Some friends and some dough

Hmm, I am unsure as to whether I spelt "dough" as in the slang for money quite right, but I have good news! I got paid!
Not in the sense that a bunch of gangsters attacked me and "I got paaaaaid" but in the sense that I have gotten my first installment of a regular monthly salary for 6-8 months.

But to explain the "friends" part of the title, yesterday I went to a place called Gimcheon where a few of my Korean friends from New Zealand live.  Friends is a bit of a loose word in this sense, because here we would call them older brother and older sister.  It's another one of those weird asian things I think, that you call a male of close but older age to you older brother (usually unmarried) and you call a female of close but older age to you older sister (also usually unmarried).  So I call them friends in English in an attempt to reduce confusion.  Both are about ten years older than I am and are married now.  (When I met them, they were just a couple and were on a working holiday in New Zealand)  The female friend is now eight months pregnant, so out of curiosity and also because I haven't seen them for almost a year, I decided to go see them here where they now lived out their post-new zealand life.

There I was bombarded by both Ultrasound pictures and also the photos from the wedding I missed. (It was late last year in Korea and though I was invited, since it was during exams, it seemed unlikely that I would make it.  Sure enough, I didn't.)  Looking at this, I noticed another strange part of Korean culture.  But as to whether it is only in Korea, I am not entirely sure because I am no expert on wedding photos.  In any case, what surprised me were these photos taken in the studio, with borrowed clothes on sets.  It seemed really materialistic and also seemed to miss the point that wedding photos were supposed to give.  Apparently the couple themselves found it strange to be on sets (like the ones from television programs) with really fancy clothing that they chose out of a wardrobe, posing like the photographer told them to.  I was tempted to ask, "Why? What's the point?".  In all honesty, you didn't get many good memories out of it, (apparently it was a gruelling five hours of posing as the man asked) it wasn't meaningful at all (what with all the stereotyped poses and excessive decorations) and seeing as they got nice photos from the wedding itself, I didn't really see the point in it.  But I gather that in later years, they may appreciate that they have such an album to show their children and grandchildren what a lovely couple they were.   Or something, I'm really not very sure.
But overall, the trip to see them was very nice.  I had discovered when I ate out here, that vegetarian food was very hard to find, so it was to a great surprise that we managed to find a restaurant, just a little down the road that did a vegetarian version of one of the meals that I greatly used to enjoy.  It was called Jja jang myun, and it was this noodle meal with this strong soy-based sauce on top.  Definitely one of my favorite things to eat in Korea.  After the lovely meal (which I failed to take any pictures of, due to being busy eating), with full stomachs, we went for ice cream.  I say ice cream but what I really mean is frozen yoghurt with fruit, some toast (apparently given out free as a service) with cream and a piece of blueberry cheesecake that for some reason failed to taste like a cheesecake at all, but was still delicious.  Now this meal, I do have a picture of.

Below, is a picture of me with each of my friends

 And some of the cafe itself

That's right, their seats were SWINGS.

We also wandered around outside for a bit too.

A visit to Grandma's (minus the big bad wolf)

Yesterday, with my mother, I went on a bus, first for an hour.  Then waited about twenty minutes to get on another bus to go for thirty minutes to get to my grandmother's house.

After my grandfather's death, she was living with my uncle whom was a university professor at a university nearby.  At the time I got there, he was still at work, so only my aunt and grandmother greeted us.

However, later on, after a while of talking and eating fruit, two of my older boy cousins came.  One who was one year younger than my brother, so about five years older than I, was currently on holiday from the army for two days.  He'd been in there since about three years ago so was going to come out in June.  From him, we learnt of some important details about what had happened with the ship that went off radar and then was found broken in half at the bottom of the sea.

At the moment, in the media, that is basically what half the news consists of.  News of recent corpses found on the ship and news of how their families were.  The saddest thing that I saw, (which I saw on the korean news back in New Zealand) was how a few men, trying to save the people on the ship, also died themselves.  These people were named heroes and had grand funerals.  But for the people on the boat, there was no such grandeur.  In fact, after the accident, their families were first left in hope, where people kept trying to rescue them... but after a few days, the army had to publically announce that there was no hope in finding live survivors. (As the ship was underwater this whole time) And the families of those who died were left with ill feelings that they began to turn against the army.

Therefore, a few weeks ago when my cousin was putting up tents with his unit, (they were based quite near where the accident happened) the famillies of those that died suddenly attacked them, pulling down the tents that were made for twenty people and therefore took up lots of time to put up.  Remembering at womad, how hard it was to put up Anya's tent, I kinda understood the frustration.  After that, the families then attacked the higher-ranked officers who were telling people to continue putting up tents.

At this point in the conversation, the subject turned to whether or not there would be a war.  I asked about this, what would happen to me if there were a war.  They told me that I would get first choice on the planes out because I was counted as a foreigner.  But for there to be a war, they had to find evidence against North Korea that proved that they attacked the ship.  Apparently, it seemed, almost everybody was certain that it was the North Koreans that did it, but because they didn't want to start a war, (what with the bombs and everything, this place would be grounded into a wasteland), they were all hum-hum about it all.  Most people hoped that no evidence would be found at all... the idea of an all-out war was not very popular around here.  Everyone seemed to hope we would win over North Korea by diplomatic means.  (Sort of reminded me of Spore.)  But if any evidence were found, because of honour and such, because North Korea attacked first, there would be a war.  And also, because of this fact, when my cousin was at the army, he had to be in his combat suit at all times, including when they were sleeping.

With the army on high alert, and on the edge of making a public announcement.. I expect at some point this year, there will be some mass panic in Korea.  I'm not looking forward to it.

But on a happier note, my grandmother's room had a pretty cool view.

I just couldn't take a very good picture of it. :X

Gone

Here I am, in Korea-land.
Apparently on the brink of war over some ship dissapearing off the radar at the north korean border, the rushed and incredibly bleak city is still the same.  Though lacking perhaps in the natural wonder that other asian countries may likely possess, Seoul still has it's own unique beauty.

This consisting of looming skyscrapers, overwhelmingly colorful blocks of shops and layers upon layers of apartments.  I can only hope to give credit in this description to the intricate lack of genius that Korean general architecture around my neighbourhood shows so brilliantly.

But let me not deter you from this place.  Even if perhaps it is not quite the eyeful that you would hope for on a sweet holiday in asia, the power and energy behind this place is still something worth feeling.

Hmm, at some point this blog ended up being a review of Seoul...

Unsurprisingly, one of the first places I went to was Seoul's famous French-style bakeries.

The cakes and such there are pretty amazing to look at, but when I was taking photos the lady at the shop got all paranoid in case I was from a rival bakery that wanted to steal the cake designs.  I didn't think I looked that suspicious AND I asked first...

This is just a general view of a road in my neighbourhood.

We live right near this gigantic sports stadium that though has many good sports facilities, seems to hold concerts way more often than any sports events.  At the moment, my main means of transport is by bus, so my mom gave me my very own transport card that works on buses and subways.  It wasn't the one I wanted (the one with a teddy bear on it that my brother has) but as you generally don't even take it out of your wallet when you get on buses and such, I suppose it didn't really mattered.  You just placed it over these sensor things and then it would beep to tell you that you used it properly.  The hard part is that you have to put it over a sensor again when you leave the bus as it pays by distance or something.  If you forget than it pays a whole round fare which is ten times more expensive than the potential original fare.

I haven't forgotten yet... but it's bound to happen...

I bought a new cellphone for the sake of bringing back here.  Unlike New Zealand where phones are ridiculously expensive, I got mine for free.  It was one of those deals, if you have a contract for three months minimum you can get the phone for free.  It's still remarkaby cheaper than if you buy just the handset which was around $635.  Altogether, the amount I have to pay will be about $152 including most of my usage for the next six to eight months as well.  It's pretty fantastic.

I also went to go meet some children that I will be teaching English to for the next six to eight months.  They all seemed lovely and came from rich middle-class families with young parents.  Most of them didn't speak much English at all.  After the meeting I took the opportunity to nose around their neighbourhood and found this clay shop where they taught little kids how to do clay models.  I thought it was pretty awesome.

Though I haven't really started on my general touristy rounds yet, I still think I've managed to see some pretty cool things so far. (Though mostly I like the bakery cos everything is yummy there.)

And the one picture I have taken of myself so far... was in a public toilet.

Singaporea

Since I was on my way to Korea when I was stuck in transit at Singapore for five hours, it seemed appropriate that I called this blog title Singaporea...

At first Changi Airport in Singapore seemed like a regular airport but then I began noticing something different.  There seemed to be an awful lot of incorporated plant-life around the general area.  With each terminal came it's very own garden.  I only managed to see terminal two's Sunflower Garden.  It was outside to my despair as it was the first time I went outside in Singapore and the amount of mugginess that attacked me almost shocked me into screaming back through the doors.  But I managed to endure a few shots in the dark before I retreated back into the air-conditioned malls.

Conveniently right next to the exit from this sunflower garden was the entertainment deck that included these lovely music lounges which were just comfy sofa chairs with speakers.  They had a collection of CDs you could choose from so I sat down a while listening to Lisa Ono's Soul and Bossa Nova.  This full on deck included console games, internet cafes, regular cafes and was right next to a massage parlour! If only I was rich...

Finally, after not setting a foot out of the airport, I set off after five hours of feeling depressed about leaving people behind, listening to good music, avoiding all food, edgy window-shopping (trying my best not to look like a potential buyer) and suffering from stomach aches from some bad vegetarian food that the airline gave me as my first meal on my flight to Singapore.

It could have been better.

Going, going...

About a week till departure.

As to whether I am looking forward to it or not, I haven't quite decided yet.
Seoul's a bit of a enigma to me.  With it's shopping, available activities, (such as theme parks) and amazing night scenery, it seems like the perfect holiday spot.
But then again, when I see the blackened trees, polluted air, (especially noticeable in the brown sludgy snow that is inevitable during winter) and solemn, living-in-their-own-bubble people; one can only wonder, is this really the sort of place I want to spend eight months?

And yet I always end up deciding that it is.

Why?  Because of my habitual snacking, reading of manhwa (comic books in Korea), seeing of family and all the other enjoyable activities I have up my sleeve.

And who wouldn't want to see taxis spinning on the sleets of ice during winter?

And plus, I have an affinity for tall buildings.  So this time, I'll go to Korea and take some snapshots to show all of my friends back in New Zealand what Seoul looks like.

Looking forward to sending care packages though!