Moment

I had a great moment this morning. It was bright and crispy outside. I was just standing there looking out the window and on the lamp post across the street a white dove landed. It stayed there for about a minute and turned around and was looking in my direction. I stared right at it and I felt like the bird was staring right back at me. This beautiful white bird. It reminded me of a dream my dad had about a crow only here there was a peaceful benevolent feeling.

Different person

I never imagined being where I am, and being how I am right now. I have changed so much, in appearance, mentality, life goals, ideology... And it hasn't even been a year since I've gone away, but being able to change environments so drastically has allowed me to really grow and develop without much influence from the outside. It's all worth it, I wish more people would take the time to get to know themselves more in depth.

I'm only 25, and still have so much more time.

Wonderful day

I woke up this morning to a nice cuddling session, went to work slightly late because it's Friday and it doesn't matter much. Cooked with the kids and played games all morning. Had a good lunch and long break, filled with some more awesome and yummy cuddling. Had a good rest of the day at work, with lots of kids enjoying their classes. And then, I got paid :). Came back home, watched a little of this movie I had ordered on EBay that finally arrived today, then, after some suuper nice cuddling, Ryan and me went and treated ourselves to some nice BBQ at our favourite beef place across the street. We ate, drank and talked for a couple of hours. Then came back, I found a nice full length mirror downstairs where the furniture store throws out things they don't need, bought some delicious ice-cream and went up. Now I'm listening to this awesome album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

What a super nice day :D.

One more year

So, after a lot of thinking and planing and looking at options, I've decided to stay another year with the same school. It will all be just a lot easier now because I've already figured the system out, have all the materials for school, my apartment is all set and looks nice, no use going anywhere else right now and staring everything all over again. So yes, I've decided to stay. This means I'll be here until March 2009. I thought about going to Canada to visit for a week (that's the most I would have off), but it's not time for it yet. I feel free here, my life all in front of me, doing what I need to do to figure out what I should be doing with it, where I should go. It's scary at times. I realised this is the first time I have been away for so long from my parents. The longest time I've been away before was 7 months when I went to England. Next week it'll be 10 months. Wow, so now I've got 14 more months to go until I can leave. Who knows what will happen though, maybe I'll stay again another year after that.

I cut up my credit card the other day. I realised it's idea of a safety net was absolutely false. I get paid, I have money, why have a credit card that obviously will be used regardless of my finances. So, it's gone. Now I buy groceries and cook at home, send my money away and keep my savings. My sister knows how to do it right.

Is this winter?

So, winter is here. I had read before that there's not a lot of snow here, but I wasn't prepared for this. It snowed a couple of times and it never stayed for the whole evening. It feels so weird. Christmas is coming and there isn't that festivity, that holiday madness in the air. I was reminded of Boxing Day the other day and just realised the ridicule of having such a day. So, Christmas day, Jesus our saviour is born, next day, go shopping and show us how much you love Jesus!!! HAHAHAHAHA. I mean, why would Boxing Day be a holiday? It's just an excuse to go shopping and spend lots of money that most people don't even have.

I want snow!!

Good times

Well, even though it's getting really cold outside, and even at work I wear many layers, hat and scarf, I'm still enjoying myself. My birthday was a few days ago, and I didn't really want to celebrate or make a big deal out of it. It was nice to get some emails, phone calls, and messages from people wishing me happy birthday though. The weekend before that I felt a change in me. I feel like an adult now, ready to consciously take my life into my own hands and be responsible for the consequences of my decisions. I find I have to constantly remind myself of this, but at least I have went up a level in my development.

Here are the latest pictures :).


This is Ryan and me at a pub being silly and taking random pictures.




This is in the morning, amazing light coming through, after a nice cuddle, I'm all warm and fuzzy inside :)

This is my life

Here I am, Tuesday night, it's 3am, am talking with my friend Ryan, have had quite a few drinks, just went outside for a smoke, and saw that it was snowing. Then I had an amazing realisations. THIS IS MY LIFE!!!!! From now on, it is mine. My responsibility. Only mine. No one else's. My decisions, my choices. What I want out of my life, I will have to do, work for, get, accomplish, figure out, all that. But now it's only up to me. I'm far away from family and friends, and the only person I have to rely on is myself. This is my life and my life alone. I hadn't realised this before. I was living someone else's expectations, doing what was normal and common, but not anymore. Now, this is my life. I will do what I want, figure out what is good for me and be where I want to be , go where I want to go, because this IS MY LIFE!!! How wonderful is that :D

Fall Hike at Naejangsan

Decked out in the latest hiking fashions, equipped with a cup full of silk worm larva in one hand and a walking stick in the other, as soon as the weekend hits, the Koreans head for the mountains. Even with hundreds of mountains in the Seoul vicinity, I still find myself surrounded by masses of Koreans looking to escape the city and experience nature. Rows of spices, ginseng, sweet potatoes, roasted pork, corn, persimmons, chest nuts and a variety of unidentifiable edibles.

Here are some of the pictures.

This is the map of the region with the park and the mountain.

At the base of the mountain is a little village with restaurants, motels, buses and LOTS of people.

Traffic jam. There's no escape!!

People heading up towards the entrance to the mountain trails.

I thought this picture was really cool. These big pots are traditionally Korean. Pretty much every household has at least one of them in which they make chimchee, a sort of pickled spicy cabbage that is said to have incredible healing powers.

No weekend hike would be complete without the local drag queen.

Mmmmm, roasted chestnuts.

Mmmmmm, mini shrimp stew.

Mmmmmmm, silk worm larva :).

So this was the little road that lead up to the park entrance. The colours were amazing.

This pictures is called, "Two foreigners and a red tree".

This tree looked like it was out of a spooky fairy tale.

Dried out river.

These two pictures are taken from another person who went on this hike.

Alright, so I promised a long time ago, that I would take a picture of the very common and super scary public toilets. I finally took a second to snap a shot of the "toilet" at one of the rest stops on the way to the mountain.

Picutres :)

OK, here are the pictures you've been asking for, plus some other ones of me that I didn't get a chance to put up :). Enjoy.


This picture again, it's the right side.


So this is the front of the cupboard.


This is the left side. You can really see a transition from the first one to the last one, how I felt, my mood. It came out pretty well :).


Cake? Did I see cake? Where is the cake? I thought there would be cake... OK I'm going back to sleep if there's no cake.


OK, I found the cake, I'm happy now.


Oooh, I had too much cake... I'm ready to go to sleep now but I can't, I'm surrounded by little people. Awwww, they're so cute tho :).

Cooking and random pics

So finally, after nearly 8 months I have actually cooked something. I bought a whole bunch of different mushrooms, which are really cheap here, some onions, carrots and a whole roasted chicken stuffed with rice, garlic and ginseng. Cooked the mushrooms, carrots and the onions and then mixed the chicken (with stuff) and the mushroom mix. WOW!!!!! soooo yummy :D.

I have also finally decided on my trip for next summer. I'm going to Europe :D.

April 2 - April 13 -- Spain
April 15 - April 26 -- Germany
April 27 - May 10 -- Switzerland
May 21 - June 1 -- Austria
June 3 - June 14 -- France
June 18 - June 29 -- Belgium
July 2 - July 13 -- Poland

Then off to Hungary for a couple of days, then Romania and then back to Korea to start another contract in August. There won't be much time between the countries to go and visit the countries themselves, but I'll have a little bit of time between Switzerland and Austria to travel around the neighbouring countries. I don't know about that yet, but that's something I'll have to figure out when I'm there.

So, here are some recent pictures of me :)


This was a field trip with the kids, and we went on a merry-go-round. Wheeee, look look, I'm riding the horsey :)


Dana the hippie. New hat, new sweater, new jacket, new bag, and amazingly, they all matched. I was very wonderfully surprised :).


That was me around Moran subway station, walking around trying to find the infamous dog market. We didn't find it, but ended up walking through the winding roads and alleys filled with crammed houses and apartment buildings. Very interesting looking.


This was the first day of fall, and I was absolutely freezing. The scarf came out, I wore long-johns and an undershirt.