What I want to know is ...

where the hell is summer? I mean It's winter in Korea and the temperatures here the last few days are the same as the ones I left there. I just want to be warm. Thank the gods I'm going to Oz on Saturday or I don't know what I would do, as all my warm clothes are at my brothers place, which is more than an hour from here, and there is no bus and my drivers license has expired so I'm not supposed to drive.
Anyway, there isn't a lot happening, other than rain and wind. Before I can get my wireless set up properly I have to get a phone jack in my room, but that won't be happening till I get back from OZ, got someone coming to give me a quote tomorrow afternoon though. So, finger crossed that I'll have decent internet in a couple of weeks.
Um, had Mark and Sera over for dinner last night, that was pretty good. I made lasange, it was really good too, but that may be because I haven't eaten it for a year and a half. Was pretty lazy today, didn't want to get out of bed since it was so cold. Have a lot of other things to do tomorrow, just stuff that needs sorted out, like a new drivers license. Have found out that the only way my knee is going to get better is to have surgery, and it could be up to 6 months before I even get an appointment with a specialist, though one of my best friends is a nurse in the orthapedics ward at the hospital, so that might help, but with the state of the health care system here at the moment, I won't hold my breath, knowing my luck even if I did manage to get on a waiting list Pete Hodgeson, would decide to cut me off it again.
Anyway, that's enough of my complaining, I'm going to sit by the nice warm fire, before I have to cook dinner. Later.

Dunedin

so I'm finally back in Dunedin, it's great to be back, a little on the cool side though. I love this city, it's so beautiful, will take a pic of the view from my parents place for everyone to see why I missed it so much. Have spent rather a lot of money shopping in the last couple of days, but I was good and paid off a bit of my loan yesterday too. I spent Monday with Kris and baby Jessica, she is so cute, and they'll be in Dunners at the end of next month which will cool, so I'll get to see them then, yay!
Other than that, there isn't a lot happening over the next few days, Mark and Sera are coming over tonight to help set up my wireless, as the router set up disc is only for Windows 2000 and XP, and I have a mac, isn't that helpful. So, I'm making lasange, yey, haven't had it since I left.
Then on Friday I have quite a few things to get done in town, like getting a new drivers licence, returning the wireless keyboard that was supposed to be compatible with my mac but isn't, nice things like that. Am going to drink soju with Mark on Friday night.
Then on Saturday afternoon I get to go to Australia, yey, I really can't wait for that, it's going to be so much fun, and it will not only be warm, it will be hot, not cold weather, isn't it a wonderful thought!
Ok, that's enough for now, I have to go and do the washing, man house work sux, but since I'm not paying board at the moment, I guess I'll have to deal with it. Later all.

Home at Last!

So, this will basically be the same as the email some of you got. Am finally in Christchurch, got in at 9am this morning, was a really long flight too. Watched Pirates 2, My Super Ex-Girlfriend and and another comedy I really wanted to see, but right now can't remember the name of. Also saw the first 2 episodes of Prison Break, seems pretty good. May actually watch some TV now that I'm home after all. So, I am here waiting for Nick to get home from work, he told me he should be finished by 12pm, it's now 2.30pm, and I am sufficiently bored. I believe I'm also beginning to wilt, no sleep for 2 days can do that to a person. Can't sleep though as I have to go and buy a phone and we're going to see carols in the park tonight.
Ok, so he's finally here, I'm gonna go now, later!

Osaka

I have made it as far as Osaka, so far. Got little sleep again last night too, guess it must have been nerves, but was up at 5am this morning to catch the bus at 6am, made pretty good time. Why is it that whenever I take a bus to the International Airport in Korea that there is a huge car accident on the freeway? I must say I am really glad that I wasn`t in one of the cars as it was a total wreck,
Also, it turns out that sleeping on the bus is a really bad idea, man was my neck sore for a while after I got off the bus.
Ｉｗｏｕｌｄ　ｌｉｋｅ　to　thank　Scott　and　Ｃａｒｉ　again　ｆｏｒ　ｇｅｔｔｉｎｇ　ｍｅ　ｔｈｅ　ｒｅｓｔ　ｏｆ　ｔｈａｔ　ｓｅｒｉｅｓ　ｏｆ　ｂｏｏｋｓ　ｔｈｅｙ　ａｒｅ　ｒｅａｌｌｙ　ｇｒｅａｔ．
Ｉ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ａｌｓｏ　ｌｉｋｅ　ｔｏ　ａｐｏｌｏｇｉｓｅ　ｆｏｒ　ｗｈａｔｅｖｅｒ　ｈａｓ　ｇｏｎｅ
ｗｒｏｎｇ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄ　ａｎｄ　Ｉ　ａｍ　ｇｏｉｎｇ　ｔｏ　ｇｉｖｅ　ｕｐ　ｎｏｗ，　but　Ｉ　ｗｉｌｌ　ｂｅ　ｈｏｍｅ　ｓｏｏｎ．

The last day

This is my last post from Korea, am going home in 17 hours.
So I now never ever have to teach Kevin again, it's a little sad now that I think about it. I know that I complain about him often, but he is kind of cute in his own way. No more kindergarten now, and only 4 classes later on today, what am I going to do now? So I am a little sad today, instead of excited as I have been the last couple of weeks.
Last night, there was a party for Nige and I at Billboard, didn't get home until 2am this morning. It was really good to see everyone before I left, and I didn't cry much. I didn't drink too much either, but am still tired today, as we had my work leaving soju session on Tuesday night too, went to Fish and Grill, they have this new Mountain Strawberry soju cocktail, it was so good, and then we went to a Noraeban again. Even though I can't sing at all, I must admit that those places are a lot of fun. Would have been more fun had I not been forced to drink some beer that ended up giving me a terrible stomach ache and resulted in little sleep.
Tonight will be another night of little sleep as I am getting up before 5am to catch my bus to the International Airport at 6am. I fly to Osaka at 12.30pm, the leave there for Christchurch at 5.30pm, arriving there at 9am on Saturday morning.
There are many things that I have enjoyed about being in Korea, I love most of the food, not so much the spicy stuff, but everything else, especially kimbap and galbi. I have met so many wonderful people and will be sad not to see some of them again. I shall miss almost all of the students that I have taught here, especially my kindy students, they have been saying "I love you, Karyn Teacher" over and over today, I think even Kevin has realised that something is going on as he has been even more attached to me than usual. One of the greatest things about Korea is how safe a place it is to live, parks aren't closed at night. I can be out walking in the dark alone and not feel that I have to be looking over my shoulder all the time, it's a great feeling that I will really miss when I get home, as all I seem to read about in the news is the increases in crime and violence at home.
There are also things that I have not enjoyed about being here, there is pollution here, a lot less than other places, but it is still here. There are no rubbish bins/trash cans, which are everywhere at home. I definitely won't miss the way the school is run or my bosses and their lack of work and effort.
But I must say that overall, my time in Korea has been a very good experience, and I am much better off for it, so I would like to say good bye to everyone I have met here and wish you all the best, even though I have not had the chance to say it to everyone in person.
GOOD BYE KOREA!
SO LEAVING IN 17 HOURS, HOME IN 40 HOURS! AUSTRALIA NEXT WEEK! YEY!

Into the last few days

Had a really great weekend. On Saturday, Cari and I went and got manicures and I got a pedicure too, was so much fun. Then got my hair cut, will post a pic of my new look after everyone at home has seen it, would like for it to be a surprise, along with one or two other things.
Then we did soem shopping I got new boots to bring home, nice warm ones for winter, even though it is supposed to be summer at home, though apparently it's rather cold. I figure it can't be colder than here, but then again there are a couple of icebergs floating 100kms off the coast.
So, after that we met up with Nige, Van, Nicole, Zou Zou and Scott for dinner at TGI, where I indulged in a couple of cocktails, and they forgot to order my dinner, so there I was sitting there starving while everyone else was eating - we wrangled a free dessert out of them. After that, went ot a soju bar, am so going to miss those pitchers of soju cocktails. Then, everyone but Scott, Cari and I went home, we went downtown, had to say bye to some of the other people I've met, plan to keep in touch with most of them, especially Liz, who is from Christchurch.
Turns out I'm rather intelligent after, to prevent a hangover I drank a bottle of water and took 2 tylenol before going to bed, so I woke up hangover free, can't say the same for Cari and Scott though.
Sunday, was a pretty good day too, went down to Kuhmo World and bought digital cameras for my little bro and some friends as gifts, went to E-Mart and bought some more make-up after being told I didn't have nearly enough by Cari. Then went to the bus terminal to pick up my bus ticket for Friday morning so that I don't have worry about the bus being sold out, now all I have to do is not oversleep - doubt I'll sleep much anyway though as I will be so excited to be finally getting out of here! Was bad, and went to the book store there, bought a new book to read, Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. Is really good, am now trying to convince myself that I don't need to go back and buy the other 3 books in the series.
Today, was a pretty good day, aside from everyone coming up to me to look at my new haircut. Eventually, I suggested that maybe we should just put a sign up outside saying "Karyn Teacher has had her haircut", but it seemed like a lot of work. Found out that the kids in one of my least favourite classes actually like me a lot when I thought they hated me. Some of the boys wrote me goodbye cards, they asked me for my phone number, I gave it to them figuring thay wouldn't actually call, I was wrong, one of them did. She told me I wasn't allowed to leave, I told her I had to. So, that was an interesting surprise. Called Kat and Mornay in Taipei, talked to them for an hour, Mornay was complaining about how lucky I am to be going home, and how he really wants to go to NZ, I told to get of his lazy arse and come visit me then.

SO MY BUS TO THE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT LEAVES IN 79 AND A HALF HOURS, MY FLIGHT TO JAPAN LEAVES IN 86 HOURS, MY FLIGHT FROM OSAKA TO CHRISTCHURCH LEAVES IN 91 HOURS AND I LAND IN CHRISTCHURCH IN 102 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES! YEY, I'M GOING HOME!

Dude ....

I mean I sometimes over spend, but I ways manage to make to the next payday, hell I still had more than $10 in my wallet when I got paid today. You should do what I do and only allow for a certain amount of spending every week, at the beginning I every month I do a major stock up and pay all my bills, then allow myself like $100 to spend a week, though that will be changeing soon as I will be going back to being broke again next year, but at least I know that I will survive and not have to rely on anyone else to bail me, plus it helps that I don't hate all the people around me, and that if I ever did have any problems I have enough friends around me willing to help me out!
It helps to be nice sometimes too, I know that coming from me that may sound, well totally unlike me most of the thime, but it's true the more people you amke endebted to you the easier it is to guilt trip them when you need help, think about it!
So anyway, I'm down to eight days and hours till I leave this city and eight days and fifteen hours till I leave the county, yey for me right. Only have to teach Kevin 6 more times, no more touching, as he has a tendency to do even when one yells at him in Korean, yes he has gotten so annoying that I have learned how to tell him off in his own language, or at least a language that he understands. Think I may have to make some notes on Kevin for Rach, or she's gonna go mad in like a week.
I must that I'm feeling much better today, and Scott and I are about to head off to Billboard, for my second last Wednesday night. Will go and visit Nicole too and see how she's doing as she was in hospital last week.
So, I should probably be going as Scott will be knocking on my door any minute, catch you all later.

An average week

On Friday we had a kindergarten field trip, we went to the Transportation Broadcasting Centre in Chumdan, I'm sure you can imagine how terribly interesting that was, and to the park, which was much more fun, they even had a merry-go-round, which turned out to be rather dangerous as everyone wanted to push and ended up falling in a great heap, so had to implicate some rules, only teacher was allowed to push it, so teacher ended up incredibly exhausted.
Saturday, did not a lot until Cari called and asked if I wanted to go to a movie, this turned out to be rather a challenge. Got to CGV and found that the only movie we wanted to see, The Prestige, had started 20 minutes earlier at 8.30 and the next showing wasn't until midnight, well we weren't going to wait around that long. so we went and go some food and then went to Columbus and they were only showing one English Movie, which wasn't on till 11.40. Then we got the bright idea to call Scott and find out where a DVD ban was, so we went there and spent half an hour choosing a movie, in the end chose Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash movie, it was really good. We're going there again this Friday, it's rather annoying that I never before bothered to get off my lazy arse and go, coz they are great! Nice comfy couches to lie on, much better than the movies and pretty cheap too.
On Sunday, I went with Scott, Cari and Sen to get their laptops, though I ditched them when I found Nige and Van at Kuhmo World, as by that stage I was rather bored and didn't really want to look at more things that I wasn't able to buy for myself. So we went and looked at other stuff, picked out the cameras that I'm going to buy for my brother and Mark and Sera, so can go back and buy them next week. Then went to E-Mart and Popeyes for a burger. Caught up with Cari and Sen again, Cari ended up coming abck to my place for dinner and a movie since her laptop wasn't going to be ready until 8pm, as they were installing an English version of windows XP and a couple of other things on it. That about covers Sunday.
Yesterday (Monday) I worked out how much money my director will have to pay me on my last day next week, it is a substantial sum, yey! And then I talked to Kat last night when I got home from work for an hour or so. It was not the mammouth conversation that we had last week, guess we ran out of things to talk about, but she's going to Taipei next weekend, so I'll call her there and talk to Mornay too next Monday. Also received the parcel she finally remembered to send yesterday too.
Today, am feeling like crap, I really want to go back home to bed, but unfortunately that isn't possible, what a bugger huh!

SO ONLY 10 DAYS UNTIL I LEAVE THIS PLACE (9 TILL I FINISH WORK) AND 11 TILL I ARRIVE IN NEW ZEALAND. THEN THERE IS ONLY ANOTHER WEEK, UNTIL I GO TO AUSTRALIA (18 DAYS IN TOTAL). YEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEY, CAN'T WAIT!

Hello

I thought it was about time that I got everything updated again. I think I need to start from last Wednesday, so ...

Wednesday
Ended up working an extra 2 hours on Wednesday after work, so didn't finish till 10pm, yes that does mean I was at work for more than 12 hours (and yes I was not happy about it - a) because I missed out on going to Billboard, and b) coz all my supervisor did was supervise, she have very little help at all). Oh yeah, the reason we worked late was to set up the Haunted House for Friday's Halloween Party, Scott and I did the whole theatre ourselves without any help or direction, as in it would have been done a lot faster had she actually give us some idea of what she wanted.

Thursday
Don't really remember anything interesting that happened, nope still drawing a blank, guess it was just an average day.

Friday
The day of the Halloween Party, got to go around jumping out of dark corners and making kids scream, was actually rather fun. Got my revenge on them for all their bad behaviour. I rather enjoyed hearing them scream and run away. I managed to scare Jimmy so much he didn't even make it into the Haunted House, was rather happy about it too. Felt a little bad about making some of the little kids cry, thought it was funny when the older kids cried though, who knew a 13 year old would cry like a baby when they were scared. Was a fun but incredibly exhausting day, it was a huge challenge staying awake until 11pm.

Saturday
Well, I may havge overslept and accidentally missed Rupina's wedding, like I said I was really exhausted on Friday. Yeah, I was supposed to catch the bus to Mokpo at 10.30, but didn't wake up till 11.45, no way to get there in time, so I went back to sleep. Then Chelsy called me an hour later to ask where I was, had to say I overslept, oops! Other than this I didn't get a lot done on Saturday, went for a bike ride, did some cross-stitch and watched a couple of movies, also chatted online for a while.

Sunday
Did a lot of nothing on Sunday, just watched movies, listened to music, read a book, did some cross-stitch and chatted online for a bit. Was a wonderfully boring and relaxing day. Oh, and Mum called because she was looking for something she couldn't find. I pointed out that there wasn't much point in asking me where it was as I hadn't been there for almost 15 months, so how would I know. I thought that this was a really good point to make.

Monday
Um, back to work, I really don't like Monday's much, I think it has something to do with getting out of bed before 10am and knowing that the kids are going to have a lot more energy on this one day of the week than they seem to have on all the other days. But lately I have been reminding myself just how few days I have left and it doesn't seem to bother me as much. So basically yesterday was a typical Monday, except for the fact that Rupina is away on her honeymoon and I have to mix some of my classes together, that's good though coz it means we get to play games instead of study and everyone likes that. Only really annoying thing about yesterday was the fact that it pissed down and I had to take a taxi to and from work. Oh yeah, and I ended up using my entire break to book Rachel's tickets from Auckland to Incheon, as my boss got in a real tizz coz everything was apparently booked coz she forgot to book them sooner. Guess what, I went online and had a ticket that was better than anything that they could find, as it means Rach gets here sooner, within half an hour. Was really glad to go home last night, as you can imagine, so then Kat called and we had a record breaking phone conversation, actually lasted more than 2 hours without either of us getting bored, a total miracle, but will probably be rather expensive for her since she was the one who did the calling.

Today - Tuesday
Again, not a lot has happened so far. Karen asked me why I wasn't sick of eating chum chi kim bap yet, seeing as I eat it for lunch every single day. I said, it tastes great, it's healthy and I'm going home in 17 days and after that I won't be able to have it anymore, so I'm going to continue to eat it for lunch everyday. I'm so going to miss Korean food, which reminds me, will have to get others over here in a few weeks and go out for some galbi, really going to miss that too. Oh, and in good news, was told today that I shall be paid my bonus, my last 6 days pay and my apartment deposit back in cash on my final day, I had better calculate it all, just to be sure the director doesn't make a mistake and short change me, as it has been known to happen in the past.
I guess that is all for today, and probably the rest of the week, though I might get off my lazy butt and update again at the weekend. I must say, however, that it is getting damned cold here, only 8 degrees C today, not nice at all.

ONLY 17 DAYS UNTIL I GO HOME, 12 AND A HALF MORE TEACHING DAYS AND 25 DAYS UNTIL I GO TO AUSTRALIA. YEY YEY YEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been informed ....

that is has been a while since I last updated. So what has happened since last Wednesday ...
Thursday
don't recall, can't have been anything important. Oh, now I remember, was sick so took the day off work, spent it sleeping and lazing about, was great!
Friday
well, was a rather long day at work, then met Sen at my place before getting together with Cari, Adam, Carly and Scott to buy Halloween costumes, me got a devil one. Then we went to Wa Bar for a drink before Sen, Cari and I caught a late movie, the Devil Wears Prada (was pretty good, rather enjoyed it myself), then walked home. I was the only person walking through the park at 2am too (something I would never do at home, but here I've never felt scared at all at night, that's going to change when I go home too - only 24 days now).

Saturday
got woken up early by an annoying person calling me and complaining that I wasn't online. So seeing as I was awake, I logged on. Then Nige called me an hour later thinking he could be the one to wake me up, but huh, he was beaten to it, so there. So, met Nige downtown, took him to Blue travel so he could book his flights home (which I am told were finalised today). We had some lunched, walked around for a bit, before catching the subway back to Sangmu (where I live) and took a look at the Science Festival at 5.18 Memorial Park. Then Nige went home and so did I, really needed a nap after all that, so took one. Got woken up by the phone again at 6 (am beginning to reconsider the need for the landline). Anyway, got dressed up for the Halloween party, caught the subway back downtown (was even stared at way more than usual - will remember to add the photo - Me and Sen). Party was fun there were some interesting games, including one called "pass the cock" - I'll let you imagine what that could possibly be. Went home pretty early though, still not feeling too great.
Sunday
Finally gave in and went grocery shopping, was hungry and had nothing to eat. Other than that didn't do much, except spill wine on my keyboard and have to go out and buy a new one coz half the keys stopped working. Other than this, just did cross-stitch and watched movies, my usual boring Sunday (which will be my whole weekend next weekend coz I spent too much money again!)
Monday
I really don't like Monday's, it's so hard to get out of bed. Was reasonably uneventful until my last class, who are seriously going to regret their antics tomorrow, it will be my pay back. Called Kat when I got home from work, she was strangely not online, this was how I found out that it had been a while since I last updated.
Today - Tuesday
Well, today was average, it was let's see how many of us can sit on top of Karyn Teacher today in Kindergarten, I believe I am now slightly bruised. Was a pretty good day, all my classes went rather smoothly, except for my usual desire to kill Jaxon. Went to the movies again after work, saw D.O.A. (Dead or Alive), was ok, reasonably entertaining, like watching Tekken. And have just done a restore on my computer coz stuff was doing some wierd things and now it is working A-OK. Yey, ok have had enough of this now, me is off.

ONLY 24 DAYS TILL I GO HOME, 18 TEACHING DAYS (18 DAYS OF KEVIN, 7 OF JAXON) AND THERE ARE ONLY 32 DAYS UNTIL I GET TO RELAX IN OZ - DOUBLE YEY!