I'm Just A Girl

Hello & Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope everyone had a good drunken New Year's- wherever you are in the world. Mine was pretty quiet- and despite my best efforts to get smashed- I didn't come anywhere near it. I think I've learned that Korean beer is far weaker than Canadian beer, so I'll be switching back to the Vodka. And I learned that Newfoundland's proud reputation of having the country's biggest drinkers- is nothing more than a rumor more than likely started by a Newfoundlander smashed after one shot of Screech. I think a Montrealer with a weak stomach could drink a Newfoundlander under the table any day...

In any case, we made plans to head down to the Canadian bar for New Year's in Itaewon (or Little America)- but then as we were getting ready to go out, we came to the realization that in Little America we would be met by the entire Seoul chapter of the American Military... so we just went to an out of the way pub- about as far as we could get from where we knew the Americans would be. The sign outside indicated it was a Western Bar- which in Korea does not mean cowboy bar, but means they play English music. And as promised we walked in and the walls were plastered with posters of Brit bands. The bar was nearly empty. At five minutes to midnight- the three of us looked around, wondering why there wasn't a TV on or something- no count down to be heard. At midnight the bartendar came over- said Happy New Year and Last Call. So we ordered every drink in the menu with the word 'sexy' in it- (love, sexy and happy seem to be the most used English words here, but no one really knows how to use them... the other day I purchased sexy hand cream from a dollar store- that also carried sexy shampoo and conditioner...) and then went home, continuing to drink there. Now as far as drinking laws go- I know Montrealers are very proud that we can buy beer and wine at the deps or at grocery stores- and you can always find those places to sell them to you after hours... if you're willing to pay twice the price. Well Montreal's got nothing on Korea. Scotch, whiskey and soju (Korean sweet potato vodka) is sold at deps and grocery stores. Grocery stores not only carry hard alcohol, but will pass out 'samples' (or shots as we call them in Canada) to shoppers as they pass by- presumably to make their shopping experience more pleasant, but more than likely to impair your judgement so you spend more money. And we walked right into the dep at 4am (when we ran out of beer at home), picked up some more, and kept right on drinking. Take that, Montreal! I got home- sober- at 5am, leaving the Newfoundlanders behind, completely trashed.

We've started planning for the year end show at school... which I assumed was a play, since my boss asked me to direct it after discovering my degree was in theatre. As it turns out, it's a song and dance show- and he, like so many others- lumps this all into one category and says it's all the same. In any case, I am directing two classes of kids (one of four year olds, and the other five year olds) in separate song and dance routines (my requests to do a play were dismissed... god forbid the kids actually use the English they were taught...). The deadline to have our song choices was Friday. And I stressed and stressed. I didn't want to do some boring ass- "If you're happy and you know it" song, or Row, row, row your boat. And so I went home and listened to my cds determined to find something. For a moment I was tempted to be subversive and choose Last Dance with Mary Jane, but decided it was too complicated for the kids. And I seriously thought about doing I'm Just A Girl - the lyrics of which would be dangerously provocative in a country where women 'know their place'... but I decided again, this would be too hard for the kids. Finally I settled on Bjork's It's Oh So Quiet- this way the parents are happy cause the kids get to dress up and look all pretty and act all sweet, and the kids are happy cause they get to act all sweet, and then go crazy... and I'm happy cause I don't have to listen to Wheels On The Bus again....

Apart from New Year's this week was pretty uneventful... I got back into the gym, which was good. My trainer Lee (who calls me Uma Thurman- I'm not sure if he's trying to say all blonds look the same, or he's trying to say that I'm getting stronger- in any case...), is happy to report that my arms are actually getting some definition and he insists that I've lost five pounds... although he was a little frustrated that I refused to weigh myself, as I think that women are too obsessed with the number they see on the scale. I am proud to say I have not weighed myself in over seven years- I'm not about to start now.

To make up for a very quiet New Year's, my friends Glen, Michelle and I headed to the Canadian bar. We quickly made friends with a girl from New Zealand, who was ditched by her friends who were in search of American Military boys... In true Canadian style, we were soon joined by three other Canadian boys. Glen and Michelle - my Newfoundland friends with no alcohol tolerance left early because they were drunk, but I was having fun, so I stayed for awhile. And here is where I had my first real scare in Korea- I left the bar with the New Zealander and she walked with me to the bank machine across the street so I could get money out for a cab home. And the guichet just refused to spit any money out at me- finally the girl tells me that bank machines in Korea close at 10pm. The machine is there- I can touch it, I can put my card in- but I cannot get any money out after 10pm. Knowing full well it's a 20$ cab ride home- and I wouldn't even begin to know what direction to start walking... just as I started freaking out, the girl handed me 20$ and gave me her phone number so we can hang out/I can pay her back. I guess that'll teach me to try and budget myself when I'm going out... And I had my first travel experience where I was really screwed and someone bailed me out.

Along the same lines of Korean oddities - despite all their technology, and their obsession with it, interac does not exist here. And many stores will take only Samsung credit cards. Talk about a monopoly that controls the people. Samsung not only makes Tvs, dvd players, cell phones and other technological gadgets- they also make cars, weights and barbells, yoga mats, they own apartment buildings and malls. They run insurance companies and also have their own credit card company- and of course, their stores take only their credit cards. Despite my experience working for Samsung US, I'm told that in Korea- Samsung in known for their customer service. I've even been told tales of the service reps fixing other appliances (not Samsung) in the house while on service calls. And the service reps carry bags of fresh, clean socks in their cars, so they don't track dirt from one apartment floor to another. This however, doesn't change the fact that Samsung is evil. But the reality is that the entire country of Korea is run by four massive companies- and they're all just as bad; there's LG and Hyundai (Hyundai owns Daewoo and has a chain of gas stations) and Lotte which makes all the processed foods and cleaning products in the country, has a fast food chain and an amusement park. I suppose Canada and the US are probably just as bad- but here people know about it- I guess that's the difference.