The thin rain coated our skin- we could see the mist rising from the mountain valleys... we visited Hain Temple one more time.

Slopping and Shopping- The Story of How One Can Furnish Their Korean Apartment Without Opening Their Wallet

Ohhh we had a problem on our hands...



In April we moved from my tinny shoe box apartment to a much larger (but not as big as big as our apartment in Canada) apartment. We were filled with such joy & happiness that we were finally moving to a much more livable space. A place where one could do yoga without touching all walls, a place that you could actually have company come over, a place with more than just once small room posing as whole apartment, and most importantly, a place that truly felt like home.



Moving was, in and of itself, a strange experience. A near-midget sized, chain smoking, sixty year old Korean man woke Alissa and I up as he knocked on our apartment door one hour earlier than what we were told. Alissa and I were barely awake as we witnessed this short stalky, rugged man who could not speak a sniff of English just barge in and start throwing our boxes of carefully packed (and sometimes fragile) items into the back of his circa 1980s beater 1/4 ton Hyundai truck. This man carried himself more like a garbage man with home time on his mind than a mover, he wasted no time and didn't even hesitate to lift even then fridge on his hunched back. With lit smoke dangling between chapped lips he didn't even hesitate to whip it out and piss in our toilet in clear sight of Alissa and I, the bathroom door wide open as if it did not even exist.





When everything was said and done, Alissa, the midget mover, the directors of our school, and I stared at the new apartment. It had quite the opposite feel of the place we just moved from. Although everything we had from our old apartment was moved into our new pad, it still felt empty. Our old place was so small that there was literally no room for anything- a bed, a fridge, a desk, a dresser, and a washing machine-the essentials- was all that could be packed into that little place. These items barely demanded any space in our new place. As I offered the small old man a coke, I couldn't help but feel that our apartment needed a little something more before it could truly be called a home. The old man smiled.




This is the problem that a lot of English teachers face in Korea...



The contracts that we sign clearly state that we will be offered a fully furnished apartment but when you get here often one sometimes finds that 'fully furnished' actually means 'barley furnished'.



It's difficult for anyone to justify buying all new furniture for only a year stay- that's so completely wasteful.



How do foreign English teachers deal with such a problem...



They DUMPSTER DIVE.



The bums in Regina do it. Our friends in Korea do it. And, of course, Alissa and I do it. Alissa and I would even go as far as saying that its our new hobby. I bet you'd be hard pressed to see me pass a trash heap (that are piled up in front of every telephone pole in Korea) without giving it a little look-see.

I see myself as a noble pioneer, an environmental crusader with reusing in the forefront of my mind. In fact all of the furniture that adorns our new house is from the stinky trash heaps that are such an eyesore to some.

Remember Kids... REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.

One Korean Rose Bush

I was so amazed how one rose bush on my way to work was blossoming in chilly Mid-November that I wrote this poem...

These roses are confused about life

They bloom in mid-November

Why is something so fragrant & so beautiful

confused about its place?

or

maybe it already knows its place.

Can you blossom in the coldest of times?

We All Had Our Roles and Duties.

Mr. & Mrs. Kim were selling tea, decorating, packaging, networking, flower arranging, tea steeping, tea serving, cleaning, and schmoozing.

Their 9 year old son, Kim Jong Oh, did the playing, picture taking, and of course networking (what person can resist the charm of a 9 year old child).

My main goal was to learn as much as humanly possible about the world of tea, but, of course, I got caught up in the excitement of being a part of the team. How could I resist, they even found me a totally naturally dyed, hand made, Daegu-old-style, odor absorbing, traditional common peoples, Korean clothes!

When an old lady who happened to be the head professor of Tea Studies at a University in Seoul saw me in the green hanbok (traditional Korean clothes) she wisely noted,

"You are truly in harmony with the green tea you sell"

We Set Up the Display Table Late Tuesday Evening... Wednesday Was the First Day of the International Tea Festival!!!

This Post Is Dedicated To Our Good Friend... Fanta!

Did you know these bizzire but interesting facts about Fanta...

• Fanta is one of the top soft drinks in Korea
• You can find it at all convenient stores and at all bars- even if all they have only one soft drink in their fridge, chances are it's Fanta
• Fanta tastes great with soju or, at the very least, just as a chaser
• There's a giant private Kindergarten by our school that is sponsored by the famous soft drink.
• There is even a Fanta bus and hideous little yellow and orange coloured Fanta school uniforms that the little Fantaites (!?!) prance around in!!!
• Yes... it's a fact... Koreans love Fanta!

Thanks so much to our good friend, Fanta, and all others who post on this blog... it really makes our day.