Gee Gee Gee Gee!

Hello.

My name is Nicole Fox and I am a Korean Pop Addict.

Yes, it's true. The clearest symptom of my Stockholm syndrome is my un-ironic, unabashed love for K-Pop. Example 1 Example 2 and Example 3

I don't know how it came to this but it started as a joke between my co-worker Charles and I. Our first summer working together, we got off work at 3 pm and on Fridays (and sometimes Wednesdays...and sometimes Thursdays...etc.) we'd be at the pub by 4. We would harass this one bartender we hated by requested Big Bang's Lies, which was insanely popular at the time. At some point in time, Chas turned to me and said "I actually like this song" and I said "me too!!!" and all our shame was gone.

This summer was the Summer of Sorry Sorry. The Super Junior song blew up big time in Korea. All my preschoolers knew it and could do the dance, you could not avoid it. My friend introduced it to me via youtube and I became totally obsessed with it.

Charles and I are currently all about Girl's Generation. We love both Gee and 소원을 말해봐 (Genie). We can sing along in Korean (much to the amusement of the teachers at our school). It's really really sad/hilarious when we get all liquored up and demand bars play it and then dance around like lunatics.

And that is my confession. Carry on...

Hello Kitty Wishes You a Happy Merry Christmas

My friend had to go to Japan for a visa run and he brought me back this gem. Try not to be too jealous.

The rest of the damn trip

Ok, I need to freaking get this over with because there's Seoul stuff I want to write about and its getting ridiculous.

San Francisco was so-so. It kinda messed up my travel momentum but it was awesome to see my family for the first time in two years. My sisters are nearly teenagers! My parents are old! It was also nice to get a little American shopping in (mostly toiletries, it must be said) and to see some friends that are still living in the city. The best thing about the trip had to be the awesome boots I got on Castro.

Belize was beautiful, gorgeous, and so much fun. Julia's wedding was incredible. I totally cried all through the vows and nearly spaced out when I was supposed to had her Mitch's ring. Everything was just lovely and Julia looked so beautiful in her dress. It was also great to see her family along with Linda, Nathan, Ursula, and Michelle and Jim. Very very good times though Linda and I were stupid and laid out in the sun between 11 and 3 and each got a wicked sunburn.

Costa Rica was the perfect wrap-up to the trip...relaxing, chill, beautiful. Bess met up with me in San Jose and we bussed over to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast. We ate and laid out in the sun and that was about it for 5 glorious days. Our hotel room had an awesome porch and we spent hours reading books and drinking coffee. We spent our last night getting piss-drunk and had to pay for it on our travels back to our respective homes...not fun!

I know that was a rush job but that was the rest of the trip. It was an amazing three months but I don't know that I'd ever be on the road for that length of time again. I can see myself staying more or less in one place for that long, like a volunteer stint, but the constant travel definitely got to me. Which is not to say that I regret this at all. I met amazing people and I was reunited with people who are very dear to me.

It's also made me appreciate my home and how much I love Seoul and my friends here. I also feel more certain than ever, after taking three months away and being so happy to be back, that being a preschool teacher really is my calling.

I am really freakin' proud of myself for avoiding disasters on this trip. I didn't lose anything besides my laundry bag, I had no crises, no drama. I also learned a lot about myself and notions I had about myself. Here are the things (I am such a dork, I wrote them in my journal on my loooooong flight back to Seoul) that I learned on this trip:

1. I am competent.
2. I have oodles of common sense
3. I am funny
4. I need to chill when I can't have control over a situation
5. I should trust people to do their part
6. I am beautiful the way I am
7. I am emotional and that's never going to change and I should stop wishing I wasn't
8. I need God/spirituality in my life
9. I love my friends very very much and carry them with me wherever I go
10. I am pretty damn tough

Thanks for reading through the zany adventures....back to regular Seoul rantings now...

Belgium High Lights

Oh my god, y'all. I am so freaking behind on this, many many apologies...

-Seeing Fifi La Rue
Felicia and I have know each other for ages. We went to high school together and we shared an apartment after I finished university. She is 15 different kinds of fun and just the sort of person you want to visit in a foreign country. It was so incredibly good to see her and hang out and see her life. We had a lot of fun doing nothing in particular and I can't wait to visit her again. Then again, in general I loved everyone I met in Gent. Felicia's boyfriend's parents are the nicest, most generous people I've ever met and I got to spend a lovely Sunday at their home eating a delicious lunch. Felicia's friends are also pretty fun and her boyfriend is on crack, in the good way.

-The Beer
Obviously, I'm not going to visit Belgium and not talk about the beer. It was incredible! I drank quite a variety and they were all excellent quality, even if they weren't to my tastes. The biggest surprise for me was how much I liked the fruit beers. The cherry beer I had was my favorite in general and I had this delicious strawberry beer that tasted like liquid toast with jam. I know that sounds really strange-ee but that's what it made me think of. Felicia's boyfriend is extremely knowledgeable about beers and he gave me a crash course on Belgian brewing methods, I feel very beer-nerdy now.

-The architecture
The buildings in Gent, Brugge, Brussels, and Amsterdam were beautiful. I could not stop taking photos of all the details. I love how they still use all these old buildings because here in Seoul nothing is older than 60 years and even then, they're tearing everything down and building hideous modern stuff. Also, I freaking LOVE canals and there are a ton in the low lands. It made me very very happy.

Belgium was just lovely. It was the first place I didn't have to worry at all about sexual harassment, it was my first time in a home in months, and I got to do laundry for free. I got to sit on a couch and watch TV while eating dry cereal and if you've ever been on the road for a long time, you'll know how amazing that can be. I also got a sassy haircut in Gent and I got to ride a bike all around the city for a day. I have wonderful memories of that week and seriously, I cannot wait to get back there.

Turkey Highlights

Turkey was the first stop after India and oh my....I fell in love! I don't know if it was a reaction to getting out of a developing/3rd world nation or what, but everything was so clean and so nice and I experienced quite a bit of culture shock. For example, when I was riding the trolley to my guesthouse, I got freaked out because it was so quiet. Cars weren't honking non-stop. It was a strange moment.

Smitty met up with me in Istanbul and it was surprisingly easy to get her there. All I had to do was say "Wanna go to Turkey in October?" and she was there. We spent the first part of our trip exploring Sultanahmet, going to the Aya Sofya and the Blue Mosque. They were both beautiful. The Blue Mosque looked like something out of a fairy tale and it was very lush inside. The Aya Sofya was magnificent and so freaking big. I have to admit, I wasn't as overwhelmed as I thought I'd be because after seeing the Taj Mahal....it didn't hold up well in comparison. It takes a while to get the most beautiful building in the world out of your head.

After a few days in Istanbul, we headed down to a town on the southwestern coast called Fethiye. This place was gorgeous! We went on a day tour on a sailboat and I was pretending I was Jackie O. We would stop and get to swim in the water and it was so wonderful and relaxing and just...that is what a proper holiday should be. We also spent time at a Turkish bath getting a lovely soap massage and we loitered on beaches a bit.

We ate our combined body weight in fish while we were in Turkey. There was this fish market in Fethiye where you'd buy a fish and then take it to a restaurant and they'd cook it up for you with potatoes, bread, and salad for about $4. The fish sandwiches on the street only cost about $3 and they were so delicious.

Oh, we also went over to the Asian side of Istanbul with our holiday friend, Kurt. I found my future house on that side and Smitty found a trail of cats. Good times, good times.

Turkey was so wonderful that I'm thinking of moving there after I finish up in Korea. It was one of the most relaxing weeks of my life and I'm so glad I had Smitty with me to enjoy it with. I highly recommend her as a travel companion.

Amendment...

Jeeze, y'all. This jet lag is really kicking my ass, mostly because up until today I had no routine. The Powers That Be at my school decided to make me take an extra week off so as to make sure I am not swine flued. As a result, I sat around my house for a week, bored out of my mind. No, I did not unpack. No, I did not update my blog. I fell asleep at odd hours of the day and went out drinkin' with my friends. D'oh!

Today is my first day back to school and I feel pretty happy about that. I missed my students and I missed my co-workers. Plus I have new Hello Kitty slippers and that adds tons of confidence ;)

I know I'm getting ahead of myself as far as reporting about my trip, but it's so nice to be home and not living out of a pack. I love lying in my own bed with my stupid cats and not having to wear the same 5 outfits over and over and over and over again. I had also missed my idiot flat mate and all my other friends in Seoul. While its sad my big trip is over, it's also lovely to be home.

Catching Up

Wow, the last half of the trip whipped by! In India, it was easy to slip off and spend an hour or so at the internet cafe because I was by myself. I'll post country highlights starting today and finish up by the end of the weekend. I know all of you are sitting by your computers, waiting for me to post (ha ha) so I'll put some pep in my step.