After A While

After a while

you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul

and you learn love doesn't mean leaning and company doesn't always mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't always promises 

and you begin to accept your defeats with your head up and and your eyes ahead with the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.

And you learn to build all your roads on today because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans and futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

After a while you learn that even sunshine burns if you get too much

so you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers

and you learn that you really can endure, that you really are strong and you really do have worth and you learn and you learn 

with every good-bye you learn.

- by Veronica Shoffstall

Girly Stuff

It's Sunday morning, and I've decided to have an 'at home' day today. The plan is to cook, to upload my new photo's to facebook and write comments on them and to get caught up on my blogging.

First I'm going to finish this blog about clothes and hair, etc that I started ages ago. So now I just have to decide how much girly stuff to confess too ;-)

Since I've been in Korea I've been slowly collecting places where I can go and get the various things that girls require. So far I have found:

• A great beautician - although she can be a little rough, last time I went I had bruises for two weeks as a result of the massage she gave me, but my skin looked great between the black and blue spots!!
• A fantastic hair dresser, only five minutes from my apartment by bus. From her I got a 'Magic Straight Perm.' This is an amazingly wonderful process that made my hair dead straight and cuts down the time it takes to do my hair everyday. I can comb it wet, straight out of the shower and walk away. An unheard and undreamed of luxury!!!!! Saves me 15 minutes of blow drying and spraying and trying to make it look respectable - only to be thwarted by the humidity that curls everything into a uncontrolled mess within 10 minutes of stepping outside. With Magic Straight the humidity doesn't turn a hair! Having said that in the last two weeks the weather has become decidedly autumn-ish, there is no humidity and a decided chill in the air, cool mornings and evenings bracketing long summery afternoons. One of my favourite times of the year! I'm told that in a couple more weeks the leaves will start to change colour and every thing will look glorious.
• A shoe shop that has shoes that fit me and shop attendants that are eager to help me find shoes I like - a very important factor that actually keeps me in the shop, otherwise I would be walking around bare foot!!! (Had actually gotten down to just one pair of shoes before I found this place - the other had literally fallen off my feet.) I have enough trouble finding shoes to fit in NZ, (short, wide feet with a high instep.) Here where most people have small, narrow, apparently flat feet it is almost impossible to find shoes to fit. Add into that the factor of trying to communicate in another language and my habitual aversion to shoe shopping and I am finding myself in the situation where I have to follow the advice; "If the shoe fits, buy it!"
• A clothes shop that has clothes I like and that fit me!! This is not as easy as it sounds. On the one hand I actually can fit clothes on the rack these days which is something I thank God for everyday. (The difference between now and 18 months ago is amazing and I know it is not me that did it. If it was up to me I would still be getting fatter!!!) On the other hand Koreans love bling, lace and frills. The more shiny, sparkly, fake jewels, lace, and ruffles they can load onto an item of clothing the better, and if all this can be combined with a 'pretty' floral pattern then they are in heaven! I however dislike bling, frills and lace. I prefer solid colours and classic uncluttered lines. However in this particular shop by searching between the fluff I actually found a number of things I like. Will put pictures below - I promise I tried on things that were colourful but I just like the black stuff best! But there is some colour amongst what I bought!! Then yesterday I bought a pair of trousers (slacks for the Americans) off the rack! I don't know how many years it's been since I did that. Have to get them taken up by about a foot, because apparently you can only have a big butt if you are also 7 feet tall, but I have found a place within five minutes walk of my apartment that only charges 1000 won per seam for alterations. I've been visiting this clothes shop about once a month and am beginning to build up a respectable wardrobe and throwing away some things that are ridiculously oversized but that I had kept because naked is not an option.
• Have joined the gym that it turns out is only 10 meters from the front of my apartment building - it's underground. First couple of times I was there I was lifting weights and aghast at how much strength I had lost since leaving the US. The numbers I was lifting were sooooo low. About day three I realised that things were not as dire as they seemed - in the US everything is in pounds, in Korea it is all in Kg's.   
• Only thing I'd like here in Korea that I can't get is a place to have my eyelashes dyed (silly things turn blonde half way) - and I'm fairly certain I'm not going to find it here, seeing as I'm living amongst a race of people who naturally have the blackest of black eyelashes. On the other hand if I desired I could have eyelash extensions ... when I first heard about this I was like "Really?? Why???" Turns out most Korean eyelashes are not that long. Have brought some Korean mascara since I can't get my eyelashes dyed and that stuff is amazing. Put it on in the morning and it's not going anywhere - I could go deep sea diving and it wouldn't move! Only thing I have to remember is to make sure it's dry before I put my glasses on or I get black stripes on the lenses.

Thinking I've exposed enough female vanities so will end this blog with some pictures of the clothes I've bought and go put another loaf of olive, walnut and rosemary bread in the oven - I found some flax seeds on Friday so I'm going to experiment with making the bread recipe vegan. Already very healthy, no oil and very little sugar compared to most bread recipes, If I can remove the egg from the recipe then it will be the perfect loaf. (Thought I might make an apple, honey, spice loaf too.)

Also bought this is black :-)

This goes really well over the black version of the top above. I also like it over a black turtle neck top I picked up. Not pictured - I haven't posted all the black things I've bought :-) For the record this is not black, it's actually a sage green colour, lighter shade at the top and getting darker at the bottom.

My favourite colour, powder blue. Looks really good over black :-D

 Red coat, nice and warm, also looks really good over black!

Final coat, has a hood and is nice and warm and looks great with black and colours.

Even the shoes have ruffles. This pair is fairly tame.

Shoes have bling too ...

 I bought this pair of shoes when I was desperate - normally wouldn't consider buying shoes with this much bling.

 Nice shoes, leather. Bought them for winter - they are good quality, non-slip and should handle snow well.

 Rubber sneakers - very ugly! On the other hand they were invaluable during the monsoon season - for wading.

Boots, also for winter.
















Currently I own more pairs of shoes than I ever have at the same time before. Comes from my current philosophy "If the shoe fits, buy it." Don't worry though, while I will admit to enjoying shopping - feel like I'm in a bargin shop continually, everything is so cheap compared to NZ, I am being responsible too, not spending all my money - saving lots too.

My Larcenous Students

In the evenings I teach two classes of teenagers. The class is 'Speaking,' that means I have to try to get them to talk in English. This is actually more difficult that it sounds!!!!! Never thought I would have to say I was having trouble getting kids to talk, lol! Normally it is the opposite problem - getting them to be quiet!!!!! However the students don't want to look silly in front of their friends so getting them to talk requires some extreme measures at times.

One of my tactics is to make them tell me stories. They particularly like Fortunately/Unfortunately stories, this is where they are divided into two teams. They make up a situation and a goal for each team and they have to add alternate sentences to the story. All the Fortunately teams sentences have to start with "Fortunately ..." and the Unfortunately teams sentences have to start with "Unfortunately ..." There is only two rules, you can't contradict anything that has gone before in the story and you can't kill the 'hero' of the story. The student love it because they get to tell stories and they can score points off each other. I tell them not to worry about their grammar (they have a grammar class for that - I'd rather that they said 20 imperfect sentences that 1 perfect sentence!) and I smooth out the sentences as I write them up on the board.

Here is one of the recent stories - having some worries about my students morals after this one ... (I try not to censor or judge their stories as I don't want them to stop talking but I'm thinking I'm going to have to add some morals and ethics for this class!!)

Sally's Bill

Sally sat down in the restaurant, she ordered a meal. It was very delicious. She eyed the door. When would she be able to leave without paying?

• The 'Fortunately' team is trying to make Sally pay for her meal.
• The 'Unfortunately' team is trying to let Sally get away with out paying.

Unfortunately the handsome manager knew her.

Fortunately he could not see her because he was blind.

Unfortunately all the other guests had already left the restaurant so the waiters were all watching to see when Sally would go.

Fortunately the food was very bad and just outside the door all of the guests got stomach aches and hurried back inside to use the bathroom.

Unfortunately the bathrooms were big so all the guests fitted in them leaving Sally alone in the dining room again.

Fortunately the chef made a mistake and a fire started in the kitchen.

Unfortunately one of the waiters was an ex-fireman with magical powers and he put out the fire with his 'water shooting finger.'

Fortunately Sally could run faster than Usine Bolt (the current fastest man in the world - from recent World Running Competitions held in South Korea) so she ran out of the restaurant without paying.

Unfortunately she fell over.

Fortunately she turned invisible so she stole some other persons wallet and used the money in it to pay for the meal.

• At this point the class was over, however the students had one more detail to add to the story...

Sally married the blind handsome manager and they lived happily ever after - since it didn't worry the blind handsome manager that she was invisible and Sally never tried to sneak out of the restaurant again.


Technically the Fortunately team won the game seeing as Sally paid for the meal - but it would seem that they are just as larcenous as the Unfortunately team!!!