One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

So, coffee always sounds like a good idea, right?

This evening we ventured to a new coffee shop just down the road from where I live, quaintly known as "Book and Coffee." It had a nice spa like atmosphere meant to allow the busy Seoulite to relax and de-stress with a book and a fresh cup of joe, or tea to your preference. It provided all this with a little bit more. When ordering off the menu, you are also able to order the 'fish' for an extra W2000. Our drinks were lovely, we were given a bowl of complimentary shortbread cookies, with an endless bread bar with jam and butter. Relaxing indeed, until we were finished and prepared for the hungry fishies that awaited us.

In the back of the cafe there are tanks built into the floor with cushions lying around for you to sit on. You have to wash your feet first to make sure that they are free of lotions and oils before putting them in the tank. After receiving a nice little bite on my thumb from  fish snorkeling in Cuba, I've been a little bit leery of fish. I sucked it up and stuck my feet in the water. What did it feel like? I'm not going to lie, it wasn't like fuzzy pipe cleaners. It definitely felt like fish, with little teeth scraping and pecking at my feet and legs, but after awhile when you finally adjust it feels quite nice. It tickled a lot, and sometimes made me jump but I would for sure go back. Can't beat a W2000 foot massage and soak with the added benefits of getting to feed some fish!
The results: Well, my feet are definitely smooth and they felt like I just had a lovely invigorating massage the whole walk home.

I'll leave you with the few photos I managed to take during the ordeal when I finally calmed down enough so that I could stop laughing and actually look at my feet.

Nibbling at my heels... 

They did a pretty good job!

Foot Fishies! I thought they were supposed to be smaller than this?!

Cheers for now, Sarah.

Cherry Blossoms and Living the sweet life...

Alright, so firstly I apologize for not blogging for almost a whole month! I didn't realize so much time has passed! For those of you that didn't hear though, I have a good excuse. Shortly before St. Paddy's day I ended up coming down with a really bad cold. I tried to treat it, got meds from the pharmacy and it didn't work. I ended up getting referred to an ENT who diagnosed me with a severe sinus infection and gave me some anti biotics to clear it up. My body wasn't used to the germs here, so the antibiotics weren't enough, and after they were gone, the infection returned 10x worse. So I went back, in fact I ended up going back for 'follow-up' appointments for 3 weeks 2-3 days per week! The severe sinus infection ended up moving into my chest, resulting in Bronchitis, which I have never had before. I don't even remember at this point how many times I saw the ENT, it was definitely more times than I have seen a doctor in Canada throughout my entire life. I ended up going on a 3 week stint of antibiotics that left me ridiculously run down. I had to get disgusting scopes done on my sinus cavities and down my throat and had tons of things sprayed in my sinuses to clear them, mucus sucked.. it was disgusting. Good Excuse for being MIA? I think so. Lets move on...

Recently, I got a membership to Costco. It has changed my life. I look like a gangster on my membership card (but really, who doesn't?) lol. The Seoul Costco is a lot like the North American Costcos. It has most of the same things with some Asian things thrown in too. The main difference is that this Costco is two floors. Yest TWO whole floors of Costco-y goodness! The top floor has all the random items - books, clothes, tools, laundry stuff, outdoor things, furniture, etc. The bottom floor has all the food stuffs. It was so nice to see American foods. I ended up buying bagels and cream cheese (I know boring right? but trust me, these things are a luxury here!). The canteen also has the same food, with get this - the same pictures! The prices were the same too... you can get a hotdog and pop for W2000 (i.e. 2.00 CAD). For a few minutes there, I forgot what country I was in. The main difference between Costco at home, and Costco in Asia is the people. Picture our Costco the last day it is open before Christmas... that's what this Costco is like on a normal day. I'm used to the insane volumes of people though, so it didn't really bother me.

I started taking free Korean classes through CLS. I really enjoy them so far, and it is SO nice to be able to read signs! I don't always know what the words mean if they are different in Korean, but when I can read signs walking down the street, it makes me happy! I'm miles above anything I picked up in China. Let's hope this trend continues...
This week the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom, so I brought my camera to school and took some shots before class in the morning and walked home by the river after school. I'll leave you now with some of the resulting photos. I still can't get over how beautiful it is here!

These trees are at my school - Gaepo PSA

Blossoms at Gaepo PSA

I love this view of the mountains, and I get to see it everyday! This was our walk home along the river. We entered it near Dogok Stn. Highly recommended if you're ever in the area.

Such a beautiful walk!

I wish we had these trees at home. 

the sun was starting to set through the trees

Cheers for now! I'm off to try and decorate some Easter Eggs, if it goes well you'll hear about it.
-Sarah.

Should I Stay or Should I Go...?

Days in Korea: 1 month
Contrary to the title, I am not talking about Seoul or Korea, so don't get worried! I LOVE it here!

I ended up being very sick this past week, a month into my journey. I've nearly run out of loose leaf tea I brought with me from China which drew me to the internet in an attempt to find a market where I could get some more. My attempted research landed me with a traditional market, conveniently located on the subway line I take to school (the Bundang line). The market is technically outside of city limits (on the outskirts of Seoul) but apparently still accessible through the Moran stop on the subway.

As I further looked into the Moran Market, I uncovered something ridiculously disturbing that has left me really, really scarred these last few days. I'm stunned by everything I have seen, read and the statistics I have found. Before I go any further, do a quick 'google images' search of the 'Moran Market', and you will see exactly what I'm talking about. (The power of images is EVERYTHING here!)

I am by no standards a vegetarian. I eat meat, cows, pigs, chickens, the usual things we Westerners consider to be livestock. I'm horrified mostly that the government is able to turn a blind eye to this. I heard of it happening in different rural parts of China, but was stunned to find a city and country so modern, fashionable and sensible committing such a horrific act. Walking down the street where I live in Gangnam, it's much what I  imagine Manhattan is like (I've never been) but at the very least it compares to Beverly Hills because it's so cutting edge. The Moran Market slashes my image of Korea completely, even though I have never been.

At first I thought okay, so it's a cultural thing. Dogs and Cats are reared as livestock just like our modern day chickens and cows that are often treated horrifically and abused until their deaths. But then I did a little more research and learned the true scope of the problem. Over 2 million dogs are killed in Korea annually for human consumption. This is huge!!  It's a problem that exists on a level far greater than I could ever have imagined. I then assumed, okay, it's probably a generational thing, and to an extent it is, until I found further stats showing that 1 in 3 Koreans has consumed Dog meat at some point in their life. I'm still grappling with the fact that they feel like dogs are livestock and I'm still conflicted and can't get past it. Koreans all through where I live love their animals to death, but in the Moran end of town they're simply traded and butchered like anything else. Not being a vegetarian, I'm not going to entirely criticize their choices. I see dogs and cats from the view of any Westerner - that they don't belong on your plate at the dinner table.

The big conflict I have with the whole thing is not simply that they eat them, but that they pretty much terrorize the poor animals as best they can before slaughter. Apparently when they are fearful the adrenaline produced makes the meat that much better, as a lot of men eat it for impotency problems.

So that's the dog's, next comes the cats. Again, the poor things are horrifically abused in these tiny little cages with their dead amigos hanging out beside them. They can hear the screams of the other animals when they're dying. The cats I find a little more traumatizing than the dog's because apparently they just dump them in scalding water and boil them in order to release some tonic they drink that is said to cure rheumatism and arthritis (bull-fucking-shit!)

So here is my real confliction - I half want to go to the market - I need to see that this is really still going on for myself. It's one of those things that I just can't believe until I see it; I'd like to give this society the benefit of the doubt here. After all, the internet isn't the most reliable source out there, the real thing is. Secondly, I half don't want to go, because I feel like deep down I know it's true and my heart just wouldn't be able to deal with seeing anything that terrifying. I'd probably end up buying all the poor things and donating them to a rescue society or something; I simply couldn't just leave them all there to die!
So end point - should I confirm all this? (part of me needs to validate it all) or should I simply mind my own business, be naive and pretend that things like this never go on.

The whole situation has been consuming my thoughts for the past few days since I found out about it. Every time I see a dog, my thoughts go back to this market. The market is only open every five days ending in 4 or 9, so those days have sort of become 'blood numbers' to me now when I see them on the calendar. The thought of it all just sickens me. How can people be so heartless? How can they differentiate between companion dogs and meat dogs? The whole thing is just insane...

- Sarah

Here, there and Everywhere!

Days in Korea: 21

So I'm beginning to think the 'promise' I made to update daily back in December may have been a tad bit 'unrealistic.'  Life can be pretty busy at the best of times and I'm finding it difficult to sit down daily to even take a photo or remind myself to update. So here's an attempt to fill in this week just past.
School has been the 'same, same' as they say here in Korea. It's been relatively uneventful thus far. Teaching Jupiter class, I have 17 bright students to look forward to everyday. Like any classroom, it will always have its challenges, but compared to China, I've got to admit, I'm finding it a cakewalk. It's nice only having to teach two or three classes everyday. It gives me lots of time to prep for the next day and time to just hang out with my students while they're just being 'kids'. I'm still finding it difficult to adjust to some parent's expectations of their children. They push them too far and have a completely unrealistic vision of their children given that most of these kids are 6. Even my Korean co-teacher thinks some of the mothers are a little crazy, but that's just how society is here. You have to push forward in order to succeed and end up in high places; most of these mothers should know better than any of us after all - because they've made it.

So again this weekend I found myself playing tourist (I have so little time to soak up the sights, I need to make the most out of my days off!) We ended up going to the most famous palace in Seoul Gyonbokgung Palace. It was cheap to enter (3000W) and we spent several hours soaking up the sights. Somethings reminded me of similar places I've been in Shanghai; but no matter where I travel, there always seems to be a little ambiguity. The weather was beautiful and it was an excellent place to take photos (I mean, it did make the cover photo of Lonely Planet's guide to Seoul!). The mountains off in the distance behind the palace were beautiful and reminded me of just how diverse the landscape of this country really is. After leaving the palace, we basically walked a giant circle around the outside of the grounds (trying to get to the mountain) and ended up stumbling upon the Blue House (Korea's version of the White House). Security was tight. There were cops and guards stationed about every two feet up and down the entire length of street surrounding the property. According to Lonely Planet this was for good reason as well - apparently some North Koreans got within a few hundred yards while executing an assassination plot!

Gyonbokgung Palace

Entrance to Gyonbokgung Palace

On Sunday (again another warm and sunny day!) I found myself venturing back to the land of Buddha. This is actually not as easy as you would think, because Korea and Seoul in particular are attempting to bring about a modern revival of Korean Buddhism. Korean Buddhist temples are few and far in between. Christianity and churches are the norm and dominate here. The temple we went to (Jogyesa) was actually located just down the street from the palace! The grounds of this temple were humble; lots of empty space with not a heck of a lot going on compared to other temples I have visited. The shrines inside the monastery were beautiful. This temple in particular is the only one in Korea to have a shrine dedicated to the three Buddhas. Gilded in Gold, surrounded by tapestries, with lotus lanterns decorating the entire ceiling, I was glad I took my shoes off and ventured inside. It's views like these that made me want to come back to Asia in the first place! 

3 Buddhas at Jogyesa Temple

Probably my favorite photo of the day, a close up of  Bhaisaiya or medicine Buddha for short. 

After mellowing out at the temple for awhile and enjoying the sunshine, we decided to make our way over to Insadong - an outdoor hand craft traditional market street. There was so much to take in here (and so many people!) if you're ever in Seoul looking for some good hand crafts, silks, parchments, cards, jewelery etc. to take back with you, Insadong is the place to go! I know I will be going back here when I have money, and when I need to pick up some goodies to send home :)

Cheers for now, and I'll try not to wait a week in between updates. For now I'll leave you with a picture that makes me smile, almost as much as the 'raise the roof Buddha' (yes, that one) that I brought back from Shanghai. I present to you (I know, his stance means something important, but let me have this one... ) 'Jive Buddha' and his trusty elephant!

 Keep Smiling,
Sarah.

Tranquil Moments

Days in Korea: 13
Although I've been here nearly two weeks, today I needed a reprieve from the hustle and bustle of my ridiculously busy end of town. I decided the fastest way to achieve that was to visit a local temple (Bongeunsa temple ) in my district. It is only 4 subway stops down the metro and didn't take long to get there. Every time I visit temples I find there is such an interesting dichotomy between urban mayhem and the serenity found within the grounds. I've never quite figured out how temples manage to always be so peaceful and relaxing in the middle of such chaos but they are!

This particular temple was surrounded by a green space (I guess it was kind of like it was in it's own little park!) Bells within the grounds drown out the sounds of nearby traffic and the gentle creaking and swaying of trees was calming. Incense was burning all over and the smell carried through the entire grounds. I sat around for awhile taking in the sights and sounds of my surroundings and de-stressing from the hectic way of life in Seoul. The most impressive feature of the temple however was Maitreya - the Buddha of the future statue. The statue was all around impressive towering over the entire property at over 23 meters in height. It is also the largest statue of Buddha in all of Korea!

close up shot of the Maitreya

It's days like today that make me wish everyday was Sunday! I love being able to escape to places such as this every once in awhile.