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Raised on promises She couldn't help thinkin' that there Was a little more to life Somewhere else After all it was a great big world With lots of places to run to Email me: lao.ocean @ gmail.com December Photos Now Playing: Sorak-san The Windmill Salmon Festival Soccer Goal   Where do visitors come from? (Since 20-Dec-04) Fave flowesr: Plumeria Birthday: DEC 31st
Dance like no one can see Love like you've never been hurt Live like it's heaven on earth 
 Let's set it straight - Is the country Laos or Lao?Here's the answer This week... Things that make me happy
Movies I've seen this month
What they're saying about me
"She's a nut! Not too sure how else to describe an "at-first-glance" seemingly quiet girl who dances like a chicken when she thinks no one else is looking, who likes to pass off her "made up" answer for fact, until you look at her and see her hopelessly trying not to crack a smile, who WITHOUT FAIL remembers to put a line of dental floss in her purse before she goes out (and isn't afraid to use it after dinner, thankfully NOT at the table!!). I can always count on her to know the hottest hollywood gossip, and to dance till all hours of the morning with me." "My co-worker just told me that there was a premiere for Bridget Jones 2 last night, just blocks from my work, and we missed it! Hugh Grant, my beloved and the framework upon which my future husband is based, was just blocks away, breathing the same oxygen, and I missed it! If I had a friend here who was as savvy with E-news as you are, this catastrophe would never have occurred!" Guess what I heard... Oh my god!! This donut is so good! - Ras about a Krispy Kreme donut "I want to do! But what is paintball? There is no such word in dictionary." - Suwa, Japanese teacher "I am now skipping church to see if I am going to win my bids!!!" "YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA.....I won the felt tip pens!!!!!!!! Yippeee...."who let the dogs out...arf, arf, arf, arf"...."let me hear you say Y..M..C..A"....oh yah, who's your daddy!!!" - Renee Other favorite quotes:
A gift is an offering. A selfless act that adds something to someone's life. Something that they need. Have you ever walked by something and you just had this feeling that someone you knew would absolutely love it? Faith is believing when there is no rational reason to believe. Homer: "We Americans are England's children... I know we don't call as much as we should, or aren't as well behaved as our goody two shoes brother, Canada... who I should mention has never had a girlfriend... I'm just sayin'..." Anything less than mad, passionate, extraordinary love is a waste of time. There are too many mediocre things in life, and love should not be one of them. The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it. When your heart speaks, take good notes. Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel's immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way. It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. Sometimes to see the light, you have to risk the dark. |
Halloween at Bumpin'
11/1/2004
Sunday night was Bumpin's Halloween party. There was a free BBQ, 3000 won tequila shots, and free face painting by Dr. Cha. He's Dom's hairdresser friend that also does make-up special effects. He had done Mr. Lee and Ken's make-up for the night, so I asked him to do something on me. I thought it was going to be something small, but I knew it wasn't going to be when he started lathering white paint all over my face. You can see the results below. I'm sure he does great make-up work when he's not in a dark bar, but I really wasn't impressed. Still, it was fun to get painted up.
Halloween at The Warehouse
10/31/2004
Quite a few people were dressed up, but if you looked carefully, it was mostly people from North America, where Halloween is big. Still, some Koreans dressed up, as well as some Russian girls that are studying at Kangneung University. Kiran was an ajummah, which was very well received. I wasn't there at the time, but he walked in with a tub of vegetables balanced on his head. Kiran's co-worker, Sheena was Jessie Spano, from "Saved by the Bell." You know, the one that later went on to do that critically acclaimed movie, "Showgirls". Sheena also had a specific episode of "Saved by the Bell" that she was trying to convey. It was called "Jessie's Song", where Jessie gets hooked on caffeine pills. If you haven't seen it, here's the synopsis:
GnB Halloween Party
10/31/2004
I thought I'd have time this week to blog something, anything, but I've been busy all week with this Halloween party. I've had to organize the whole thing, because nobody knows anything about Halloween. Hyun-ju knows something about Halloween, but told me from the beginning, that "Halloween is not my thing." Basically, I went out and bought supplies for the party, and thought of games and ideas, while my director funded the whole thing. During the week, all the students made masks in my classes and read Halloween stories or did puzzles. It all culminated on Friday with four, separate Halloween parties, each combining three classes. It turned out pretty well. We had snacks and drinks, a drawing for prizes, and games. The kids had a lot of fun, because it's not very often they get a party, for the sake of just having a party.
Yangyang Salmon Festival
10/31/2004
I'm finally writing about the salmon festival from last weekend. It's been such a busy week, because I've had to plan a Halloween party at school, in addition to getting my own Halloween costume made for Saturday's party at The Warehouse. More about that later.
The weather for the festival was nice and sunny - warmer than I expected it to be, hence I was wearing a sweatshirt, down vest, and capri pants. Ras, Melvin, and I went to pick up Na-kyung at work around 1:00 pm, then drove to Yangyang to make our 2:00 pm reservation. We got there at 1:30 pm, parked, paid our ticket fee, and got a pair of gloves. Dustin was in Jeju the day before, and was rushing over to Yangyang too, as well as Kiran, who practically arrived minutes before we jumped into the river for fish. The part of the river we were at wasn't deep at all - only up to my knees. This was an event that I wanted to take pictures of, but hesitated because I'd actually be running around in the water with my digital camera. After struggling with the idea, I decided to take the risk and put the camera in my pocket. We all squated by the riverbank, not really knowing what we were waiting for. All of a sudden, a whistle blew and everyone started running into the water, as if they were being chased from some unknown force from behind. I was in the middle of carefully rolling up my sleeve, but quickly forgot about it as I raced after the people in front of me. I was a prime example of someone following the masses blindly, but it sure was fun.
I knew that running after fish in the river was NOT going to be easy, but it was my first time, so i didn't know the trick, at first. I was standing in the middle of the river, watching fish swim under my legs, and try to grab it, two seconds too late. It would have almost looked like some 3 Stooges episode, where Curly lunges for the fish, only to trip and completey fall in the water, face down. Then I noticed that a lot of people were near the nets, where the salmon seem to head, in order to get away from all the people trying to catch them. That's where I made my catch. By that time, half of the people in the river had already caught something, and were rushing back to their families to show off their catch. By the end, we were the last ones hanging around, admiring our catch. Dustin had the best looking salmon, while Christa's was the biggest and still had eggs coming out of the fish. Mine was pretty big, and had large sacs of eggs that I later found out about when we cut it up.
Afterwards, newspapers were trying to get pictures of us. Well... they were trying to take pictures of the white foreigner: Ras, Christa, and Kiran. Melvin and I snuck into the pictures too, and I actually made a couple of newspapers. Different versions of our group picture were in the Kangwon Ilbo, Kangwon-do Min Ilbo, and the Dong-a Ilbo.
All Yangyang Salmon Festival pictures can be found here. Later that night, we brought Melvin, Na-kyung, Ras, and my fish to The Warehouse and cooked it there, while Tom B. brought all the necessary things to make a Thai bucket with. We drank, danced, and ate fish throughout the night, finishing off all 4 salmon! Still, I love salmon and could have eaten it every day for at least another week or two.
Salmon up the wazoo
10/22/2004
I'm excited for tomorrow. I'm going to Yangyang for the Namdaecheon Salmon Festival. As some people know, I love salmon. It's my favorite fish. For 20,000 won ($15.38 USD), ticket holders have the opportunity to wade into an enclosed shallow stream and catch a huge salmon with their bare hands! Tickets went on sale almost two months ago, but sold out in 5 hours! As most people in Korea know, nothing is impossible. It's just a matter of who you know. I know Christa, who knows somebody, who knows somebody, so I got a ticket a few days ago. I've never had Korean salmon, so it'll be interesting to see what it tastes like. This is a link to the Yangyang Inland Fisheries Research Institute, which is trying to bring back the salmon population in Yangyang. There's some good background information about the festival. CherryTrout.com is a site about fishing in Korea, and has a picture of the species of salmon that is in Yangyang, called Chum and Sima salmon. This is the official Yangyang Salmon Festival Website.
Breaking news! Korean scientists have proved what foreigners here have know all along... that while eating at a food card, dipping your odeng into the communal soy sauce dish is (gasp!)unsanitary. Duh! I like this quote: "On a good business day, the saliva of hundreds may be mixed in that dish of soy sauce. And consider yourself fortunate if the dish of soy sauce was used just for one day." According to the Chosunilbo, just because that old Korean man shakes away excess soju after finishing his shot, in order to pour yours, does not make it germ free. No matter how hard he shakes that little shotglass, it doesn't reduce your chances of getting saliva-transmitted infections like hepatitis. While we're on this subject of cleanliness, why do people choose to eat from food carts that are on bustling streets, where many cars drive by, blowing out exhaust in proximity of the food. I'm not dissing food carts, I like odeng and dapoki, but choose to eat at ones that look somewhat sanitary.
The Perfect Man for Renee
10/20/2004
As most people who know my friend Renee, she has always said that her perfect man is somebody like Colby Donaldson, from Survivor: Australia. There were a list of things that made him great, but once of the most unique ones, was that he was a "side-mouth-talker". It's hard to explain what that actually looks like, but Jeff and Ras joked that Renee's dream man was someone who just had a stroke. I'm not a fan of the side-mouth-talker, but he IS VERY good looking. Renee met him this past weekend at the Edmonton's Woman Show.
Megan's Birthday
10/19/2004
This past Saturday was Megan's birthday. It started out with dinner of meat, then we walked over to The Warehouse. It was a fun night because I was at that perfect balance of having enough to drink, that it made me goofy, but not really being drunk. On the other hand, everyone else thought I was completely drunk because I was jumping all over Sheena, canoodled with Na-kyung, swing danced with Tom, and did an impromptu dance, which I latered called "The Windmill". The last time I was really drunk was about 6 months ago. You can tell, because my face will get all red, and I'll be so tired and exhausted, I'll want to sleep at the table. The last time, Ras had to make me a makeshift bed in the kitchen of The Warehouse so I could sleep for a couple hours. After that, I woke up refreshed, and was dancing again. To reiterate... yes I had some drinks that night(soju & Coke, a long island, and a KGB), but was not wasted. Maybe the guys below were, though!
I went around and had everyone give me their "Sexy look". Here's what I got.
All pictures from Megan's birthday can be found here.
I've Got It
10/18/2004
 After racking my brain for the last week, I've finally figured out what I'm going to be for Halloween! I'm not telling anyone... it'll just have to be a surprise. The Warehouse is having its Halloween party on Saturday, October 30th, with free shots throught the night for people who dress up. Meanwhile, Bumpin' is having their party on Sunday. One may wonder if many people will go out on Sunday night, but Mr. Lee's is offering his famous FREE barbeque. Plus, I teach at 3:30pm on Monday. Woohoo!
Soraksan's Changing Leaves
10/17/2004
This time of year in Korea, the leaves are changing colors, and they're most beautiful in the mountains. There are segments about this natural show in the news, and my students and their families are making trips out during the weekend to see the foliage. This past Friday, Ras and I went to Sorak-san to check out the leaves. He didn't work that day, and I worked at 3:30 pm, as I usually do. I didn't have time to do a proper hike, but at least wanted to see how far along the leaves had changed. On an express bus, it took 45 minutes to get to Sokcho, then another half hour up the mountain because there was a lot of traffic on the single road. We saw students there on field trips, and quite a few Chinese tourists... and ended up helping some that were trying to use 10,000 won to pay for their 750 won bus fare. We took the 1.1km cable car (7000 won round trip), then walked another 10 minutes to the summit of Gwongeumseong. The sign at the top of the peak reads like this: 5 minutes from the peak, we came upon some kind of traditional ceremony. I'm not really sure what it was for, but there was a cow's head as part of an offering. Overall, the leaves are about 50% changed. Another week or week and a half, and I think it'll be really beautiful in Soraksan.
World on Fire
10/14/2004
Instead of spending $150,000 to make her newest video, Sarah McLachlan spent $15 on "World on Fire" and donated the rest to charity. Watch the video here. Does anyone remember when MC Hammer spent $1,000,000 on the video for "2 Legit 2 Quit"? A very noble cause indeed, but will she ever make a "regular" video again? Wouldn't it be hypocritical if she did? Now, back to useless things that won't hellp the world. How about a beer infused with caffeine, guarana, and ginseng for contemporary adults with a "highly social and fast-paced lifestyle?" Well, there's obviously only one answer for that... Anheuser-Busch's new beer, B-to-the-E (BE)...yo!
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