It's been some amount of time.

INTRO: I guess the big difference these days is that I live here as opposed to last year when I vacationed here for 13 months. So I feel less inclined to party and get the most out of every weekend because I feel like I got enough done last year. Really, I just have a couple things to cross of the list, and a couple items to buy.
That being said this is as much for me as it is for anyone else. It's a journal of sorts and no one is forcing you to read it but you still do. So here we go.I will first introduce all of the players. There are other people but these are the key players in my life right now.

SUN YOUNG: is my new Korean friend. She is a little older than me and very nice. She has a serious life plan. We meet once a week and so she can practice English because that is part of her life plan. She also wants a boyfriend. She is tall for a Korean so that is hard. Once I peer pressured her into putting on heels and she could touch the ceiling. She loves accessories and she works for L'Oreal.

FLORIANE: I mentioned her last time entry. Since said time she has become my best weekend pal. She is always down for fun! She is 20 and is doing her internship here in a luxury company. I barely understand what that entails. Apparently if you have more money than you know what do to with you can just call a luxury company and they fulfill your every need? Like a concierge at a fancy hotel but without the hotel. She likes smoking, sipping hard alcohol and shopping. She does not like guys with baby faces.

        

BRIAN:  is my coworker and friend. We have a lot of strange common interests like... Korean dramas, and breakdancing. We also happen to be the same age. He is from San Fran which is so lovely and of Chinese descent which is confusing here. Here is a photo.

ROB: is my other coworker. He is from Sheffield, have I mentioned that already? He likes to point out various people from Sheffield when possible... like Eddard Stark. RIP. We like some of the same music and just in general are typically on the same wavelength. At 24 he's killing it maturity wise though clearly I was a little stunted. Cute Pic. GIRLZZZZZ HOLLLAAA AT DIS BOI.

MARTYN: Remember him? needs no introduction really if you follow this. Though our meeting bares repeating. I ran into a girl I used to hang with in Winnipeg before the times of the Facebook at a punk show in Seoul. Like just saw her there! No idea what she had been up to in the last 5 years. She was visiting and there with Martyn as they were both from Brandon. Then Martyn and I realized we had the same appetite for fun and the rest is history. Here he is eating a meal with me. This shelled creature had antennae when they cooked.

SEO KI SEOK: My Oppa. Oppa which just means he is a guy that is older than me. There are cute names for that kind of thing here. Most things I know about Korean culture I learned from him. At this point we mostly discuss our relationships though since there are some big discrepancies on how these are dealt with cross culturally. Rarely though he is crazy busy as he is a businessman/hardcore group member/venue co-manager.

MELISSA FUCKING SANCHEZ: You may remember her from last year as the love of my life. She is back home in Florida now trying to deal with real life, much to my dismay. We actually missed each other by a couple of weeks or something ridiculous. I miss and love her very much.

UNRELATED STORY: I went out to a work dinner a while ago and had a coughing fit and also ate too much which resulted in me getting sick on myself when I tried to drink water.

JOURNAL: Uhhhhhhhh...I went to meet Sun Young in Sinsa for our second study date. We went to a really cute cafe and we both learned some things from each other then I went to dance class and she went shopping. I really was jealous of her shopping. Here are the fresh flowers on the table.

STORY: I met Brian and we decided to try the Hip Hop class at my old studio which had moved and upgraded. The class was okay but I am TERRIBLE when it comes to choreo. My short term memory is garbage (thanks countless tabs) and some of the moves were simple but counter intuitive so I was a mess. I was talking through my frustration (After having kicked a wall and sworn under my breath a lot)  with Brian when a young person shhushed me. Said young person came to class late and got in my space. PLUS she is Korean... listen... I know the rules in this country and I realize how much you are disrespecting... and I was not having it since I was already frustrated. ooooooh boy. Thank god for Brian, he buffered that when she tried to apologize. Later we were doing floor work and again she was in my space... and I accidentally (genuinely) kicked her. BUT then she made a big deal about it... nattered at me in Korean after I said I could only speak a little, about having been in the hospital for a back injury. Then be more careful? I just made sure she was alright... repeatedly...Later I wanted to go out but then Martyn said he just ate and they were taking it easy... blah.

JOURNAL: Next weekend I decide to join some ladies from my office for various salon activities. Two of them got perms, one a manicure and I got lash extensions. I way over booked myself. I was supposed to get the lashes and a manicure, meet with Sun Young for coffee and shopping, go to try a kpop dance class with Brian, and then meet up with Floriane for a drink. Obviously this went to shit starting with my forgetting my bank card and having no money. Luckily Sadie helped me out though this limited my spending capabilities for the night. Here's how the lashes looked.

Here's how a perm is made.

I met up with Sun and we shopped in Myeongdong. Then had a coffee and a donut. It looked like this.

I was going to be late for class so I skipped it since going late is really lame and bad. Since I was late I was there to meet up with Sun's friend Soo. She is really great and from Busan. Here are the three of us.

At first I was shy cause I thought she didnt speak English. But then she said "You seem very uncomfortable" in near perfect English and I was immediately relieved. We ate a meal and shopped some more. Then Floriane met up with us too. 4 babes in the city. We went to Itaewon cause and drank at the GS25 hahah well Floriane and I did and then Martyn showed up too. Luckily Josh came out too so Martyn wasnt the only boy. We went to some club cause it was too hot and Martyn's coworker was playing. Covers were played. I hate life sometimes.

My Korean girls left and we checked out Venue. DEAD. So we headed to Hongdae, some how ended up at  500 again and broke things then ate meat and went home.

PRODUCT INFORMATION: We started intensives which means we have an extra class a day and no lunch break. It's lame and I started going crazy until Rob, Brian and I went to eat and had drinks. I was really in love with 500ml bottles of beer. They were like a buck?!? someone fucked up the pricing and I was bent on cashing in. That price is toooooo right. We all partook in a few and I started to feel normal again. I didn't take this picture. A lot of people blogged in Korean about this product... I better stock up.

REALIZATION:  After 15 years,  I now fully understand having a beer at the end of a hard day of work. Even alone, it is the most relaxing.

CULTURAL INFORMATION: We also noticed for of the inner workings of the call girls/karaoke/prostitution ring. They ride around in groups in a very specific type of van and are dropped off in various locations. You can order girls for karaoke rooms. They line up and you choose whichever you want with you. I don't know about prices or anything or what is included. Mostly I wonder if they sing? I wouldn't want to have to pay for less singing so I hope not. Here's a flyer, she has a father somewhere. Also I could be wrong. I don't really read it that well.

JOURNAL: I think I skyped with Melissa.. I usually do that Friday nights. Next day I tried to take Floriane to the vintage arena but we were too late. I, after 15 months of living here, finally know exactly which exit to go through to go there. We then had mung-bean pancakes and makkoli which a weird, middle aged hike enthusiast paid for? and bought us a second bottle. We escaped him and headed to Dongdaemun then Hongdae. We drank a bit in the park and I saw Ki run by. Which is a little crazy if you think about it since we live in a MEGACITY. I ran after him and we chatted... he invited me to come to his new collab-venue in Itaewon as he was putting up posters for it. They looked like this.

VACATION: I had 3 days off starting Wednesday so I decided that would be a great time to go to Busan. I love the beach! Plus it would be less busy cause it was during the week! I got up as early as possible though I had enjoyed far too many 500mls the night before and got on the train. Brian was there too! First we went to the beach. This was the view from my hostel on day two.

Then there was a concert set up so we waited in line for seats! We watch the whole thing though I really had to use a washroom. I don't know who all played. UHHHHH Electric boys? Crying nut? They were "punk" check out this punk dog!

Then we went back to my hostel and met up with some new people and went to eat burger and giant Hoegaardens.

This is the only drink I had... I was tired... and had a headache... we found Brian a PC bang and I went to sleep. Next day Charlotte (a Scottish naval architect interning in Korea) and I headed to the beach to meet Brian. We had a great spot! and we all got tubes cause the waves were big due to a tropical storm that was passing to the South.

HOW I RUINED MY FACE: I was having fun tubing in the big waves. I was just holding on to my tube for a wave and it was really big and fast! Ahead of me was a man not facing the on coming waves, which in retrospect was very silly of him... Also he was trying to hold himself upright for the wave... INSTEAD the side of my face collided with the back of his head. I got up and thought to myself man I better sit for a minute  that smarted. Then I glanced back at the guy and he was still in the water face down... I was all shit I think I just killed someone... but he got up and looked at me and was horrified and pointed to my forehead. I touched it and suddenly my vision went really blurry. I looked down to my hand and there was blood everywhere... and I boobed out. I adjusted my top though... really I'm sure people were more preoccupied with all the blood.

JOURNAL: I walked straight up to the lifeguard. Soon after Charlotte ran up and I could tell by her reaction it was pretty bad. It didn't really hurt that much. Brian followed and his face didn't scare me but I did say "I'm sorry my face is grossing you out" I genuinely felt pretty bad. I was mostly relaxed but I wanted to get it dealt with immediately. It was on my face and I was on holiday. Charlotte and Brian formed a kind of barrier cause I was quickly becoming a sideshow. After the lifeguard poured a couple waters into my wound First-Aid showed up.

THE INJURY: This is Brian's sketch of my injury... I never looked at it cause I was pretty scared I would freak out as I have never seriously injured myself. From what I can tell from the reflection in Charlotte's sunglasses and Brian's explanation it was way above my eyebrow but I think now it was a little bit above but because of how elastic that skin is the rest area below fell making it look like it was higher up. It was very deep and there was a lot of blood... Very disgusting.

JOURNAL: First-Aid patched me up and said I had to go to a hospital "Very deep laceration" ... no shit. Brian grabbed our stuff while First-Aid tried to wipe all the blood off my body then took us to the tourist info center. The guy that I slammed into was there too. Maybe a concussion? So there was a lot of Korean talking and not a lot of things happening until I yelled hospital now in Korean... I might have yelled hospital little but I dont know... what ever I said it worked and a girl from the office joined our posse to accompany us to the nearest hospital.

STOP #1: We went to a commercial plastic surgeon. I was in pretty good spirits as the situation was a little ridiculous. As such they decided without looking at my injury it was elective and I would have to pay the full amount without insurance. Efff that. Next place please.

STOP #2: We headed up with street to an actual hospital. The entire time walking fast and my just plowing through people saying things like "can't you see I'm injured?!?" This hospital was too small and said they do stitches but not facial ones I would have to see a plastic surgeon. At this point we ditched "Concussion" and got in a cab. Charlotte's pink tube and all.

STOP #3: We get in and I go to emergency and they check my blood pressure and then leave me alone? Charlotte stayed with me and Brian and my translator went around to deal with the paperwork. Then someone took a picture of it and left. At this point I kinda lost my shit... a lot of people staring and talking and not doing anything and they blood started pouring out of it again. I just started sobbing. Charlotte was the nicest... I think I was more embarrassed than anything... I usually only laugh at life. We finally head to the plastic surgeon and I get on the table... 

Here's the lobby! Still feeling okay at this point

SURGERY: I thought it would be a fast easy procedure since it didn't really hurt. I was wrong. The gasps I heard when they took off the bandage should have been an indication. Also surgery in a different language is like torture. I am not a wuss about pain. As someone who willingly subjects myself to it by getting tattoos I really don't feel that I have the right. But when there your face is covered and the people around you are laughing and pushing on your face, which is covered by a weird cloth so you can't see anything, so you have no idea what it going on it is a whole different story. Home or with tattoos you can see or are told what is going on. You can brace yourself for the pain and how long it will last. I lasted a half hour of just holding it in. For the second half hour I wept, uncontrollably. Apparently it took an hour... they had to stitch it twice because the bleeding wouldnt stop. At the end the surgeon showed me my face and everyone came in and I burst into tears. I had an eyebrow of stitches. Face ruined. The surgeon was confused by my reaction and didn't understand when I said "I don't want to see this", I eventually just had to push the mirror away. 

COINCIDENCE: While I was in surgery another man with the same injury but not at as bad came and went while I was in surgery! Slammed into a dude wearing a hat... mine was just sheer impact. Be careful in waves!

SWELLING: When I left the hospital there was none Brian and I got dinner we had steaks! During that meal I swelled out to here. I couldnt open my eye and the swelling went from red to black by the next day. I iced it hard and after this I went and found giant sunglasses and eye patches.  

I guess Koreans dont really swell up like this cause the stares were intense... like I was a monster intense. Which I already felt like so... really nice for the self esteem. Eventually the pressure of the swelling moved to my eye and that turned red as well. Here's a photo journal of my healing process. 

Those are all stitches... not eyebrow

Glad my eyelashes stayed intact to really accentuate the red in my eye. 

SCARRING: I felt pretty sorry for myself about this for sometime as I had only seen the stitches once and I looked insane. I also thought they took my entire eyebrow off. That's hard to accessorize. I dealt with it asap and I am not missing a chunk of skin so scarring should be minimal. They only took half of my brow off! The cut itself is right above my brow... if you don't look right at it, I look normal just one eyebrow is arched higher. Hopefully while the scar heals and fades, my eyebrow grows back and everything will be fine. 

UMF: You can only ice for 48 hours so I decided I would be fine for a bit. I couldnt get my contact back in so I wore my sunglasses over my glasses. I went with Floriane cause it was her last weekend and she had free tickets from work. I didn't even know who was playing really except for Carl Cox but that was Saturday. We went to the main stage and it was dubstep which I hate but I was okay with it for some reason maybe it was all the lights and the fireworks... then the lights started flashing Skillex everywhere and I felt a little sad. Oh well. Saturday was better... mostly we stayed at the Carl Cox stage which was nice... Digweed then Carl... We decided to try Tiesto out since he is apparently a big deal. Sound was so bad... no thanks back to Carl.

TRANSPORTATION NEWS: lately I have been taking the bus more. It's a little hard to figure out but I can and it's more fun! Also it runs a little later.

SHELLFISH BUFFET: I made Martyn come all the way to Cheonho to have dinner with me. It was a place I was curious about. It was nice to see him and the buffet was fun! We ate a lot and Martyn burned off all of his arm hair by accident. I then went again on Saturday with Rob! It was nice on both occasions. Here I am enjoying it. 

INTERNET DATING: I subscribed to an app for this... though after a week I am annoyed and not impressed. The dudes are fine and I am sure Korean girls would be stoked... even normal foreign girls but I am neither of those things. I also just don't care at all. I am content... I guess I am just open to the idea of it but not really an active participant. BLAH. Like I would go on a date? people do that right? I dunno. haha. adult life is uncomfortable. UPDATE: I deleted all of them. I don't think the kind of men I would date are on there. 

I WANT A DOG: I wanted to rescue a dog for sometime now. I even picked one out until I realized it would spend 9+ hours alone in my apartment and then I felt like that was not a better solution for them quality of life wise. Sorry little bros. Here's one named Ogy who has lived in a shelter for 2 years no one got back to me before I realized it was a terrible idea so hopefully he has a nice place to live now. 

INTERNET SHOPPING: This is a new resource for me and it is amazing. Like shopping here wasn't awesome enough... now I can do it from the comfort of my own home and pay half the price. I have bought a razor, sandals, cell phone battery and camera charger! The nicest thing is that they are delivered to my apartment the next day or earlier. Here's where I pick them up! 607! that's me. It's Korea so no one steals and this type of system is fine. 

WORK LIFE: I like it. I have complaints but nothing major. Everyone is nice and we get along and that is hard to find. I appreciate it. Here we are! Except Rob... He's a secret. 

UNFORTUNATE MARKETING:

LAST WEEKEND: 

Upwards and Onwards

When I first arrived I was left at a love hotel. Ahhhh Korea. My memory had been inexplicably kind to you and in a moment it all flooded back. I had been up for about 25 hours and I needed a shower but just as I disrobed I recieved a call from my new co-workers to go for food! I asked for some time and they obliged. We went for seumgapsal and Kirill pretended to have a fake Russian accent which he gave up a little time after I said "I know I feel insane right now but it sounds like you are just faking that accent... you how some people do that because they think it's funny... but it isn't" Then I felt terrible but relieved that my new hagwon did not hire someone just as a favor considering their first language was Russian. We ate this meal at that time.

I lived in said love hotel for the first week or so... yeah. It was pretty basic though. No mirrors on the ceiling or anything. Here's how I looked. 

I was spending money very carelessly... on things like this. Pork spine soup. 

Well are you? 

My first weekend here I had the lovely Sadie to help me out and keep me company. We work together at langcon and she has been more than a lifesaver at times. For example when my previous apartment owner forgot to leave me the door code and the doorman just laughed and said I don't know when, through broken Korean and charades, I conveyed my issue. PS I was unshowered, hung over, and had three suitcases. Here she is when we had my fav meal, mung pancakes and makoli.

 Also I got to hang with Martyn and already had to sleep on his couch. He made me dinner eventhough I was over an hour late with no phone, wifi, and no money for a cab when I missed the subway. He is the best and nicest. At some other point I took a walk and this was the view. 

Sadie was entertaining Sue and Jake as they were visiting from America. They were fun and nice. We saw this together. Also Sue is Korean American so it is nice to ask her questions about the culture because she unique perspective on the whole thing. Plus her first language is English.

We started the day with a meal of noodles. That's ice. I like it cause it is also spicy. 

Here they are at Gwangjang again. 

Then we walked to Dongdaemun, and happened upon this. 

And then this...?

We did a lot of farewell stuff for Kirill. Like dinner and karaoke with all of the co-workers then clubbing the next night. We missed the free cover deadline by minutes but Robert paid for me. Robert is my new co-worker we like many of the same things and share a lot of the same humour. He also always wants to lend me money. He is British. From Sheffield. It was fun but I had no phone so when I lost everyone I just got in a cab and went home.

The next weekend I went out to the lake with Martyn and some new friends like Maryann, Patrick, Bryan, Migs, Gracie etc... So fun and great. Maryann and I hit it off right away and by the end of the day were pretty WTF as if we meet now. SO many jokes... hard sax, No. I have had cookies, I know what they are like and I'm not hungry, puzzle crew... Then we just all went back to Migs and Maryanns and talked. It was nice cause we were all within the same age range and Canadian. Bro'ing down was so serious. I miss this already so much. Here's a view.

Then it was Migs and Maryann's go away in Hongdae Park. Maryann and I went for a stroll and she got pushed from behind by some foreign (when I say foreign I mean NOT korean) scum.  All I know is I looked down and she was on the ground. Luckily we met L.A. who for some reason had an Angry Birds bandaid in his backpack. I met this guy Quentin and his lady lady Marie. They are French which I like cause I should practice.

Cam was there. This is probably the only time I will see him this year. Oh everyone kept telling me I lost weight. Which I don't think I did...actually I know cause I weight myself daily. I have at most lost 4 pounds since I left the first time. Really it's just makeup, heels and blond hair, things I can fuck with now that I live IN THE CITY. Tricked y'all.

We ended up at Venue and dancing happened until it was just myself and Jason. We were invited to be in a video shoot and then I woke up at the end of the line with a potted plant beside me and dirt everywhere while an Ajumma tried to take it away and clean up after me. I said "no, I like it" and got off the train like nothing was out of the ordinary. It's doing so great. I am good at caring for things! 

Monday we all went out for all you can eat meat to say bye bye to Migs. Also I ran into 아기 he was just walking by.

Maryann and I spent all of the next weekend together. We maybe went to a little too hard on Saturday but whatever... details, details. We drank a lot of beer. Then somehow soju got added in and the rest is a blur. Danced up on a soon to be dad, casually puked while mid-conversation... god only knows what else. I spent all of Sunday on the couch dying... tried to drink pepto - puked that up? Then we tried to order McDonalds, which yes... you CAN do that here, just to have them say no English call back... but they never did. So we had to take the 10 minute walk there. Finally by about 10pm I was able to drink a final beer with Maryann. I left in the morning...if I think about it too long I get really sad. I am glad we got to spent time together no matter how short, I know I am lucky even though right now it feels like shit. A lot of times people come here and do not meet anyone that they really bond with and I have made several life pals, Maryann obviously being one of them.

Then weekend after that I decided that I needed to make an effort to meet new people. Sometimes I do this... the results are always varied. Mostly I just hung out with Soojin and Rob. We hit up cool spots in Cheonho? I met a man who may or man not be in the mafia, has a child and is about 6'7".  No thank you.

Last weekend I decided to try to take it easy. I scheduled myself for language exchange hang outs. This are typically studious events. No such luck. My Saturday partner wanted to meet up for a foreigner friendly party. Rob got ditched so he also attended. Said party included a man with devil sticks with his dog, several hoolahoops and one of those girls with the fire chain things dressed up like a gothic slutty jester. Rob and I spent a lot of time just asking ourselves what happened to our lives. These people are why I hate shit like folk fest... sorry. I'm sure the talent is great... I just can't deal with all the whatever they are and fairweather hippies.

We headed to venue. Nice records, terrible dj'ing so we went to BK had a meal and then headed to hongdae... Oh I stole Floriane. She is this super adorable French girl from Normandy that was in the language exchange crew which was otherwise really not fun and weird. She is 20 and here for 2 months for an internship. I ran into lots of people and said hi. We ended up at 500 and the music was shit again so Rob and I danced as silly as possible. Like "ok for the next 5 minutes you can only dance with your hips" or  just doing exercise moves...etc. until Rob hurt his thumb by swinging his arm so hard in a windmill fashion that he miscalculated it's trajectory and swung it right into his leg. He thinks he dislocated it. Later when we got into a cab I jumped into it and fully face planted into the seat. For how silly this got... I remember EVERYTHING. for once.

In other news I skyped and I liked it. Please make dates with me. Preferably if you are wearing stripes, have a dog or are using the bathroom or any combination of the three. Or none of them.

Also two nights ago I left my door open to stimulate air flow through my apartment and looked down and a dog in my house! hahah it scared me so I gasped and it ran away. It lives somewhere on this floor with it's mom and a sibling. They are really funny. They will follow me then run away then come a little closer and run away over and over.

I saw a dead mouse on my way to work. There was also a feather next to him. Mystery to solve! I showed a picture to my Korean best friend at work and she was concerned and scared. I think he looked so peaceful... I can see also how when I was young I took one of these into my bed and thought I could revive it. Which happened. I also thought I could move things with my mind. Don't have only children... we get so weird.