Shadow's Friend

"Some of Shadow's friends at the river last Sunday. Taiwan". Taken by Squitten

A Typical Day in School

Dear Seri Surians,

It's me, Anne, your ex-student. How's it hangin back there? I really miss yall very much.

Its been 3 years since I've left you. How time flies.

Studying here in SMK Bandar Baru Sungai Long has been pretty good so far, apart from a few bumps on the way. I guess its about time I let you know what's life like in my new school.

One word to describe my first impression when I first stepped into this school; colorful!

Seriously.
From our classroom,

Which, by the way, was painted by us. Awesome, eh?

To the people,






To the entire school!



Well... it looked colourful then.

But anyway, although the idea of studying in a government school sucked at first, I'm beginning to see some of the perks of studying in a national school.

First of all, there is a whole new variety of school uniforms I could wear. I could be wearing a baju kurung on Monday and maybe the next day, I'd wear a pinafore and the day after that, I'd wear a pinafore with long sleeves.

But I look like a nerd in it.

Meh, I look like a nerd with or without it...
Second, we can do whatever we want with our classrooms. Even paint the entire place a hideous green or something and we won't get screwed up by the teacher (thankfully, we didn't)!

We painted it yellow. Oh well, I guess its normal enough..

And ermm..... we get to bring our cameras to school (like duh! How do you think I got the pictures in the first place?).

And basically, I think its a really pretty school. The facilities are HUGE! We even have goats and rabbits somewhere around.

It looks like a little farm in the school as well. We have a mushroom house too!




Sometimes, after harvesting the veggies, the students would sell it to the teachers.

Well, that's all I can say about my school in SMKBBSL. Its not such a bad school as I thought it would be when I first came. The students and teachers here are great apart from the few bitches I came across so far.

In the government school, apparently there are all kinds of people I've met here. Some are poor, some are gay, some are rich, some are scary while others are really sweet people.

Although there are times when I wished that I was still studying in Seri Suria, I'm beginning to like this school very much and I wouldn't want to change it in any way.

With lots o' love,
Anne ^.~

Toronto Bound

Today was my last day of summer camp and also my last day of school. It's summer vacation time! WooHoo!

I'll be back in Toronto, Canada, for almost three weeks before school begins again. Summer vacation is very short here it seems. Oh well, at least it's still a vacation. Although, I'm not really looking forward to this as going back to see family is not my idea of a vacation. Too much stress by those family members who really do not understand who I am and why I do the things I do. But, seeing friends I haven't seen in ages will be good, though.

I also need to get my shoulders fixed. For whatever unknown reason, I managed to injure them back in January/February and need physio and message to fix them. I've been nursing the pain for all these months. This will take up most of my time in Toronto. The dentist awaits, as well. And, I also need supplies, too. Things that cannot be bought here must be bought back in Toronto. Whatever!

All in all, not a "real" vacation as I would have preferred to go back to Hong Kong, or Tokyo again. It's just a necessity in this case. I'll definitely head back to more exciting spots during winter break next January/February, though.

Plus, the 14 hour flights there and back again! Oh, noooooo!

Note:

For those wondering, I'm still in South Korea until the end of the weekend. Don't look for me in Toronto. I'm not there yet!

Towards The Light

The Netherlands. Taken by Wim Koopman

Western Wall Tunnels

"This is part of an underground tunnel exposing the Western Wall in its full length. The carved stones in the bottom are original from the Temple... I walked there with a large tripod, it was awkward and uncomfortable but paid off! I wanted to capture the atmosphere of that special and interesting place with no additional artificial light". Taken by Flavio

Selling Flower Baskets

"Young boy selling flower baskets in Varanasi". India. Taken by Dick Verton

Flip

"Dance contest, Coney Island, Brooklyn". Taken by greenelent

The Wave Rock

"This amazing place in the middle of nowhere is The Wave Rock. We travelled over 100kms to here on a dirt road beause we missed the main (bitumen) road turn! The drive was worth it though and we had lots of fun pretending to surf on this wave. The little town of Hyden owes it's ongoing existence to this rock and the tourists that visit it. Definitely worth a look if you are in the area". Australia. Taken by Carl & Heidi

Parties and Crappy Muffins

What up my dear readers? Sorry for the boring posts lately. Nothing much has happened to me lately. No story about boys, school or anything. Nada.

*sigh* Sometimes, my life can be so dull.


So anyway, I might as well recall what has been going on in my life so far. Hmm.... recently, I was at a class party which is organized by Mr. Balan, my Accounts tutor. I've heard that he's one heck of a great teacher and most of his students are straight A students.

A dirty little secret about Mr. Balan; he's bald. Its not real hair.

It was a pretty good party I guess. We have an unlimited supply of pizza (unfortunately, I don't really like cheese).


That's Roann's lil' bro Roanld with my lil' bro, Daniel. They're both the same age just like me and Roann!


We also had a talent contest. Just do whatever you want. Roann and I attempted to do a scene from Mr. Bean, but we didn't win. I can't believe it was the kid who wasn't even participating won!

Total WTF moment.

All he did was just do a lousy breakdance when the music was on and he won just like that!


I like this guy's performance anyway. I like his wig. Yeah, another one with fake hair.


And here's the winner of the best dressed female of the night (the cute one, not Roann). And yes, you guessed it, that's her little sister, Rowina.

Did you know that everybody in Roann's family's name starts with an 'R'?
Including the dog!


Ah yes! It during one of my baking frenzy that I came up with this crap.

Seriously, you don't wanna eat it.

I could bake all kinds of stuff actually, cakes and cookies are one of my specialties. But muffins are one of the things I have yet to conquer.

"Muffins are the easiest things to make..." YEAH RIGHT!!

You have no idea how many times I've tried making muffins. I've looked up so many recipes and tried different tactics.


But they all ended up the same; one moment they look all fab when taken out of the oven, the next, they've all sunken in.

This recent muffin however, managed to stay up for a loooong time! This was an accomplishment for me. Unfortunately, there was one GIANT fatal flaw; its totally inedible!

Its as hard as rock! I can barely chew let alone swallow! It was probably one of the biggest failures ever that I had to throw the whole batch away. I couldn't bear to look at it...

=[ sadface


So in the end I decided to make one of my successful creations; Butter cake and chocolate cookies.

Screw the muffins!

Street Life

July in Tomsk, Russia. Image by Valerie Titievsky

Black Ocean

"Black Ocean!

This is actually an underexposed daytime shot...". Denmark. Taken by Audiotribe

Almost One Year Later

Oops! A burned out light.

My original single laundry line has evolved into a spiderweb. My bike is being camera shy tonight, it's hiding behind my drying laundry.

A new set of speakers. They sound excellent for being so small.

My "office"! LOL

My clothes dryer! Awesome for being on sale for less than W25,000 (about US $20) at the time.

Looking towards the bathroom, the kitchen, and the front door.

The bathroom is still quite clean after almost a year of daily use! LOL

My kitchen with a shopping bag full of goodies destined for my students currently in Summer Camp 2010.

Another view of my kitchen. You can see Zlata hanging from the handle of one of my cabinets. Actually, the pic above this one has a better view of her. One of my students from Winter Camp 2010 made her for me.

What a difference a year makes. My home has evolved into a more lived-in feel with the addition of some new toys and gadgets. I love this place! Everything that I need and want is here and everything that I need and want for shopping, dry cleaning, tailoring, hair cutting, restaurants, and transportation is right outside. The only negative are some noisy neighbors that have, thankfully, been quieter lately than when they first moved in. But, that's life. Nothing is perfect.

You can check out how the place looked right when I first moved in here:

http://cgivisionary.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-apartment.html

Enjoying the Moment

Brussels, Belgium. Taken by Ben Heine

When the storm decided to not visit us...

Hong Kong. Taken by terencehonin

Sharp Sight

"Face to face...". Bali, Indonesia. Taken by A.Alshatti

Personality...

"Kuwait, Al Sulaibikhat Reserve. Desert of Kuwait". Taken by Abdullah Bader

Contract and Visa Renewed

I went to the Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education (boy, that's a mouth full) and got my new contract signed by program coordinator Sarah Hyun today. Then, it was off immigration to get the new visa. It was a busy morning, but at least everything that I wanted to get done before my summer vacation trip to Toronto is now done. And, in case you are wondering, yes I work in the public school system.

Things went really smoothly and much faster than I had expected. The trip to the education office was very quick and problem free via bus #582 from my school. And, then the subway ride with the education office right at exit #4 of City Hall station. Then, a short bus trip via #33 bus (which is right in front of the education office) to the immigration office, which is a short walk from the corner of the Ewha Woman's University Hospital stop.

The cost of renewal is W30,000 + another W50,000 for a multiple entry visa (which allows you to travel outside of Korea and come back again during your visa period). Good if you plan on doing some traveling outside of Korea while you are here.

All in all, a very smooth morning of running around with a short stop at Bupyong for lunch. I was back at the school within 3 1/2 hours. I had originally expected this to be a two morning affair with the contract today and the visa tomorrow.

Not bad. Not bad.

Note:

I know my way around enough now not to need a co-teacher to go anywhere with me to get things done. Independence is just GREAT! WooHoo!

Ho Lee Chow

Yesterday, I went to Bundang to meet up with my math teacher friend and his family. We ended up going to the Ho Lee Chow restaurant in his area. I had wanted to try Ho Lee Chow ever since I read about it in other blogger reviews months ago. And, after trying to arrange it so that everyone would be free to get together at the same time, it finally came together yesterday. That took forever to come together it seemed!

Anyways, Ho Lee Chow is an American style Chinese food franchise. In Canada, Ho Lee Chow is nothing more than a takeout counter with virtually no place to sit and eat in. It's just take out there. I've eaten there a few times when I was too lazy, or too time challenged, to make it to Chinatown for the real thing. I don't know what it's like in the USA as I've never been to one there. But, here in South Korea, it looks like a high end restaurant with nice seating and dark romantic interiors. With a price to match, unfortunately. It's ironic because real Chinese food is actually very inexpensive compared to other ethnic foods, and I include North American cuisine in this because real Chinese food is really, really, CHEAP to eat. At least in authentic Chinese restaurants in North America, and Hong Kong.

So, Americanized Chinese food is not quite the real thing, but it's close depending on what one orders. If you order anything "sweet and sour", forget it! That's just stuff made for North American tastes. It's NOT authentic. Trust me on this. Ditto with virtually anything deep fried, too. Sorry! Not the real thing. Anyways, we ordered items that were a mix of real and not so real as most of the menu items are not 100% authentic Chinese dishes. Those are the breaks seeing that this is an American chain. Now, that's not to say the food was not good. Quite the contrary. And, that's also not to say that I don't like some Americanized versions of the food because I do.

So, herewith (and in no particular order other than this is just how the pix uploaded) is a rundown on the day's dishes and their individual verdict:

Lobster in Black Bean sauce has got to me one of my all time favorite Chinese food dishes. Black bean sauce has in recent years taken a back seat for most Chinese people when it comes to lobster as simple ginger and garlic is more in vogue these days. But, Black bean sauce is still my personal choice and the reason is that the taste is so much stronger. The "hit" is amazing when done right. There is nothing close to it. For those who know this taste and the real thing, you know what I mean. Once you've had lobster this way, you'll never want it any other way again. Well, except maybe with drawn butter at some super expensive classy seafood place where you will pay 4x the amount for the same size lobster. Anyways, the lobster here that day was quite good and close to the real thing. It could have been tastier and a better "hit", but it was quite acceptable. About 90% close to the real thing. I enjoyed it and so did my friends.

Recommended

This is their house version of what is usually known as "Yang Chow Fried Rice". Basically, fried rice with everything from chicken bits to shrimp. Usually served at authentic Chinese weddings, this rice was quite good and tasty. The only downer were the mushrooms. They used canned mushrooms instead of fresh ones. But, all in all, quite good. About 90% authentic.

Recommended

This dish is one of the most common Chinese food dishes in most authentic Chinese restaurants you go to. It's simply flat rice noodles stir fried with beef, onions, green onions, and bean sprouts in soy sauce. The wok temperature has to be just right to get that smokey singed taste and texture to it. The mark of a really good chef if done right. This dish was 100% authentic in taste here that day.

Very Highly Recommended

This one is one of my favorite Americanized Chinese food dishes as it's something made at home as well as at restaurant. It's simple and easy to make. Unfortunately, this sample did not turn out quite as good as it should have. The main problem being the broccoli was over cooked and mushy. Broccoli should be crispy and crunchy in this dish, right at the cusp of doneness where it turns from raw to cooked. Anything over that point and it becomes mushy and anything just under that point and the broccoli is too bitter. I had a talent for making "just right" broccoli in the kitchen irregardless of the dish I was making. For those used to the North American cooking style, you will have absolutely no idea what I am talking about here as that type of broccoli is so mushy that it is softer than butter sometimes! And, you wonder why kids hate broccoli?

Anyways, the taste was not bad, close to the real deal. But, was let down by the textures of too soft broccoli and carrots. I'd rate it at 75% close to what it should be, and I'm being generous here.

Not Really Recommended (unless you like mushy broccoli)

Well, there, you have it. All in all an enjoyable meal for both myself and my friends. Albeit expensive for Chinese food, this is what it's like eating in a chain restaurant. But, most importantly, this is as close to real Chinese food as I have ever gotten while here in South Korea. I have tried many so called Chinese restaurants, even in Chinatown, and they have all been disappointing to some extent until this one. I think there is an opportunity here for some one to open the real thing. Hint. Hint.

Note:

All pix from Ho Lee Chow's Korean website. It was too dark to shoot without flash and I hate using flash.

It Doesn't Look Like Him

Cork, Ireland. Taken by Rebels Abú