I'm in KOREA. ARE YOU AWARE?

I had forgotten, since my dad hasn't been living with me for about a year now, that he is an unreliable shit.

The flight was good, and we were able to get away with a minimum of fuss from both customs, security and our clingy ass families. There was a way intimidating kid sitting next to us on the plane giving us both the evil eye, I'm not sure if it was for a reason, but she outstared me in every staring contest I dared to engage in. The ten hours went by reasonably fast, with an issue of the Economist and a viewing of High School Musical 2.... well maybe the last one didn't help as much as pain, but it's all the same after 8 hours of whirring jets and tiny food I guess.

We were whisked away from the airport by my uncle who was much funnier, now that he's grown a bit old and senile and he forgets where his keys are. The trip took about an hour and a half thanks to all the traffic and lameness. I pointed out the obvious to Mia, that there were millions of apartment buildings everywhere which she immediately referred to as "deathboxes". I don't think she's used the word apartment yet, to be honest.

After a quick night there, seeing my grandmother who is so frail and senile that its actually kind of painful to think about, we were picked up by my dads best friend, who to be honest is kind of a boorish asshole, but he's taken me in like family and I'm kind of indebted to him. He picked us up, and drove us to where we are now, an island named Gangwha which is connected to the mainland by two bridges, which took him about an hour. We were then fed, fed, fed till we burst in some sort of Karmic display of spite, with sweet potato, Sashimi and live octopus all to be had. GOOD TIMES.

However, my dad rang me and told me that all the plans we had made with the school had fallen through. I'm still not that sure why that is, whether they genuinely couldn't facilitate us, or if someone took ill or something, but it meant that we were at a new school in the area. And they weren't sure if Mia and I could share a room. They thought that perhaps we could share a room with 3 high schoolers.

It took all my self-control to not issue a firm fuck off in both Korean and English, to make sure they would understand.

Instead, I had 3 korean old men take turns in reprimanding me for having the nerve to insist that Mia and I share a room. I waited my turn and then yelled my frustration at them for a little while. My korean isn't very good but I think they got the idea. Of course, this is korea and they're all older than me, so it was so incredibly restrained that I must have come across as being respectful :o

So since then, we've been homestaying at the English teachers house. We would have blogged sooner, but the goddamn government blocks blogger on the teachers internet connection. What gives? Still, we think we have a work around so expect more frequent updatage. We're at a pretty schmick PC cafe at the moment, so this suits me fine, but I assume we don't want to waste the money just because everything looks awesome and works quickly.

The school itself is quite awesome. It's entirely powered by Solar and Geo-thermal power and is filled with hippyness and children. There's only about sixty of them, and they all live in the dormitory with four to a cabin. There's a really intimidating sense of community about the whole thing, and they seem like a very strange bunch of kids. Really nice though, very accomodating, but they don't seem overly eager to make friends. I guess you can't expect much from a bunch of surly Year 10s, 11s and 12s. All the food is organic and grown in the area, and everybody is expected to eat everything on their own plate and wash up their own thing.

Damned hippies.

It's been about -6 degrees here, damned cold weather by any measure. I've had time to play soccer, read Colbert and be mothered by absolutely everyone. It feels like people are either worried about us or wanting to make us feel overly welcome. It's been irritating nonetheless, but it's also been really nice to get away from everything. Conditions haven't been ideal, considering how much unnecessary hassle was added by my dad, but I'm really still enjoying being away from my daily routine. Sure, here I'm getting up at 6 am to go to the school, but I feel like I'm doing something good. Leading a simple life can be nice too.

I feel like I'm still waiting to get into Korea and really see things. Sorry that this post has been so haphazard, I have a terrible memory and I know that Mia will do a much better job of posting the highlights. I've probably forgotten lots of important things.

BUT LOLLLLLLLL