Guess where I am???

At home!!! Yes, that's right! We have the internet on at home!!!! YAY!!! It was so exciting to be able to come home straight after work tonight, instead of having to go to JJs. We are very happy about it!! So now I can actually surf the net a little, and talk on msn without having to stress about the time! Yay, yay!!

Have recovered well from my holiday - very excited that tomorrow is the last day of my week, then I can just stay home for a couple of days to tidy my room, organise myself, watch a few episodes of ER and do a bit of emailing :)! Need to spend a bit of time studying Japanese, too - I'm a little frustrated about the limit of my Japanese ability and the large amount still to learn. I enjoyed my lesson today tho. Favourite phrase of the day: Atsui des ne? - hot, isn't it? It was indeed hot today. Hope you all aren't freezing too much! XXOO Vi

Home again

Wow, kinda weird, but cool, that I could say "I`m going home to Japan" to people I met on the train back to Pusan. I like the fact that Sasebo does feel like my home now.

Well, Tues was another fantastic day!!! Said goodbye to Dae Gyu`s mum in the morning, and she gave me another set of chopsticks and spoon - the mens spoons are slightly different, and so she gave me a man`s spoon - for my husband!!! My first wedding present!!! LOL! We drove to the Korean Folk Village, getting to see some more of the country side along the way. (Very mountainous like Japan, but I think the mountains are a bit lumpier in Japan - kinda hard to explain.) The folk village was UNREAL! Like Sovereign Hill, for those who`ve been there, but Korean style. Heaps of awesome, gorgeous little old style houses and buildings. And the shows were awesome too - these unreal dancers, women on a see saw - sounds unimpressive, until u see them - they use the see saw to launch each other way up in the air and do stuff with tamborines and hula hoops and stuff, and this amazing guy bouncing around on a tight rope - so spectacular!! Had a really yummy Korean style lunch, and met some American mormans. There was a little activity park there, so we went on the pirate ship and bumper cars and this other ride too! Unreal fun!! And all this for just $14 per person! (Not including lunch) Sure beats Sov. Hill!

After that, we drove back to Seoul for a quick shopping trip - I bought a skirt, blouse and a few souveneirs. Then, alas, it was time to go. Caught the subway to the train station, grabbed a burger for tea, said goodbye to Dae Gyu and jumped on the express train for Pusan.

Once in Pusan I found my hotel with the assistance of some very helpful Koreans who walked me right there when I showed them the paper which Dae Gyu had written in Korean asking for directions to the hotel. This hotel was also amazing!! Once again, just US$40 a night, and it was even bigger than the first hotel! I couldn`t get the internet working, so I just had a spa instead! :) I was so tired, but I just had to enjoy the spa while I had the chance!

The next morning tho, the extent of my tiredness became apparent - I slept thru my alarm!!!! DOH!! I woke up at 7:55, and my ferry was due to leave at 8:30! I freaked out, and made it out of that hotel faster than I`ve ever left a building in my life! I knew if I missed that ferry, I would be late for work, and there would be big trouble! I made it to the ferry, got my ticket and checked in just in time! Phew!! On the ferry, I went to the bathroom to change, repack my bag, and freshen up a little, but couldn`t do much about washing my hair - doh!

In Fukuoka, I caught a bus to Hakata Bus Station - it was a 5 or 10 min taxi ride in the opposite direction on Sunday morning, but took close to an hour because of the traffic on the way back!! Another DOH! I just made it in time for the 1pm bus to Sasebo! Was pretty hungry by now, so I ate a packet of biscuits on the way - healthy brekky/lunch, eh? The bus was just entering Sasebo at 3:10, so I just had to get off at a stop near Daito (where I was working yesterday), cuz I didn`t have time to go into town, home, and then catch another bus to work. So I had 45 min to walk to the office, stop at the supermarket for food and body spray. Wow! Action packed day! Work wasn`t bad, but the bus didn`t come for almost an hour after work, so I just walked home - 40min or so. Was SO TIRED by then!

But overall, it was an ABSOLUTELY AWESOME holiday! Totally worth it!!

Itinery change and super hospitality

Yesterday was another awesome day! Dae Gyu picked me up from the hotel and we headed off to Gyeonbok-Goong (old king's house). It was unreal! Absolutely huge, and such beautiful buildings! We watched a re-enactment of the changing of the guards, and checked out the museum. It was an awesome look at old Korean culture!

We then detoured from the itinery to visit the aquarium- also very impressive! Saw heaps of unreal fish and other sea creatures. Unfortunately, also got to see some sharks eating some of those cool fish :( It was a huge aquarium.

Our trip then took another detour. We were gonna go to the Korean Folk Village, but when we were still in Seoul, Dae Gyu's car started smoking! Doh! But it did create another fun experience for me - got to ride thru Seoul in a tow truck! Hope his car doesn't cost too much to fix! So he rented a car, and, as we were out of time, we went straight to his mum's house in Yoe-Joo.

Talk about hospitality!! She is a beautiful woman, who greeted me with a huge warm hug like I was a good friend she hadn't seen in ages! And then we sat down to a home-cooked Korean banquet!! She had made heaps of different foods for me to try, and we sat around the table eating Korean style, which is everybody eating straight from the dishes in the middle. There were 3 kinds of kimchi, 3 kinds of soup, 2 famous beef dishes, 2 fish things (which I enjoyed cuz they were cooked!), some green leafy vegie things, and some lettuce-y stuff that you could eat alone or with bean sauce and some of the beef stuff (I'll have to get Dae Gyu to write down the names!) and of course rice. It was SO yummy!

I was commenting on how much I loved the cutlery - silver chopsticks with a turtle carving and a matching spoon - and so she wrapped up a set and gave it to me!!! I was like, no way, Dae Gyu tell her she can't give me part of her cutlery set!, but he just laughed! LOL! How sweet is she!

After dinner I had a shower, and we sat down in the living area in her room for desert. Quite yummy, and yep, made of rice! What an unreal experience!

Other hotel features...

I forgot to mention last night that my room also has a dvd player, and I can choose from a range of dvds downstairs (no charge of course!), a hair dryer, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hair spray and gel, face cleanser, a face mask, moisturiser, skin softener (?), cotton buds, shaving cream, a shoe shine mitt, and of course a dressing gown! Sweet!

In Korea!!!

Guess what??? I'm in Korea!!!!!! WOW! It's 12:30, and I really should go to bed cuz Dae Gyu will be back in about 8 hrs, but I just had to jump on the net and do a quick blog, cuz guess what? ... My motel room has a computer with free internet access!!!!! For like, US$40 a night, I have a double bed, ensuite, computer with free internet access, big flat screen TV, mini bar with a few free snacks, air conditioning... the works really!!! Wow! Pity I'm only staying here for 8hrs!

Had a great evening with Francie and her flatmate - went to this gorgeously trendy restaurant, and sat on the balcony upstairs, totally surrounded by fairy lights, eating scrumptious beautifully arranged food and sipping on a yummy-as glass of wine - I felt so chiq!!

Left at the crack of dawn and had no probs flagging a taxi and getting to Hakata Port. Had coffee and muffin for brekky while waiting for time to board. Ferry ride was about 3hrs. Met a Korean business man with excellent English and a Norwegian tourist. Jumped in another taxi to get to the train station in Pusan. Was a pretty short ride, and ONLY COST US$2!!!! Very cheap cabs here! Picked up my ticket that Dae Gyu had so kindly pre-booked, and had time for a hot dog and mountain dew for lunch. The express train got me to Seoul in 2hrs 50min! We got up to speeds of just over 300km/hr! Wow!

In Seoul, Dae Gyu picked me up from the station (about 4pm) and we had time for a short drive before attending the English church at his university at 5pm. Met some friendly-as people there! Felt VERY welcomed! Had a look around his uni - it is amazingly huge! Second largest in Korea, I think. Very impressive.

We then took a trip thru the city to the tallest building, where we had a look around the viewing deck on the top floor (cloudiness limited visibility, but it was impressive none the less), and had an amazing all you can eat dinner at a beautiful restaurant. There was heaps of seafood, and I've decided that I'll never become a seafood lover, but at least I can now answer all my students that, yes, I have probably tried just about every kind of raw fish you can eat! I even ate some raw beef! Wow! Finished off with some yummy fruit and icecream, and felt VERY full.

We went for a short walk down by the river, and set off some fireworks - fun! There was the most awesome atmosphere down by the river - heaps of people out on their picnic blankets, rollerblading and skate boarding. Such an awesome summer-party feel! Then, we stopped to watch this huge suprise for some girl's birthday - candles surrounding this huge banner, with her boyfriend at the bottom surrounded by fireworks and holding a birthday cake and huge boquet of flowers! How sweet!

We drove across the bridge and got a good view of the city lights, and parked the car at Dae Gyu's house. Caught a bus (just for the experience - fairly similar to Japanese busses, but you pay by credit card!!!) to an area nearby. Incredible - the city never shuts down! I wanted to go to a traditional Korean pub/eaty place, so we stopped in at this gorgeous little Korean place that was so beautifully decorated! Big shiny stepping stones surrounded by little pebbles, cute wooden half walls between the tables. But Dae Gyu didn't like the menu, so we went to this other little place that was gorgeous in a whole different way - instead of meticulous charm, it had a country, graffiti on the walls, uneven roof hight kinda charm. We had rice wine and Korean pancakes (Aussies would be more likely to call them veggie patties than pancakes!). Very yummy as well.

And now here I am in this stunning hotel room!! Wow!! Tomorrow we are going to check out the old King's house and a Korean folk village (Sovereign Hill kinda idea), then go to the country. I'm staying at his mum's tomorrow, so will get to experience home cooked Korean food and life! Tues we'll check out King Sejong's tomb and go shopping in the city, then I'll express train back to Pusan to crash in a motel, before ferrying back to Fukuoka and bussing to Sasebo, with approx 1hr to unpack, refresh and be down at the bus stop ready for work! LOL! I'll be stuffed, but I love holidays! (And isn't Dae Gyu a legend?!? He has been emailing me, asking what sort of stuff I wanted to do, and then met me at the station with a typed out itinery of my holiday!!!!)

Feelin' hot, hot, hot!

Well, rainy season is over, and most of the mugginess is gone with it. Yay! I can walk outside without feeling instantly sticky! But the cloud cover is also gone, and so the sun is shining in strong, and it is very hot! Still is a bit humid, but only like 5 weeks left of summer, so I'll live!

Guess what? Tomorrow after work I head off to Fukuoka to stay the night with Francie, then early on Sunday morning I head off to Korea!! Yay, yay! So I'll post again at the end of next week when I get back! Don't miss me too much!

Presents!

Got given an unreal present today from a student that I have quite regularly! It is a beautiful little wall hanging that she made herself! Don`t know what kind of craft you would call it, but its kind of like patchwork quilt. It is of a little red kimono and pair of thongs. It is SO gorgeous, and such an awesome Japanese-y memorabilia type thing, and so much better than anything I could buy cuz it is a present. Definitely something I`ll treasure long after I`ve left Japan! She wrote a message on the back, too, half in English, and half in Kanji. Sniff, sniff... I feel all warm and fuzzy! I don`t think Nova likes you giving presents to students, but I`ll at least write her a thankyou letter.

Grandpa died today

My Grandpa died today. At about 4am. Found out he had a brain tumor a few weeks before I left to come here, so I did get to say goodbye before I left, which is good. It`s good that he`s gone and isn`t suffering, but man it`s sad for everyone left behind. Poor mum - her daughter leaves for Japan about the time she finds out her father is dying, then her son leaves for Sydney the weekend he dies. I am really sad that I can`t be in Ballarat with her at the moment, so everyone in Ballarat - you have to be extra nice to her for me, k? And pray for her and for Grandma and everyone else. Death is no fun. And go and hug all your family members who are still alive, and tell them you love them.

Ballroom Dancing

Well, I toodled off to my first Japanese ballroom dancing class today! When we got there, the guy we were trying to give the guy some money, but he kept saying something in Japanese. Another lady came over to help, and was saying "Suiyobi, suiyobi" (Wednesday). We were like, oh, okay, so we should come back Wednesday, but can we watch today? She said, "Hai (yes), look, look". So we settled ourselves down to watch, but the teacher and 4 students were beckoning us over to stand in line! What the...??? We couldn`t work out what was going on, but we went and stood behind the other women, and he started the class, so we just joined in! It was heaps of fun! We learnt 2 dances in the hour class, and I LOVED it!! I`d forgotten how much fun ballroom dancing is!!

At the end, she was saying "Blah blah saraishu blah getsuyobi blah" (something about monday week after next). Looking at a calendar, we worked out that there is a public holiday next Monday, so we are supposed to come back the week after next. We tried to pay again, but he still wouldn`t take our money!! Who knows what the deal is!! Maybe you pay only at the start of the month, so they`re gonna give us two weeks free! Anyway, it was heaps of fun, and will be a good chance to practice my miniscule amount of Japanese too! Yay!

Church was cool yesterday too. There was another church potluck lunch, and I wasn`t gonna stay cuz Valerie and Heather weren`t there to sit with, but then I was like, "Come on Heather!! What a perfect way to meet new people if your friends aren`t here to sit with!! Grow up!" So I stayed, and I`m so glad I did! I talked to a couple of ladies who were really nice, and then I chatted to this Japanese woman - her name is Mami (ma is pronounced like in manilla), and she is a single 33yr old who lives about 20 min walk from me. She`s really nice, speaks quite good English, and is gonna take me to her favourite Japanese restaurant one evening! YAY! We swapped phone numbers, and I really look forward to catching up with her! Happy happy joy joy!

Presentation Day

Today was presentation day in Japanese class! We all meet in the same room, but each have our own teachers (or 2 to 1), but today we were all in together. We were warned that we each had to give a one minute presentation in front of the whole class, introducing ourselves in Japanese. My teacher pretty much wrote mine for me, and I just had to learn it. I thought I had it down pat, but of course, being nervous, I forgot words and stuffed it up a bit, but no biggy. What they didn`t tell us about today was that it was gonna be a cultural day. SO much fun!!!

When we got there, Mike and Matt got sent out of the room, and each of us girls got dressed up in Yukata (summer kimono) - it was unreal!!!! I felt so Japanesey! We all gave our presentations, then the teachers gave a presentation about Tanabata, and we each had to write a wish in Japanese (with substantial assistance!) and hang it on the bamboo. Then, they brought out all these Japanese snacks for us to try!! I tried this "sweet" green thing with reddish stuff inside - it was so weird! It looked a little like a squishy slug type thing, complete with red guts! I didn`t really like it - and it wasn`t what I`d call sweet, but it was a good experience anyway! So unreal!!! I want to do something for my teacher, but I can`t think of what... teach her how to slurp coffee thru tim tams perhaps? (Did I tell u that u can get tim tams here - for about double the price in Aust?)

Then afterwards I had coffee with 2 of the Dutch students, Odette and Eriko, and Rachel was walking by and stopped too. And then Rachel and I found out about ballroom dancing classes!!!! We`re gonna start on Monday afternoon!! YAY!!! So exciting!

On a sadder note, how tragic is the bombing in London?! :,(

Tanabata

Today is Tanabata!! (Also known as Star Festival) Not that it means much to any of you I suppose! I can`t remember the whole story, but it is about 2 lovers who are caught either side of the Milky Way, and this is the one day each year that they meet up. (I think 2 stars kinda cross paths in the sky today, or something.) Today is the day for making wishes. All down the arcade, for the past couple of weeks, there have been little tables set up with bright pieces of cardboard and pencils. You are supposed to write your wish on the cardboard and tie it to the bamboo stalk next to the table. When the stalk is full enough, it is hung up in the arcade, and a new one is put in its place. The arcade is looking quite beautiful!!! I wrote my wish today - that I will become better at speaking Japanese. So, here is an instance of people actually wishing upon a star!

Being happy

Was chatting to a guy from work on Sunday night, and he was angry! He is quite a pessimistic guy, down about something a lot. I spent a good amount of time talking with him, about the fact that life is full of crap and that people will hurt you and let you down, but being miserable and angry about it doesn`t do any good - it only hurts you! You can`t make the bad stuff in life go away, and whinging about it just wears you out and gives you ulcers and arthritis. It takes more energy to be angry at the bad stuff in your life than to be happy about the good stuff.

I don`t know how well I convinced him - he was smiling in the end, but who knows how he was the next day. Let me tell you how I was tho...

I woke up feeling GREAT! I was flicking thru photos of all you wonderful people, and the ones I loved best were the laughing faces just bursting with glee and enthusiasm! And it made me pray...

Papa God, fill me with Your supernatural joy, that I may live every moment overflowing with exuberant enthusiasm for life! And as it overflows, may it splash onto everyone around me!

...and I put on my Happiest Girl in the World t-shirt, some pink earings and my stripey pink toe socks (thanks Hope!), and just sat for a moment, wiggling my toes and revelling in the sheer bliss of having happy socks.

You see, optimists say the cup is half full, and pessimists say it is half empty, but the reality of life is that the volume changes on a daily basis, and it is never either full or empty - always somewhere in between. There is always bad stuff you can moan about AND good stuff you can sing about. In the end, regardless of how full your cup is, you have the choice to either moan or sing - which would you rather?

Canada Day Wash Out

Poor Mike! Canada Day kinda fizzled. We went to the guys place after work to watch `Snack TV` - hanging over their balcony and watching the Snack Girls at work in the street below. (Snack Girls are hired by bars and pubs to bring in customers. The usually work in pairs, dressed in cute matching outfits. They aren`t prostitutes, they just hang around and chat to guys and laugh at their jokes and make them feel good about themselves. Guys pay a fair bit of money to go into one of these bars for an hour, and the drinks aren`t cheap either.) Snack TV can be quite interesting at times apparently - fights break out, drunk people fall over and make fools of themselves, etc, etc. Was pretty quite last night tho - prob cuz it has finally started raining here. The rain is great, but meant that we couldn`t have fireworks. :( We decided to go to Grammarphone, and were on our way there when I got a message from Martina to say she was back from Tokyo and didn`t have her keys with her... so Rachel and I just went on home! Poor Mike!! Ah well, at least a couple of us got into it with the tattoos and flags. (Mike wore a tattoo on his cheek and managed to get away with it at work!!) He promised to return the favour and wear an Australian flag tattoo on Australia day!

Oh, yeah - my seat on the ferry to Korea is booked and paid for!!!!! Yay!!!!!

Taught my first kinder classes an hour & half ago. Went alright. They should be okay fun. I have trouble controlling the boys tho - girls are so much more co-operative!!!!!!!!

I have a home phone!!

Yay!! I got a phone this morning!!! And Rachel went in with me, so it wasn`t so expensive - yay! It`s quite pretty - blue and white. But before you all rush to the phone to call me (u can get the number from Adam & Ruth), be warned that I`ll be out til about 11:30 tonight, celebrating Canada Day. I`m wearing the flag pin and maple leaf tattoo and all! How much fun! Most of us are joining in - the pooey Americans have declined to be tattooed so far... but they`ll prob come to the fireworks at least. (Yeah, its not illegal to set off your own fireworks down by the river - how cool!!)

Oh yeah, I`m also going to Korea in 24 days!!! Yay!! Gotta go pay for my ticket now! :)