It's Aliiiiivvee!!!!

Hi friends! I am sure you are all waiting on pins and needles for my latest blog post. Usually I put it up on Monday morning (here) but I've been a bit under the weather lately. I'm still not feeling that great (fever and chills on and off) so I won't say much, just post a bunch of pics.

On Saturday, Kenneth and I went to The Alive Museum and Maze which is an interesting place. You pose in different situations and take pictures based on camera angles and stuff. The maze is and insane course which you have no preparation for. There's a ropes course where you crawl Mission Impossible style which is not meant for people over 5'8 so we both had a rough time in there. But, we did it which was fun and felt good to complete! I've never felt so vigorously challenged from just walking in off the street wearing jeans.

Way to stand on your mark, Allison. 

Spiderman kiss

Ben Hur

I love him

My pose is better

This is my fav pic of the whole set

Get it, girl!

We didn't quite figure out the logistics of this one, how to paint a pic of yourself.

After the museum we went for lunch, which I am only mentioning so I can show you what we ate. All the restaurants in the area were Korean and had a lot of seafood. We saw a sign for chicken and beer so ran inside! There were literally 3 things on the menu that I would eat (the rest being seafood) so we ordered 2 of them. Friend chicken and this corn dish which is just corn and melted mozzarella together. It's not a combination you see a lot. Although, Koreans put corn in a lot of things. 

Kenneth was flying out that night back home to Nigeria for a few weeks so I went with him to the airport to see him off. It was nice to just have some time to talk together while sitting in the back of the cab.

The timing of him leaving isn't great but it will give me some time to think about what I want and as they say distance makes the heart grow fonder. He's had an interesting life, and it's not that he carries baggage but I have to decide if I want to be a part of what he wants. Here are some things that are exciting:

• I already told you about the Sask Roughrider jersey situation
• His birthday is Dec 9 which was Ann's birthday 
• Before he came to Korea, he was looking at moving to Edmonton to go to U of A to get his Master's in Political Science and also a NAIT (where I work back home). He is also looking at going to Memorial University in Newfoundland. 
• His sister just had a baby named Olive and when he talks about her his face lights up which makes me happy because he loves his family
• He saw my wall of pictures (of all of you fine folk back home) and studied the pics of the babies. Then, pointed out which ones are the same baby from different time periods. I just like that he thought about it and cared to even look. (I hate comparing a new relationship to old but after 4 years Ace couldn't even remember some of my best friend's names.)

We have lived very different lives which I can foresee being challenging at times which is why I am being so guarded. He is here in Korea because he fled Nigeria after the election which he was involved in. He found out some incriminating evidence on the person who won the election and they wanted him gone. He was shot at, and the bullet hit the person beside him who later died. He came here for a work conference and didn't leave (he's been here 6 months). That is why he is back home, to officially quit his job there and bring back his laptop and stuff which belongs to his work. He couldn't even fly directly into Nigeria in fear he would be detained so he flew to a neighboring country where a packed car (with food and other items) was waiting for him and he drove over the boarder. He keeps telling me how excited he is to bring me there one day and I will love it. So far, it sounds a bit dangerous. He said once the new president is elected it will all be over with his situation. He has a small car on his forehead/eyebrow from a machete. Back when cellphones first came out he had one and people were doing anything to get one. He said one day he was walking down the street talking on his phone and someone swiped at him with a machete, but luckily he ducked and didn't get hit too badly. Plus, he's pretty tall guy and at the time played semi-pro soccer so was quite strong. He was able to overtake him and leave the situation. I asked if he stabbed the guy with the machete. He said no - he would never do that to someone. I don't know if I'd feel the same in that situation.

I get that all of the above sounds so scary but he is so normal about it. It's just part of life where he grew up and I think part of why he wants to leave. I asked him about that whole Nigerian prince scam that you hear about all the time. He said it makes him so frustrated. He sees these 19 year old's driving Mercedes and he knows how they go the money. You ask them what their job is and they just say "I'm working on my clients." I asked him if other counties do the same scams or if it's just Nigeria. He said others do it but when they get caught they just say they are Nigerian because Nigeria has a bad wrap. 

One of the other reasons Kenneth is here is because jobs are so bad back home. He said in one month here he makes what he would in 8 months there, and he doesn't even make a lot of money here. About the same as me. I asked him if his family is okay and he said yes, he sends money home most months if necessary. His sister's baby was breech so he sent money home for the surgery. He has a brother who is a doctor in Sierra Leone who actually was dealing with the Ebola outbreak. So, his family is situated well for now, all things considered. I love his passion and drive for a better life. He wants to get his Masters and PhD so he can teach or have his own company. 

On Sunday I mostly just relaxed. I met up with Jean for lunch and we ate delicious Turkish food! He reassured me about the North Korea situation. He said it might be a good idea to keep a "go bag" handy with photocopies of my documents, plus my originals and enough cash to get me to the embassy or the airport, along with the address to the Canadian embassy written in Korean. I am putting that together this week. But, he is truly not worried so neither am I!

Have a good week! (I love how I said this would be a short post and it was so long!) I just realized that some people (aka my family) aren't on Facebook and have no idea about Kenneth so I have to go type some emails now!

Love,

Alli

Okay one more. He is the kindest person. Can't you tell?

Who Am I, Even?

I typed about 30 titles before just leaving it blank and moving on to the body of this blog post. (Former titles include: Naked Saturday, Brave, Comfort Zone passed) Each experience I had this weekend I thought about my blog post. I'd think to myself one of these 3 things:

• People back home aren't going to believe I did this
• I can't believe I'm doing this
• I'm so glad I did this

I had no real plans for Saturday but on Friday night I asked a fellow English teacher, Elaine, about going to a jimjillbang and she said she'd come with me on Saturday afternoon. I'll tell you about that after I tell you about my morning. 

They don't do breakfast here. Not like back home. And I loovvvee going out for breakfast! So I woke up and Googled "Best breakfast in Seoul." As it turns out, most places are in hotels because foreigners know how to eat breakfast! I did some research, and headed out. Yes . . . I rode a one hour subway ride there and one hour back just to eat breakfast. And I am so glad I did. Was it expensive? Yes. I was eating at a hotel breakfast buffet at a verrrrryy nice hotel. I may only do this 3 times while I'm here, but it will be enough. 

give me all the brown/beige things

As I left the hotel I heard some chanting. I looked up and saw that I was across from a Buddhist temple, so I went across to check it out. One of the things I love about Seoul is the juxtaposition with modern buildings and old architecture. Across from this nice modern hotel is a Buddhist temple and then there's plastic surgery places all around. 

That pink/blue building in the background is for plastic surgery. 

This area of Seoul is very popular for plastic surgery.

In the afternoon I went to a jimjillbang for the first time. A jimjillbang is a Korean bathhouse where you sit naked in pools and soak. You can get scrubbed down by another woman (who is only wearing a bra and undies because it's so hot in there you couldn't possibly wear more clothing. In fact one was only wearing undies). You can get massaged or you can go into a sauna. It's a Korean tradition which I was both excited and terrified to take part in. I was hesitant to go with a coworker because that's just weird. But it's also not. It's just bodies. We've all seen naked women before. I went in with that mindset and I was fine. (Only a few pics because obvs you can't take pics in there.)

Elaine at the front desk!

When you go in they give you a tiny towel and shorts and a tshirt. You can go into a middle room where you can lounge, eat snacks, and men and women can mingle. You can literally spend all day there. It is open 24 hours and most people spend hours there. I think we were there or about 4. At first I told Elaine I would be bored. Can I bring a book? She said maybe but I should just try it. And it was very relaxing. I didn't need a book at all. If I was by myself maybe I would bring one, but we just and talked. It was nice. I did think about what would happen if I saw a parent of one of my student's in there. But Elaine said she things they go to fancier ones. Plus, they probably go during the week when their kids are at school. And at the end of the day, again . . . they do this all the time. It's very normal for them. Lots of women were in there with friends scrubbing each other. 

You start off scrubbing yourself down in little showers. This one had about 6 rows of showers where you sit down and scrub yourself. I mean scrub yourself. Most people spend 30 mins there. We did a facemask too, which was nice. Then there are 5 different pools to soak in. They are all different temperatures, with one being very cold. Then there's one that has jets. You just move in and out of the pools as you wish. As mentioned above, you can lay on a table and get a woman to scrub you down. She literally scrubs ALL of you. Elaine did it, I didn't. I will at some point, but wanted to start out slow. 

After soaking for a while we went into the middle room to get snacks, but nothing looked amazing so we just sat in massage chairs. Then we laid in a sauna. This sauna wasn't too hot - you just lay on a bed of tiny rocks. We talked about boys. 

The middle room where you can lounge and eat snacks.

ceiling of the sauna we laid in

Laying on a bed of tiny rocks in the sauna

Because they are open for 24 hours, sometimes weary travelers will stay there overnight instead of getting a hotel. It's $8 to get in and the middle room has mats to nap on. It's honestly an amazing place.I felt so confident in there after a while.  I will make it a regular practice!

On Sunday I had a tour booked to Nami Island and the Garden of Morningcalm. It was a looonnnngg day. I left the house at 7am and got home at 10pm. But, it was also a wonderfully beautiful day! I went with Marilyn, a friend I met on the temple stay.

Nami Island is an island surrounded by a river. It's so cute! We were only able to spend a few hours there, but I want to go back there for a whole day.

Taking he ferry to the island

Marilyn and I on the ferry!

Ostrich selfie 

New digs

Oh yeah, it's nice enough here to go water skiing. I was wearing capri pants.

Cherry blossom snow

Marilyn's cherry blossom jump shot

My cherry blossom jump shot

A mural made out of books

I heart books

We went to the Garden of Morningcalm which is a beautiful botanical garden. We took so many pictures, but like most things, the beauty is hard to capture on camera. 

This shot makes me thing of one of my favorite movies, A Walk to Remember. Right?

Easter gift I bought myself with the Easter money Mom and Dad gave me. 

Yes, I am 34 and my parents still give me Easter money. 

Churros are super popular in Korea. They are everywhere. Not sure why, but I love them!

Those colored things are ice cream cones. 

They fill it with self serve and it turns into kind of a U shape.

It was a fun day! And guess how it stated? By me doing ANOTHER thing outside of my comfort zone. I got on the subway to the tour stop. As I sat down I noticed a very handsome man across and down from me a bit. We locked eyes and smiled. We both looked away, then looked back at each other. He smiled and mouthed "hi." I said hi back. I didn't know what to do. He would look at his phone and then look up at me. I pulled out my book and sometimes look at him. I thought to myself - you have to do something. I took out a gum wrapper and tried to write my contact info on it but the paper was too shiny. I frantically looked for something else to write on. I found a stamp card from a smoothie place and wrote my contact info on the back. I thought, as I get off at my stop, I will just hand it to him and walk out. Then I thought - what if he gets off before me? I will have to jump up and hand it to him before he leaves. Then, he closed his eyes to fall asleep. Oh God! Do I just slip it into his hand as he sleeps like a real creep? Shove it into his sleeve so it doesn't fall out? Panic. Then he opened his eyes, I stood up, he said hi to me again, I gave him the card and I literally ran off the train in fear. 2 minutes later he texted me and we haven't stopped. He keeps thanking me for being brave because he wanted to do something but was too shy. 

I did a brave thing and it worked. Who knows what will happen? But we are meeting tonight for dinner. He is so handsome! His name is Kenneth, he's 36, and the fact that he was on the train as I got on means he lives close to me because there's only about 8 stops before mine. Win! He's one of those deeply spiritual people. He kept saying it was an Easter blessing that we met. I think if I didn't do the brave thing on Saturday I may not have done the brave thing on Sunday. 

Video chat this morning

WHO AM I, EVEN? I am someone who is finding herself. Doing brave things. Taking chances. Making friends. Finding beauty. Eating all the beige things. 

Happy Monday!

Love,

Alli