Heathers Adventures in Wonderland

JIRISAN MOUNTAIN II

2006-10-29T14:53:00.000+09:00

FOR SOME REASON THE LAST POST WOULDN'T ALLOW ME OT ADD MORE PICTURES OR TO WRITE ANYMORE SO I HAD TO CREATE A NEW ENTRY. HERE IT IS~

NESSA INFRONT OF A REALLY COOL TREE AND AROUND IT ARE SOME REALLY INTERSTING WILD FLOWERS WHICH I DON'T KNOW THE NAMES OF. MAYBE YOU'D KNOW THEM DAD?

JAEUNG AND I REPRESENTIN'! BEST NOT BE MESSIN' WITH US!

WHILE YOU ARE SHAKING IN YOUR SHOES, I'LL TELL YOU A LITTLE ABOUT THIS BUILDING THAT JAEUNG AND I ARE INFRONT OF. IT WAS ACTUALLY BUILT BY SOME MISSIONARY WHO HAD COME TO KOREA IN, I BELIEVE THE 16TH CENTURY. AS YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED, THE ARCHITECTURE IS NOT COMMON IN KOREA. NESSA AND JAEUNG BOTH THOUGHT THAT IT LOOKED SIMILAR TO SOME OF THE RUINS IN IRELAND AND WERE REALLY TAKEN BY IT.

NESSA AND I. BUDDHIST BEAUTIES!?~

AFTER ALL THIS TRAVELING ABOUT, SIGHTSEEING AND HIKING, WE TREATED ARE SELF WITH SOME VERY YUMMY KOREAN FOOD INCLUDING RICE STEAMED IN BAMBOO~

NESSA AND JAEUNG SALUTE YOU AND HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS BLOG ENTRY~

JIRISAN MOUNTAIN

2006-10-29T14:17:00.000+09:00

In September, I went to Jirisan with Nessa and Jaeung. Jirisan is a mountain about 4 hours from Seoul. It's famous for several temples, it's bamboo forests and it's spiritual energy. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Here are Nessa and Jaeung after reaching one of the peaks on the mountain. Here we had to wait to view a large field like region where Koreans would go and pray to the sky god. The weekend we went rained so things were a bit foggy, but nonethless beautiful.

Us girls are celebrating infront of the stone structure I'm assuming was built for the sky god~ not sure though~

Here is a picture of a statue at one of the temples we visited~ If I remember correctly, one of the original buddhas bones is supposedly inside of here~

American Adventures~Part II

2006-10-29T13:44:00.000+09:00

Above is a picture of my mom and I infront of Niagara Falls. We are standing on the American side of the falls. Immediately after this picture was taken, my mother pushed me over the bridge. But she obviously forgot all those swimming lessons she paid for, and I was able to swim back to shore swiftly.

Because I never seem to "just go away" my parents decided to let me go with them on the Cave of the Winds tour. For the tour, we were given snazzy water sandals to wear. Check us out modeling them!

Here's a picture of mom and I after I got drenched from the falls! Opps, I mean, after she pushed me in! Notice she is completely dry!

Twin sisters? Seperated at birth?

Dad's Jesus like qualites came out as he decided to make water fall upon him from the heavens and to protect Mom's Mary like qualities.

Well, now it's time to say goodbye to America. I had a great time and can't wait to go back to visit friends and family soon~

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave~

2006-08-30T17:31:00.000+09:00

Returned a few weeks ago from a visit home and have received some pictures from a couple of friends and thought I'd share them with ya'll. I'm sure soon enough, my father will send me some pictures we took on his digital camera. As some of you know, I'm still living in the Ice Ages where the people used 35mm film. It's a bit expensive to convert it to a cd. Actually, here in the Ice Ages we don't have scanners. Anyway, put on some water, brew your tea or coffee, sit back and enjoy the pictures!

NORTH TONAWANDA

If you've never heard of it, you should be shot down immediately. It's the sacred home of the Carousel Museum and Nestor's Texas Red Hots. Oh, and how can I forget the Wurlitzer piano?
It's also the birthplace of yours truly! I know, not as significant as those other things, but I try to live as best I can in their shadows.

Right now I don't have a ton of pictures from home but here is a picture of me having a good time at the Violent Femmes concert at Thursday at the Square in Buffalo.

NEW YORK CITY

I went to New York City for three days at the end of my trip and visited my friend Drew. I met Drew in Health class in high school. Everyday I noticed him checking himself out in the paper towel dispenser and had to say something to him about it eventualy. I realized then that we had something in common...being extremely vain!!!!! Also, later found out that we are fellow scorpios! With such deep connections, no wonder we became friends!

Anyway, Drew has set himself up very nicely in the East Village, and can I say, I am jealous.....here's a view of his apartment building.

Yes, that's right. He lives above the Holyland! From North Tonawanda to the Holyland, he's done quite well for himself, wouldn't you say?

On the first full day of my visit we went to the MoMa (modern museum of art) Modern art is not my favorite but Drew seemed sick of going to the MET (which is where I've been dying to go for ages) so I figured I could go the next day while he was at work. Here are some pictures we took while there:

Here I am cheering on my brother's team!

The first floor of the MoMa

The MoMa had a very nice garden~

Here are a couple of pics of the city on the other side of the enclosed garden~

Here's a shot of Drew happily waiting for his lunch~

Well, I never ended up making it to the MET. When I got there on Monday they were closed and Tuesday I left for Korea. This is the second year in a row I've tried going to the MET, guess it's just not in the stars for this girl!

That's it for my pics in NYC, as mentioned above, once I get my pics from home I'll post them. Hope you are all well~Ciao!

Korea's Next Top Model~

2006-05-05T13:17:00.000+09:00

Lights, Cameras, Action!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At Head Rush hair salon in seoul, they were looking for the next top model to model their creative hair designs. I was one of the chosen "foreign" models.
Here I am on the right next to two other hair models. There were four of us in total. Two Korean girls and two western girls.
It was really a great experience. There was a makeup artist who did my make up. A fashion designer picked out my clothes and then the final touch was the hair stylist who cut my hair infront of countless numbers of people. Never before had I had so many people watch me get my hair cut!

Here I am striking a pose for the camera~

A close up~

From a distance~

After the cut~

Into the Night

2006-05-02T21:57:00.000+09:00

as she slips away into the night,
the flowers pollen
remains in her heart.
alone, she is unsure of what
is changing inside her

the moons pull draws her near
its shores, and asks for her heart,
but she realizes its gone to the sun
who teases with his whimsical laughter
to disappear without a trace in the night
and never remain by her side

Tokyo

2006-03-18T00:35:00.000+09:00

In February I headed over to Tokyo to visit my friend Agutxi and check out the big bad city of ToKyO. I had an AWESOME time visiting him and seeing all the really cool things that Japan has to offer. Hope you enjoy them!~

Agutxi doesn't live in the center of Tokyo, he likes to live a little on the outskirts of a city. When he was living in Hong Kong he lived on Lama Island so he had to take a ferry boat home. In Japan, he has a nice little hike after getting off the subway to get home. Despite Patricia and my complaints after some long days, the view is beautiful and we were able to see Japanese homes and the really cool train below:

Here we are: Patricia, Agutxi and I hanging out in Agutxi's pad~
Agutxi lives in a guest house~ a guest house is where you rent a room
and then you share the bathroom, kitchen and common areas with the
other people in the building~

One day we headed to a very famous temple in Asakusa. There are lots of cool shops on the road to the temple. They have lots of traditional and cool looking japanese things you can buy such as wooden shoes, kimonos, swords, etc. Here's a shot of the market:

Here are Patrica and I standing outside of the temple.

(Did I mention it was FREEZING during the trip)

I'm not sure why it is, but the Japanese seem to like to clothe their statues. I guess they have feeligs too!!! I'm sooo insensitive!

Unfortunately one of my great dreams was not realized on my trip to Japan.... I missed sumo season by one day!!! But we made a trip to the museum and learned lots of interesting information about sumo anyways. Thought I'd take a moment to educate you on some interesting sumo facts.

(This photo was taken outside of the museum)

Right now the second highest ranking ozeki is a Bulgarian man name Katsumnori Kotooshu. He's the first ever european ozeki!

Wonder why the wrestlers throw salt around? From ancient times it was believed that salt posses purifying powers. So the wrestlers purify the ring as a sacred place and also stomp about to squash any evil spirits.

Did you know that there are 82 sumo winning techniques!?

Curious about their hair? their every day hair style is a top knot but once they are in the intermediate juryo rank, they are allowed to wear a special top knot that is shaped like a ginko tree leaf. Each stable hires a hairstylist who does the wrestlers hair daily. I wish I could get my own stylist!

Preparing for a sumo match, who's ready to take me on?

Agutxi steps up to the plate, but he doesn't realize that I've been training life times!!!!
muh ha, ha, ha, ha!

Here's a picture of us one night painting the town red! Those poor Japanese people didn't know what they had instore for them that night!!!!

Two Funky Monkeys!!!

If memory serves me right, this is Shinjuku Station:

Here are a few of the famous harakushu girls:

Rather than finding all the adolescents dressed in baby doll or goth style clothing intersting (just reminded me of my own angsty youth) I took quite a liking to the nearby phone booth.

Below are some outdoor food vendors, and immediatly Patricia and I were thinking cheap food. Well, after being robbed blind (I swear they were more expensive then restaurants) we left still hungry and really broke!

Here is last, but not least, a night view of tokyo taken at the top of a hotel. (name escapes me but think it is the Hyatt)

Thank you for being an avid reader of Heathers Adventures. A special thanks goes out to Agutxi for providing me with all of the photos that you see posted here.

Also, thank you to my cool friends who downloaded skype: K-dawg in Costa Rica and R-dawg in New Zealand. It was so great hearing both of your voices!!! Get on there people, it's free!!!!

Needles

2006-01-17T12:22:00.000+09:00

Needles
Change the currents
of my life
and ebb the flow
of the night

I have flashes of the past
mixed with anticipation for
the future

perhaps all my dreams
are just a lie
and all I see
effects my eyes
more than my wonder of the universe
and the flow of the tides
I wish for your abscence from
my heart
and to reinvent the times
I lied
to give you a better face
clearer, more angelic
more pure
than my own~

SORAKSAN

2006-01-12T21:41:00.000+09:00

I took a trip to Koreas most famous mountain resort back in November with Jonny and have neglected to post any photos here on my blog so here they are with a bit of the adventure~

Unfortunately we only had two days for the trip but we treated ourselves like royalty, literaly. We stayed at the most expensive hotel there (the name escapes me right now) but it's the name of some posh British hotel. So Jonny felt right at home there. But he let me watch some violent movie called Diabalo instead of the football (soccer) match. You can take the girl out of America but you can't take the gun touting America out of her!!!

Here is Jonny in his home environment~

Here's Jonny in front of a London bus with the mountains behind him~

On our first day of the trip, we got a late start. We were supposed to meet at Express Bus Terminal at 8:30am but when i arrived there I received a phone call from Jonny that he had just woken up and would be there shortly. Sooo....I grabbed some breakfast and after he arrived we got tickets for the next bus. We didn't end up getting to Seokcho, the city nearest to Saraksan until after 1:00pm. By this time ready for lunch we walked down to the beach (Seokcho is a famous beach town) and decided to get some food. The day was sunny and beautiful, and since neither one of us sees the water that often living in Seoul, other than the gorgeous Han River, we bought towels, adorned with bambii and a kitty cat, and laid out on the beach and chatted. (those were our only towel choices not purchased out of desire believe it or not)

We realized that we wouldn't get any hiking in that day so we headed to the mountains when we started getting cold and took a short walk around. Then when we got to our luxurious hotel we were very excited of our fantastic view.
The next day we headed out a bit late after our very nice breakfast at the hotel. Our first stop was the outdoor Buddha statue~

Then we visited the temple nearby~

Then we made reservations for the cable car, yes, we took a cable car to the top! stop laughing! we didn't have enough time to hike! and we still had some hiking to do......
Look at Jonny working hard at climbing~poor thing!

Look how high we had to hike~

Here is me conquering the mountain, I almost bought a plaque at the top but I didn't want to make everyone else jelous of my accomplishments~

After posting this blog, I realized that almost every picture is of Jonny! What the heck! I seemed to take a lot of pictures of him and he took pictures of me but still hasn't sent me any! Perhaps I should rename this post Jonny's trip to Soraksan or an Englishmen's trip to Soraksan and oh yeah, that weird American girl who was stalking him......

A Poet!?

2005-12-28T22:34:00.000+09:00

Occasionally all those fleeting thoughts that go through my mind get written down and turned into "poems?" The just sit in my notebooks and are held prisoner there. I've gained the courage to set one free~

Somber Nights

The frame of the wilderness slowly embraces me
holds me back in time
for a second
a flash
the blink of an eye
but it's only yours
and the colors wave through
in infinite vibrations of light
streaming down
into my unconciousness
like nights last calling
all that's somber and right
in this world
is slowly challenged
and given a new name
pieced together
and rearranged
like my memory of your heart

Happy Birthday to Me

2005-12-20T13:28:00.000+09:00

alright, so my birthday was a month ago (november 18), but quite a few people have asked me to update my blog, and since nothing else very exciting has gone on since (or i don;'t have pics of any other event) here it is for those of you who missed it, my birthday.
on my actual birthday i had to work until 9pm, so i didn't go out. rather, during my 3 hour break i went hiking on the mountain behind my house which was a very good journey of reflection over the past year and the others that came before. After my evening class, i decided to go to the sauna and get a massage and my skin exfoliated. they do a great job here exfoliating, scrubbing every last inch of the body with no shame. so i soaked in some hot baths, had my old skin shed and felt purely relaxed. the following day i had yoga, and afterwards went to my new favorite restaraunt, Petra. It is a turkish/middle eastern restaraunt. We got a great meal, smoked a hookah (apple flavored tobacco) and then a few of us went to the local elementary school and played on the swings.

Here are some pictures of us at Petra

Here we have Brian and Jen munching on some middle eastern cuisine. Dig the psychedlic picture behind them

Here we have Jon intriguing Vanessa and the others at his end of the table. What words of wisdom are you spreading now Jonny?

Here we have Meghan preparing an oragami trick

Here is Joon Yong being taken by suprise!

Here is YuJin enjoying a bit of the hookah~

Here's Rhea using her climbing skills in the playground to hop the wall of the US miilitary base!!!

The following day I went to Club Italia and had a wonderful lunch with Vittoria (my italian teacher) and Svetlana (the girl I study italian with) and met lots of Italians living here in Seoul! It was a great experience!

Here we are, the three troublemakers. Me on the left, Svetlana in the middle and Vittoria on the right

Thanks for reading about my birthday!

A Korean Wedding Ceremony

2005-11-17T10:18:00.000+09:00

A couple weeks back, Fiona, a friends of mine from yoga took the plunge and got married. Being very cultured as she is, and full of good taste, her and her husband decided to have a traditional wedding ceremony. I was so excited to hear she was having a traditional ceremony for two reasons, one being that I hadn't been to a real one yet (only saw re-enacted ceremonies at the folk village) and two, I had only been to the cold lifeless machine that has become a typical modern ceremony. Basically these days, Korean couples rent a hall in a wedding house and they have their 30 min. long wedding ceremony. As you are leaving the ceremony room, you are escorted to another room which is where there is a buffet of food (or sit down depending) andyour leaving, you can see the as you are entering that room you can see the next wedding party coming in (within 15min). It's such a machine and very impersonal. It reminds me of the Pink Floyd video for "The Wall". After you finish your meal, you leave. Thats it. Also, if you stay too long the workers will ask you to leave.
Well, thank goodness Fionas wedding was nothing like that. The wedding ceremony was at Korea House which is a traditonal house located inside a nice city park. As the weather is very beautiful in Korea during the fall, the ceremony was performed outside in a courtyard.
Before the wedding I was able to get a picture of Fiona and her mother. As you may have noticed, Fiona is wearing a traditional wedding gown while her mother is wearing a hanbok which is a traditional dress that all Korean women wear during tradional ceremonies. (Unfortunately, the younger generation looks to western style and the use of the hanbok is getting less and less)

While waiting for the ceremony to begin, I got a shot of my friends Rhea and Brian who I went to the wedding with:

Don't they look nice?
Well, once the ceremony began, Heather, with Brians digital camera in hand, began to wander around looking for the best places to stand to capture the ceremony as best as she could. And then the ceremony began~
A tradional band began to perform and Fionas husband to be came walking out holding a screen over his face.

(Here's the band)

He eventually removed the screen and walked over to the house where Fiona and her mother were waiting. Fionas mother came out of the house upon his arrival and he offered her a wooden duck (in the past it would have been a real duck). Then he bowed before her.

Shot of offering:

Shot of bowing:

Then Fiona gracefully emerged from the house in her beautiful gown. Along with her were two of her friends.

Here her maids of honor are slowly and carefuly escorting her to the table. As you may have noticed, Fiona is covering her face from the eyes of her husband and all others.

Almost there...

And now for a big bow. Hard work
with that costume and two other
people at your side.

Unfortunately I don't remember the whole ceremony
in detail, or the contents of the table. But they did have a chicken yes, a real chicken, bound up, (so much for the avian bird flu!) I do remember that the girls" fed "her red jujubes and she drank some tea. I believe the jujubes represent fertility. I put fed in quotation marks because according to Fiona, she wasn't able to eat anything, they moved through the ceremony quickly, which is the Koreans style.

Here is a picture that I just really like:

Here is a view of the lovely brides face:

I'll never forget Fionas lovely wedding and the great food that we ate afterward in peace. This was definetly the best wedding I have been to in Korea. Thank you Fiona!!!!!

Note: You keen observers may have noted that no name was written in red in this blog entry. Why you may have wondered. Well, in Korea they never right anyones name in red. If you see your name written in red it means you will die! For the safety of all those I have written about, I decided to take precaution.....

Zhongdian~

2005-09-18T10:19:00.000+09:00

Zhongdian, oh, Zhongdian. Where for art thou Zhongdian?
Zhongdian is a beautiful city in Yunnan Province, China. It is situated in the mountains not far from Tibet. Actually, the people who live in this area are ethnically tibetan. They were the most kind ethnic people that we had met along our journey. We were greeted with "Ni hao" or "Hi" and a smile.
We stayed in a guest house that was constructed in the Tibet architectural style.

Here it is:

The family that owned the guest house lived in a beautiful home on the other side of the guest house (obviously have acquired wealth from visitors). They welcomly let us come into their home which was very big and spacious. Not much furniture and a bit cold. Here is a picture of their prayer room.

Here is a picture of their stove:

The weather here was very strange. One moment it was so hot and you could feel the sun burning your skin and then a moment later large clouds would gather over head and it would begin raining and get very cold. So cold you could feel it in your bones. Basically, you can experience almost every weather condition in one day except for snow (in the summer). It was so strange. I was either over dressed or under dressed during all hours of the day.

Once we got settled into our room, we made our way down the road to the village where the temple was and where a large number of monks live. The temple and the house were really unique and interesting.

Here are a couple of picture of the front door of the temple

Here is a photo from the bottom of the stairs, looking up at the temple grounds

Here is a picture of a very kind monk that we met inside of the temple with a very young monk by his side.

We spent the most amount of time in Zhongdian because it was the most beautiful place with the most beautiful people we had seen on our short journey. I have a million more photos but for some reason they aren't being accepted by photobucket so I can't share them all with you but I hope that you like what few I have been able to share with you~

Cranberry Tablets

2005-09-13T22:00:00.000+09:00

Here, take these. They'll satisfy us until we arrive in two hours. Christine said words similar to this while we were heading into our last few hours of our 25 hour train ride from Hong Kong to Kunming, China. I agreed and took the Cranberry tablet and convinced myself that i indeed was full. I had spent a lot of that train ride sleeping, reading and somewhat communicating with the chinese people who were occupying the beds surrounding us.

Here's a photo of inside the train. Very narrow!

When we had left Hong Kong, we thought we were getting an early start. We went looking for the bus we were to take to the train station but the bus didn't come. there were a ton of people surrounding us in the pouring rain with their umbrellas, all trying to hail a taxi that were all already full. Realizing that we weren't going to get a bus or taxi we ran to the subway station and made our way to the train station. When we arrived at the right subway stop, we had 15min. before our train was to depart. Not only that, we still had to go through immigration! We ran through the metro station with our heavy bags as quickly as possible. (Of course the train depot was at the other end of the station) Because we were late, there was no one in line for immigration and they quickly stamped our passports and we ran through the terminal and onto the train. Oh my god! How stressful! Yet exciting that we made it! While on the train there were people walking through the cars with different food dishes that you could buy. Since we couldn't quite understand what they were saying, the lucky serves got to stop and show us every dish until we decided what we thought looked the most edible and safe. Two hours later we arrived in mainland China and had to go through immigration once again which was no problem. When we left the terminal we knew we had to go to another train station to take the next train up to Kunming. When we left the airport many car drivers were trying to get us to take their cars for about $7 or $8. I felt we were being scammed and noticed there was a shopping mall nearby and told them we were going shopping and would come back later. I also figured there would be local taxis near the mall that we could have put on their meter. So we went over to the mall, exchanged our money and yes folks, saw a starbucks! Had to check out the prices which indeed were really cheap especially in comparison to Korea which is actually more expensive than in America. There was a Pharmacy/convenient store (like RITE AID) inside the mall and fearing that this was our last brush with "civilization", went inside and bought sun screen and some other things. Then we went outside and yes, we found a line of taxis. We went up to the first car and we showed him our train ticket that had the name of the station we wanted to go to in chinese. We then said in chinese train station. (A Chinese friend of mine here in Korea gave us some lessons before the trip). The man laughed so we werent sure whether or not to stay in the car, but after a few akward moments we were on our way. He took us to the train station and it cost less than .50cents. I knew those other guys were trying to screw us over! Can't put anything by me!

Allora....We bought some fruit, bread and water before getting on the train and then embarked on our 23hour journey. For dinner/lunch that day we finished off most of the food. there was a little bit of fruit left though. But we were unable to eat it because neither one of us wanted to use my pocket knife anymore. why? well, a chinese woman whos bed was across from my and who was quite interested in us decided to sharpen the toothpick that she had been picking her back teeth with throught the ride with my pocket knife! Yummy! So at dinner time, after seeing what looked like limp spam thrown on top of white rice being carted by us, i decided to see if there was a dining car. indeed there was one and we told them that we didn't eat meat (actually, we told them that they didn't eat meat but once they clarified our misuse of the chinese language we said we wanted tofu and vegetables. We figured going the vegetarian route was the safest especially after the strange looking meat.

Sometime after dinner, I went to sleep and slept a lot, there isn't much else to do, that and read. Sometime the next morning I was woken up by noise and commotion. The train was stopped but I didn't think too much of it. Chinese music had been playing for several hours and at every stop there was a bit of commotion. Once we got going again, I decided to head for the bathroom. Well, to my suprise, The path was blocked by a man who was lying on a stretcher with an IV connected to him and some attending nurses. He didn't look to well at all. From that moment on, I'm not sure if it was from seeing him or just being in such a small space for hours with lots of people, I started feeling a bit sick to my stomach. But this is life.

Christine and I weren't that hungry in the morning until about after one o'clock when we decided to head to the kitchen and were told that they were not going to serve us any food. Wow, that made it seem much nicer then it really was. Actually, the lady in the kitchen kept yelling something and seemed really angry and the cashier wasn't much nicer except that he wasn't yelling at us but saying that they wouldn't do it. So when we got back to our seats Christine reached into her bag and offered me a Cranberry supplement tablet.

When we finally reached Kunming, we started searching for Christines friend "Vicky" a Chinese girl she had met three years ago when she was visiting Beijing. Well, we didn't see Vicky so we got on the public phone, which isn't located in a phone booth but someone operates a bunch of phones from a stall and you call and then pay them. Anyway, her friend had emailed us but we didn't get it. She had left Kunming and was in Dali which was another 4 hour trip from Kunming. We decided to keep going. We were already in motion. An object in motion should stay in motion. So we went over to the bus terminal and bought the next ticket to Dali. We had one hour and decided to get some food. There were lots of stands selling bread and drinks but by this time we wanted real food so we noticed the stations restaurant and told them vegetables and tofu. The woman was just standing there she probably asked us what kind of veggies we wanted but obviously we didn't understand so she went back in the kitchen. While sitting there I decided to go to the bathroom. Now, I knew this would be an adventure since I had heard that the toilet stalls in China had no doors. So my game plan was to just walk to the back of the bathroom and not make eye contact (or any other contact) with anyone. I of course wasn't sure how the bathrooms were set up. Unfortunately, I never captured one of these special toilets with a camera, I didn't want to accidently get someone in the picture who was standing while wiping herself. So I went in, headed straight for the back and did my thing. I was astonishingly alright with the situation. Perhaps because I knew it was coming. Also, its so normal to them so I didn't feel embarassed.

After this great adventure, I headed back to the restaurant and shortly after the cooks creation appeared....cabbage, tofu soup. Not bad actually. Also, of course, we got rice with that. Toward the end of our meal, two kamakazi flies dove into our soup which delightfully ended our meal.

Nostalgic for Hong Kong

2005-08-17T21:49:00.000+09:00

Arriving at Hong Kong International Airport is like entering a space age terminal. Where am I, I thought to myself as I proceeded to exit the terminal lift and enter into the main airport building with my fellow passengers. As I get on the escalator, I hear the recorded voice of a British woman warning me to proceed with caution onto the escalator. A little surprised, I almost trip on an Asian gentleman’s suit case that he is dragging in front of me. I tell my friend how I hate those types of suitcases because every time I’m in an airport, I seem to trip on them. The Asian man turns around and tells me how I need to be more observant than and could easily fall prey to children pickpockets if I can’t even notice his suitcase in tow. A bit taken aback that he went into, what I felt was a private conversation in an unknown language to him, I realize that I would have been better off born in another land where the language wasn’t so familiar to the ears of many others.
After going through the normal airport proceedings, we took the very convenient and fast train into the city. The train was very modern with TV’s on the backs of every seat. In less than an hour we arrived in Kowloon Bay. After finding our way through the maze of a subway/train station, we stepped out onto the city streets and I realized I entered another world like no other I had ever been before.
We didn’t need to find a hostel because we had people that we were to stay with. Though we had to find them. One of the greatest adventures I’ve experienced in every country I have visited, is making that very first telephone call. Often on the first day of arrival. No matter what, no country seems to have the same public phone calling system or I’m dialing the wrong numbers. So we went to make that very first phone call with our large bags on our backs. The bags that scream backpacker. Unable to close the phone booth door because of the over sized bag, Christine began to make the phone call to our new friends. The number wasn’t working for her so I tried. Still couldn’t figure it out. So I decided to ask a young man handing out pamphlets if the area code was correct. He told us that we didn’t have to dial the area code in order to make the call. Ah, huh! How convenient that even the leaflet pusher new English. So we lugged our bodies and bags back to the phone booth and tried yet again and succeeded. So we got directions to the Spanish Embassy where he worked. We got back on the subway and went to the station near the Embassy. Before we left the station though, we grabbed an awesome fruit juice. It was called the energizer. It had mango, papaya, banana and strawberries in it. It was out of this world. The most amazing juice ever. They didn’t put in any sugar or syrup and the fruit was all fresh.
After getting our bodies energized, we made our way out of the subway station and found the Spanish Embassy. After getting kisses by all, we got the keys to their apartment and made our way over there. After a nice shower we hit the town for dinner and a nice walk and chat about.

Hong Kong

2005-06-10T21:21:00.000+09:00

Well, as the title suggests, I am now in Hong Kong. This is the beginning of, or the middle of my current adventures. As many of you know, I was recently home for about 3 weeks and arrived back in korea last wednesday. Today I arrived in Hong Kong with Christine, embarking on our Chinese adventures. Now we are staying at an apartment of Christines spanish embassy friends from Seouls friends. I am waiting for christine to finish in the shower to go for dinner. the energy of hong kong is just as great as i remember from my last short trip here. the different sized skyscrapers are awesome. the humidity is almost oppressive, but supposedly much better than it had been. christine and i have been studying manderin chinese for the last couple of weeks, thanks to Wang, my friend from China. We haven´t been able to put our language skills to the test yet, but come monday, we will be embarking on our mainland china adventure. i don´t know how often i´ll be able to keep you all posted, but i´ll try my best. christines smelling much better now, so we can head out. will write more later. toodles
heather

Everybodies Favorite Treat!

2005-03-22T20:07:00.000+09:00

Some of you may be wondering, what kind of snacks do Koreans eat? Well, I hope not to break your enchanment, but Koreans eat a lot of the same junk food that we do. I remember before coming here thinking that I would never eat pizza or have ice cream again. Well, lo and behold, there is a Baskin Robbins and a Pizza Hut near every main subway station in Seoul. With places like these and McDonalds, KFC and Popeyes leering their faces everywhere may have to do with the much larger (in weight and height) of the youngsters. But don't you worry folks, there still are some good, traditional snacks in Korea, and I'm crazy about them! That's right, rice cakes (Tteok)!!!!! These aren't the rice cakes that you get back home, full of air. These rice cakes come in various colors, shapes and sizes. Some have a filling of sweet beans inside while others are adorned with beans, peas or nuts. Some are very subtle in taste, while others are very sweet. My favorite is called yak shik. It's made out of rice, soysauce, brown sugar, chestnuts and pine needles.
Since they are my favorite snack, I decided to take you to my favorite Tteok Cheep (Rice Cake House)!

The shop is located a couple of blocks from my school (very convenient and tasty). The area here is called Insadong, a much loved area of Koreans and foreigners alike. Why? Because many of the tradional houses have been preserved here and for high tourist prices, you can buy really cool traitonal pottery, tea, paper and souvenirs.

Oh! Look who's waiting for me in the window! It's one of the two nice women who own and work at the Tteok Cheep.

They always smile when the see me and ask me lots of questions until my answers are polite smiles and nods. Today though, because I was taking pictures, they thought I was leaving Korea. I reassured them that I wasn't, that I was just going home for a few weeks and wanted to show my parent their delicious rice cakes. I think that made them happy. So here they are folks. A delicous spead of various rice cakes. You may notice an empty spot in on the table. That's the one I took!

~Accupuncture~

2005-03-17T18:34:00.000+09:00

As many of you know, I have been receiving accupuncture for at least the last four months on a weekly bases. I had it before this time but periodically. After spraining my ankle the first time, I went to this accupuncturist, and he cured my ankle so quickly, that I put my complete faith in accupuncture. I wanted to not only show you my doctor and my treatment, but also about the experience of going to a hospital in Korea for all of you who are not, nor will never be in Korea. So here it is, my trip to Kyunghee University Hospital.

The lovely hospital from outside~

An ambulance waiting outside the hospital, just in case~

As I enter the front doors of the hospital, to my right is this little convenience stand. It's actually a custom in Korea to bring drinks to a person who is in the hospital. (Non-alcoholic) Note all the yummy fruit! Don't see much of that in American hospitals, do you?

After passing the fruit stand, I look up, and there I see the sign directing me to my destination~

After making my way upstairs to the second floor, I check into this counter. I am always having to be aggressive here to make sure no one cuts in front of me. Now, this isn't rude, it's just the way things are done here. Lines don't exist. It's each woman for herself. (literally)

After getting checked in, I walk down the packed hallway. As you might see, my presence here is quite unusual, so I get lots of looks. I used to not like it but I'm used to it now.

Then I bring my slip into my Dr. office and sit in the hallway and wait for the nurse to call my name which sounds something like a dessert. Richi mousse. Once she calls my name I walk into the office which has four beds seperated by white curtains. There I wait for my doctor, Dr. Lee. Here he is waiting for me with an accupuncture needle in his hand.

On this day I was lucky because he had some university students following him around. There is nothing like mentioning your bowel movements to four strangers ("future doctors") and then watch them take notes and then talk about you in another language! But they were nice enough to take this photo of us!

Here are some of the needles sticking out of my leg. This is actually my favorite part, because then I lie on this bed for about 30min. with a heat lamp on me. I usually drift off.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my adventures at Kyung Hee University Hospital. If any of you will be coming this way in the future and want Dr. Lee to stick you full of needles, let me know. He's a great guy!

January classes~

2005-02-22T18:27:00.000+09:00

Here are some pictures I got from the cool cats in my class last month!

These photos are from my 2pm pre-pip class. Pre-PIP is the beginning level intensive english program at my school. They learn reading, writing and conversation. This crew was quit3e lively. There were some famous celebreties in this clan such as "Britiny" Kim (Britiny Spears' korean sister), Usher, Cindy "Crawford" and Julie (a) "Roberts". Check them out in action!

Here's a picture of them modeling their english text book~ Can you tell the celebrities apart?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/seoulmon2/o57.jpg

ARTHURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What have you done? I can't get rid of above image! I guess I will leave it for the amusement of the readers.

Let me try this. You'll have to click on this. Sorry!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v128/seoulmon/Heather/1.jpg

Usher and Julia Roberts allowed me to have a photo inbetween them for a small fee~

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v128/seoulmon/Heather/3.jpg

Here they are putting me in a heart! I payed extra for that!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v691/seoulmon2/o57.jpg

We had started off our afternoon at a restaurant and then made our way over to a Kareoke room. Here is me and Jesse living like gangsters white Usher showed off his skills on the mike.

Lady Madonna~

2005-02-18T20:05:00.000+09:00

Yesterday I was traveling on the bus from infront of Sogang Woman's Universtiy to go to yoga. After hopping on the bus and sitting down I decided to pop open the Lemon Snicket book that Arthur has let me borr0w, but before I had the chance to do so, the bus made it's next pick up, in came a former student of mine. I called him over and he sat next to me and we were chatting. He is a really nice guy. We were talking about his class and his classmates, about life, etc. when he suddenly opened his cellphone to check the time, I happend to look over and notice the wallpaper of his cell phone. What was it you may be wondering? Some picture of a half naked woman? His favorite actress? His favorite band? No, none of the above. It was a picture of the virgin Mary. I started laughing. Now, I knew he was a devout catholic, and there is nothing wrong with that, but I thought this was going a little too far. The first day of class last month, being it the start of the new year, I had asked his class what their new years resolutions were and he said that he wanted to make a girlfriend. So when I saw this cellphone wallpaper I told him that if he wants to get a girl he has to lose that picture. He explained that his friend sent it to him and that it is a "beautiful scene" and that he doesn't want to get rid of it. I offered to send him a new picture of something else, anything else, but he didn't seem too interested.
Well, I tried.

Happy Valentines Day

2005-02-14T10:39:00.000+09:00

Happy Valentines Day! (The outcast song plays rings through my mind as I write these words) Oh, the day of lovers, of cupids, red roses and chocolates. Despite the fact that I received several emails wishing me a Happy Valentines Day, the reality didn't sink into my pliable yet often thick brain. So when I went to class Monday morning and a student said happy valentines day to me, I was shocked. Oh! It's Valentines Day! I forgot. Then I remembered the differences between the Korean and western valentines "tradition". In Korea, Valentines Day is a day for girls to buy their boyfriend or crush chocolate. Oh, how absurd I say to you. But, unlike us westerners, the Koreans celebrate White Day on March 14th, which is a day for boyfriends to buy their girlfriends candy. Just candy. Not chocolate. Doesn't seem quite fair if you ask me.
Now, being as clever as I am, I went out, during a break and bought some chocolate for my coworkers. Now, 24 or more of them are men. Only 4 women. I figure that these guys will remember how kind I was to them on valentines day and they will shower me with candy on White Day! Hee, Hee, Hee! (Me twidling my fingers with evil, sinister grin on my face!)

Well, I hope that you all have/had a great Valentines Day. As you and I all know, it's really not important at all.

Flat Stan

2005-01-06T19:30:00.000+09:00

Well, it's been awhile since I've written. I guess I haven't felt that my life has been too exciting lately. Just working a lot. Not many interesting things have happend, except when I met Flat Stan. Flat Stan changed my life. Flat Stan is Canadian. He was sent to my friend Rob by his friends son who had a class project to send Flat Stan to another country and to have Flat Stan experience another culture. So, Flat Stan made the long journey via air mail across the great Pacific to South Korea. He even made it to my yoga class where he participated effortlessly in several postures. Check him out!

Flat Stan and I making a bridge!

Flat Stan with Rob and Ron (my yoga teacher) and his dogs!

Flat Stan chillin' with a buddha

Flat Stan trying out some Kimchi

The Miracle Drug

2004-12-08T21:36:00.000+09:00

Well, two accupuncture treatments later and I am doing kartwheels in the park! That's right folks, this girl is almost 100% back to normal. (Well, as normal as she could be). No measly staircase is going to stop this girl! There are people who need to learn english, and I'm just the girl to teach it to them!
This reminds me, I just received some photos yesterday from one of my students last month. The last day of class a few of the students and I went out for PaJun and Dong Dong Ju. PaJun is a pancake like mixture with green onions/kimchi/sea food. Depending on what you like. But Pa literally means green/spring onion. Dong Dong Ju is traditional rice wine. I like it. It is quite sweet. It is a favorite past time of young Koreans to eat PaJun and drink Dong Dong Ju on rainy days. The PaJun restauraunt I went to with my students was excellent. I am looking forward to venturing there on the next rainy day! Here are some photos that my students took! Enjoy!

Me with students: Jennifer, Robert and Hyun Su:

Way cooler than my face, check out the reflection of the dishes in the window next to me.

A classic kimchi pose:

My Right Foot!

2004-12-05T22:16:00.000+09:00

Can evil lurk within your own body? Can evil tuck itself away in a tiny part of your body and release its evilness periodicaly on a whim? These are not rhetorical questions. The answer, my friends, is yes. Now you may be asking yourself, where does evil lie within me? Well, this is my blog so stop being selfish and think about me and my evil!
Now I know you think I'm such a wonderful person and that no evil could possibly be in me! Well, contrary to popular belief, evil is living in me; in my right foot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, again I have sprained my right ankle. For those of you who don't remember or didn't know, last April I sprained my ankle during a terrible meditation accident. No, you didn't read that in correctly, meditation. How can one sprain their ankle during meditation? Well, meditating is not as easy as it looks. Before spraining my ankle in this way I hadn't realized what a tough job that Monks actually have!
Actually, what happend was that I was meditating for quite some time and when I finished, my leg had fallen asleep. I got up quickly without waking my leg up and I tried walking, couldn't feel my leg beneath me it twisted underneath me and I landed on my ankle. I couldn't even walk on it at the time.
So, what happend this time? Well, I was at my sisters today playing princess and knights with my nephews. (I was the princess of course) They told me to go downstairs to my castle and that they would save me from dragons. So, I started walking down the stairs which are narrow and wooden. I had a glass in one hand and was holding on to the railing with my other. Well, I don't know why, but I slipped and fell down a couple of stairs, scraping one knee and twisting my right ankle! At first it didn't feel too bad, I even went for a walk, but upon returning, it swelled up and now I can't put a lot of weight on it. Going to get accupuncture done on it tomorrow if it's still bad.
This is the evil that lurks inside of me! Be careful! It may be coming for you!

It's been a long time coming

2004-11-27T13:30:00.000+09:00

It's been a long time coming. It's been a long time gone. Many things have been happening to your friend since the last blog update. The most important thing the author thinks, is her birthday which came and went on November 18th. What did she do? Well, although her special day was spent with stomach discomfort, she had lunch at a really nice Indian Restauraunt (which probably wasn't the best thing for her stomach) with Rhea, Christine, Arthur and YuJin. Because she had to teach on that day, she turned it into a party day with some of her students. One student prepared her favorite style rice cake (yuk bab) for her birthday! But the real party was Saturday the 20th. After yoga class, Fiona, Desiree, Alana, Brian and I headed over to OUR PLACE, which is a bar/lounge in Itaewon. We got some food there and waited for the others to arrive. After midnight. About half of us went to another bar for a drink then we headed to Gspot,(love the name!) which is a gay bar in Seoul. It was so much fun! We were all getting our groove on. As expected, being that it is a gay bar, there was good music and good looking men. Which is like a straight girls heaven, dancing with lots of attractive men, but there was one tiny glitch in the matrix! After a while, us girls were done being teased and the straight boys were done being sized up by the not so straight boys, so we decided to go to a straight bar. Well, the straight bar was not nearly as fun, and the guys were not nearly as good looking. The club that we went to had the sleeziest guys in Seoul hanging out there! So, a little while later, us girls were missing the attention of the cute gay boys so we returned to Gspot. The evening came and went and the next day was spent moving slowly, trying not to strain more leg muscles; cause when this girl dances, she really dances!

European Adventure

2004-11-16T11:33:00.000+09:00

There was a cold chill in the mediterranean fall air. The ageless buildings penetrated and were observed by the passionate, mortal beings, bundled up in scarves and (mostly jean) jackets. The buildings seemed to mock the wide mouthed tourist and were only elements of purpose for the natives. The ageless beauty of the architecture and art seemed to challenge the next generations to come. "Behold our beauty. Keep it within you. None that you shall ever do will be as great." I fell to my knees in Saint Peter's Basillica. (Good thing I was in front of a pew.) How is it possible? I thought. Such beauty. Such grace and elegance. There are no words to write. Only my soul cried out in awe. At times it was almost too much. Accustomed to the monotiny of suburbia back home and the square, utilitarian style block structures in South Korea, at times it was overwhelming.

I began to wonder. These churches and buildings are so incredible to me. Imagine what they were like to the people of the time. Imagine being a poor farmer, living on a small farm and then stumbling upon a cathedral. I would have believed I stumbled upon some unearthly place.
Then I began thinking about the artist themselves and their great talent. If I was given a building to decorate and was told to use different shades of marble, sculptures and frescoes, I'm afraid the results would be quite tacky. But these artist had to know so much about color and balance to make everything flow. I felt so talentless and small standing among their work.

As my holiday came to an end, a yearning to stay among such beauty enveloped me, but also a yearning for a stable life also emerged. Arriving at my home in Korea, I was happy to have a place of my own. But, when staring out my window, looking out onto the pile of buildings infront of me, I longed for the ever- breathing artistic energy of Italy.

Italian Stalion?

2004-11-10T16:45:00.000+09:00

There must be something about the mediterranean breeze, or is it all the garlic, that keeps Italian men pushing the macho button 24/7. It all seems so stereotypical, and a bit cliche, but Italian men seem to be ready, at a moments notice, to whisk any woman away. Let me paint a picture for you.
Ok. So let's say you are an unsuspecting, innocent American girl, who's done a bit of traveling in Europe and has been living in Asia but have suddenly found yourself in Italy. Now, you are sitting in a cafe, observing the locals. You notice a man coming into the cafe. He is wearing jeans that sculpt his thin, but not too thin lower body. Around his waist is a leather belt of black or brown. He is wearing a T-shirt with a jean jacket or a leather jacket over the shirt. Of course, you can see a gold chain floating on top of the chest hair that is leaking out at the top of his collar. He strides slowly into the cafe and confidently walks up to the counter and orders "un cafe, per favore". Then he leans against the counter, and does a look over the room. His dark brown eyes linger a few extra moments at the women seated in the cafe. His hair is perfectly slicked back with some sculpting agent. Then he receives his espresso and drinks it quickly. A few words pass between him and the cafe worker, then he reaches into his tight pants pocket and gets out a Euro and 50cents, does another quick look over at the women and strides on out. Now I know some of you thought I had a saucy story for you. Well my friends, if I did, I can't post it here, my parents know this blog address!
Anyway, after imagining what I saw you may be asking your self, 'why is the Italian birthrate so low with all these confident, stylish, macho men lurking about?' What is happening to these Italian stallions? Are Italian women no longer interested in this air of confidence? Unfortunately I cannot answer this question. I didn't notice any Italian women during my short month visit therefore no oppurtunity to ask them. Perhaps the contrast between Italian and Korean men had this girls head spinning. I guess I will have to go back to find out the answer.
Ciao!

Communication BreakDown

2004-10-23T14:05:00.000+09:00

As many of you know, I started out my journey at my relatives house. They live in the southern part of Italy, about 2 hours north of Napoli (Naples). I arrived in Roma on October 29th around 7am. Now, the game plan was for me to call my cousin back in America who speaks fluent Italian, and have her call my relatives in Italy and let them know when to expect me. Well, when I tried using the payphone, to no avail, was I able to get through. Then I bought another phone card, and still, no luck. I spotted a cafe nearby and decided to go and get a cappucino. See what all the buzz is about Italian coffee and figure out what to do.
I grabbed my handy phrase book in one hand and went inside the cafe. I walked over to a table rather awkwardly with my large, typical, travel pack on and a shoulder strap bag full of books. I sat down at a table and a waiter started to approach me. I started fumbling through the phrase book as he approached the table. Where is the section on eating out? I thought to myself flipping through the pages nervously. As usual, when you need something at a precise moment, you can never find it, I couldnt find the EATING OUT section. As I started out in a long ahhhhhhhhhh..... the waiter asked: "What can I get you?" I was quite relieved that he spoke English, the language of love. I had just spent the last 20 hours or so on a plane or in an airport waiting for a plane, I wasnt quite ready to delve into this new language. But then I thought to myself, how did he know I was a foreigner! Cant I pass as an Italian? I guess I cant blend in! Which was something that I really wanted. As to prove that I am Italian. I figured I could pass for Italian before I could pass for Korean but then again, who knows... Then I looked down at my large bag and figured that I practically was screaming tourist.
As I sat there, I realized that I would infact have to call my relatives and let them know of my arrival. So, I cracked open the phrase book and grabbed some paper and pen out of my notebook and began. It went something like this:

Io Sono Heather. Mia madre e Christine. Sono arrivare e Telese Stazione, oggi, luna a mezza.

Now, to the untrained Italian reader, you are probably thinking that I am a pure Italian genius, and despite some of the Swiss-German-French blood surging through my veins, my I talian grandparents must have possesed my body and gave me the ability to speak their native tongue. But perhaps to a native speaker, my sentence is rather childish and probably grammaticaly incorrect. Im still not certain.
When I finally got up the courage to call they understood me! A great excitement surged through me. They understood! I am a master of Italian!

This sensation lasted through the long train ride but once I was in their home, I started to rethink my being there. What was I thinking going to there house! I cant speak Italian! I wanted more than anything to ask my grandmothers sister so many things about my grandmother and her life growing up on a farm. Though, over the 10 days of my being there, my knowledge and comprehension was getting better. Everyday they told me that I was getting better and I knew they were right because I could understand them and their questions.

For those of you who dont know about my grandmother, let me give you a little background information.

My grandmother was born in 1901 and raised on a farm (the one I visited). When she was 18 or 19 she was sent to America to be married to my grandfather who is also from the same farming community. Yes folks, they had an arranged marriage. And produced several gorgeous children who produced even more glamorous children. (Thats where I fit into all this).
My grandmothers youngest sister is still alive, at 96. She is such a sweet woman. Very lovable and cute. When I would sing and dance for her she would clap her hands and say "Non capisco"
(I dont understand) but I think she was getting the groove.

Anyway, I spent many a day entertaining my self and the others by asking questions from my phrase book which was my savior and arch nimesis. Why my nemisis? Well, there was no verb congegation. I could only speak in the present tense! I was getting frustrated at times. I spent my days studying Italian, going for walks, eating awesome food, and meeting relatives who Ive only heard of from my mother and aunts.
Needless to say, I had a wonderful time and hope to go back soon to visit. As my journey now comes towards its end, I realize that my fondest memories came from being with my relatives.

Check out my relatives:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v128/seoulmon/Heather/Italy_October_2004154.jpg

Me and Maria Giovanna
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v128/seoulmon/Heather/Italy_October_2004162.jpg

Sunday Special

2004-09-21T12:34:00.000+09:00

This Sunday started out like any other Sunday. The sound of the loud speaker from the fruit/vegetable truck made it's way slowly passed my window and through the neighborhood anouncing obnoxiously PEARS, GRAPES, APPLES, ONIONS,etc. (All in Korean of course) This ever so gentle sound brought this sleeping beauty happily awake at 7am.
Around 11:00am, Rhea and I decided to take the Siberian Husky that is caged up in her "front yard"for a walk. No, this is not Rhea's doing. Her Shaman landlord and his daughters never take this poor dog for a walk. A dog of it's size should not be in a big city. So, we decided to add some good karmic points to our lives and take it for a walk up Asan Mountain nearby our houses.
As we embarked onto the streets of Ewha, we had the power of Moses as he helped the Jews flee Egypt. This affect was quite strong, but also, we noticed many men stopping to pet the dog. (Note to self: Become friendly with dog. Take dog for walk more often. Without Rhea)
Needless to say, the dog that was barely ever taken for a walk took us for a walk up the mountain. It was quite an adventure being pulled up a mountain.
After returning home, I called my friend and we decided to meet in Itaewon. I wanted to look for a bag for my trip. So we met up around 4pm and got some drinks at a cafe and had a chat. Then, one of his friends who owns a club in Itaewon, invited us to a barbaque he was hosting. So, we went and bought a bottle of white wine and a bottle of rum. It was a BYOB party but food was supplied. The weather was gorgeous Sunday, I must add.
The party was on the roof top of the guy's apartment. As we entered the roof top, I noticed that the party mostly consisted of men. Only one other woman was there. There were so many good looking men. Heather, what a lucky girl you are! You must be thinking to yourself and I thought the same when I first arrived. Young men with tight bodies and good fashion sense! Where am I? It must be a dream. But then I noticed the men being ever so friendly towards one another. What a disappointment! But needless to say, we had a blast. There was a fashion photographer there taking photos and she took several of me with some of the boys! Maybe I'll make next months Vogue! You never know... Watch out Hilton! You ain't got game like me!

ramblin' heather

2004-09-17T01:49:00.000+09:00

howdy folks. well, as the title suggests, i have nothing in particular to write about. so i guess i'll just ramble. right now i am in between classes. so, what's going on in the world of heather? good question. she's not sure her self.
i've just been counting down the days before i head to italy. i am so excited! i have been trying to study italian but i don't think i'm very good. although, i must say, italian is much easier than korean. that's for sure.
i'm quite excited to see what italy has to offer a girl. i mean, there are some good looking korean guys, but..... Well, let's just say that when I had a layover in Rome on my way from Greece to the Netherlands, I saw the best looking men in my life in that airport. I was actually considering staying except that I don't think my friend cared about the handsome men. That's the problem with traveling with male companions, they never appreciate the attractive men around them! I must say though, I really need this. As you may know, or not, there are many foreign men here but not many foreign women. Most of my foreign friends are male. So I have to hear comments constantly such as: "Look! Look!" "Quick, Quick" (me excitingly turning my head) "Did you see that girl in a miniskirt?"
So, now it's my turn. I'm sick of saying things like "That guy in the pink shirt is kinda cute." It's absurd that a girl has to result to that level! It'll be nice to have some eye candy.
Well, I have a job to do and someones gotta do it. Since they're paying me, I guess it should be me.

Heathers Adventures in Wonderland

2004-09-10T17:22:00.000+09:00

Hello and Welcome to Heather's Adventures in Wonderland. Who knows what new and exciting characters will come her way. This young woman would like to share with you her twisted life and the mysterious beings she enounters along the way.

Warning: All names and places in this blog have been changed to protect the innocent.