so bossy told us the dates of our summer vacation yesterday, which is the week of august 4. work resumes on august 11. (for those not in the know, small korean companies usually don’t provide annual leave which you can take whenever you feel like it. what they have, however, is called “summer vacation” where the whole company usually shuts down for about 1 week.)

i was wondering what to do with my 1 week break–i thought of travelling again, but decided against it to SAVE MONEY!–and i asked my mum if she would like to come over since it’s the only time where i would have the freedom to bring her around. she declined, due to my brother’s upcoming prelim exams. so, i asked my sis! and she said ok! wahaha. yay i’ll have company during that 1 week. will be paying for her hotel stay, and if her bf is not coming along i’ll be staying in the hotel with her. muahaha.

anyone coming to korea during august 2-10 too? drop me a line.

anyway i just received this email from a friend, and perhaps you could help me help her too?

Hello Guys…please everybody vote for Family Pustovrh iz Katarine..they are the first on the list!!They were my neighboors in Slovenia and i asure they should be the family of the year! You can vote 8 times per day…i will really appriciated even if you do it once..

www.radiocenter.si

Thank a lot!!

of course you are not obliged to vote, and there is nothing in it for you, but i’m just helping a friend help a friend. (the permalink is here.)

i just had a talk with boss1, and he asked me to stay on till december as a favour.

i agreed, but i will probably stop work on the 2nd last week of november just to give myself enough time to pack and sort my stuff out.

i will still head back to sg in september though, but i don’t know for how long. maybe 1 week? maybe 5 days? maybe 3 days? *shrugs* but anyways i have already booked and paid for my plane tickets to sg, and i will arrive on 9/9.

so i will probably leave for NZ next year jan (maybe the 8th?? it’ll be like i have come full circle since i left for korea on 8 jan 2007).

to be honest i had this nagging feeling that i will not be leaving for good this september, and i was right. tadah! but if i want to leave for NZ i abso-absolutely have to leave by december though. (please please please no more last-minute bombs *prays*)

and! seeing that i will now be leaving korea with a much healthier bank balance (since i will be working for a few more months), i may just get to spend christmas in spain (or some other european city that i haven’t yet visited). ^^

met up with M for indian food last night (he’s canadian indian, so he knows the people working at the restaurant)… and i think i’ve found a gem! prices are reasonable (by korean standards–22,000won for 2 people), the serving is huge (though i don’t know if this is because M is friends with the people), and the taste is pretty authentic (again, by korean standards–it’s not one of those crapshit stuff that has been “modified” to cater to korean tastebuds and is then passed off as indian food).

the place was pretty quiet though; apart from us there were only 2 other koreans in the restaurant. maybe it’s the location–it’s tucked away in one of the small sidelanes with no prominent signboard. if anyone’s up for indian, give me a shout! i don’t mind going there again. hehe. can’t remember the name of the place though. i think it was curry place?? curry house? curry plaza? something along those lines. i know it was curry something. ha. i remember! it’s curry town!

oh and they don’t serve kimchi! i know this sounds silly and trivial, but the only other “authentic” indian place that i’ve been to didn’t serve kimchi too. although over there, the prices were sky high and the servings were just right if you were a mouse. i’ve been to another cheaper indian place where the curry was just a slightly more spicy version of the normal korean curry (i.e. sweet) and, while they didn’t provide kimchi, they did serve those preserved radishes, which proper indian food doesn’t not go well with (at least IMO).

anyway the restaurant’s in itaewon, and after dinner M asked if i have seen the “seedy” side of itaewon, to which i replied in the negative. so he brought me to hooker hill and gay hill (where we saw some she-males sitting around too). it was quite an eye-opener; i’ve long heard about the brothels and gay bars in itaewon, but i didn’t know where they actually were. i just didn’t like the place because it seemed to me that the people who hang out there are mostly quite messed up.

took a cab home, and i think that this may be the first time that a korean actually tells me about the shortcomings of korea(ns) in general–about racism, the government, about the pitfalls of the korean education system. so far, my experience has been as such: the normal korean on the street would be pretty nationalistic, while the average taxi driver would mostly be government-bashers (what’s new?). but of course he also talked about the merits of korea and koreans. in short, he gave me a pretty balanced and neutral view of what he thought about his country and fellow countrymen, and it was really refreshing to chat with him. he was proud of his country but he wasn’t blind to its faults, and he did appreciate all that is good about his country.

before i got off the cab, he advised me not to stay out too late as it is not safe.

it’s meeting random people like him that makes it even harder for me to leave korea.