Human Trafficking
Human Trafficking
Ms Parker in Korea!: October 2008

Ms Parker in Korea!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Halloween

You know... I think I like Halloween better than Christmas. In fact, I know I do!

Because Halloween should last for more than just one day, my kids have been doing nothing purely Halloweeny activities for the past 2 weeks. I've got paper jack-o-lanterns stuck everywhere, 2 sets of colour flashcards, an entire bulletin board of very creative masks... we've watched Halloween videos every day (from Donald Duck to Nightmare before Christmas).... and tomorrow, I'm bringing two small pumpkins to my island school to make real jack-o-lanterns with them!

Tomorrow, we head to Yeosu for the big Hallowen bash, followed by a weekend in Suncheon.

Things are a-brewing for UAE... but I'm not going to give any details... yet.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Wonderful Weekend...

Monday morning seems to have come too quickly after such an awesome weekend.

We kicked off the weekend with a group of friends for drinks at the "Drunk Chicken", so named because the sign is a picture of 2 chickens drinking soju. Yeah. Nevermind.

Saturday, Ty and I headed to Gwangju with Alex, Luke, Zach, Terry, Cody and Desiree for a day of wandering around and shopping. Alex, Luke and Zach headed off to the Gwangju Pop Festival, but the rest of us enjoyed a stroll up Art Street, a stop in the "Ethnic Cafe" (a cave-like place lit by candles, where you sit on cushions behind drapes and scarves - really neat), before stuffing ourselves silly at Outback.

Sunday was a mostly lazy day until mid-afternoon, when we met up with Alex, Hugh and Kathryn for a hike up Yudal (which was good for counter-acting the effects of our Saturday pig-out in Gwangju).

The weather has changed and it's getting way cool at night.

Still playing the waiting game on another job in the UAE. And the next month looks something like this: Halloween, Open Mic Night, possible TV appearance (!!), Flying Lessons (!!!).... Will keep you posted!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Sweet Jane and Max

It's not been a good week for me and my cats.

Earlier this week, I got an e-mail from my friends Carl and Julie that Sweet Jane (who I left with them when I moved to Korea) had been missing for over a month. I guess they've sort of given up hope. Since Jane used to be a stray cat, it's possible that she's gone off to live off the land again, but I doubt it. She'd be about 13 years old now.... I got her from the SPCA when I was in Montreal, and she moved with me to La Pocatiere, and back to Montreal, then back to La Poc again. She started as a hissing, quivering thing behind the toilet, then under the bed. She spent the first year with me attacking and biting me, and once took on a German shepherd (Susie). She ended up with the sweetest disposition, a soft meow, and 40 tons of fur that she enjoyed filling your nostrils with (she used to help me do push-ups by standing right under me). She brought me gifts of grasshoppers (that she would set loose in the apartment) and, once, a dead bird. She carried her toys around and always put them in the last place that she'd seen me -- and so there was a pile of catnip mice on the windowsill, a rubber ball on the pillow. She is the only cat in the world who could have her fur clipped just by being held - no gas to calm her.

When I was 15 years old, my Mom let me choose a kitten from my friend's cat's litter. I picked the tiniest little calico. There is a photo somewhere of me, with full-on rocker hair, black eyeliner and a jean jacket holding Max in the palm of my hand... she was 3 days old.

I wasn't that surprised to get the e-mail from my Mom today telling me that she'd had to have Max put down today. She was 19 years old.

Max would tap me when she wanted to be pet. She would sit up like a prairie dog when people came in. She slept on my pillow, stealing it completely. She put up with a constant stream of strays and SPCA rejects. She sometimes snored. She had the loveliest smelling skin and the softest rabbit fur. She had a line of aqua around the pupils of her eyes, and a heart-shaped patch of fur on her back. She knew her name from about the age of 4 months and I could call her from anywhere in the house, even when she was sleeping. At the house we lived in when I was 16, I could sneak Max into my room by looking through the upstairs banister and catching her eye where she was sitting on the living room couch. It would take less than 2 minutes for her to join me. In La Pocatiere, she would follow me outside and walk around behind me. She carried ponytail eleastics around and "talked" to them. She had 14 different meows, at least - from a "monkey call" to a tiny brrrrrroop. She's moved a lot in her life and, except for the time she squeezed herself into a space the size of a shoebox under the stove, she took it all in stride. She hunted the cockroaches in my Montreal apartment and cried at the door when I wasn't home. She fell off the 2-storey balcony of the apartment in St. Catharines and once purred so hard at the vet's that the vet couldn't check her heartbeat. She had a tumour removed from her back when she was 15 and hd the worst hairballs of any cat on the planet. When we lived at the Bed and Breakfast, we would get letters from Europe and Japan with photos of Max in people's suitcases. I honestly think that she thought people were visiting her when they entered the house. She didn't jump on counters, or knock things off shelves. She spent a lot of time "making biscuits", on you, on blankets, on her sheepskin. When I first moved to Montreal, she was literally my only friend. She wasn't finnicky when it came to food and would do anything for a Pounce treat. A cat-breeder once told me that her colouring, 5-colour calico, made her more valuable. She once tried to climb into a toothpaste box, but only got as far as one paw. She was known as Maxwell House and Blobbocat, Jabba the cat and Maxcatbabygirl.

It was so hard for me to leave her behind when I moved.

Nineteen years. Nineteen years. A whole lifetime is contained in that time. A whole friendship.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The book that Jen first showed me 2 years ago in Suncheon, and that Ty bought for his brother is now a movie...

PLEASE click this link.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

School picnic

I recall reading a few years ago - long before I planned to move overseas - that there are certain things that happen, attitudewise, when you are in a foreign country, specifically with annual occurrences.

The first time something happens, you are excited, happy and enthralled with the new experience. The second time it comes around, you may take a step back, and compare it to the first time, testing out the different way that you feel this year as opposed to the year before. By the time you hit the 3rd, 4th, 5th time, you may barely even notice it happening, or only for long enough to roll your eyes in a "here we go again" way.

Yesterday was my school's picnic on Yudal mountain. Last year, this was worth about 40 photos on my camera and a full-on gushing blog (check archives of Oct 2007). This year, I texted Alex a million times to complain about how it was boring compared to last year (which it was). On the upside, my students are still as lovable as ever, if not more so. They climbed all over me, fed me cookies, candy, oranges and anything they could lay their grimy paws on (my immune system is stronger than anyone else's on the planet... I work with children in a land of no soap). I chatted with several teachers, and spent a good 15 minutes bonding with the VP, and quite enjoyed the whole crystal blue sky and perfect weather watching the leaves begin to turn and slowly drift to the ground on a soft breeze... but... somehow... it just wasn't the same.

In other news, UAE plans are still continuing... will keep you posted!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Yet Another Birthday Post...

Are you sick of hearing about our birthdays yet?

Last night, Wim hosted a huge party at his (formerly Alex's) house. I knew that it was going to be pretty special since we were celebrating three birthdays (me, Ty, Fallon), and since I knew that Wim was putting a lot of time (and money) into this event.

Our taxi dropped us off at the gates of Wim's school, which were festooned with balloons and messages from his students like, "Congratulations your birthday" and "Happy Birth Day. I love you."

We were pretty impressed and quite enjoyed reading all these wonderful messages on our hike up to Wim's house. Wim had really gone all out, enlisting Alex's help to make dozens of paper lanterns that were lit with tealights (one string of lanterns did burst into flame, but it was quickly extinguished). We had pizza, make-your-own yogurt and fruit soju cocktails, a lot of beer and an incredible amount of new friends to meet. I felt like I was 20 again... it was just a great house party.

The highlight of the evening was our scavenger hunt, when teams of us gallopped around the school grounds, until we were ultimately led (by a trail of tealights in the forest) to the top of the hill behind Wim's house to admire the view of Mokpo all lit up at night. I'll have to admit that the walk *down* the trail in slippery flip-flops was probably not the highlight of my evening.

I can only hope that Meron (Oct 19th) and Kelly (Oct 20th) have just as awesome a celebration as I did.

P.S. Meron... did you forget to call me all this week? Maybe you're just getting OLD.

Friday, October 17, 2008

This is why I didn't study Economics...

Right, so the won came back, then fell again, or rose again (?), and is now sliding again. Or maybe the Canadian dollar rose or fell or something...

I'm trying to figure out whether I should send money to my account in Canada or wait until next week, and it's pretty confusing!

A bunch of Grand Poobahs from the Office of Education or something came through the school. Everyone was wearing suits and pretty clothes, except for me (I was resplendent in a hippie shirt and jeans, with pink kittens all over my socks). Maybe next time they will tell me when something important is happening in the school..... (cue peals of laughter)

A group of my 3rd graders came into my classroom during lunch hour and "played school". One girl had the role of Baginia Teacher, while the others were her students. I was pretty impressed. They went through their days of the week, months of the year, animals, colours... And they were just doing it for fun! Then, they spent another five minutes writing "I love 버지니아" (that's my name in Hangeul) on the board.

Still waiting back for news from the UAE, but I've gotten the ball rolling with a few other recruiting companies as well. Things are pretty up in the air... but I'll keep you posted as things develop.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Happy Surprises...

One nice thing about being overseas for your birthday is that you get to celebrate it over several days, as the timezones and International Date Line and such make it nearly impossible to figure out what day it really is in, say, Canada or South Africa.

Yesterday, my friend Alex came to my school (where he was treated like a rock star by the students) for a class I was doing on table manners ~ a valiant attempt to get the kids to eat properly with forks and knives while avoiding the inevitable Korean SLUUUUURP. About 5 minutes into class, my head teacher decided that she really needed to speak to me.... And took me out into the parking lot of the school to admire the sky. Then, we went back to class, where Alex had prepared the kids with exploding streamers and a birthday cake. What a great surprise! He'd arrived earlier at my school to plan it all out with the head teacher. It was just awesome so ~ thanks Alex!

The kids displayed marvelous table manners, by the way.

That evening, a bunch of us got together to celebrate Ty's birthday at a great Vietnamese restaurant. This weekend, our friend Wim is hosting a big bash for me, Ty and Fallon (Wim's girlfriend) as we are all celebrating this week.... we're all really looking forward to it!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Updates

Yup yup... been busy. The past weekend was one of going out with friends (soju cocktails and norae-banging), then hitting a sort of "International Community Day" in Gwangju. We like to call it the "Foreign Food Festival", since it's mostly comprised of food kiosks from around the world. We got to eat Nepali, Indonesian, North African and Mexican food... and then we went out for supper at Outback (where the wait staff sang "Happy Birthday" to Ty and I in Korean, to the tune of "Feliz Navidad") with Zach, Terry and James.

School is going well, with the students functioning like some sort of well-oiled machine. I finally got my reimbursement for my summer vacation (which isn't worth as much as it was, since the won is still pretty low and unstable), and everything seems perfect...

But then...

This is a secret, but... I'm waiting on an answer back from a job application in Abu Dhabi. Yes, Abu Dhabi. If you're older than 25, you'll recognize that as the place that Garfield always tried to send Nermal (the world's cutest kitten). If you're in the least bit aware of the planet, you'll recognize it as a random city in the Middle East, and one of the emirates that make up the UAE. If you're like me, you'll have to look it up on a map, then stand there for about 10 minutes until you're like "Ohhhhhh, there it is" ~ south east corner of the Arabian peninsula.
I'm 34 today. THIRTY-FOUR. Daaaaamn. Ty will be 28 tomorrow.

And so it goes...

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Silly photos from Jinju

Don't tell Zach, but I stole some Jinju photos from him....

Ty, Terry, Wim, Fallon and me (in PINK!)

Ty looking regal. I was trying to look dainty and demure.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Jinju Lantern Festival

If there's one thing Korea knows how to do, it's put on some incredible festivals. Just about every town has a festival of some sort, generally related to a cultural, historical or regional happening. There are literally hundreds of festivals that are put on throughout the year. Some of them are rather small affairs (the Mokpo Seaside Festival, for example), but some are of such a magnitude that they leave you breathless and wondering why more people haven't heard of them.

The Jinju Lantern Festival was quite possibly one of the greatest ornamental displays I have ever seen.

Imagine a river full of huge floating wire and paper structures. Pretty impressive, eh?


Alright... now light them all up as it gets dark.



Okay then... Make them breathe fire!



Hmmm.... still not impressed? How about if there are about a hundred of these things all along a river between two bridges with a 13th C palace on one side and an illuminated pagoda on the other?

With a 3-day weekend, and friends aplenty, we (Wim, Fallon, Zach, Terry, Ty and I) managed to enjoy ourselves immensely in a very familiar sort of carnival atmosphere. There were fried things on sticks to eat, and shopping in kiosks and in a huge flea market. There were fireworks and a huge musical fountain (like in Yeosu, Mom). There was a very small midway, and a lot of interactive fun things to do as well (and lots of opportunities for silly photos) like dressing up in traditional feudal clothes, floating a paper "wish lantern" down the river, hand painting a fan...


We kissed our way through the festival. I think the guy standing behind us was impressed.

Fallon and Terry tame a tiger...

We were joined by a few folks from Suncheon (Nina, Chris, Melissa and Patty) on Friday night, and even though our friends all left us on Saturday evening, Ty and I stayed on until Sunday morning, and made the most of all that this festival had to offer. We were a bit disappointed that both of our cameras died on Saturday afternoon, but I'll grab a few of the better photos from my friends and post them tomorrow.

It's great to continue to discover new events and things to do here. A weekend like the one we just had is almost enough to make a person sign on for another year (except that the Korean won is worth almost NOTHING these days... grrrrrr).

In other news, I've added Gohado photos to the previous post, so scroll down.