Happy New Year!!

If I don't get the chance to say this to you in person - then Happy New Year!!

I hope 2007 brings fun & laughter to you all.

love
Squeezy

Accident at work

For anyone I've spoken to lately, you'd know I've had an accident at work. I slipped with a knife while cutting paper and sliced off part of my left index finger. I now have three stiches through my fingernail - which I'm not looking forward to having removed.

So just for fun (?) I took a couple of pics of said finger while I was waiting for the doctor to look at it today. If morbid curiosity has the best of you then click on the photo below.

The Claw

Hwangji Jung School Concert

This is the video of the 2 Christmas Carols as sung by my conversation club and I. We sang "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and "Santa Claus is coming to town". Watch out for the silly dancing!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

As I watch Mike skiing tomorrow, I'll be missing all my friends and family in Australia and Japan terribly! (We're going skiing then off to the casino buffet for Christmas dinner.
)

Much love to you all - I will call as many of you as I can :)

Happy Birthday Granny for today! The card is probably still in the post.

love
Squeezy

Happy Birthday Tim

Thank you & quick catch up

Heeeeelllllllloooooooooooooooooooooo,

So since it has been a while since I posted, time for some thank youes!

First, Thank you Granny for crocheting a scarf and beret for me!!
I wore the beret all day at school today and my students seemed to approve - which means a couple of extra "I love you teacher" were called out today. Also the beret and scarf are super comfy!

You can see me in the beret here.

Next, Thank you to Maggie for sending Mike & I an advent calendar! It really brought home that Christmas is coming soon. Also the thai curry sauces - YUM!! Total lifesaver!

Ok, so we've been travelling around ( I think I lost my fave mascara and eyeshadow doh!!), we visited our local casino (the casino part was rubbish BUT the VR games were great, the Russian dancing girls had an interesting take on the Can Can and the seafood buffet was sensational!) and we've had a little time at home.

My regular conversation classes with a group of 3rd grade boys has sadly come to an end - so I chucked them a New Year Eve party complete with party poppers! I have added as many names in as I could manage.

I took some photos from our flat to show off the view. Thrilling stuff, eh?

I have spent the last 2 days showing my lesson plans and trying to give our brand new english teacher, Jeff, a bit of a clue. For some reason he was dumped on me, as opposed to someone with a clue. It became a little frustrating, in that there seemed to be no plan for Jeff and after four days in Taebaek he still had not met his co-teacher! He's a pretty cool cat, so I think he'll be just fine.

Gohan's ski resort, Gangwonland, opens on Friday which is exciting! I have been told that they have snow, which until I can confirm with my mate in Gohan, I won't believe. As I understand it, the resorts here do end up manufacturing most of their snow. So if they're organised (Hah!) then it could be beautiful from day 1.

Anyhoos must run,
love
Squeezy

I ordered pizza in Korean over the phone!

Wooo Hoooo for me!! This is not to say I can speak Korean but I can manage basic conversations now - Yeah!

When I called up, I introduced myself and said I'm from Australia. We had been to Let's Pizza before, so I hoped the pizza man might recognize me by telling him I'm from the land of Oz. There are only 2 Aussies in Taebaek and that's Mike & I.

Sooooo, I ask for 1 pijja, pe-pe-ro-ni pijja (I don't think this really needs translation). Then he asks me something and I'm like uh..., then he says sije (relief!) larg-e!

Ok, so now I start talking him through our address bit by bit and that goes well. Good thing I translated the numbers before I picked up the phone.

We're almost finished and he starts saying cola. huh? So I say ney which means yes. Agreeing is definetly the path of least resistance...

So 25 minutes later we have fresh peperoni pizza!

:)
Squeezy

Time to Catch Up

Ok it's been a little while since I posted. So I think a photo will best bring everyone up to date.

However there have been spurious movember related jokes going on, so I'm setting the record straight here.love
Squeezy

It's Snowed!!

Last night it snowed - not that I saw it and sadly I missed the light snow that fell just after lunch yesterday. However I did not miss the chance to take a couple of photos this morning - mainly of our car covered in Snow. It looks like the snow tires will be required very very soon!

Taebaek looks so beautiful with the snow covering the trees up high and the lower altitude trees are still showing their autumn colours.

I'll link in the photos here tonight :)

excitedly
Squeezy

I've been published in print!!!

It's true! I have been published in the Gangstar - a magazine for English teachers in Gangwon-do. Seeing as I couldn't nab an extra copy to send home to my Mum, I'm re-publishing the same article below. Mike also wrote an article, and since he read mine before writing his own - lets say you can tell; so I'm not re-publishing Mike's! Ha! He really should start his own blog :)


First Impressions

I arrived in South Korea on the evening of the 21st of August 2006. I arrived with high hopes and much anticipation of the adventure that I had left behind my family to pursue with my husband, Mike Rowe. After two laps of Incheon International Airport, we found the EPIK desk and were met by the perpetually cheerful Mr Kim. He promptly sent us off for dinner, which was delicious! That night we were delivered to Korea National University of Education for 10 days of orientation; preparation for our entrance into our own Korean cities and jobs. Orientation was a whirl of lectures on teaching techniques, Hangul and Korean culture. I found the course was well planned and well run. I enjoyed orientation immensely. I made many friends in my spare time, who I talk to and meet up with whenever I can!

All too quickly orientation was over and we were packed into a bus, destination Chuncheon, Gangwon-do. I was nervous about meeting my co-teacher; would he or she like me? After our presentation I met Mr Jo and Mrs Yun, who were both very welcoming and kind. But neither were my co-teacher, so I would have to wait. It was also my first chance to meet Lotu Fuli, who was also bound for the mountain city of Taebaek. It wasn’t until the next day that I was finally able to meet my co-teacher, Mrs Sohn; I was so excited to meet her and find out that my school is Hwangji Middle School - a boys only school! I had a good feeling about this.

My first day of school and I had a number of questions to face that I wasn’t expecting, “We go out for coffee?”, “What is your mobile number?” and (my favourite) “Could you pull out your hair?”. I had been warned that the questions from the students would be personal, so I was ready to smile, laugh and say no! The thing I wasn’t prepared for was the welcome screams and yells – as soon as the students realised that I would be teaching their class. At first this made me nervous but the students have gotten a little quieter and I have gotten used to their excitement. Having blonde hair has certainly been interesting for me; my neighbour’s children came over to visit me one afternoon and started patting my hair! I felt a bit like a pony. I’ve learned just to go with it, people are just naturally curious about someone as different looking as I am. My bright blonde hair, my blue eyes and curvy figure makes me strange and I have come to think that part of my job is to be strange, to be different. I’m cool with that.

Just before Chuseok, Mike and I headed north to Chuncheon for the weekend. It was a decision that we would have been better off planning but we knew the bus service would get us there. So after 6 hours on some slow buses, we arrived in Chuncheon and met with our friend, a fellow Aussie, Albina Lee. We wandered around Chuncheon, amazed to be in such a big city and compared stories. Albina’s family had kindly offered us a room for the night, which turned into dinner, breakfast, sightseeing, some fabulous Chuncheon BBQ Chicken and being taken back to the bus terminal. It was just an amazing weekend and I was blown away by the hospitality so freely given.

I have been in South Korea for 8 weeks now and I can happily say I have no regrets for becoming an EPIK ELI. I’m still learning which food I like and which I don’t. I’m finding that last minute changes are the norm and an easy-going attitude makes all the difference. Being here with my husband really is a great help – we blow off steam together and share lesson ideas. The students are fun to teach and my co-teacher is great to work with. I have found Korean people, by and large, to be kind, generous and happy. I love my small mountain city, returning from a trip to Seoul showed me how much I think of Taebaek as home.

Squeezy

I Need Cheesy Pick-up Lines

I have discovered an interesting cultural phenemon here in South Korea. Guys don't know how to talk to Girls. OK so that's nothing new... Well the new bit is that here, you don't need to.

Here's the scene, you're in a bar with your mates and you see some hot chickies.
What do you do?
A) Buy them a drink, so that they come over to you?
B) Start singing "You've lost that loving feeling" a la Tom Cruise in Top Gun.
C) Ask the bartender to talk to them and send them over?

hmmm Well the correct answer is C! Which may be ok here in South Korea but would not work elsewhere.

So, I'm going to do a "cultural differences" class, which will be the pretense for teaching my students pick-up lines.

Any suggestion of cheesy (I want them to be funny) pick-up lines, would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Squeezy

Mike's Bells, Thailand

A silly short by Susie :)

My visit to the N Seoul Tower Video

Credits
Cinematography.....Squeezy
Editing.................Squeezy
Production............Squeezy

This last weekend we grabbed our stuff, chucked it in the car & drove off to the coast!

Since this was our first chance to do more than a lap of Taebaek (Mike made that last 30 mins! - only because we got lost.), we decided to head to larger cities with larger shopping facilities and historical sites of importance. So Saturday morning, we drove to Samcheok and decided that we should go further on to Donghae for lunch. We had a little trouble recognising which part of Donghae would have some interesting things to check out or food to eat and accidentally (!?) ended up on the tollway direct to Gangneung.

Two and a half thousand won later (cheap toll-road!!) and we are at the outskirts of Gangneung. Seeing as my directions and Mike's driving had done sooooo well to this point - we headed to the nearest Tourist Info desk. There we met a charming woman, (who apologised for not being in uniform on a Saturday!) and were loaded up with maps and a couple of tips for where to go and what to do. We already knew the Unification Park was a must see, but looking at the map, quickly decided we could do that on Sunday on the way home.

Next, it was time for lunch and seeing as Mike didn't fancy the local speciality of Tofu made with seawater; we sought out more carnivorous friendly options. By aiming at the clearly marked tourist areas, in front of the beach, we hoped to find a lunch that was both tasty and reasonably cheap. Maybe we should have stopped at the E-Mart and had lunch there? Due to the amazing looking fish tanks filled with fantastic varieties of soon-to-be-dinner fish, we chose a spot and immediately chocked on the menu prices! We wanted to run, but there was a man standing by the fish tanks and we felt it would be a bit gutless. Fortunately our kind waitress was able to translate the cheaper end of the menu (nothing under $15 Aussie) and we ended up ordering Raw Fish Bibimbap. The Bibimbap was ok, but it was the side dishes that made this lunch really tasty - a really small pasta salad, a hot calamari and green onion pancake (the most delicious thing there), some nicely pickled vegetables and; you'll never guess; kimchi! The good thing we took from this - the calamari & green onion pancake does seem to be a coastal speciality and we love it!!

That afternoon we end up at the EMart and found ourselves enjoying the shopping opportunities there. A couple of dinner plates, a measuring cup & yoga matts (I didn't buy one - yet). We had planned to walk around Gangneung but seeing as it started to rain, we felt it was time to check in to our Love Motel. This time we had the red & white room - it's all too funny being asked to choose the decor for your room - and it was magical to have a spa bath. Oh yes a spa bath... sigh.

Fortunately the rain cleared as quickly as it had started, so we were able to walk around town, but with the time being after 5pm, not all that much was open. Still I found a stunning bright orange organza-mesh wedding dress, for my good friend Georgie, sadly I was thwarted from taking a photo of this stunning piece of "fashion" by the people working very late hours! We meandered for a while before attempting dinner.

Sunday morning and even with sleeping in until 9am, there still isn't anything open when we emerge. We walk and walk and I'm close to collapsing from hunger (missing breakfast really doesn't agree with me). We find a coffee shop that is open and well, with the shop owner roasting his own beans, we have to try it! The coffee is great but they didn't serve food. So we continue the breakfast search. In fact I was about to bet Mike W10,000 that he couldn't find us a bakery to have breakfast in and what do you know, we turn a corner and find a little Tous Les Jous (local chain bakery). Good thing I didn't open make that bet...

After breakfast, We hop back in the car and leave Gangneug for the Unification Park. We know there is a North Korean Submarine on display and a South Korean Destroyer. When we arrive, we are a little surprised at the obvious military lookouts positioned regularly and the large barbwire fence along the coast. It is quiet clear that there is no intention to allow the North Koreans to use the rocky beach as a landing point ever again. The cool point was donning a hard hat and walking through the NK submarine - I hope the guys who manned this vessel were my height or shorted and very skinny! The sub is 35m long, 3.5m wide and 6.7m long and somehow it carried 26 men! We struggled to have 12 tourists walking through taking photos! I imagine this was a very uncomfortable submarine. The destroyer is fun and I get to move around the anti-aircraft gun (the gun was, of course, removed). Not so fun was Mike trying to put my handbag on the end of the aiming guidance - which I had no way of reaching whether on the deck or in the control seat!

We drive on through the back-again rain to Samcheok and have a fabulous lunch at the Home Mart. It's just food court food, but we are entertained by an enourmous projector (showing Korean drama - the Older Man always crys, the young men always fight and the women are always scheming). We listen to my favourite podcast ((Cool) Shite on the Tube) for the last of the drive home and have a good giggle. In this podcast my email was read out at the end - I don't know if it's a good thing to be impersonated by a guy with a beard and a breathy voice but it made Mike & I laugh. A lot!

We've bought a CAR!!

Well the exciting news for today is.... we've bought a CAR!

I'll give you a minute to take in this spectacularly exciting piece of news...

dum-de-dum

Oh - What kind of car? It is a Hyundai Avante, commonly referred to as
an Elantra in Australia. Before anyone asks - yes it has cup holders, Mike assures me that not only does it have plenty of cup holders but they are a good size too. Silly me to ask about engine noises (as I wasn't there for the test drive) and instead I am reassured on the cup holder front!

Do you want to see it??? Well you can't, at least not yet. Mike has the car parked in the car park at school, so instead how about a photo off the web?


Mwahahahaha - Ok guess my Mum isn't laughing.

Seriously, it should look like this;

I think this is the kind of car you'd describe as nifty or comfy, its much larger than we'd intended to buy. But the small car market was repeatedly referred to as "You drive, You die!". So I feel Mike has done a good thing is obtaining a medium sized car.

more to come soon - such as actual photos of the car!
Squeezy

So just what work am I doing??

To give you an idea of what I'm teaching in class, here is a short story I wrote. Then I blanked out key words, so that the students had to ask each other for the missing information (hopefully in english!!). The students are still really interested in Mike & I, so I thought I could use this to capture their attention. If you'd like to see the worksheet (its a pdf), leave a comment at the end of this post.

Susie and Mike's Holiday

Susie and Mike went on
holiday to Thailand last
month. They flew from
Sydney to Bangkok. 
When they arrived
it was 2:00am!

Firstly, Susie and Mike,
stayed in Bangkok.  They went to the temple, Wat Pho,
and had a massage.  "Ow! It was very hard." said Susie.
"Just the way I like it!" said Mike.

Next they travelled north to Chaing Mai by plane.  Susie and
Mike were very busy in Chiang Mai!  They went on an Elephant
Trek, did a cooking course and went shopping at the Night
Market.  Susie had a bad case of food poisoning and had to
stay in bed all day.

After Chiang Mai, Susie and Mike,
flew to Bangkok and caught a taxi
to Kanchanaburi.  The next day they
joined a group to go to the Tiger
Temple.  Mike was the last person
to pat the Tigers that day.  So he
was the first person to walk with the
Monk, to take the Tigers to bed.

On the flight home to Sydney, they were both very tired.
"It was a fantastic trip!" said Susie.  "Yes, it was." said Mike
and then he fell asleep.

Catch up & Happy Birthday!!

Ok, I've been away due to the wonderful public holiday system here in South Korea.

So I have a very overdue Happy Birthday to shoutout to my Dad.

While I'm shouting out; My brother just turned 18!!

Happy Birthday Michael!!

Now to catch up!

I last wrote about the mountain of doom - well that was followed by a very quiet weekend. I was tired, sore and cranky. It did bring home that Taebaek really is a small town, as we were bored out of our teenies! So we had a fresh and firm resolution to spend the minimum number of weekends stuck in our flat.

This brings us to the 23rd & 24th of September, a normal weekend - with no actual plan, we packed up and headed to the bus terminal (5 minutes away). We decided to head to Chuncheon ( the capital city of Kangwon-do), considering it had been a 4 hour trip with our supervisor, we thought it wouldn't take too much out of us. Well 6 hours later, we arrive in Chuncheon, weary but with a friend to visit. This weekend deserves its own post (so it shall have one). In short we had a lovely time in Chuncheon being looked after by our friends family - which means fed a lot of food!

The following weekend, we had a plan! On Friday the 22nd of September we caught the train to Gangneung - in order to reduce our travelling time on Saturday. Gangneung was interesting, we found a brilliant Love Hotel - choose your room; red and white, pine, dark, bright.. It was quiet funny but we will definetly return to that particular Love Hotel. It had a spa bath... I need say no more!
Saturday, we get up early (that would be 9am-ish) and make our way to the bus terminal. There is no train to Sokcho and we knew this trip should take 2 to 3 hours.

The bus route is along the coast for a long time, so I enjoy the beautiful scenery while listening to my favourite podcast CSoT.

We arrive at the beach in Sokcho and meet up with other English Teachers from around our province. To my utter surprise, someone has brought a cricket bat and proper stumps! So we entertain ourselves teaching a couple of Canadians cricket, while discovering just who all the Aussie's and Kiwi's are! That night we all have a couple of beverages together, the photos are here!
Sunday, there are a few sore heads and a few tired ones! We catch the local bus to nearby Soraksan - a beautiful national park, and enjoy an easy walk to lunch. Lunch turns out to be pankcakes with spring onion and/or marine products! We all giggle over the menu. The marine products turn out to be baby octopus! After a few brief farewells, we catch a "direct" bus home to Taebaek. It really wasn't direct but we were just looking forward to getting home, so it all worked out well.

Last week, both Mike and I had the terribly heavy workload of 1 day of work! Tuesday was Korean Foundation Day, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were Chuseok; all public holidays! We were lucky that our schools felt it was just to hard to make any students or teachers come to school on Wednesday. So with this happy news, our mini-holiday, we set off for Seoul on Wednesday. In brief, we went shopping, site seeing, met up with EPIK friends and tried to eat non-Korean food. Click here for Chuseok photos!

We planned to eat the following;

• A Steak
• Thai food
• Indian food
• Italian food (other than pizza)

We didn't eat a Steak or Thai food, because we ate the Indian food and were sick for a day.

I had planned to get my hair cut and coloured - I managed to get it cut, so I'm happy with that. Mike wanted geek toys - he bought plenty in the end!

I will post more on the Chuncheon trip very soon!
love
Squeezy

School Excursion: Mountain Climb... of DOOOOOOM!

Did I tell you that on friday I was on a hike? My school's teachers called it a Mountain Climb! So I was envisioning ropes and stairs and rocks and foot-holds. Damn if I was wrong about the whole thing. (before I left for the excursion; Mike said "too many kids - it will be easy"; which shows he's learnt nothing in 4/5 weeks, its always possible because things are done differently in Taebaek to, well, anywhere!) I was with the 3rd grade boys (about 16/17 years old, the oldest boys in school); this meant I was on the HARDEST hike.

We started on a path (a good start), and I could see it would be uphill for a while - so I was tough and kept going up. Then we had a break - at the bottom of the mountain (only I didn't know it yet)! All the way up, if the boys aren't posing for my photo's then they are trying to give me chocolates - "I'm thinking what, are you trying to turn me into a beach ball??"

After break the boys showed me a little snake and they were impressed when I wasn't scared. It was barely bigger than an earthworm (We did see a small earthworm further up the mountain and it was my co-teacher who freaked)! So we kept on hiking, and soon afterwards we are walking on a dirt track. It's a bit rocky but I did wear my Trusty Hiking Boots - yes they are that good - so all is ok. By this point, I have my own bodyguard, Dong Mi, and he's trying to teach me Korean. Which helps take my mind off the climb but leaves me very little breath to use! Our guide takes a wrong turn, fortunately for me, I'm at the back of the group; so I have very little ground to back-track. Another 30 minutes (I guess) and we reach a large flat high grassy area, we have a short break before our assault on the peak.

The path is so narrow, it's single file only and we all have to cover up due to the scratching and stinging plants ahead. We plod on and on, and the boys are starting to complain they want lunch. Which is fair enough as the time is almost 1pm. When we are almost at the summit, the boys from the front have to push back past us - so the last few meters are very crowded and busy. At last! We reach the top and I take a photo, then I am rushed back down the mountain to the last break area where we are to have lunch.

I arrive with my co-teacher and we all unpack the food we have brought and that our students have brought for us. It's pretty good being a teacher in Korea! We eat vegetable sushi rolls, something that looks suspiciously like chicken feet Korean style and pickles. After the last teacher joins us, they break out the Soju! AND BEERS!!! I find it funny how everyone is just howing into the food and the booze, then they break out coffee and desert! Until I had lived here, I really didn't understand how much Korean's love their food!

As we are preparing to re-commence the hike, I ask the guide (with my hands) if the hike will be steeply up or steeply down? She tells me up for a bit, then along a bit, then steeply down a bit. I'm not re-assured and I am tired already. At least I've saved the four chocolates I have been given and I use them for motivation to keep me going: later on I say to myself, many times over, 'I can have a chocolate in the bus'.

We set off, in the middle of the group and as she said it was up a bit. Every time I thought there can not be anymore uphill parts, there were more. For every uphill we hiked there was a downhill to match and at some point it started to rain - lightly but constantly. With the rain and already being tired, I wasn't really enjoying this hike anymore. My bodyguard gave up his attempts to teach me Korean and decided to finish the hike with his friends - who all have longer legs than I do! I realised that the kind-of flat part was our flat bit; even though it inbetween more mountains. I would say the view was lovely but we couldn't see very far on account of the rain. I was going slowly but ok.

After more trudging, we reached the downhill proper. Of course by this stage I was mumbling like a loon, something about chocolates, while trying to catch the students who were sliding out of control past me (I saved three!) and trying to keep myself vertical. Due to the rain, the ground because steadily more slippery and this was exacerbated by the students all wearing sneakers - so their downward options included running, slipping, sliding, screaming and yelling. In any particular order. By the time I reached the bottom of the mountain, my legs were shaking, my knees were screaming pain at me, my ankles sore (but saved from any injury by the Boots) and my toes were crying. I was proud of myself for reaching the bottom and not crying out loud on the way down - even when I fell over four or five times. I was just so exhausted.

So when I couldn't see the bus but could see a proper road I was almost happy. When we (my co-teacher - read personal translater/minder - and I) finally caught up with everyone else, we received a round of applause and one of the teachers took a photo of us walking to the bus! I was tempted to say "Paparazzi NO!". But felt no one was going to expect me to look picture perfect after a mountain climb in the rain. A couple of the teachers came up to me to say "you did good" - at least that's what I thought they meant.

I was never so happy to see the inside of a big old bus in my life!! I did eat that chocolate bar, however I waited until I got home - so the Korean mars bar and I could be... alone.

I'm a Blonde Freak HERE!!!

Ok, so I've moved into my little teeny tiny town called Taebaek. It is a totally charming place to live - very quiet, mountains in every direction, a clean river runs through town and it even has a bowling alley. I'm starting to get used to our small flat - which has an electronic lock on the front door. Mike raised the question of what if the battery goes flat - I'm guessing that why we were given lots of mobile numbers on a laminated page.

I'm in an all Boys middle school and am teaching 1st, 2nd and 3rd
years. My 3rd year students I have twice a week. Which means more work for me!

Today I tried an interview & name card exercise - apart from the fact no-one
interviewed anyone else - they ALL did their own name cards!!!! I think that's
my bad direction. One of the boys (whg is very outgoing) wrote his name and his phone number and "Call me please". He was supposed to be drawing/writing about things he likes eg. sports or colours. I had to laugh. I didn't think they'd
grasp a Rove style; What the..???

I have spent the rest of the day fielding "you're beautiful" and trying to wrestle the students back to practising speaking English with me. After all, I'm basically just here to talk with them. The weirdest one was one student asking for me to pull out a hair for him.

Apart from that, I haven't had any autograph requests but am hoping
that my overall oddness here will increase the size of my conversation
classes.

The teachers here are all keen to throw any english words at me -
which is sweet. I'm a little intimidated by the Teacher class I will
have on Thursday's.

Yesterday was my second wedding anniversary and we went out to dinner to mark the occasion. We had BBQ Beef Taebaek style - which translates as extremely expensive! It was delicious though!!!

Must run, everyone now wants my photo!
Susie

I'm gonna be a hillbilly!

Today we had a meeting to find out where we are going to live for the next 12 months.

AND I'm going to a small city (50,000 Pop.) called Taebaek.

I'm really excited as we now know where we'll be headed to because we move in on Friday! This week.
I have been told that we should have a larger than normal apartment - on account of there being two of us. So the news is really positive.

I met my Supervisor (who's name I'm not sure how to spell) and she was really nice and helpful. Also I met Alex - who is a liason guy. He was telling us as much as he could about our city, what to expect (as in some people will not have air conditioning - I hope that's not us!!) and that while we'll be in a rural area; we should not expect cows wandering down the street.

_______

Since Monday the 21st of August, I have been in Cheongju, South Korea. I have met lots of people from Australia, Britan, Canada, Ireland, Korean (!!) and the United States. Everyone has been really friendly and the time had been very enjoyable. Even the cultural musical component! Must say I'm not a fan of Korean Orchestral music but it's fair to say that I'm not a fan of the Australian Orchestra either. Just not my cup of tea.

Last weekend we explored Seoul in our own group - which meant no CURFEW!! We travelled with Katarina, Hugh, Jae & Gabe. We visited Seoul Tower - which showed us how amazingly LARGE Seoul is!, we went shopping in a couple of areas including Itawon. It was fun checking Seoul out! We stayed in a Love Motel and had to laugh at all the UV lighting. Otherwise is was comfortable & cheap! When we checked in, we were given a toothbrush pack that included a couple of amusing toiletries!!!

I'll update more shortly :)
love
Susie

Terrific Tigers in Thailand!!

We finally saw Tigers! Great big powerful roaring Tigers! And we patted them!!!!!!
It was just brilliant!

Thailand Holiday

Aug 8, 2006 - 24 Photos

ok starting from where I left you last...

Chiangmai
Tuesday
We checkout an IT mall here and decide it doesn't have much to offer. So we do the next best (?) thing - go sunglasses shopping. ARG!! Mike knows kindof what he likes, but then checks over each pair with his optomically trained eye. I get a cute little pair of red sunglasses customised with darker lens' and Mike goes a pair of mean looking grey sunglasses. Exhausted by pursuits of a shopping nature, we head off for some site seeing.
Wat Doi Suthep
It's a steep uphill winding climb and its starting to rain but our taxi driver just keeps overtaking anyone and everything else on the road. We dodge the (seemingly) neccessary hawkers of tat at the entry and ascend via the cable car. Once we see the staircase the cable car becomes a mystery as to why it was built - it doesn't go very far!
We have to take our shoes off immediately - which is probably a good thing because the rain is extremely heavy! We walk up to the top level and Mike takes a million photos of the golden stupa. We get to see a really well kept Wat where there has been careful restoration of all the paintings, buildings and buddhas. We make a small donation in one of the Buddha houses (?) and the monk ties some string around my wrist and says "for good luck". Mike sneaks a photo of him for me. After a little coffee, we find the view of Chiangmai. Its lovely. We can see and hear more rain to come, so we leave.
That night I come down with a terrible case of gastro - probably caused by the spicy salad I'd had that afternoon.
Wednesday
felt sick, stayed in bed until 4pm.
We went off to see a movie at the local cinema and saw Miami Vice. Couldn't recommend it as overall I didn't like it. It doesn't say much for a movie when the audience only laughs twice during the whole movie and one of the time is someone being shot in the head!
Thursday
still feeling sick but wanting to see Tigers more than wallow in bed! So we fly to Bangkok and catch a taxi to Kanchanaburi.
We get there ok and that night Mike comes down with gastro!! ARG!!
Friday
We have booked in to go to the Tiger Temple this afternoon and I'm hoping Mike can make it. We take it easy all morning - do nothing at all and wait for our 3.30 bus.
Mike manages to hold it together and we are on a truck taxi with an Intrepid tour group off to the Tiger Temple. I'm so excited at this point I'm grinning all the
way in the bus!
We walk up through these massive gates and follow the sounds of the occasional roars!
There are so many tourists here that we have to queue to go pat the Tigers and we find out later that the volume of people through is why they now chain down the Tigers. They didn't use to. It is an amazing experience patting the Tigers. I am guided from Tiger to Tiger. Mike is the last person allowed in for the day and we have heaps of photos to show for it!!! They show us all the other animals they keep by feeding them pumpkins and surrounding us with Ox, Cows, Pigs, Pony's, Chickens and Peacocks.
We bus back to Bangkok and find our way to Wendy House (Which is really good!).

Saturday The Queen's Birthday
I get to see all the photos and write this post while Mike has an extra sleep. Fingers crossed he'll be feeling better soon.

Enjoy the photos - some taken by Mike, some by our guides (Tiger Temple) and some by me.

kisses
Susie

Thailand Holiday

Aug 8, 2006 - 24 Photos

Thailand Holiday: Bangkok & Chiangmai

Sydney >> Bangkok

We left Sydney on Wednesday evening with Emirates (brilliant service, seats, entertainment & food!)
arrived into warm Bangkok morning at 2am and saw the least amount of traffic I have seen in this crazy city.
Thursday morning was kicked off with a sky high breakfast :) on the 76th floor of the Baiyoke Sky Tower. The highlight - fresh cooked roti! YUM!!
lots of wandering around Bangkok and Mike taking lots of photos of mangy, diseased, half-blind, starving cats (??? He's clearly CAT MAD)

Friday we headed out to the ancient capital Ayathaya and hired bicycles to get around - Mike's idea! He's cleary more mad than i thought!
It was a nice day - I even overtook a tuktuk full of school children!
The crazy thing was to get out there we took the train - no choice 2nd class only 245 B each, to get back no choice 3rd class only 20 B each.
I think I did well volunteering to pay for the leg home! hehe

Saturday, we scored a reasonable deal of flight-accomodation-trek to get out to Chiang Mai, by walking into the airport! It was really easy and so far has proven a good choice. Chiang Mai is lovely but very dry in its heat! Good thing the guesthouse has a pool :)


Chiangmai

Sunday, The elephants were great - a bit bumpy though. The ox cart was bumpy too.. the bamboo raft wasn't though :) I had the first go at "poling" (?) and everyone else seemed happy to leave me to it. Our adventuring was followed by a passable buffet, which was followed by offers to go see Monkey & Snake shows. hmm we passed.
Instead we went onto the thrilling Orchid & Butterfly farm. IT WAS THRILLING!!!
so much so Mike & I both passed out on the bus ride back to Chiangmai.

Seeing as it was still Sunday, we went out to the Sunday market. And oh what a market. Very little in the way of tat! I bought earings, a black cotton top, a pink bag and matching head-band. I am soooo cool now!! lol
We wandered around until we needed dinner. Mike had chosen a small venue that was enclosed in a small garden. It was pretty romantic & was going really well (helpful waiter who assisted us in ordering from the yummerific menu) when the power cut out. So we had a candle light dinner :) It was lovely.

Monday, we did a cookery course, they had a good number of people there but we were the only people on course 2. So we had a private lesson!!! We can now make a mean yellow chicken curry, papaya salad, red curry stirfry and basil & pepper stir fry! We have 3 containers full of food in our fridge - so dinner will be very cheap tonight! Great value less than $30 aus each for the whole day including transport!

I'm now looking over a spanky imac at a little shop called Le Chocolat - no prizes for what I'll be doing after my coffee is finished!

kisses
Squeezy

Ping Update

I haven't pinged for over a week now :P

Moving House Sux!

Well I've just endured the most horrendous week! Moving out of my 2 bedroom house, in which I have lived for four and a half years. If you could imagine two people who have a tendancy to be messy, an inbuilt loathing of throwing anything away and a general distaste for cleaning - then you could have an idea of the magnitude of the job that we attempted to complete in 7 days.


To properly explain, I'll start with the weather. Sydney is in a drought. So the week we moved out, it rained. Not a solid soaking useful rain. Not even a helpful rain over the catchment areas. It rained in a stupid on again, off again, bloody pooring down fashion. We realised that the weather would not be on our side, so we organised two blokes and a truck. By this point we were half way through the week and the only thing moved by this point was the scuba gear. feeling positive at this point..

So the two blokes turn up, late but with a really big Ute (it deserves capitals for the size of the tray alone!). Then they ask us twice what needs to go on the Ute (once for each bloke), over an hour later the load on the Ute is looking precarious. A total of 9 Mac +es, 5 Ikea bookcases, 3 shelving units, 1 mattress, 1 fridge, 1 filing cabinet, a cubic meter of books plus many boxes have all gone on. And I'm really wondering, just how much will fall off in transit. I'm also wondering how much I really care - not much as the day is getting on and we haven't left yet. The blokes are securing the load with multiple ropes and a careful selection of knots - at this point Mike & I bolt!

And down comes the rain spectacularly! So much for a non-moldy mattress! oh well, at least we have a nice lunch cooked for us (cheesy pasta! yum!) and we can play with the cat (The Vomitron - he vomits a lot). we're entertained. we're fed and we're warm. But importantly after a 40 minute drive, we've been waiting almost another 40 minutes for our two blokes in the Ute. I make some phone calls, leave some messages and they turn up. It took them 70 minutes to drive the distance because they opted to turn right on Parramatta road (head East) instead of left (head West). hmmm, whoever said women can't navigate hadn't met these two prime orienteerers!

Right so we've moved the bulky items, been rained on and on and returned to the scene of the crime. And I really can't say I can see much of a difference. Because we are moving overseas, we are much more viscious in throwing out/recycling our posessions rather than moving them - as what good will they be in 12-18 months time? So after borrowing 2 council bins, we have filled 2 and 1/2 bins and our recycle bin is chockas! We decide to hire a ute (much smaller with a cage) and drive off to the local tip. This turns into its own challenge as my little inner-west Sydney suburb does not have a tip of any kind - they refer you to inquire of other suburbs! The Cheek!!
Chullora council comes to our aid - they have a tip and its open all weekend! Yeah! So we do the nasty (including 3 monitors) we dispose of over 300kgs of rubbish. Which in itself is shocking! The weekend has passed in a blur of packing things into boxes and moving said boxes. I'm now officially sick of boxes and now using plastic bags as an alternative! I'm recycling :)

I did have the good sense to organise a cleaner - there is just no way I was going to pack up a house and then clean it until it sparkled! The cleaners turn up - two smiling ladies - and after promising them an empty house to clean, I have two curtains to change over and I've piled everything left in the living room. So they set to work and I waited for Mike to turn up.. and eventually he arrived, then left pursuing coffee! ARG! He did have the good grace to bring me a coffee, but when he started gardening over finished the removal of remaining items from the Lounge - I could bear no more and started ordering him around. I didn't want to be bossy but we did need to complete the inside before considering the outside!!!

Anyhow after all the boxing, moving of boxes, bags, rugs, bookshelves and books. Its all done.
We've had the final inspection and the landlord was pleased. I was relieved!

So I went and had an hour massage. I swear I'll never have that much crap again!

Online Shopping Bliss

I have found a little patch of shopping Nirvana - online!

As preparation for moving overseas, I've been looking into what indepsensible

items I can buy online and have delivered. And good skin care is top of the list. My reading into South Korea indicates that pollution can be a problem - I'm hoping it won't be but planning that it will! So all this has led me to find a great little online store called Absolutely Gorgeous. You gotta love a stylin' chick like this one!

They have a great range of Australian products - I couldn't leave home (let alone the country) without my Shizen lipgloss. Shizen is the most amazing stuff - nice gloss, nice smell and it prevents cold sores. Its just soooo yummy!




I'm not just raving in a lunatic style fashion because of the balm or because they have many cool lip balms/glosses, and really cute eye shadow colours (see>>).
But because I've exchanged emails with the Absolutely Gorgeous Lady - and she's fast answering my questions (ie. do you have that in pink??) and she's been really nice when I did place an order ... eventually! Lastly she's just fabulous because everything I ordered arrived really quickly and was exactly as good or better than I was expecting!


Now I'm just waiting to see what my new skin care is like.. But unlike on eBay - where you have to wait and hope; I'm looking forward to my next package with no trepidation!

All the images in this post have been used without the authority or knowledge of the sites they came from. Seeing as I'm saying nice things - I'm hoping its ok.

sigh..

I'm feeling a bit sad and a bit tired today.

Yesterday, I had a lovely lunch out at North Sydney's Prasit Restaurant. Which does lovely thai food. There were prawns in coconut and scallops on the shell. Then we had a devine deep fried whole barramundi in tamarind sauce YUM! It was very very relaxing. The lunch was a mini goodbye from one of my boss' who will be away when i finish work next week. It was really sweet that they took the time to talk with me and treat me to such a lovely lunch out.

Seeing as that all went so well, I ended up over at a good friends place for dinner. I'm a god parent to their twin daughters - and it was great to spend some time fussing over the little toddlers. They are just so cute now! Both kids walk around and talk a little - mainly following their older sister - she's 5 and they're almost 2. It was also great to spend some time having grown up conversations - that was until Mirryn discovered I can be easily tickled. I don't think its a good thing that i can be seriously chased by a 5 year old who has found my weakness!

So now I'm back at work today - only 5 more days to go!!! Given that I can't count Saturday - as it will hopefully be terribly dull and non-eventful.

I'm tired because last night felt late and well with World Cup winding up now - its a lethargic kind of day. I think I'll go sigh..

Ubuntu yourself!

Ubuntu seems to be a really easy way to install a good linux os.

However it seems to have made the non-geeky amoung us, suddenly believe that they are now card carrying geeks. And yes, I am talking about someone inparticular - lets call him Redfern Princess.

I'm sorry to be harsh but installing Ubuntu does not make you any more computer saavy than you were before. It also does not bequeath you with technical know-how; RP word isn't hard!

Come back to me when you actually know something about your install or your computer or where it all fits in, in the scheme of things. Or if that's too hard - get yourself a podcast that isn't some techno dance dude pumping doof-doof-dooof down the internet. Or put in some effort and watch an all nighter of orignal Star Trek followed up by some Walker Texas Ranger. I think that should mess with your mind appropiately.

In the mean time stop with the Bloody UBUNTU!!!!!!

Work & Pinging!!!!

ARG!! I feel like Dilbert - only perhaps I really mean the pointy haired woman. What is it with co-workers who tease you? Hmm?

And Pinging. Pinging is not a word! Two of the girls (D&G) here keep accusing me of Pinging. WTF?
Apparantly to Ping is to change the content of the conversation with no apparent logical link.
An example;
This morning while talking to my boss about his upcoming ski trip, we were discussing ski attire. Gloves, ski pants, goggles, stocks, poles etc.
I mentioned how quite a few shops have sales on in Sydney (York St) even though we are at the beginning of our winter. I happened to find a gorgeous pair of pink ski pants on the weekend and I told my boss so. I'm quite excited about these pants as they will co-ordinate with my ski jacket better than my current ski pants (boo hoo black). No more than a moment passes before D&G start agreeing that I have Pinged! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Beautiful Sydney

IMGP0946
Originally uploaded by Squeezysk.

Ah, Beautiful Sydney. I'll be leaving it behind soon. It makes me want to go do all the touristy things you forget about. Like Taronga Zoo and going to the AFL.
Speaking of the AFL, I went to the Sydney Swans game on Saturday night. And it poured with rain the whole time! Well until I gave up and went home (in the final quarter). Sadly the Swans lost by two points after a gallant comback of fifteen points down!!
It was a brilliant weekend for sport -even with my favourite team losing :(
I saw Australia v England in the Rugby Union, and really enjoyed the smashing victory posted by the Wallabies!!! It would have helped England if they hadn't given away so very many penalties - however they still would have lost the game. Yeah Wallabies!
To finish this fine weekend of sport - was the first game of the World Cup for Australia and we won!! WoooT So proud of our socceroos! Not sure about the mascot though...
Tired now after reliving that weekend.
kisses
Squeezy

Somthing Pink!

This beautiful hibiscus flower was blooming on a terribly hot day, next to the Mekong River in Luang Prabang. It was so lovely I had to take a photo!

A couple of images from Laos

Luang Prabang: Part of a Wat

The morning procession for alms by the Monks of Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang: Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham (not sure that I have the correct temple name).

Vientiane: The Patuxai

Vientiane: Pha That Luang - the icon of Vientiane

Vientiane: Mike walking out to board the far to early flight to Pakse.

Last year, I went on holiday to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos!
It was a brilliant trip - just not long enough.
In Laos, we started in Luang Prabang then travelled to Vientienne and on to Pakse.



We braved ordering this dish in Luang Prabang in a restaurant that hung over the river. It's a beef and chilli stir fry.
I thought we'd have no trouble with those huge chilli's...
They're hot, oh so Hot! Just like the whole trip really.

Squeezy

I'm going to South Korea!

Whooo Hoooo!
Fantastic News for me!!!
I'm moving to South Korea to teach English!
I've quit my job and am looking forward to exploring South Korea - ski field by ski field!
This is how I plan to be for the next 12 months.

This is all so exciting while being a bit sad. I've been in my current job for seven years and I am quite attached to the familar people, work and place.
So now for something completely different!

Intro

Hi,

I'm Squeezy and I'm starting this blog so that I can chart my travelling adventures!

Currently top of the travel to list is

India
South Korea
Japan
Antartica
Peru
Mongolia

I'm 29 years old, married to a wonderful man and living in Sydney, Australia.

Most recently viewed movies are The DaVinci Code and X3. I enjoyed both movies for different reasons.
Most recently viewed TV shows are America's Next Top Model (Cycle 6) and Top Gear.

Anyhoos, will post again soon, as I'm trying to get this all set up. So that I can further discuss fashion, food, movies, travelling and the colour Pink (my favourite).

kisses
Squeezy