Slice

Just a little photo slice of life here...
I have two weeks study break and Keltie is here for a visit, so we are off adventuring.
xx -Fi

Fading into Grey

I am home. And it's so good to be here, back with family and friends! One of my firsts was to say hello to the Atlantic Ocean, in all its wild and wind-swept beauty. I'd forgotten how cold and bleak Nova Scotia can be in November. There is no snow on the ground yet, and the landscape appears so sad and lonely to me. I already feel like these overcast, wintry skies and the damp, bone-chilling cold are getting under my skin. We haven't had a sunny day yet since I've arrived! But my mother says grey is a beautiful color, and that I need to teach myself to fall in love with its variable shades. So I'm taking her advice to heart, and attempting to seek out some beauty in the season. Hello from Nova Scotia, in shades of grey...

Kings of Convenience

Mmmmmmm... new music! It's been awhile since I've fallen in love with an entire c.d., but the latest album from this Norwegian duo, Kings of Convenience, has me hooked. Released in October, entitled "Declaration of Dependence", it's been on my airwaves non-stop. Like 24-7 repeat. Here's a fun vid of one of the tracks, Boat Behind, too! Hope you like...

Bridging the Gap

A Korean guy approached me in a coffeeshop yesterday afternoon, asking if he could sit down and chat for a few minutes. With the use of a cellphone translator, we were able to have twenty minutes of conversation in broken English and bits 'n' pieces of Korean. To some, this situation would potentially seem very awkward, but I've become quite accustomed to random interactions like these in Korea... where a child or adult decides that meeting me at a bus stop, in an elevator, or on a street corner, is a great opportunity to practice their English!
The craziest part about yesterday's conversation, though, was that at the end of it, this guy confides in me that this is the first time he's ever spoken to a foreigner. He's never traveled, lives in the same town he grew up in, and works as a waiter in a local Korean restaurant. This was the very first time he's ever spoken with an individual outside of his own cultural background and ethnic descent! How cool is that? I felt so privileged that I got to be someone's first.
Do you remember the first time you spoke with someone of another ethnic background? I'm guessing that most of my readers come from such ethnically diverse societies, potentially even within their own multi-generational family histories, that such a "first" is difficult to imagine! How about the first time you attempted conversation with someone whose language was different from your own?

Nervous Toes

Yesterday morning, I had a phone interview with a university in New Zealand. I've applied for a Teacher Training program there, which would start in February, if I'm accepted.
I somehow managed not to stutter and stumble over my answers too much, or bite any remaining fingernails that hadn't already been nibbled off during last week's anticipation. But it was like playing "20 Questions" with a robot... no response, other than "Very good. Next question..." They told me I should hear back within two weeks. So for now, it's the oh-so-familiar, not-so-comfortable waiting game...

(photo shout-out: Nervous Toes by my cousin becki )

Coffee and Cinnamon

My last few Wednesday mornings have been spent studying and sipping frothy coffee with friends and fellow ESL teachers...

Hello Teacher!

Some of my amazing students... the youngest ones I teach this year!

Love, Korea

Autumn beauty gleaned from a weekend wandering.

A Korean Wedding

I went to a Korean wedding today! One of my friends from work, Ceilia, got married to "her skinny man" (my nickname for him.) Everyone from the school was invited and in attendance, and we all ate dinner together after the ceremony, so it was quite a fun morning! When we arrived, we were directed to a tiny room where the bride sat perched like a frosted white cupcake on a settee, and people could take pictures of her, or have their picture taken with her. Poor thing, she looked so nervous! I did not envy her. People in the wedding hall lobby were milling about, meeting and greeting one another, mostly in business attire. To me, it looked more like a funeral than a wedding. A lot of black, and not too much festive color to be seen anywhere! It is not traditional in Korean culture to give gifts to the bride and groom, but rather to give money in a white envelope, which was collected by a group of hired staff at a long desk in the lobby. Friends and coworkers usually give about $50, family members give more. The ceremony had started before everyone was seated, in fact, there weren't enough seats for everyone, so most of our crew hung about near a side wall. The flowers, candles, and cake decorations were all fake/plastic, but looked elegant, and there was a giant photographic poster of the bride and groom in casual clothes on one wall (which was far too cheesy for my personal taste, but whatev.) The whole decor had a bit of a "wedding factory" feel, not so much the carefully planned and chosen details typical in weddings at home, where each wedding denotes the personal style of the couple. We listened to their vows and their parents words to each of them (that was the most beautiful part to me, the mothers were dressed in traditional Korean hanbok, and each gave their parting words of advice and wisdom to their son/daughter) and then a song was sung to them by a friend (a bit Disney-esque, to be honest.) Afterwards we all took group pictures together... first the family members, then the bride's friends, then the groom's friends. (The bride had a lot more friends than the groom, which was kind of funny to me, especially when he started calling up some of her friends to stand with him and fill in some obvious gaps.) As we left, there was another wedding party coming in to set up...

Eyes and Ears

we are all ears
but do we hear?
or have we forgot
how to listen?

and covered in eyes
do we yet see?
or in all the wrong places
still searching?

-Fi

Books. Books. Books.

i read books. not many, just a few books.
there are 1061 books in my house.
there are 274 books in my room and 787 books in my brother's room.
i counted all the books.
it took me 30 minutes.
my father and brother like books.
this year they bought 134 books.
my brother's room looks like a library...

... hilarious excerpt from a student's journal this week!

Speaking of books, what are YOU reading?
On my shelf these dayz...

1. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
2. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
3. Under The Overpass by Mike Yankoski
4. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
5. The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Estatic Poems by Rumi

And true to scatterbrained form, I'm reading them ALL, at once, in bits and pieces...

Deceived by an Apple

I bought a new cleaning product from the mini-mart close to my apartment. They didn't have the one I usually buy in stock, and as I couldn't read any of the labels, I chose the one with a green apple on it, thinking it might have a nice fresh scent. Oh, Eve, will you never learn? Spent some of Saturday morning cleaning, and I'm pretty sure this product is high-content, if not pure, bleach. My bathroom smells like a swimming pool, and my head feels like it's swimming now too... from inhaling fumes in an enclosed space, while scrubbing tile grout on my hands and knees. Whew... strong stuff. But the bathroom is sparkling!

Oh, and more about my bathroom (I can't believe I haven't blogged about this already)... it has been quite the experience! My shower is open-concept... as in the shower head is mounted on the wall beside the sink, and there is a drain on the floor beneath the sink. So everything gets wet. I mean everything... the walls, the floor, the sink, mirror, toilet, and my towels if I forget to take them out. The toilet paper has a little plastic flap that protects it from getting drenched, and the power outlet also has a cover. But let me tell you... it is not pleasant to use the bathroom after showering.... for a while the toilet seat just stays wet. It kind of feels like a not-yet-trained child was there before you!

In winter, the tile floor is icy cold, as the bathroom's back wall is adjacent to the unheated hallway, and has none of that nice in-floor heating that is in the rest of the apartment. So I would stand, shivering, in the center of the circle of warmth that the hot water makes on the floor around me, and then scurry outta there as soon as possible. I guess it was good for water conservation! And I understand now why Koreans love their saunas and spas, in winter especially. You see them out in the streets most mornings and evenings, carrying a basket of toiletries, on their way to or from the public bathhouses. I haven't made it there yet, as I am told bathing suits are not permitted (men and women bathe separately, but together with their own sex) and I'm not sure I'm quite brave enough for that! A pleasant feature in my bathroom, however, are the seahorse stickers on the floor, which I think are supposed to be grips for your feet. Most are missing parts of their fins or tails, but this one is perfectly intact!



I don't think any shower experience could be as bad as that time in an Ecuadorian hotel, when I electrocuted myself (twice) in the shower, by trying to change the position of the shower head, with my wet hand. The shower head had unenclosed wires wrapped around it, and I felt a current of electricity, in my fingers through to my elbow! Conversely, I don't think any shower experience could be as wonderful as biodegradeable shampoo in the lake in summer at home, or as peculiar as showering in a solar-heated makeshift bathroom in Fiji, with cracks beneath the door wide enough for a rooster to stroll in and have a look, and numerous geckos flitting around the ceiling above my head. Or... as beautifully simplistic and memorable as that gorgeous sunny last day at camp in Ecuador, when three of us showered out of a bucket drawn up from the camp's well. Really, my bathroom here is relatively quite sophisticated!

The One-Year Mark

I know I said it was only a one-year contract, but I've extended my time with the school here for a few months more... the plan at present is to be home to Nova Scotia for Christmas!!!

The Cultural Cringe

There are three things I don't think I can ever get used too, no matter how well-adjusted I've become to Korean culture over time...
1. Children that bow to me. I'm all for respecting your elders, but something about these little guys bowing their heads to me, makes me very uncomfortable. It always catches me off-guard, whether it happens on a street corner or in a school hallway... I get the cultural cringe. I do admit I've started bowing to my elders here, out of respect for them and this cultural custom, but I guess I just don't feel worthy of such a display of public submission myself. I'd rather a high-five or a "Hi, teacher!" or even just a shy smile, but some of these children have been taught to be very respectful of their teachers. Others, of course, are little rugrats, of similar breed to those found in every other country I've visited! Don't worry, there's always an element of craziness in my classroom.
2. The parasol-carrying women.


Au contraire to the deep, nut-brown tan craze of white North Americans, Korean women do their utmost to protect their skin. It's probably a healthier way to go, but carrying these frilly sun shields reminds me of an 18th-century English novel... I've even seen skin-whitening sunscreen and face bleaching creams here! I am personally quite fond of the intoxicating feeling of sunbeams kissing my face, and will probably pay for it, in later life. I get scolded by women here for standing in the sun instead of the shade at bus stops! It's really quite amusing. But hey, I've always thought wrinkles were beautiful, they are like storylines, displayed on faces.
3. No seatbelts. I always do a double-take to see babies bouncing on their father's knee while he drives the car, three monkeys (children) tumbling around in the back seat, or two crammed together on the front passenger seat, no belts. It just amazes me, especially with the number of traffic accidents around here. How many times do we have to make mistakes before we learn from them? Seatbelts, people... seatbelts!!!

Summer Nights

Campfire last night at Gujora Beach with friends. We even managed to make s'mores! Although the marshmallows were pink and the cookies were not quite honey grahams. It's all about improvisation when you live in a foreign country and attempt to recreate your own culture...

Street Pianos

This is fantastic! 30 pianos, installed all over London by artist Luke Jerram, in an attempt to "provide a creative, blank canvas for the public to express themselves..."
An open-air, urban art installation, the pianos were set up in various public spaces all over the city, to encourage spontaneous musical expression and create community. Each piano is uniquely hand-painted, and comes with its own laminated songbook and plastic cover, in case of rain.



More video and photo footage of this project can be found at www.streetpianos.com
The musical catalysts held their place in London for three weeks in June/July, after which time they were donated to local community groups and schools.
Just a little something beautiful I thought was worth sharing!

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Six Weird and Wonderful Birthday Happenings

1. was sung a cheerful "happy birthday" by mom and sheilagh over skype (wonderful)
2. got a sliver of glass stuck in my foot, from the wine glass i broke last week and neglected to clean up properly (weird)
3. was given a precious wee gift of handmade soap by a korean student (wonderful, although somewhat weird were the random marbles and the rainbow bead she also included in the box)
4. another student discovered a grey hair on my head during class, i made her pull it out (not really weird, more like terrible)
5. discovered three more grey hairs and pulled them all out (no comment)
6. went out to "norebang" or korean karaoke, with some friends (wonderful)
7. was surprised by homemade banana birthday cake with cream cheese icing (supremely wonderful)
8. there were three candles on my cake (weird)
9. was told to keep the leftovers, so had some with breakfast, lunch, and dinner the next day (why not, it's my birthday!)
10. went on a morning waterfall hike adventure (wonderful)
11. climbed to the top of the waterfalls, only to discover they had been altered with fiberglass "rocks" to give the falls a more picturesque cascade (very weird, and somewhat disappointing)
12. ate a picnic lunch in the rain (weird, but fun)
13. was asked by a korean teenage boy at a bus stop if i was french (no idea why, weird)
14. received a french facebook wall post from tonton quist, had to use online translator to understand and respond (both weird and wonderful, but sad that all those private lessons didn't stick as well as they ought to have)
15. received two emails from one of my grandmothers, saying pretty much the same thing, because she wasn't sure the first one got through (grandmothers are wonderful people)
16. had a wonderful skype convo with some of the weirdo FFATS up at malagash
17. was read a bedtime story over skype by alli churchill, about a tall, dumpster-diving, gypsy-woman befriending a little boy and a homeless cat (my future life, weird)
18. sang and played a brooke fraser song at church (wonderful, i love her)
19. made thai green curry for dinner, one of my favorite foods
20. saw a white crane fly over a lush green rice field, the stark contrast was so extraordinarily beautiful, it made my breath catch in my throat
21. received many birthday wishes (in various forms; emails, facebook wall posts, skype calls, etc.) from faraway but never forgotten friends, causing me to feel overflowingly euphoric about how richly blessed i have been in the friendshi category
22. was treated to an organic, non-dairy choco mint chip ice cream by my buenos amigos, jen henry-huffman and her screamo lover, aj (wonderful)
23. the elevator in my apartment building broke, and i live on the 12th floor (weird, but it's a good thing there are two of them)
24. fell asleep listening to the "once" soundtrack (dreamy)
25. woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of wind violently rattling my apartment door (dang monsoon season!)
26. i am now twenty-six years old, a new leaf in the life has been turned!

thanks to any and all who read this and to those who sent birthday wishes.
you are invaluable to me!

An Interesting Fact

I used to just tan straight-up brown like Pocahontas in the summahtime... now i'm getting freckles. Aaaaaand lots of them!

Ok, so maybe that's not interesting to you. Did you know that a popular Korean dish is live squid? Like still moving, squirming-in-your-mouth live squid? I haven't sampled it yet.

Watermelon Weeknight

I bought a giant watermelon for $5 off a street vendor last night. I was on my way to my friends' apartment, and I had "The Silver Bullet" (my bicycle) with me... which is actually more of a silver snail, rather sluggish and a bit squeaky... but anyways, you should try cycling with a watermelon in your backpack. It's, um... awkward, to say the least, and really throws off your balance. The street vendor man had a good laugh as I went wobbling away from him!
The things we do for smiles...


A watermelon mouse (for Cameron)

Tulips, Two Lips

Sorry, I've been AWOL... a wedding and international time travel and family reunions and roadies with cuzzies and such! You know, the usual... ;0)
Here are some snaps from Ali and Phil's wedding, more coming soon... CLICK HERE, if you're interested!