La Mano Negra...more adventures

So I have been having an issue with being inspired and continuing the
path of my character La Mano Negra....
I have been writing a lot of where the second chapter begins....

As we left off a few months back the the red mask did something to her but you don't know what...
It turns out she was taken to another area where many people as herself are trapped and slowly have been overtaken by their own fears and darkness torments them...
They soon forget who they are becoming nothing more than a hollow self wandering and disappearing into nothingness....Which is something that Castalia is struggling with as the darkness is overtaking her slowly...She is not the only one here in this place she has seen others who have gone into this horrible place because they believed the promises that the red mask told them....they are slowly forgetting their past and soon will be gone....
She has been having frequent dreams of this being telling her that she has to leave but she fears it must be a hallucination and its playing tricks on her to cause harm...
She sees visions of death, destruction the fears that she has are manifesting themselves which paralyze her and leave her weak and disoriented.....She wants to get out so bad but she does not have the strength to leave..... TO BE CONTINUED.....
There will be more soon and drawings....
I have been thinking the few weeks I have been here that La Mano Negra needs to make and appearance in South Korea...I am still thinking what she is going to do as I have been still trying to figure out this city...I have been thinking a lot of dancing and it will be interesting if she starts to sweep the streets while she bust some moves... I feel that I want to disrupt certain spaces where there is not much going on...the most concentration of people are the shopping areas but other places not much activity......I will be heading back to Cali for the holidays so I will be getting my gear so this is to be continued i will let you know what I will be planning :D...

So this past week I went out and saw some art went to a museum Gyeonggi Museum of Modern art, saw a symphony and went to Bukchon where I saw amazing houses. The one thing I do like about Korea is the walking. It is tiring but when you get to certain spots its all worth it with the amazing views you get to see. I also went to the museum where it discusses about the history of King Sejong who created Hangeul. He was an awesome dude that did a lot of stuff for Korea. I already started my korean classes and it was a trip. The teacher was not talking at all in English only Korean. I was completely lost and was about to throw some spanish at her and half way to the class she started to talk English. So my classes will be all in korean so I will be lost hopefully I get something out of it. I started learning the alphabet and the vowels. I am starting to recognize them around the city. I don't know what they mean LOL! I hope within the year I will be able to talk a little. Here are a few drawings I have been working on while I have been here...

Almost a Month In Korea

So its been a while since I have posted anything... I have been busy with so many things to do...Lets see what has happened since my last post...Well I decided to go to a place in Suwon and their motto is Happy Suwon...Every place you go they have a motto like in Ansan City its Bravo! It was the most tiring walk I have ever done but going to the top was awesome to see the whole city before me. I also met other teachers from all over the world. I also ate a roasted pig with bean paste it was sooo delicious.One thing here is that Koreans love to eat and you get your moneys worth. I have been going out to places to eat and they have all been good and tons of food to go around.

The following week I went to Itaewon which is shopping central for all foreigners who need regular sizes. I tried some Mexican food and it was okay you can't expect much they tried. I also found an english book store and found Maus which is the most amazing graphic novel I have read...I just need to find the second volume.....This day was krazy because we decided to do Norebong which is like Kareoke but this is the Korean version....they don't like it if you call it Kareoke because that is japanese...So after a crazy night I went into the subway station and did not get the last train because I was confused to where I was suppose to get it so then the guy that works there shows me but I don't understand no Korean at all...very fustrating and so then he looks at me bewildered...so then he kicked me out at 11:45 and i had to be somewhere I did not know and I saw some americans and directed me to where I can get a taxi...so then one taxi denied me because it was far and then another one said yes so it took me about an hour and I got home...I was happy...their subway system is still confusing to me...In LA i get it...but here with the issue of language barrier is annoying...

Last week I went to a Kimchi Festival in Seoul...I went to the Kimchi museum where it showed the many variations of how they have used kimchi...and then went for a tasting of Kimchi...It was an okay event not many difference of kimchi they were all the same the only highlight of that was the 3 year kimchi which tasted so good....it had so much flavor...That day we also went to see a movie I finally saw district 9 and i have to say that movie rocked my socks...the story was so good and the actor was amazing how he changed through out the movie it was great....

One thing I have noticed here that people are superficial everyday I see people in the elevator looking at themselves its kinda of funny. You are not going to see no one looking frumpy its krazy to me I thought LA was like superficial central but I was wrong. Everywhere you go is shopping mania that is what it revolves around here so you go in the streets and its just things to shop for. I guess what I miss is my neighborhood hearing kids play outside, the ice cream man song, people around talking in the street,hearing people play loud music, and late night drunks at 5am. Here everyone is in apartments, isolated, lonely, not getting to know your neighbor, I find it kind of sad, this is what happens when commercialism enters a city and looses its identity, it just becomes a repeat there is no character to it. That is what I like about living in LA there is character and uniqueness to each area you live in. Each day I find things I like here and then other things I love about LA.

First outing to Ansan Dowtown area and subway

So yesterday I went on for a little adventure in the afternoon I went with the another teacher to walk around the downtown area. It reminded me a lot of San Francisco with so many shops and malls and people. The one thing that is scary is that here cars don't respect the pedestrian at all. They don't stop for you even if its your right away. They are rude and we almost were run over by one. So you have too keep a look out where you cross. While we were coming back they almost ran over a person riding a bicycle and they were honking her to get out of the way.

We decided to go to a grocery store called Kim's Club its very pricey but they have some stuff that is recognizable. They also have a mall kinda like macys but everything is so expensive and really small. So its hard for foreigners to buy anything here they have to buy it in Seoul. The most peculiar thing I did see here was that they have seven eleven stores but sadly they don't have slurpies LOL!! This place is full of just stores its very overwhelming and I thought that the ones in LA in Santee Alley where but they don't compare to these.

Later in the evening I decided to meet up one of my sisters friends from high school who lives 30 minutes away. I was scared because I did not want to get lost in a place I really don't know. The good thing is that they have it in english so it was not that confusing. The ride was less than 10 minutes. I got there and it was full of people everywhere and so I waited for him in front of a fast food place. He decided to take me to eat Indian food and it was very good. After that we had drinks at a bar nearby and of course drank some Cass which was in a big pitcher. So it was a good night. One thing I did see that was hilarious was this guy who was drunk out of his mind and his friends had to carry him because he was falling all over the place. I know I will be seeing that more often while I am here.



Today I will be doing some tourist things here and will take more picture to show.....

5 days in Korea now........

Well its been weird being here by myself in a tiny apartment. I am not use to that at all. I am accustomed to my family being there bugging me. My mom asking me questions or my dad bothering me. Its been hard not having my sister around and talking to her about things. When I got here I was thinking to myself What the fuck was i thinking. Can I really do this for a whole year. I new that I have to I can't be a quitter I have to try because I feel awful if I don't. The first obstacle that I over came was flying. I don't like to fly I hate having no control over where I am at especially when you are thousands of feet up in the air. I did it I flew for 12 hours without stopping and just calming my anxiety.

I am excited that I have found other americans that are working here as well. Yesterday I hanged out with another teacher who is from new york. We decided to try the korean beer call Cass and Soju which is equivalent to vodka. It does not seem to be very strong but you feel it pretty fast. The beer was pretty good not horrid and its cheap.

I have also been introduced to the elementary school it was so strange. I can't wear my regular shoes i have to take them off and used flip flops. They feed you for lunch all korean food which is okay and I don't like kim chi its overrated LOL they luv it they pile it on like crazy. I expected spicier but its not that bad actually. (Oh and my first night here we went to a chain restaurant called Vips and I had a tortilla. It was good with guacamole which suprisingly was good. Apparently in Seoul there are mexican restaurants.) Yesterday at school they freaked out because apparently i was drinking tea from the vice pricipals cup. I thought it was hilarious but they were upset. It was a nice cup but did not realized that it had an owner. I kinda felt bad for my co-teacher they were very upset with her. Another interesting thing is that they are interested in blood type and your age. Apparently I am not 27 in Korea I am 28 and they thought it was weird i did not know my blood type. They have not seen a Latina in ages so they look at me like an exotic being. They are very intrigued by my skin color they did not know if I was white or black. LOL!

I also rode the bus I thought LA bus drivers were crazy this bus drivers beat them. They luv to go fast. The drivers here in Korea are very fearless they merge like crazy even if they see a car coming. The person that picked me up of the airport he almost got in a car accident because he decided to u-turn in a wrong street. One thing i might say is that they know how to park in small spaces while they backing up into them.

Another thing that has been hard to get used to is finding food to eat that is recognizable. Everything is in Korean and they only sell korean ingredients.I did get some condiments that I know like parsley, bay leaves, salt and pepper. I decided to make pasta and got some cheese. Well that was a big mistake it was so awful it tasted like old cheese it was disgusting. I even decided to try eat some chips because I was craving a salty snack well i got cheetos and it turns out it was korean bbq flavor. LOL! i was disspointed...

Today I will be going to go an walk around Ansan City and see what is around and I will take some pics I will upload to show the city i am staying at