HOME ALONE

"The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realise the situation is over, you cannot move forward" - Steve Maraboli

As you have seen by all my recent posts I haven't exactly been sitting at home and taking a breath after a busy week at school lately. Or well for the whole duration of the time I have been in Korea. And although I was at home this weekend I also didn't spend it sitting in my room. 

This weekend was quite a chilled one though. I think after doing Busan and Jeju which are two of the BIG trips in Korea you need to slow down a little just for the sake of your money pockets. So far Korea has been treating me well. I love the fact that every weekend is an adventure and it gives me a lot of perspective on life. It also keeps me from thinking to much. As you should've figured out by now I lost the love of my life just before coming to Korea and as it normally works it doesn't let you off the hook easily but rather very much confused, alone, full of questions, memories and a brain that works overtime. If my brain was employed by my body, my body would've gone bankrupt by now. 

So in order to keep the thinking to a minimum,  which by the way was still a lot, I traveled and made it my weekly mission to meet somebody new every week and so far I have succeeded at this. Actually I am doing pretty well. I also started figuring out what I miss in my life other than love and I decided to fill the gaps. Yes I know, trying to fill up the crevices in your heart with other things while you are healing won't make the healing process any faster. I think that doing the things I like doing and keeping a positive mindset does however help overshadowing the brokenness inside and it kind of creates a shield around you. What I mean about that is that it gives me other things to talk about besides the one thing that hurts. I am quite an emotional person which I also btw realised again whilst being here so speaking about the things that I feel extremely strong about or speaking about the hurt comes easy to me. It really does help speaking to people who doesn't know the whole story... I'm not sure if it's because they are more sympathetic or more interested?! 

I think this weekend, it being the first time I spend alone at home, was the turning point in the emotional fight I've been fighting on my own. It's not nice fighting for something alone. I also realised that I am worth a hell lot more and I stopped asking myself what I did wrong but rather started asking myself what did I do right. I'm giving myself the credit I deserve. This is where the quote comes in. I always say being mad at somebody makes the process to fall out of love so much easier. It didn't play a role this time round. But incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don't. 

I had fun with total strangers this weekend. From playing bowling with the hometownies (HT's) to going out for a farewell party of a guy I met once. Dancing the night away, getting noticed and being respected is something I'd die doing every weekend. I love dancing and getting complements or randomly Salsa'ing just makes life here worth while. I also found out that I have seen more places in the past two months than some people have seen who's been here for 3 years. So I have been living it up. 

At the moment I'm strongly considering staying another year but I will have to see what happens as the year passes by. I have a few other ambitions I would also like to achieve in the next few years. And since I have been doing Korea 105% I'm not sure if there will be much left for me to do in the second year. Anything can happen. I know my Ouma doesn't want me to stay to long. She misses me to much already. And my little angel at home is also growing up so quickly.

 Life goes on. 

#YOLO

Hana, dul, se, ne - YAAAAH!!!

Count, Breathe, Kick, Fall, Role and repeat! 

I started Hapkido this week. It was one of the things I wanted to achieve this year and now I'm on the way to glory. Not only will I get my strength back but I will also be able to defend myself. You see....

JEJU Island

Lava rocks, Volcano's, Oceans and Evergreens

What a jam-packed weekend filled with the most fun I had in a long time. 

The weekend kicked off with a rushed session of packing and hoping on the train to be in time for the bus leaving for Jeju. I met up with 2 friends before hand to grab a bite at the newly opened WinK bar. WinK (When in Korea) are local trip organisers. I joined them on their trip to Jeju Island. As it normally work with me I never really look at the itinerary before the time. It kind of spoils the surprise of seeing a new place for me.

Jeju and Udo Island is situated in the southern point of Korea and was formed by volcanic eruptions millions of years ago with the most recent eruption being 5000 years ago. Lava created the most beautiful structures and mountains all around this little island and the composition of lava rock causes the ground to be nutritious causing the area Island to have the most beautiful plants and evergreens. The geometry of both islands were magnificent and extremely interesting. 

After more or less 9 hours of being on a bus through the night I suffered a little of sleep deprivation and swollen feet. I guess sitting so long does not work for your blood circulation. We took a ferry over the waters to Jeju Island and as there isn't much to do I slept all the way. It's almost like movement of a car or a boat makes me sleepy these days. When we arrived we didn't even use the toilets on Jeju Islands before getting onto another Ferry to go over the dam (it's actually the ocean but there was literally no waves) to Udo Island, which is actually just like Robben Island. 

Udo Island was great. We met up with another South African Friend that completed the Big Five SA teachers. It was really crazy nice to spend time with people who know where you are coming from and who share a common interest. Udo Island is a beautiful island with beaches right around the island. They also have the most beautiful caves which couldn't be entered because for some reason high tide there is about 15 days and not only 6 hours like in SA. When we got to the island we had the choice to take a bicycle, bike, quad bike or bus around the island. We wanted to take the bicycles but because we only had 3 hours on the island we decided to rather take the bus since the bus knows where his going and we could hop on and off as we pleased. The most beautiful place to me was the black formed beach and caves at the foot of the hill. The black beach formed over decades from erosion of lava rock.

After jumping on a ferry to Jeju Island we went for a nice hike up the Sunrise mountain or Volcano. The Sunrise Mountain Volcano is the one which erupted about 5000 years ago. It was so marvellous to actually see the hollowed out top of this mountain. The overview we had of the whole Island and the city of Jeju was also a sight to see. After enjoying the sunset and the beautiful views everyone was up for a beach party. We arrived at the motel, freshened up, went for Korean barbecue and sorted ourselves out with a bit of soju and beer. In Korea you can buy alcohol at any time of the day and drink where ever you want too. Ever drank a cord beer just outside a 7/11 playing flip a cup? I have. It's awesome not to have those rules to worry about. We also bought fireworks and sparkles, a lighter and headed to the beach for a lekker party. Yes you can drink on the beach here and on the streets. 

We stood up the next morning (Sunday) not feeling the freshest ever but it was more the doing of sleep deprivation than alcohol overdose. Us 4 SAffas all paid extra money to go on the South West tour and I don't regret it at all. We started off the morning with a muffin and a drinking yogurt, climbed on the bus in our bikini's and off we went. The first stop was the Penis man stop. Although we never saw the penis man the tale goes sort of like this. There was a fisherman who never returned to the mainland and after 2 days of not seeing returning the wife started walking to the place where he used to dock his boat in search for her husband. She did this year in and year out until she eventually turned into stone. Anyway we didn't see the Penis man. Not sure how the tale and the name fits together but that's lost in translation. Here is what we did. Four meter cliff jumping into a volcanically formed hole in the ocean with water rushing in and out. I was so scared at first but having 70 people cheer you on isn't something you can just ignore and pull out of. I committed to that jumps not knowing how deep it was, nor how cold the water was. The water was freezing cold. Remember it wasn't winter so long ago in Korea. It's just the beginning of summer now. My blond friend and I went in for the kill and jumped twice. Adrenaline rush!!! And of course I didn't want to say No - FOMO!!! Wet and Salty We climbed back on the bus. The salt felt like fine sand on my body. 

The second place we went to was the natural Cheonjeyeon waterfalls. With 3 waterfalls to look at in a really tropic area just nourishes my soul. If I could stay next to a waterfall I would. There was also at the 3rd waterfall a nice little board saying... Swimming not allowed. What did I do? I swam in the coldest water ever. It felt like my muscles didn't want to swim. But if you want the perfect shot you need to go the extra length to get it. Security chased us out eventually. So wet and salt free I got back on the bus and off we went to the next place. The caves. 

Up the mountain we went passed the Buddha status and temple, decorated with lanterns of all colours for Buddha's birthday, to see the cave. In the cave there was a big Buddha statue looking over the valley. In the cave we drank the water of fertility - only three sips of water was allowed from the holy water. In Jeju they have the grandfather statue. (They are considered to be gods offering both protection and fertility and were placed outside of gates for protection against demons traveling between realities) Newly married woman would touch the nose of the statue to be blessed with boys. In Korea having a boy are relatively scars. They didn't worry about girls. I touched the nose of the grandfather so lets wait and see if the stories are true.

After the temple we went to our last stop. LOVELAND!!!! I can't say much about it except that I had a very successful biology class on all the different ways of conceiving a baby... or maybe just having beastly sex and making things interesting with Kama-sutra. With that being said bare in mind that this was an odd thing to see in Korea with people being so conservative. There were a few Korean men who walked around and they were like boys laughing at every statue as if it's unreal and they have never seen naked woman before. It was quite funny. There were penises in all shapes and sizes. They didn't really expand to sex toys and other things but it was still quite amusing. 

We headed for an Indian dinner there after and hit the town. We were the only people (Saffas) who went out to town to have a jol. And that we did with the tour guide. Although we felt super dirty and stinky after everything we did that whole day it didn't stop us from spending time the last night with our wonderful friend from Jeju. We ended up in a photo booth taking photos, wearing all sorts of props and having some really interesting facial expressions. 

Being Crazy. 

On the Monday morning being again sleep deprived we headed to the lava tubes. That was quite awesome to see. The lava formed tubes under the ground as it rushed to the ocean I assume. It was quite something to see. This was our last stop before getting back on the bus, then the ferry and the bus again to head home. 

All in All this weekend was an absolute blast. And being able to share it with fellow Friends from South Africa was the cherry on top. Broke and tired now I would honestly do this trip again soon. 

The million of photo's and video's will come soon. 

Just one giant shell with two blonds in side it. Hot???

We actually met each other in our previous life.... that's the one in South Africa.

GoPro is always ready to film some action. 

Falling off a bridge or acting like it rather is quite fun. This girl was one sassy girl.

Lanterns everywhere for Buddha's birthday.

Here is the tour guides with us 4 Saffas because we are cool. 

This was our room. No beds... We slept on the floor on blankets.
That's the Korean way of sleeping.

It's only in Korea where you get a public photo corner. 

These girls made this trip. They are so funny. 

Always need a selfie to show off your beach look. 

This was taken at LoveLand. This kind of gives you an idea what Loveland is about. 

AKA Dragon Mountain.

You have to get crazy from time to time

Goodbye JeJu. We had fun. 

Fun in the Sun

Unplanned weekends are the best weekends

It's Monday morning and it feels like I got ran over by a truck. Not because this weekend was to ruff but simply because I just didn't sleep through the night. I'm kind of starting to feel how a baby feels when he wakes up in the middle of the night a few times. With all the hours of sleep canceled out I also wanted to cry since I knew what's coming. 

This weekend was really great. Very relaxed at times and really busy at times. The neighbour and I left for Itaewon in Seoul on Saturday morning. I arrived at the Hostel dropped by bag, got back on the train again and met up with a few friends from a different town, quite far from me, in Hongdae. Hongdae is like Stellenbosch just bigger with more shops, pubs and clubs as well. But we didn't do the clubbing thing. Instead we wondered around in this really bust part of town and watched street performances. It's quite popular in Hongdae to see artists reveal their talents and it's quite unique. You will see anything from acoustic singers to heavy rock singers to piano players, dance groups, pop dancers, sketchers and so much more. I must say it's quite weird to see a colourful piano standing in the middle of nowhere where people will just go sit and play a piece, stand up and leave. In Korea every child must play a musical instrument and because of this every person here has some kind of music literacy. 

So after the nice little walk in town I returned to the Hostel to meet up with the neighbour again. There we met a very nice Korean girl who just used the Hostel for the weekend to have some "Me time". It was really interesting for me when she mentioned it because I was actually wondering how the Korean students do it. Here a big family will all stay in a small apartment which leaves nobody with personal space. I know I sometimes felt like it was necessary to just escape from the world and the family sometimes. We had a very nice chat with her about the Korean ways of doing things. I also asked her opinion on clothes that I bought earlier that day that I wasn't sure about. She gave me some nice honest advice and it saved me some money too since I returned half of it on Sunday. We had fun in the Hostel even though it was literally just a room full of beds and had plugs that only worked when the light was on. This very fact caused us some cellphone charging problems. 

The next morning in comes a french girl who just returned from a big night out in town just to freshen up a little. We started having a nice conversation and eventually ended up going for breakfast together. We also walked into our married friends who's from the same town as us and they joined us as well. While the Americans and Africans had a nice English breakfast the Parisians had apple pie for breakfast which is such a french thing to do. After dinner we all went our ways and since I had to claim some money back with returning clothes I had to go back shopping and ended up showing the Parisians where they could buy some clothes. Obviously after arriving with only one bag of winter clothing I had to shop to the extreme since my closet consists of only winter clothing which also means I spent way to much money. It hurts and it's really much better if mom buys it. 

We got a little split up at one stage and it's really damn hard to find anyone in the place if you don't have airtime and even without having any data your battery runs out like wild fire. So after quite some unnecessary efforts I got hold of the Parisians again to collect my phone charger which I borrowed to her in the Restaurant to charge her phone while we eat but as karma works we forgot it there and she had to go all the way back to fetch it again. And that's how we lost each other. 

The Parisians and I met up again at the palace of some ancient person (I didn't read the information boards) and the day ended up to include a little sightseeing as well. After the palace I took the 2 hour journey home.  

Teacher's day

A very rewarding day indeed.

I think every Teacher will be remembered by at least one of her/ his students for something you taught them that was of value at some stage of their life. Maybe they don't always remember you as the person who taught you this but a teacher knows in her heart that there is a person somewhere in the world she took under her wings and taught how to fly.

Even if I remember back to my own school years there was at least one teacher who was my favourite or one teacher who gave me some food for life or even just made me feel better on a day I felt a little off. I would also like to believe that teachers get to know a side of a child that parents don't always get to see, a side of eagerness to learn or an eagerness to succeed in life. I also would like to believe that it takes a certain teacher to give her students the courage to come speak to them about private matters. 

If I should define a teacher I would say it is somebody who teaches those around them the values of life and not the content of books. A teacher cannot teach without learning as well and the most difficult thing is to find the balance. The balance between being righteous and being knowledgable and humble. They are some of the most loving and friendly people on earth and they are some of the strongest.

Teachers see and hear every thought that goes through the mind of a child and they hurt just as much as that child for the same reasons the child is hurting. You cry with them. You take children that is not your own into your care and love them, care for them and build relationships with them as you would've done with your own children. 

I also think, although I'm bias for saying this, that teachers aren't given the credit they deserve. Teachers create the lawyers, engineers, scientists and billionaires of the world. Every person on this earth started by learning the alphabet from a teacher. Learned how to read and write and do a little math through the help of a teacher. It's the fundamental building blocks that matters not the content. It takes a big heart to shape little minds. Yes the content is important but if you are taught how to read you will be able to read any book in your language. If you can write you will be able to put your knowledge onto a piece of paper. But teachers teach you how to learn which is why the content is so important. Without an excessive amount of learning material you will never learn how to handle the loads. A teacher teaches you that. 

I would like to use this blog post as a special Thank you to all my teachers in life. I had teachers that aren't teachers in profession but they were teachers nonetheless. I have been around you my whole life and so far I am learning how to become a good teacher myself. The one thing I have learned in life is that you must never stop yourself from learning something new and that you can learn even from the brabble of a baby. We don't know everything in life and we need to be strong and smart enough not be be righteous but to admit if we don't know something.

"A great teacher takes a hand, open a mind and touches a heart" - Unknown

Must be my day today. 

A treat to the Teachers today.
Cake for breakfast, Rice cake for Lunch and Chinese for dinner.

Animal Cruelty in Korea

It breaks my animal loving heart to see the reality of animals in Korea.

It's been pushing me so far that I started doing research on how to adopt a dog, cat, rabbit or any other pet for that matter. I have been searching on every possible site of every animal vet or shelter to see if there is something I can do to stop an animal from being handled in a cruel way or being abused to a severe extend. Korea already have absolutely no wild life what so ever. Everything are being killed to an enormous extend. To the point where I freak out if I see a little bird very well known in South Africa as the "Mossie".

In Korea you get two extremes like everything else they do:

Everyday the first thing I see is a dog chained to a pole with nothing but a dog cage and a bowl of water. And to make it worse the dog has no grass, blanket or mat to keep it from lying on the cold hard pavement. This includes not taking the dog inside at night time and leaving it outside while temperature drops are sometimes below 10ºC. Did I mention it snows here in winter months.

This little guy lives on a farm with gates that can close yet his tied up to his cage.

They even tie up their cats to a chain. The don't know cats that well since I never had cats of my own as pets when I still lived back at home but I always loved them. My own animal loving instinct tells me that you cannot put a chain on a cat and prevent it from exploring the world around it. Cats are predators and as part of their nature they hunt for all small living creatures. You can house train your cat in order to be able to keep the cat inside majority of the day but you cannot always do that. They need to be cat too. Seeing this poor little cat tied up outside on the street left with a sandbox that I don't think has been cleaned at all in like a month and fed chicken left overs from the restaurant of its owners broke my heart. When you walk past the cat you can hear him mowing. Today I went to say hallo to the poor animal and gave him a nice rub only to realise that this cat has a skin disease of some sort and he probably hasn't been washed once in his life. His fur is dusty and dry and not as soft as it should be.

This fella is tied to the drain lid outside his owners restaurant. 

I got to school the one day hearing dogs bark but not seeing the dog until a later stage when I actually particularly looked for a specific puppy dog I greeted the previous day. To my shock I saw the most horrible inhumane thing ever. Dogs being kept in cages not bigger than 1,2m x 800cm, 1 meter above the ground. Besides for being kept in an extremely small cage they also have nothing but a grid they walk on. Their paws are probably raw from walking on this grid the whole time. I assume the grids are used as a easier method to clean their poop. Getting no attention and only being fed once a day it's horrors me to see these animals bark and waging their tales as if their life is great. These dogs are part of a dog farm. We have cow farms, pig farms and horse farms etc. where we fence off the animals feed them fat and then slaughter them for food. Here in Korea people also do this except they only eat the white dogs because their meat is more pure than other dogs which reminds me of the black cat witch story bull shit that people in the old days used to believe. Just remember that this farm is literally right outside my school grounds. I can see the dogs from the school grounds. It's not something you should encourage your children to see. Especially not elementary school children.

These are the cages where the dogs are kept. 

Then you also get the people that abandon their dogs once they realise that their dog has an illness such as epilepsy. They abandon them at the nearest Vet or shelter or just on the street where they are left to die. After searching for some animal to adopt while I am here I came across this by looking at the history of the animals and their special needs. It's shocking how many of the small dogs was left to die after they got sick or an infection just because their parents didn't want to spend money on them. According to me nobody abandon their own children when they get sick rather they get the best care in the world. Why is it so easy for people right around the world not to see it like this. You took on a responsibility to care for a helpless animal and now you will just throw it away?

I do get the fact that people in Korea don't have yards for their dogs to run freely. Most Koreans also stay in apartments with a whole family which creates a problem when it comes to space. I believe that if you do not have the room of a dog in your house or you don't have a yard for the dog then don't get a dog at all. Even though we all love pets we need to consider their life as well. What a lot of Koreans do is tie their dogs up at their shops if they have a shop with a canopy where the dog can stay and then they take them for walks frequently during the day. But then you also get the people who tie their dogs up even when they do have a yard where the dog can play and run around.

Now the other side of the flip coin is people who make their pets so part of the family that the pet has a special closet of clothing that matches those of its owner. They spend so much money on treating these dogs like their own children that they forget what actually makes a dog happy - playing go fetch with it. They also go as far as to dying their pets hair into characters and making them look like some other animal or even like a cartoon character such as Pikachu. They will also advertise a kitten by saying "Buy a Pikachu". Some of these I think is cute but I can't help but wonder how this dye affects their hair and skin. Surely this dye products they use were not designed for dog skins and human hair dye would be way to strong for them. Never mind even taking into consideration that animals clean themselves by licking. Isn't this dye toxic to their little bodies? I don't think having a hippie of a dog would be the best for the dog's health at all. That also counts for cats.

I am not sure how to handle all of this but I cannot turn my face away and look away from the cruelty and evil that's around me. I don't know what to do yet but it feels like it might be my life mission. Although I am only a small fish in a very big pond not even understanding the culture and believes of these people. 

Heaven's Sweetness.

The ultimate way to please a woman:
Baskins Robbins and Le Pommier

Just for your information you are missing out on the best thing created since Nougat and Sterrie Stumpies. 

Yes!! Don't even try rebuttal. 

Okay yes, nougat is a difficult one to win but seriously though. 

So let me tell you about Mr. Baskins Robbins and Le Pommier. 

(Both was introduced to me by my lovely South African neighbour - Gezina)

Baskins Robbins is an American shop situated right around the corner from my house selling the world's best ice creams. They are also the worlds largest chained ice cream store. And there is a really good reason for this fact. Their ice creams are absolutely mouth watering delicious.

Have you ever heard of the cotton candy ice cream? Well before I got here I have never in life heard of cotton candy flavoured ice cream. And then one day my life got enriched. I had cotton candy ice cream!! The best thing was that they added these little sparkle thingies to the ice cream making it pop in your mouth. I literally felt like a kid again freaking out about this popping sensation in my mouth. It's a must have I promise you. Then of course their bubblegum ice cream is also divine. If you like berries as much as I do and it's hard to make  a decision you can't go wrong with the Very Berry Strawberry ice cream. It's my favourite all time classic. It's the one I always take just to have a last bite of heaven. Did I mention they make ice cream cakes? Best one I have seen so far is an avengers cake. 

Now Le Pommier. It's a fantastic coffee shop in my town and honestly the best cafe mocha's, cafe latte, cappuccino's etc. that I have tasted in Korea thus far. And oh my goodness. You won't believe how refreshingly nice an iced cafe mocha is on a warm night and even a cold night. You should really try it if you ever visit Korea. But I'm sure you will get those things in South Africa as well. 

Here you are lucky if you find something so darn amazing that you would return to it constantly. Mainly because it takes a while to figure out the content of the food you eat and reading the menu. Well I think reading tge menu will stay imposible since it's all in hongual. So if you find something you LOVE you stick with it. 

Little pleasures in life

 My treat everyday. 

Milky time is such a pleasant experience everyday. I get a milky and add a little bit of good spice (chocolate) to the mix and then I'm good for the day. 

A stumpie a day keeps the docter away. I have to get my Vitamine C in in some way 

( I miss my Sterrie Stumpies) 

Inner being

1 month and 17 days

I still get my days. Somedays are worse than others, some sadder than others, some more frustrating than others and some just way to neutral for me to even comprehend. Some days are good. I left your photo's behind. I left your gifts behind. I left the place that carries all the memories of our past behind. I left you behind. 

Yet I wake up in the middle of the night. Yet I see you at the places I visit. I see you in other people's smiles. I hear your voice in the music on the radio. I feel your presence in my house. I have to constantly stop in my way and remind myself that I left you behind. 

I search for you in the crowds of people. I search for you in my dreams. I search for you at night and day. I get ideas to surprise you. I have thoughts of what things would've been like. I think of my original life plan and realise that it completely changed. I want to spoil you with coffee in bed. Sometimes I catch myself taking out two cups and not just one. I do exercise to stop thinking but even that doesn't work. I drink and dance to stop thinking, end up on stages and then it reminds me of how we met. I still smile when you sms me. I still wonder about you everyday. I still think " He would like that". I still want to be there yet i'm to far away. 

The memories will always be there. People change. What should change is the way I see you. But that in it self is something that will take time if ever to change. It's hard to forget someone who gave you so much to remember.

I cherish the moments we had together, I cherish the laughter in my dreams. I cherish the smiles on my face and the happiness I once carried with me. I cherish the looks you gave me and the stories we shared, the problems we overcame and the team we became I once promised to look after your heart and never break it and I'll keep my promise. 

I'm away and I don't know the end game but I'm going to enjoy life as it passes me by until hopefully one day we meet again. 

Korean Culture Part 2

K-POP, Exo, Exo and Exo, PDA

Yes, EXO the famous boyband which reminds me a little of the backstreet boys and the spice girls back in the day when we were still young is the number one hit on every school girls phone and about the only thing they really get excited about in class. There are 12 guys in the group which to me is quite a lot and sounds more like a mini choir but they definitely knows how to impress the ladies and how to get their hits all over the place. You get hot Korean guys but to be honest none of these boys really do it for me. Even the boys in my class agrees with that. K-pop is Korean pop, a genre unique to South Korea. There is a few other pop groups such as BigBang, Girls Generation and 2NE1. I've learned in this short time that I'm here that you make your class happy by including some kind of popstar into your lessons. 

In Korea they don't have separate people doing advertisements. I know in South Africa you get agencies that specialises in this type of thing but here it's a little different. Celebraties rule the place. They are on every billboard, every advertisement, every TV production, every shop uses them as their clothing models. They are everywhere. These stars are everywhere. In 2009 a group called Dong Bang Shin Ki took their managers to court after a 13 year contract dominating their lives. From advertisements, shoots, interviews, shows and rehearsal time the members of this group was deprived from sleep and had no time to themselves. The norm was that contracts last 10 years but after the group won their court case contract time allowed was lowered to 7 years max. And when you think of all these things they do you would expect them to make as much money as the American popstars make but in Korea that is however not the case. The contracts these popstars sign puts them into so much debt that they don't really see the money they generate. It all goes to the agency they signed with.

The Korean nation is really very competitive when it comes to education for one but also physical appearance where you have to be a size 8 and you must wear the latest trends you can definitely see where the people get their styles from. Once a celebrity wears this type of handbag EVERYONE is in need of this type of handbag. And it's like that with everything. Even tooth brushes, alcohol and other ridiculous things. And this causes one of Korea's biggest problems - Teenage suicide. Yes it's bad. It's the highest in the world. 

And the men wears make up !!!! 

I saw the most, wait I don't even know what to call it, thing on the train on my way back from Busan. A girl and her boyfriend sat behind us, both Korean, and you know how us girls normally sit and do make up in public places from time to time? Okay the guy didn't do it like we do it but his girlfriend was colouring in his eyebrows with a nice pencil and he checked to see if it's fine, commented and she continued. I laughed my ass off. It's a little retarded. Why do I choose the one place in the world where there is only females? 

And here is something even more strange. In Korea being a couple is celebrated not only on Valentine's day but 11 other days as well. They have Dairy day, Valentine's day, White day, Black day, Rose Day, Kiss day, Silver day, Green Day, Photo day, Wine day, Movie day and Hug day. It starts on January 14th and is celebrated every month on the 14th. I wonder how kiss day works? Do you kiss someone the whole day because I sure as hell know my lips will get numb and then what's the fun ? On these couples days the couples also coordinate their clothing. This started in the 1990's by celebrity couples and Honeymooners and have ever since became more popular under couples. It's a way to express PDA since their culture are extremely conservative and any sort of public affection shown is frowned upon. So the way to show everyone else you are a couple is by dressing alike. I can give it to some couples. They look quite stylish. Just to be clear about the extend even the underwear matches most of the time. There it's a statement to the world that you are in a couple but also something you share as a couple and a way to bond. Most of the time this is really hard to pull off since most couples don't live together and still live with their parents until marriage. It's just cheaper that way. So how they normally do this is that the girl will pick out a few clothing items and call her boyfriend to decide what they will wear together. So if he has something that will match her picked out outfits they will go with that. This sometimes includes shoes, jeans, jackets, t-shirts, sweaters ect. Even hair sometimes have the same type of look. It's definitely a Korean thing and will stay uniquely Korean.

Don't believe me? Google it!

I can't help to wonder what you do with all your clothes after you break up with the person you were in a relationship with? 

Here also all Korean guys will immediately ask you if you have a boyfriend or not and they will respect your answer unlike in some cases back home. If the answer is no however they will try their luck in a gentle way. Another thing that's quite common amongst Korean men is not to really respect a woman as independent but rather as a person who cannot make their own decisions. They see woman as children which can be seen in small things they do like a tap on the head or squeezing your cheeks and even to the greater extend of ordering you food in a restaurant without consulting with you first. I think I might just get a little to independent for these boys to handle. 

Here is a Video of the Famous EXO group. 

My Overseas Birthday

"I've learned that it's not what you have with you but who you have with you that matters most" - Anonymous

It was my first birthday overseas this year without the ones I so dearly love around me. Yes I did make friends here so far but we don't know each other that well yet. Maybe a week others a month or so. And I have realised that birthdays aren't about the big celebration to celebrate your ageing process, it's more about celebrating the year that passed with those who made it worth while. 

I found that it was lonely without my family with me especially not seeing my grandparents and parents as well as my dear 2 friends. Also I normally have quite a lot of celebration events for my birthday which I missed this year. Normally one for general friends then one for really close friends and then one for my big family of course. I love it that way. 

Friday at school the staff members spoilt me with a super nice cake, candles and a happy birthday song. The Kids also sang to me a few times. It was special. 

I went out for a nice dinner with my South African Neighbour on Friday night to a Korean BBQ restaurant. As always it was really quite fun and Yummy. It's the closest to South African braai I'll get in my small little town. Went home quite early and then I opened a average bottle of red wine and poured myself a nice chilling glass. The red wine in SK is really not the same quality of the wine back home in SA. I'm not sure what they do to their wines but it's really not the best. I can get good wine but those bottles cost you around R300 and to be honest I'm not that desperate. The Blacklist kept me company. It was quite lonely I must say. And weirdly enough I missed not getting any kisses and hugs. 

On Saturday I studied and the night I went out to celebrate a little at least with the people I met up to now. It started with a nice chicken and beer dinner just to get those tummies filled before we do all out. I must say it always helps and I was starving. There after we went to an international roof top party and definitely paid way to much to enter. We got a cocktail (long island) and nachos but the nachos was really only the chips and a little mayonaise which is not worth paying for. Anyway, so we left there after a little while. Most of the people left around 10:30pm to catch the last train. If you don't catch that train you will not get home and will have to find a place to sleep. Nice hey!! Well 10:30pm was way to early to end a good night and come all this way I thought. The four girls left quickly got a nice idea to go search for Thursday Party ( a bar/ pub) where the music is always good and the place is filled with quite a lot of foreigners and a few hotties as well. 

We picked up a semi dance mood there is that pub and so decided to head to FF club. We got there and it looked great. Music was super load and good. There was a big dance floor AND there was a STAGE!!!! ANIA HEAVEN !!!!!  Mainly because up there I'm free to dance on my own without any guy irritating me or a girl stepping on my feet with her heels. That probably hurts the most! The night ended really early Sunday morning. 

What we did next is definitely an Korean thing. Since we didn't catch the last train and ended up partying into the morning hours but not late enough to be in time for the first morning train we had to crash somewhere to kill two or 3 hours. The Koreans have this thing and I think here might be the only place you will see it. They go to the nearest 24h Coffee shop, grab a seat and a table and sleep until the first morning train pitches up at 5:30. What did we do? Exactly that. We found a Cafe and passed out completely till everyone started moving around and out to catch the first train and we just followed. If in Korea, do as the Koreans do! It was quite a fun night to end off a nice birthday weekend. 

Sunday I slept the whole day. I was so tired but isn't that the perfect way to spend a Sunday? Chilling?

These were the crazy people who made my night one to remember.

                               

South Africans and American coming together to have the best time ever.

                               

International Rooftop Party

Poetry

"Choose a shape and write a POEM about yourself"

That was the instructions at the Orientation in one of the classes. We had to write a poem but it doesn't necessarily have to rhyme and was done by using a simple temple giving to us.

So I started writing.....

I'm a girl with no end destination

I wonder about people right around the world 

I hear tinker bell whisper in my ear "go further"

I see no limits in the distance I can go 

I want to be a butterfly

free to fly 

I'm a girl with no end destination 

I pretend that I saw enough 

I feel restless to see more

I worry I won't see it all

I cry for a life of peace and unity 

I'm a girl with no end destination. 

Orientation

Hallo!! My name is Ania and I'm a GEPIK teacher :)

Gepik is the Reginal education system that I am working for. They had an awesome orientations last week. I loved last week. No school, no preparation and I basically did art the whole week. 

We got divided into rooms according to the ages we teach at school and also had lectures accordingly. So I was will another teacher who's also teaching elementary level. The cuties that climbs into our hearts. We had so much fun and I think it might be a very nice year after meeting so many new teachers. I also met 2 South Africans there and I had 3 teachers/ Lectures/ Speakers that was afrikaans and came form South Africa. I felt so much closer to home. It's always nice to be able to joke with someone about Zuma haha. 

We did a lot of team exercises and we did A LOT of art. I wasn't sure if I was in the right class at one point because according to me I'm teaching English and not art. But it was all great fun. I had such a fun time. 

Adiyoyin (Nigerian - American) and I laughed so much and we spoke way to much and wrote way to little. We had to  draw each other, get to know each other and write our similarities and differences on the page. We drew each other dancing but there was hardly any words on the page in the end.

The last night we had a big Karaoke night. Two South Africans in one room is a dangerous mix. We took over haha. Roberta is a Zulu lady from Durban and she's awesome. I miss her already. We were owning that stage with our Africa songs and the Americans loved it. We had a great Tina Turner as well ( Nathalie from America) and man can she sing. I must say after that session of dancing and singing I realised how unfit I am. At one stage I couldn't sing because I was so out of breath from dancing. It was absolutely crazy lekker. 

All in all I learned a lot how to combine english classes into activities and art as well as dances and songs. I'm going to have fun in school this year. 

      

BUSAN

Sea, Beaches, Mountains, Temples, Shopping Malls, Harbours, Fish Fish and Fish.

This was quite a weekend. It was a weekend unplanned that worked out surprisingly great. It was tiring but fantastic to experience. From the people to the food and the fish, everything was a sight to see. It's definitely a place I would return too. 

About a week ago I found out that I will have an excellent long weekend this weekend thanks to children's day that's on the 5th of May (Tuesday) and my school was generous enough to give me the Friday and Monday off. Nice long weekend huh?! So last weekend Chary and myself went to book our KTX train tickets in Seoul Station for this weekend. We struggled to get a train ticket for earlier than 5pm on Friday for the train but since we had a big GEPIK orientation the week before it gave me enough time to complete my short course module.

Okay there is a lot that's been going on lately that I just haven't blogged about but I'll get there. 

We left Jeongok at 2pm the Friday afternoon to be in time to catch the train in Seoul Station. After a 3 hour train trip to Busan Chary and I read up on some of the things to do in Busan and created a little "to do list" but as we weren't really sure what to expect we kind of just planned really roughly and left the rest up to where we eventually will end up. We arrived at Busan station around 8 or 9 (I can't remember) and started the search for our Motel that we booked for the weekend. Firstly we had to orientate ourselves, which is really hard if you can't read hangul (Korean letters). Every billboard or shop name is in Korean and the only way you know what is what is by finding some of the closest American outlets. Eventually we decided to use Google maps to find our way. The journey to the Motel was interesting. There was a street filled with pubs, clubs and blond bimbo common prostitutes. When we found our hotel the woman asked if Chary and I are friends or how the situation works. I didn't understand any of it until the last day but it turned out that we slept in a love motel. Love motels are used by Koreans to have some fun while the kids are sleeping at home. You see there is normally like 5 people in a bachelour flat. They will wake the kids. It was extremely cheap but I still feel a little gross. We just stayed in the hotel for the night and went for beer and Chicken in town. It was quite fun to experience a different city.

Busan is like the Cape Town of South Africa. The people are more relaxed, speak better english and are far more friendly than those in Seoul. 

On Saturday we firstly went to the beach and we spent half our day at the beach basically. It was absolutely great to feel the sand between my toes and the sun kissing my skin, maybe a little too much at one point... I burned a little. We walked along the beach ( small beach) to the lighthouse took a few pictures and returned to the beach again. The route to the lighthouse was very nice. Everything in Korea is turning green now so the mountains and heels are really beautiful with it's evergreen. We had the nicest sight of the Busan bright from the lighthouse as well. We got back to the sand and walked all the way to the other point of the beach where there was a small fishers harbour. There were only small boats and speedboats drifting in the harbour. We left the beach to go visit a temple. We took a bus. This was probably not the best decision ever since that bus was so overcrowded with people that there was literally no space to move and it allowed for old men to push their crotches up against you. You can move as much as you want too they move with you. DISGUSTING!! When we arrived at the temple we ran up in like 10 min and down in 10 min but it was probably the most beautiful sea view and the largest Buddha statue I've ever seen. It was something to see and I wish we stayed there longer but we ran out of time since I had another appointment. Waxing. We took things chilled the evening by hanging out in the biggest department store in the world according to Guinness world records. That was quite a lot of fun although everything is pretty expensive. Majority of it are big brands like Gap and Polo. We had dinner there and left to go rest in our Motel. My feet were non-existent. 

The Sunday morning we slept in a little. We were planning on starting early but it was raining so hard that the bed became quite a hibernating session. We eventually got out and immediately bought ourselves umbrellas. Mine was a nice blue polka dot transparent umbrella. Super cheap one too. But it looked cute and matched my whole outfit. Blue K-way jacket, Jeans and blue sandals. I'm blue dubble de dubble di. Kapouw! We ate lunch at the famous fish market the afternoon and man it as a little disappointing. Besides for the fact that the fish was extremely expensive they hardly use any spice to cook the fish. No nothing. The fish was extremely soft and flaky if I may add which I guess made it really nice. Underneath the market there was a complete fish market with about a 100 stalls. Every stall had a whole bunch of buckets filled with live fish. This was quite sad to see because some of those sea animals are not pack animals. They walk single in the wild and now they are completely stressed in these circumstances. But there was something of everything, small to big crayfish to monter crabs, really smart octopuses and fish species by the millions as well as a lot of shellfish. It was something to see. After lunch we rolled back to the Motel, I went to take a catnap and Chary went to Cathlic church. We went out again later the night to meet up with two girls we met at the 

orientation. But before we went there we just had to experience the lantern festival in town. It was beautiful. Absolutely stunning. So many colours and figures as well as historical stories. Really, really nice stuff. 

I also experienced my first Korean obsession this night. So irritating. Very sleek the guard offered me a pamflet of the lantern festival just to jump into a conversation with me. After asking where I'm from and what I'm doing in Korea he asked for a picture of me with him. The blond at work. I'm a nice girl; I know they don't know blond so I don't mind the picture taking thing, yet. Then later conversation continued. In Korea it's really rude to refuse an invite. Chary and I got inviting out for dinner by 2 Korean guys whose my age (24). They sticked us for beer and chicken and this is really becoming quite a favourite of mine. They took us to the party central of Seomyeon to a chilled restaurant. Now understand that this is not really the type of dinner party you have in mind. With guys who really speak limited english things can get interesting on the one hand and really irritating on the other. Another thing to notice about the Korean culture is that they really don't know personal space. They will touch you, push you, hang on you, grind you and even touch your face and not knowing that this is an invasion of the ego bubble. It's really annoying and something really hard to get used too. This guy, after knowing him for an hour, told me I need to stay single because his coming to visit in a months time and wants to see me and he told me I' m really cute a few times and pulled my cheek?! Befriending Koreans are positive since it's the quickest way to learn Korean but the rest that comes with it is not always so cool and the worst is you can't explain it to them since they don't understand our culture, can't speak the language and are just way to set in their ways. I mean how do you explain something as abstract as an Ego? Impossible!!! 

Yes I speak as if my ego is huge. It's really not; they just invade my small cm ego way too much. Anyway that's what you get for standing out. After dinner we met up with the other 2 girls and had a lovely evening in a pub. 

The Monday morning I stood up irritated and really just wanted the one thing I can't have. Then again in Korea the girls can wear the shortest dresses ever but their shoulders must be close. So wearing a pair of jeans and a tank top is a no go. I pretended not to know about this this weekend since I very much look like a tourist who doesn't know her way around and yet a lady stopped me at the subway platform to tell me I need to close my shoulders but she spoke Korean and touched my straps and my shoulder and I just continued as if I have no idea what she's saying. We took a bus to a old traditional village and spent majority of the day in the village. I also got to write my first postcards not that I have any idea how to write a postcard. There after we went to the Lotte super and the Busan Tower. 

Busan Tower was mesmerising. We saw the whole city at night time. The lights coloured in this stunning picture into a beautiful night view. Breathtaking experience. It's one of those places where you could sit for hours and just think about your life or not even think. We ended up in a Irish pub to end off the weekend with a nice beer. Very refreshing and just to mention rest our feet.