Adventure Teaching - Teach in Korea

Wow, December 14th... this is crazy. There has been this end-of-the-world-crazy talk going around lately - it is the 12.12.12 or the 12.12.20 anyways? Am I late in the end of the world count? - and I realize that the end of the world just depends on perspective. I am going through all sort of preparations to get both my working visa in Korea and try to figure out how I deal with everything that will stay here during my contract time (the most important one of these being my boyfriends :3 ).

I did not dare write about everything in detail yet, I guess I am a bit into superstitions, since I was afraid something would go wrong. I'm always like this with important things. 

But now, everything is set, the contract is signed and I sent the most important documents to Korea with happy FedEx today, before 4PM :)

I will be teaching small kids in Anyang (800.000 inhabitants city down Seoul - 40 min by train to get to dt Seoul is not too bad) in a Christian school for a year. It's a full-time job and I am really looking forward to see how everything will be like. I will have my own apartment around Pyeoncheong station and I get reimbursed the plane ticket so all in all, I think this is a nice deal. The people I talked to that are in the school I will teach at seem to be very nice people <3 

I got my teaching contract through Adventure Teaching and I can say that up to now everything is going smoothly. The people that take care of my going abroad teaching are very friendly and it is always nice to talk to them. I did not even have a TESL liscence/certificate and could do the course online to get their help in finding a nice job/contract in Korea. I am currently doing an online course that I can continue while I am in Korea without stress.

I'll try to keep up the updates when I get there :)

Le Cachottier

There is a new Tapas/Bar that just opened last week in my hometown. They completely painted anew an ancien bistro that was on the Principal Street. It is a partnership of three people who decided to open the place. Le Cachottier's main trait is that the kitchen is an open one, with large counters surrounding it, so even cooks have the feeling of being with everyone. The food is all in small quantity so people can actually order one plate with alcohol to have a snack on the side, or order many to have a meal. The food is around $6-$9 and has a subtle particularity to it. While I see room for improvement in the plates, they definitely have a nice formula for the bar, one that did not exist in town before so I believe they can do well. They often use the mint yogurt dipping to go with the meal, that I especially enjoy.

Ceviche with chips

White fish and vegetable rolls with mint dipping

Lamb and sweet potatoes with apple sauce

French toasts with blueberries and maple syrup cream

 I really enjoy going there, and there is an aspect I particularly like, that is they have a large and comfy waiting area for people waiting to have seats where they can enjoy a drink meanwhile. In Asia there often are waiting areas or at least benches where customers can wait, but here it is very rare so I hope they keep it this way. People here are not used to that concept so I fear their complaints about the waste of space might make the owners change the place into a regular table, but well, I cannot do a thing about it, but brag about the awesomeness of a waiting area. I hate to have to find other things to do while waiting for tables to be free when I go somewhere.

Over 7K!

Thank you~~~! I just realized I have over 7K views! Makes me feel so mean to have neglected my blog for so long. I suppose I have been busy, but then I don't know, sometimes you just don't endup writing for so long and you just loose the habit. I actually took many pictures in order to write some post, and they just never ended up being posted at all. 

Fall season! Halloween already over, now Christmas coming soon. Work is keeping me busy, bf is keeping me busy and enjoying nice coffee/restaurant/drinking time with the Bordeleau sister keeps me happy. Time is getting colder though so I bought quite a lot of new outfits and coats. I'll try to upload pictures of my new friends here whenever I take my lazy ass near my computer.

Bought this awesome strawberry cup and plate for $1 at La Ressourcerie Bernard-Hamel
Love them, those times you walk in there and you find an unexpected treasure.

I went to Montreal for Halloween, as planned a few months ago, and ended up staying much longer than I planned. See, I actually have a defect in my auditory nerve, on the left ear, resulting in my hearing being much much hindered (put both of your finger on your ears, press hard, then have someone talk to you: that's about what I can hear from my left hear). So yes, I went from a doctor to another, doing test, getting samples and they still can't find the problem. At this point, sadly, I think it can't be helped: at least we still might find a way to make sure my other ear doesn't get the same, and prevent the right one to get worse.

In my trip to Montreal I got to go shopping <3, eat delicious food, try the new Karaoke bar La bouche (not so new I know, but I still hadn't gotten to go up to now so whatever). I'll try to upload pictures, but basically I bought shoes and pants: yes pants. Up to last winter I had only one pair of white jeans. I never wear pants. MC got me to like pants when she made me try hers: I then realized that you can look very nice in pants, provided that they are skinny enough and fit you well.

Halloween Clubbing with Lala and Melissa <3

Few pictures of awesome shoes: Red ones from Semy, a store on St-Hubert, selling imported shoes from Italy, all of awesome quality and fit for a wedding ($350),  Shiny ones from Boulet, still on St-Hubert, where all the shoes are $30, and at the back of the store they own awesome quality Cowboy boots - around $250 - in amazing colors and all in really good quality leather. I will go buy a pair next time I go: this time I had no more room in my bag. The beige ones were around $40, bought also on St-Hubert, I cannot remember the name, but St-Hubert has tons of shoe stores, just walking around, one is bound to find awesomeness: just need to keep the eyes open.

Went by Holt & Renfrew to buy new concealer at Bobbi Brown and ended up buying a case of brushes! My very first case ($125). I really love to use different brushes to put on make up, not only because the result is much nicer, but also because the feel of the brushes on the skin is really nice. much nicer anyways than cheap pharmacy brushes.

New nails~~~ I sort of stopped doing my own nails for a while, since working as a waitress sort of makes me worry that my polish will chip and fall in the food of the customers. Instead I decided to try the Vietnamese store in my hometown that do UVGel nails, for a result that holds much longer. 

When I got those done, bf said they looked like I had my nails dirty. Mean mean bf. The second one, MC qualifies it as a "Care Bear" nail polish. Oh well, can't please everybody.

When I went to Japan I bought a make your own bead accessories thingy to see if I liked to do it. The result was okay, and I bought more on Internet, through a Japanese friend (they only ship in Japan). Last week I finished this awesome bear in dress, and now I feel so awesome I feel like no beads pattern is too difficult for me muhahahaha.

The fact that you can do those in parts, and that you see the result quite fast makes it funnier to make that, say for example cross-stitches, of which I haven't kept doing since I moved from Montreal. Mean mean mean me. 

Gave this one to darling Rock-See for her BD a few days ago <3

My parents went to Cuba for a Velo trip, lucky ones, so we went cooking at my place (no fear of disturbing anyone) and in the end bf never even let my touch the pans: I just ate. What can I do, he is Mr. picky and can back it up by being an excellent cook.

Random Picture of me because, why not?

Crazy end of Summer Weekend

I haven't really gone clubbing/drinking for real lately, if I compare to my university years. I went a bit in Montreal last July, but I cannot say I really enjoy it as much, at least when it comes to dancing. I feel like my weekends of partying every Thursday, Friday, Saturdays and Sundays are quite far indeed. The memory of showering at 5AM from a sweaty dancing night out... hmm... yup, very far indeed. I know going out is like many habits, when you stop for a long time, you need to fall back in again to like it once more, but it takes the energy and will to actually fall back in. And I feel so lazy. Every time I go out, I have an awesome time, but every time, I need to push myself to actually get out of my comfort zone: lazying out at home. 

Last week end I went out with a girl from my job, the awesome MC <3 we went to the O'toole night club and finished the evening at Morasse with a well deserved snack at 4AM. We went out with friends from China I introduced to MC and had a crazy drinking night: damn me for forgetting Chinese people usually are good at most drinking games. Those who aren't are either too young, or lying about being bad. Really. 

The only thing missing from the night out was my best friend Lala: MC does not like to go dancing. Lala, MC and I would make a lovely threesome of awesome party time IMO. In any case, fun fun times, worth taking the bother to get out of my comfort zone.

That evening, at the restaurant, I had burnt my arm with the coffee heater:
so the mark on my arm is noteven because of my scarring (which is on
 the other hand) which is quite frustrating... I am not supposed to have a
 scar on that arm, damn it.... stupid clumsy me. 

4AM at Morasse Poutine... so many people this is intense.
Morasse is really THE place for after party munchies

Next morning I wake MC up, and we got eat at Ya Yuan, chinese buffet place near the O'toole, on our way to get MC's car back (we obviously did not drive back home, aren't we awesomely responsible people?)

So another once in an eternity: after clubbing, buying something I haven't bought and worn in ages. Pants. Yes, I now officially have a second pair of pants. I never realized how never wearing pants make people go insane with bewilderment when I actually wear them. I don't feel comfy in pants, so some 3 years must have past since I actually bought a pair of jeans. I owned one pair, a white one, and now I have a salmon one. Needed a colorful pair, since I have too many white shirts I cannot wear with white pants. Being white is enough, no need to look dead with too much of that color...

I have no merit for the shoes. They're MC's, and they're awesome.
I want them, but for now, I just borrow 'em

Crazy movie night yesterday, with $20 worth of candies. Great times are those you spend with friends, with an overly intense amount of sweet stuff. While life betrays you often, sweets never do. 

Belly Dance

As a kid, my parents tried to get my interested in a lot of different extra-curricular activities (not sure you call them that, but whatever) such as sport, music and dance classes. Sadly, while I liked them, I never really striked a passion for any. I wanted to be really good right here right now, and I did not want to start with the basic: I neither had the patience to go slowly, neither the self esteem to see myself doing bad in all of those. 

This is obviously not me. Found the image on google :)

Last year I looked for something fun to do with my mother, sister (my brother's wife <3) and her mother and we thought of belly dancing: there is nothing more random than belly dancing, and we thought that the four of us would have fun doing it, being a dance mainly of muscle control rather than rapidity and performance - at least at the start. In the end, my sister got busy with school and wanted to do something more cardio, and her mother had a knee problem that did not mix up well with belly dancing. So thus, my mother and I continued, the both of us enjoying this mother daughter quality time, without much stress. 

The classes stopped during summer so we haven't practiced for a few months, but it started once more and I had my first class tonight at 6. I love those classes. I hope I can find a belly dancing class in Korea, though I don't know about that... while there might be classes in Seoul, I think I'll just end up comparing myself to those skinny korean girls and feel fat XD oh well, I'll see what happens there, no need to worry about that.

내 세상...

These are the landscapes I see everyday in nice weather when I walk to my workplace. I don't think I envy others for what they have, at least on this point. You see, my hometown has 45K inhabitants, so it is not such a small town, but we have a big lake right in the middle. Originally, Rouyn and Noranda were two different 'town', the high town, with all immigrant workers all getting high salaries from the copper mining industry (Noranda) the whole place was pretty much owned by te mining company; and you had the low town (Rouyn), where people just built their houses as they pleases, all over the place, people with no direct link to the mining company. This explains why the streets are so clean-cut in Noranda and quite randomly built in Rouyn. Both towns were separated by the Osisko Lake (meaning muskrat in Algonquin language). Later on, the two towns were united and Rouyn-Noranda was born, still physically separated by the lake. I grew up in the Rouyn part of the town, and the restaurant I work at is in Noranda, so I walk by the promenade beside the lake everyday to go work. It is quite peaceful to have a lake right in the middle of a town.

 The 5 tower fountain, also beside the lake on my way to work, was built for the first Canadian Olympics by the town, at night it lits with color-changing lights, since Rouyn-Noranda's 75th anniversary, so day or night, it is a nice place to hang out at. 

Rouyn-Noranda's hospital is also by the lake, and they have a big parc for long term patients and family to go chill at. I think the location was well thought.

Saucier, Nothomb

I finished two books in the last weeks. Neither of them were long to read, I just picked them up and read them both in a couple of hours, sitting in my backyard, in the last of the warm summer days we had. It feels surreal how cold it is right now, when I think of the heat of the last weeks. This is Abitibi for you: you can never plan temperature in advance and changes of temperature, made in super short lenght of time, happen randomly and drastically.

So I give you "Il pleuvait des oiseaux" (lit. it was raining birds) by Jacqueline Saucier.

The story follows the lives of elderly people who decided to start their lives anew in the forest, with the fewest of modern facilities, and living up their old age considering Death a creepy friend of theirs. Comes along an elderly angel of a lady, whom they called Marie-Desneige, that changes their little daily routine. Marie-Desneige was brought to them about at the same time as a photographer came into their lives to take pictures of the survivors of the Great Fires that had had killed the people of many villages in Canada more than a couple decades ago. 

Mrs. Saucier's writing is slow paced, making it easy to slide in the story and you come to the end of it fairly quickly. After reading it, I stayed in a strange feeling of awe a trace of melancholy fading slowly away...

It is one of those books that makes you both at peace of mind and lost in thoughts at the same time. It brought me tears to the eyes, but not so much tears of sadness as tears of relief. You follow all those people "shedding layers of their own skin, their lives, until only what really matters remains" as would say my sister. Not so much a sad story, but the story of making peace with everything that was, and is no more.

"Tuer le père"(lit. Kill the father) by Amélie Nothomb is a completely different kind of read. The story is the story of three people: a couple and a boy, who evolve in the wicked environment of Burning Man in the states with the odd art that magic is. Two magicians, a master, a pupil. Two different background and two different perspectives on what things really are, the book has this quality to it that makes everything flow and seem peaceful, while the story, if one actually think much into it, is intense and almost creepy. Mrs. Nothomb has this talent, as I saw in Stupeur et Tremblement for example, of telling really twisted stories and making them seem light and happy. The end was a surprise, and I found myself dumbfounded: do I like the story, or not?

What I like about her writing, is that it is clever enough not to be boring, but simple and clear enough, so you can stop reading for a long time, then start again and know exactly where you left, and remember everything that matters to keep reading. 

秋に王子

日本語アップ！

久しぶりに日本語のポストを書きます。

段々冷えていく曇っている空を見たらあーー秋はもう直ぐ来るんだよね。

今年の夏はあたしにとって大変だった。

一年の終わりは１２月です。

でもね、あたしにとっては、一年の終わりは秋の頃です。

そのときはいつも、次の年に改めて咲くため、

花も、木の葉っぱも死んじゃうからだ（おかしかったかな、今の文？）。

だから秋の頃にいつもブルーな気分になっちゃう。

あたしだけのかな？

秋になると、あたしは、今年一体何を達成したのだろう、と自分に尋ねるの。

これから、何をすればいい、と考える頃でもあります。

ってか、秋とは関係ないかもしれないけれど、最近ちょっとあたしひとりぼっちって感じがするの。嫌な感じだな。

白い馬に乗って会いにきてくれる王子様はいないのかな...笑。

Juicy Fruit

As a kid, I was always chewing gum. There was a time I would pierce a tiny hole into a raw (?) coffee bean and take hours of my time making coffee bean necklaces to sell them $10 at a coffee shop near my place, and all the money I made went into buying chewing gum. There was a time, when Spice Girls were really popular, where they had stickers inside a bright pink bubble gum, and I bought so many of them that I think I must have had the whole 50 sticker collections in triple at least. 

I was also prone to insanely intense headaches that could last for days, making me unable to do anything at all, needing to lie down for days at a time and miss everything that was going on. I thought of myself really weak and lame, seeing that noone actually had the same problem as me. Well nobody chewed as much chewing gum as I did, and I later learnt that the two we in fact, linked. Chewing gum puts an enormous pressure on your maxillary muscles and thus increase the probability of having a headache. My intense chewing had an impact on this a great deal. 

Without knowing that chewing gum was the reason of my headaches, I stopped chewing nonetheless, around the time I finished high school: I got sick of having always that sweet taste in my mouth and even now, I get sick of gum when I have it for more than 15 minutes. Anyways, since that time, my headaches are next to absent from my daily life, save when I lack water or caffeine...

Tonight at my job, at the end of the first half, I started smelling a scent that was very nostalgic to me: Juicy Fruit. I was pretty sure of the smell, but as I did not see why people would be chewing on that, I figured I might just be really tired and smelling random imaginary smells. Afterall, while Juicy Fruit had in fact been really popular in my youth, we mostly don't se it - smell it anyways - anywhere anymore. Turns out I was right. They were chewing Juicy Fruit, probably to take the bad breath away from smoking outside. I chitchatted with them and told them about the fact that this very smell was nostalgic to me and all. Ant they left me the rest of the pack (there were 4 gums left in it) on the table with my tips. This made my day. 

Sometimes, very simple things can bring you happiness. 

I love those days.

Flowery Red

I just realized that Summer is already coming to its end... the summer really went by quite fast, I don't even feel like I had a summer at all. Isn't it crazy? The other day I went to see my baby strawberry plants and was super happy that some flowers were blooming, even so late in the summer, but I got a bit worried. I asked my mom: Do you think there is something wrong with my plant? The leaves are turning a bit red. She obviously went on, laughing on the corner of her mouth, Well, we are in September afterall, what is weird about red leaves?

So here I find myself, stupidly wonderning where my summer went.

Were are a couple of flowers from our backyard, that still bloom beautifully even so late in the season. How I love the magic of flowery gardens.

Beads Beads Beads...

Since the beginning of the summer I haven't really taken time for myself, time to actually do things. I always loved making things, decorating them, cleaning things around me to make them prettier, added new things to decorate my room/bedroom and the like. 

Since the beginning of the summer I basically went to Montreal to see people I had missed for so long since I left it, and got to know better some people around me in my hometown. Among those, 4 nice girls that I met through Fura of which two came to work at my restaurant - see how I write 'my' restaurant... wow, so full of myself, pardon me, 'where I work' might be a bit better? Anyways, while I think meeting people is awesome, I also love to have time to myself, and have the feeling I actually accomplish something. This is probably why I always sucked at learning piano and other instruments: while getting better is amazing and you get to play awesome songs, there is no physical concrete proof of it. Making things, you end up accumulating and piling them (then another part of the fun is to put them in order so that it's not too messy all around, but let's not go there) so you see what you did. You have a tangible proof of the time you spent. In the same way, reading a book also does that, because you end up accumulating new books and put them nicely in shelves all around the place (on the same lead, re-reading a book then, is again 'unproductive', but I love to reread books I like, I know I will not be disappointed).

Anyways, I decided to get myself back to making things... in the last 2 days I finished a book, cleaned up stuff and finally pushed myself to try to make a bead purse charm accessory of which I bought the material last March, when I was in Japan. Thing is that I actually have been fascinated for quite a long time by people who can make animals, accessories and cute flowers and the like using only beard and fishing thread. You can see those mainly in Asia, or if you go to any China/Koreatown. So there. I just bought a very cute rabbit beads phone charm and remembered I had my little set to make my very own. I figured that if I get good enough I might actually try to do other stuff, but those things, if you don't push yourself, you never start, because there is always a "I'll do it later". 

So here is my very first bead accessory, made with all my heart. Well. It is a thing to see that your ability doing something is improving; another to see the improvement on the very thing you are making... Like the very first pair of mitten you make, when you compare the first to the second hand...

So here, I sort of screw up the right part, there is a thing that is not well attached, and I just realized it when I was almost done. I gave up redoing the whole thing. That was a bit too much, even for the sake of careful art accessory making, and my OCD need for perfection. I am looking into getting another of those beads sets right now, will upload the website if I ever find something worth it. 

몬트리올에 간다. 다시 한번...

이번엔 몬트리올에 가게되는 이유는 좋은일 때문이 아니다.

내 잴 지난 친구의 아버지가 돌아가셨기 때문이다.

그래서 오늘은 가만 구두를 샀다... 이분을 마지막으로 보게될 날을 위해.

올핸 돌아가신 사람이 너무 많아.

내년은 그리 않았음 좋겠다...

Traditional Korean/Japanese Hair Accessories

I've always like asian hair accessories. In western style hairdos, the result mostly depends on the handcraft of the hairdresser in regards to the hair itself, as in the multiple variety of braids and knots that can be done with different lenght of hair. Accessories often end-up being put on top of those to add up to the hairdo, like tying a ribbon, adding a headband or a crown-like ornement why not...

Meanwhile, in Asia, they put a lot of effort in handcrafting the hair accessories themselves, and the hairdo actually seems to be meant to complete the look of the accessories, as a sort of display of various jewels. I must admit I am pretty much ignorant of chinese style hairdos. However, I know a little of japanese and korean ones, japanese; through history books, and movies, korean; mostly because of dramas.

Culture Blend

Just as I like fusion cuisine - modern cuisine inspired by old traditional european recipes - I like 'fusion' traditional hairdos. I mean, let's face it. Most of what we see, believing that it is a display of actual traditional accessories, is in fact just a modernization of what used to be the trend, making it more modern so to please the eyes of unknowing people. Take General Tao Chicken for example, if you like my food comparison: that is absolutely not Chinese. 

So my point is, I like to mix up things from different cultures. When I mix up pieces of clothing, the result is often pretty messed up, and ends up making me look like a total retard: now, me asks friends around me to approve before I do this and go out... 

For hair accessories, I basically just don't care. People with no notion of where I get my stuff from might think it looks weird, but hair, I just do whatever. Especially since I am in a super small town where anything different from douchebag polos and caps or skanky clothing looks out of place. 

So here are a couple of findings I have to show, that I got from different places.

Japanese Hairpin

I got this hairpin in a store selling traditional japanese prom accessories and dresses (seijin-shiki kimonos and hakatas for example). I forgot the name of the material it's made in, shame on me. I know it's not simple plastic, although the simple light look makes it seem so. I chose one of the most traditional looking in a pile of super extravagant accessories they had, because it was one of the first thing I bought in my last trip to Japan: you always feel awkward on the first bit of money spent, as though it really matters...when you know you'll end up stopping to count after a day or two. Whatever, I always do that: old habits die hard. I still regretted not buying another more, since I did not go back to that sort of store in the trip.

Fusion Japanese Pin: Kyoto

Try to open a store of traditional accessories in Kyoto. There are so many of those, and people in Japan often already own their own traditional jewelry, and pass it down to their kids. Thus, appart from already well settled traditional stores with good reputations, opening a new store selling the same thing is bound to be a harsh job, even for hard-working japanese. I found a store on a very touristic place in Gion, Kyoto, where they opened an accessory shop of 'fusion' hair accessories and jewels. While the look of all their stuff has a japanese feel to it, the purpose of their items is to accomodate traditional style to modern life: traditional accessories require more time to settle in the hair, and are harder to match up with modern clothings. That's the challenge the people in the store took: modernize japanese style accessories, add new to the old.

I had a lot of trouble finding THE one to buy (they were not cheap, so I did not want to regret buying it) but settled for one with a strawberry-looking red heart pin, that can actually be worn over 30 different ways (they gave a DVD teaching how to use them) of which I can take the dangling thingy off if I wish. The pin is not that big actually so I don't really take it off.

I bough this hair clip in a random accessory store in Fukuoka and fell in love with it. I remember I always loved those clips when they started being popular in the 90s, but always wondered if they always hat do be this ugly. I really dislike the uneven shape and the whole thingy in the middle, where you see your hair showing. There were attempt at making them look a bit classier (less cheap looking) by putting accessories like pearls and stuff on the big side, but I was never impressed by the look. Well here is the solution. You use those pins to hold on another completely different hair accessory! Yay!

Actually, the reason I bought this one is because It reminded me of one of the traditional Korean hair jewel they put on the top of the head of royalty. While the actual jewel is a bit too big to look nice when wearing anything else than a hanbok, this one seemed it could give a feel of it and I wanted to try.

Trying it on...

I already posted about those before going to Japan. I ordered those Korean hairitems online to use on my hair and really liked what I received but I am not sure I ever posted pictures of what I did with them... This was taken some time in March.

It sucks that I never manages to take a picture that both showed the top of the head and the side braids I made on that hairdo but here is the result of what I did with the clip I bought in Japan - can you see in on top of my head? - with the sidebraids to go with the style. Traditionally they obviously did not have bangs... but I don't like having none so adaptation here... for a weird result that I actually liked TBH.

Since I never found a site I can buy those jade pins used in trad Korean hairdos I used the japanese pin I bought in Kyoto and I really liked the result. Oh I am a sucker for shiny things, wherever they are from. Must have been some weird animal attracted to shiny stuff in another life I am telling you...