane rides. And no million dollars, because this isn't the Amazing Race. Yes, I'm in South Korea (aka the good Korea) after traveling a ridiculous 25 hours. We ended up having a stop in Bangkok for a 4 hours, and we made an unexpected stop in Hong Kong as well - apparently our flight from Bangkok to Seoul was always via Hong Kong, but everyone's itinerary happened to not have that written down. But boy, was those stop overs in airports so exciting! So much excitement, and so much stuff happened I think I'll leave it out. But I do think that the anti-plane food thing is totally unjustified. Tiny meals, with dessert, each of the dishes in it's little own compartment - what more do you want? Plus, I don't mind the indeterminate foods that are cylindrical shape and taste a little rubbery - it's all part of the experience of flying!

One thing I did learn after all those hours flying is that I can survive with only a few 15-minute naps here an there during 24 hours of travel - watch out amazing race! Now I just need to find a partner (preferably hot) to cry all the time and continually claim "this is the worst experience ever!" and I might just make it to amazing race map and meet Phil...

By the time I got to Seoul, I was really too buggered to actually sightsee while on the 4-hour bus ride to our province. But I did notice a "Kim-Chi land" billboard, so either the Koreans know about their unhealthy obsession with Kim-chi, or there's a really cool amusement park with an assortment of spicy-pickled vegetables. Sounds exciting either way!

it's narin!

I figured mass emails about my exploits in Korea would be pretty hit-or-miss, so I thought I'd set up a blog for people who were interested to see what I was doing and also leave notes - Also, I'm too slack to actually send huge individual emails to everyone, but this way, it makes me sound really considerate about everyone...