2009

... is off to an interesting start. I feel very fashionable losing my job in the middle of a global economic crisis. Mostly I feel totally uncomfortable with my situation but I'm trying to treat it as part of my Asian adventure... we'll see if it sticks. However it is not without its entertaining moments. During a call to my boss we had this comical exchange:

Me: You need to pay me.
Boss: I need run.
Me: What!? No! We need to meet.
Boss: No, I need run.
Me: No. Really, we need to meet.
Boss: I need ... L-O-A-N rlrlroan.
Me:Ohhhhhhhhhhhh yes, yes you do. And we need to meet.

That's the latest. We're meeting tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

(Though it's 15:00 on Jan 1 in SK it's not even midnight in BC where my blog thinks it lives so the date is off -ah what it is to live in the future! ;-)

To See What I Can See...

My second airport post comes to you live from YVR.

Vancouver is very pretty today. The sun shone through a very thick and low lying pearl coloured fog this morning that covered the fields between Tsawwassen and the airport. It may have been a result of the significant snow pack on the ground finally being exposed to decent BC temperatures.

I was relieved to see the crowds have dissepated since the xmas mess. The lines were long but not unbearabe i.e. not (literally) days long. I did manage to hold things up a good deal at security when my bags and I were asked to go through twice and then be personally checked (my bags not me) by a guard.

I am returning to Korea to try and complete my year of teaching abroad. Being jobless is interesting but I don't think it will be too hard to fix that situation. My more pressing concerns revolve around money, my boss and the future of my shoebox.

I wont know anything more until I track down my boss in Busan early next week.

KABLOOIE

So all had been too calm here on my blog. What else than drama at work to change that up?

Here it goes:

I don't have a job.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH.

This was not the plan. I knew that what had been the current plan was probably a little too good to be true. But I still had reasonable hope that I would have some kind of job in 09. But alas that was not to be.

So here I sit in Victoria with a ticket to Seoul on Sunday but no solid promise of employment in the new year. And so it goes.

It's really real

A major advantage of this mini break in Canada is the opportunity to buy travel gear in English stores and in reasonable sizes. I went to MEC today and bought a beautiful backpack that will take me all around SE Asia. I also bough some lulu crop pants (reversible so really it's like 2 pairs) which will be my outfit for 3 months straight. 

Traveling SEA now feels very real and very exciting!

Snow!

That's right, snow is falling and on the ground in Victoria. It's at the pretty stage, clean, white and quiet. Very winter wonderland.

I <3 Ferries

I went to Vancouver this week, which meant I got to ride the BC ferries again, which is always a plus in my book. 

A. from MTA is now at UBC in T.'s old program. It was really great to catch up even if it was only for a night (I inconveniently arrived in the middle of exam season for students). We hadn't crossed paths since graduation more than a year and a half ago. Suddenly a year and a half seems to pass really quickly and I'm pretty sure that's a sign of getting old. We made plans to hopefully cross again in Europe next summer. Ah to be part of a globalized world...

Inevitable Post

As a general rule I don't like comparing Canada and my current country of residence. It was true for DK and it's true for SK. I tend to find the exercise pointless and almost always biased toward your current audience. That said, with the opportunity to return to Canada three quarters of the way through my stint in Korea, I am particularly aware of the differences these first few days back on Canadian soil.  In an effort to stop talking about Korea in every conversation, a common/annoying problem for people returning from abroad, here is a concise list of my observations.

• Seeing white people everywhere is weird. I feel like I should know them. Seeing white babies and old people is also pretty novel.

• Not feeling moderately guilty every time I flush toilet paper is quite nice.

• Being able to eavesdrop on conversations in the street or on the bus is fun -sort of like being let out of a bubble.

• Eating all foreign (aka not Korean) food all the time feels decadent.

• Tax is a pain.

• My suspicions are confirmed, my English has gone down hill, I said "big size" in a Canadian store.

• Traffic is stupidly calm here. The cars actually stop for yellow lights.

Typically, I can't remember half the things I want to now that I'm writing them down.