"Engrish"

Hi again! Well I gotta say, I am pretty impressed with my steady blog entries! I believe this will be my 12th entry in... just under 2 months! So if I am not mistaken, that is about 1-2 entries a week! Hopefully you are all reading and enjoying these because I do enjoy writing them and depending on the feedback, they will only continue!
So I guess I should begin with the most recent event that occured a mere 2 hours ago. After work my co worker and I decided to grab some groceries, and instead of walking home with heavy bags, we naturally decided to take a cab home. We hopped in and the cabby started driving recklessly (which would be strange if he DIDN'T) and long story short, slammed on the breaks just in time for a van to crash into us!! I was officially in my first (and hopfully last) car accident in Korea! Groceries went flying and my neck's a little sore, but its nothing serious. Definitely shook us up a little! Sorry parents if you are hearing about this for the first time... but we are all good and from now on I promise to wear a seatbelt in a cab! eeeek.
Anyways, Friday night my co workers band Feed the Boats, performed at a bar downtown Gwangju and just about EVERYBODY I have met since my first day here, came out. It was a great night!! There are 4 of them in the band and they all met each other here in Korea. 3 of them are English teachers and one guy (the drummer) is Korean. They have been together for the past year and are all extending their contracts to continue playing together. I posted a short clip I took of them on facebook if you want to check them out. Their band name "Feed the Boats" actually derives from Korea's hilarious use of "engrish" aka terribly translated Korean into English. There are many shops around town that sell clothing (mostly t-shirts and sweatshirts) with the most ridiculous "engrish" sayings on them that makes absolutely NO SENSE but you want to buy it because it is just that funny. So getting back to the band, Joanna (my co worker) was shopping downtown one day and saw a shirt that read "DON'T FEED THE BOATS". It was complete nonsense and she loved it. After they formed a band they decided to go with Feed the Boats... flowed a little better.

So while we are on the topic of engrish, I thought I would post some pictures of what I have seen myself, as well as some pictures on engrish.com that are too funny not to post.

The literal translation is "Urinating here is prohibited"...

mmm Bee puke and tissues... what a meal!

hmm..

Do you think its a real "J-Lo" purse?? lol..

And my very own purchase..."Bitchez betta have my money"... not even the weird robot design makes any sense?!

I've also seen a sweatshirt with an Italian flag that read "Canada"... but the worst I think I've seen here is a tshirt that said in bold letters, "Abortion Doctor". You just have to laugh... they are so ridiculous and really aren't intended to offend anyone!

Also, this weekend was the first time I saw a non-smoking sign here!! I'm sure I've mentioned before that people (men) smoke EVERYWHERE (airport, bus station, restaurants, bars, salons...you name it!) So I was pretty surprised to see a non smoking sign... with good reason! However it happened to be in a bathroom. And that's not the funny part... if you look closely at the picture, there is an ash tray directly across from the toilet...with ciggarette butts in it! lol... oh Korea..

Moving on... Sunday during the day some friends and I decided to check out a different neighbourhood, a town close by called Sangmu which has a huge, beautiful temple in it (I think that's all the town is known for). So we walked around a bit, grabbed a bite to eat, and then toured around the old temple. It really was beautiful! This particular temple is known for doing "temple stays" which i think would be a really neat experience... I'm just not sure if the 'Jewish' thing is going to be a problem...lol. Anyways, here are a couple of pictures I took when we arrived...

It was a very relaxing Sunday and we left just as the sun was setting.

So as you already know, today after work I did a big (and much needed) grocery shop (which ended in a sore neck).. but nevertheless, it feels great to finally have a stocked fridge! Now all I need to buy is a chef and ill be set! haha! Since last night I was still with no food, my friend Jimmy and I decided to go for a nice Korean dinner in our area. We chose a Korean restaurant and since I couldn't read anything on the menu (Jimmy is half Korean) I told him to order for me, so long as its not live octopus or dog, I'm fine with trying new things! He had already been to this restaurant and recommended the "Pork spine soup"... sorry dad (I can already see you shaking your head). It may sound unappealing but it was actually quite delicious! Rather than painting a picture for you, I took a photo during dinner for you to see. It was a pretty large bowl of soup with a pigs spine poking out of it. Apparently that's what gives it the flavour!

I'm thinking of starting another blog solely dedicated to food. You all know how much I love food, and writing about it would be even sweeter! I will let you know if that ends up happening...
On another note, work has been going well. This is my last week of working these crazy hours (9am-7pm), so starting Monday it's back to my ideal afternoon hours! Can't wait! My student evaluations are just about finished (those were pretty entertaining) and tomorrow is TEST DAY! This means us teachers basically get to distribute tests to our students, and then sit around and do... nothing! Woohoo! My classes are all routine here so I'm taking it upon myself to do something different and make it more appealing for the students. I now begin every one of my classes with a "riddle of the day". The kids love it and it really gets them thinking! Of course, I also bribe them with stickers (10 stickers for whoever can answer it correctly) but hey, it works! The only problem I've encountered with doing these riddles, is that the students here are VERY particular. For example, one riddle I told them goes like this, "What is white and black and read all over"? Well apparently, newspapers are GRAY!! They weren't too happy with me....! Another one reads, "What can move back and forth, can't walk, talk or crawl and comes in different shapes, sizes and colors"... the answer is a door, however I should have re-thought that one since all the doors in my school are sliding doors lol.. again, they weren't impressed! I also got a kick out of my student's answer when I asked them, "Which city has no people?"... the answer being 'electricity', one student yells out "Canada!" Ohh boy. I am always looking for more riddles, so if you know of any feel free to post some under comments!
Well this entry is longer than I wanted it to be, so I will leave you with this... unfortunately I can't copy and paste the link but if you go on youtube and type in "Where the Hell is Matt" watch his dancing video. It's about 4mins long and will hopefully put a smile on your face... it did for me! Let it load and then watch it in HD... this guy is my travelling inspiration. Hope you like it!

Write more soon.

Signing off,

Gillian