Korean Adventures

Camping at Woraksan National Park

2008-05-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we got a long weekend for Children's Day, so Mike, Hannah, Nick, Jaya and I decided to go camping. I did some research and found out that most of the National Parks are still closed at this time of year, but managed to find a small one not too far away that doesn't close, Woraksan National Park. So we set off from Seoul after my drum lesson (which added to the journey an hour and a half subway ride carrying all camping supplies, much to the chagrin of my companions.) We were headed for a town called Chungju where we would catch a local bus to the park. So we went to the ticket counter at the bus station and asked for Chungju (chu like chug) and were just in time to grab a bite and then board the bus. Nearly 2 1/2 hours later (on what was supposed to be 1 1/2 ride) we got off the bus and began to look around for the afore-mentioned local bus, but soon noticed that we were in Cheongju, not Chungju. I guess the city we wanted is pronounced Choongju, not Chungju. An easy mistake to make, I guess. Especially if you have no idea that there is another city close-by that sounds almost exactly like it.

Luckily Chungju and Cheongju are not very far apart and it only cost us another hour and a half and $7 to get there. So we counted our blessings that we didn't end up 7 hours away from where we wanted to be, and took it in stride. Adventures in Korea aren't adventures unless they have a few misadventures throw into the mix. (Those of you who know me know that I'm really really good at getting lost. But I can honestly say that this is the first time I ended up in the totally wrong city.)

So when we finally go to the right city we were about to get on a bus that all our sources told us would take us to the park, when a taxi driver pulled up and tried to stop us. We thought he was just trying to scam us, because we were sure we were getting on the right bus. But he got a young lady who was standing near-by to translate to us that if we took that bus we'd have to walk 6km to the camp-site. So we decided the taxi was a better idea. And as we were driving he pointed out in broken English where the bus would have let us off. Which was at the bottom of the mountain. And then he drove for half an hour up the mountain. And we were thanking our lucky stars once again that we hadn't got on that bus. We probably would have died trying to walk all that way.

So we finally arrived at the campsite and manage to set up our tent in the falling dusk. We hadn't brought any food with us because we had more than enough to carry and were sure there would be a supermarket nearby. Sadly, there wasn't. So we had to settle for bibimbap (rice mixed with red pepper paste and veggies with an egg on top) for supper that night, though we were so hungry and tired by that point that anything would have been amazing.

We brought a barbeque with us to do some cooking, but since there was no food to cook, we used it as a fire pit instead and sat around the fire roasting marshamallows and talkin' shite. The darkness and quiet so thick and deep that even I, a hard-core country girl, was a little creeped out after being used to the constant movement of the city.

The next morning we went on a hike up the mountain. On the way we saw...

old fortress walls...

a Temple all decked out in lanterns for Buddha's Birthday the next week...

a Buddha carved into the side of the mountain...

also decorated in lanterns, a stunning sight against the backdrop of the mountains.

All the way up the mountain there were these little piles of rocks. Someone said they had something to do with Buddha...

After the touristy things were done, the trail got pretty intense. Most definately the hardest hike this prairie girl has ever experienced. But I did get some great pictures. Here are a few of my favourites...

This is the peak. I didn't go all the way up. I was honestly afraid I would die if I did...lungs still not working as well as I'd hope. And the top of a mountain 1000 meters high is not a good place to stop breathing. So Hannah and I left the others to their mountaineering and headed down, hoping to find a supermarket in the town at the bottom of the trail. Sadly, that search was fruitless (well, not technically, as we did find some oranges to buy, a great treat after dining on dry crackers and canned tuna all day.)

There was another temple at the bottom...crazy about Buddha, those Woraksan-ers.

That night we ate ginseng chicken stew, very revitalzing after our crazy hike. More mallows and soju around the campfire, then headed home the next morning. Here are a few pics of where we were camping.

We stopped for a pleasre cruise on the lake on the way down. A windy hour-long photo-op, but pleasant and relaxing.

Then it was back on a bus, this time directly to Suwon. The wet tent, the disappointed barbeque and the tired campers...the latter very happy to see their beds.

For the rest of the hundred pictures I took, see
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112093&l=c4811&id=890700076
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112096&l=814c0&id=890700076

My Window-sill Garden

2008-04-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

One of the things I've been doing to add a little nature to my life is growing a garden in my window. I was given some soil by one of the old teachers, and some seeds by another, so once it was warm and sunny spring, I planted my little garden. I'm growing coriander, basil, "spinach" (it's not actually spinach, not what we have in North America anyway. But's it's pretty close.) and some mysterty seeds that were given to me and that I have no idea what they eventually grow into.

I've been documentingthe garden's progress in photos.

This one was taken a few days after I planted the "spinach"

These two were taken a week ago. Can hardly see the sprouts in the second one...

And here's a video I made just now!

I'm sure there will be photos when I harvest them. Spinach salad...YUMMY!

(I do wonder if I'll have the heart to cut them down though...)

Suwon Bu-loo Wings!!!

2008-04-26T20:34:00.000-07:00

I went to a Suwon Bluewings game last weekend. They are the Suwon soccer team, and almost everyone else at the Villagee has season tickets. I wish I did too, now that I've been to a game. It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!! Not because I enjoy soccer all that much, but because of the atmosphere. We sat in the cheap seats, where the real fans are. And the cheering was unlike anything I have ever seen. I would even go so far as to say that it would rival Riders fandemonium. There were two guys with megaphones and one with a bass drum leading the cheers. They had the words to all of them up on the jumb0-tron, and choreography for pretty much every cheer. I was able to follow some of the more simple songs, and was jumping and cheering and clapping along to the ones I couldn't.

I only snapped a few photos, but here they are.

Suwon Bluewings, brought to you by....KIMCHI!

Villagee! REPRESENT!

Better than the photos are the videos, though. They don't even come close to capturing the energy in the air...

I love the random flags. France, Thailand, Che Guevera. Anything blue and white will do.

North Seoul Tower

2008-04-26T19:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend after my drum lesson Collin, fellow Villagee Teacher, went to Seoul Tower, one of the major tourist places on my "to do" list, and the highest point in Seoul. It's the CN tower of Korea, though it's on top of a mountian, not in the middle of downtown. And much smaller than the CN Tower.

To quote the brochure we were given, "Standing at the top of Mt. Namsan in the heart of Seoul, N Seoul Tower provides the city's highest viewpoint. It was Korea's first integrated communication tower, transmitting TV and FM radio signals for the metropolitan area since it was constructed in 1969. Nearly 48% of the people in Korea benefit from its antanna for various local ad nationwide FM and TV broadcasting stations such as KBS, SBS (yes, I have a tv station named after me) and MBC. Since opened to the public in 1980 as a hybrid recreation/cultural complex, the Tower has become the symbol of Seoul and has played a role as the city's most recognizable and popular tourist attraction."

It's not just pretty! It's usefull too!

Have I mentioned how much I love Korean brochures? They are either really really excited all the time about everything, or their translations from Korean to English leave something, well, lost in translation. Need I remind you of the "biggest funs of your life" from the Ice Fishing Festival? Gold. But the Seoul Tower brochure had this little gem that made me laugh until my sides ached:

I don't know if you can see it very well, but it's a picture of two people, a man and a woman. At first they are standing apart, but with a dotted line of sight illustrated for us between their eyes. And then in the next frame they are clasping eachother in a passionate embrace. This picture is on a page about the observation deck. I guess it's been known to make people fall instantly in love or something... that panoramic view will do wierd things to people. Sadly, I was not one of them.

Anyway, back to the tower.

Here's a picture I took last year of the Tower at night. This was when we were wandering around looking for a hotel the night before we went to the DMZ. It looks rather impressive all lit up like that, doesn't it?

And here's what it looks like upclose and in the day-time.

We took the long way up the mountain since my knee was still recovering from my spill on the rollerblades and didn't have full bending ability and thus was not stair-climbing-ready. (And, let's be honest, because we followed the wrong signs.) It added 3km to our walk, but also some beautiful scenery, as it took through a botanical garden.

Sadly, we didn't find the Botanical Garden for the Visually Impaired. I think perhaps our imagination of it would have been more fantastic than the real thing though. I imagined...scratch and sniff, speakers everywhere describing the flowers, maybe Stevie Wonder in the background...

Anyway, we finally made it up to the top of the mountain and went up to the observation deck. Unfortunately it wasn't a very clear day so we didn't see much. The brochure says that on a clear day you can see all the way to Incheon harbour. We could barely see the Han River, which runs through the middle of Seoul. Here's one of the better pictures I got.

They had signs on all the windows tellig the distance to major cities around the world. Here's me 10,607km from Toronto.

And 7,174.2km from my babies in Vancouver.

We also got to enjoy the "Sky Restrooms." Back to the brochure: "Sky Restrooms dominate the landscape atop N Seoul Tower and a spectacular aerial view of Seoul awaits those who want something extraordinary. These restrooms are not only well located in the sky, but they also offer all the comfort and services of a prestigious building."

To be fair, they were pretty nice.

And well-located bathrooms in the sky calls for...a photo shoot. (This is only one of many photos of me washing my hands...)

On the way down the mountain we stopped for some dried fish warmed on a gas hotplate by this nice lady. We opted out of the whole squid in favour of some less-offensive looking "fish paper" as I like to call it.

There was also a cool chicken-wire Spiderman hanging in the air.

And we caught the sunset on the way down too.

After our hike we were hungry so we went a few subway stops away to Iteawon, near the American Army base, where there are lots of different foreign food restaurants and shops that have sizes for western people and things like that. Unfortunately, there are also lots of loud foreigners there too...

I bought a wicked pair of sunglasses that I would like to share with you now.

This is me and Collin sexy-face-posing on the subway home. We wear our sunglasses at night.

Some Wonderful Discoveries

2008-04-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

Life has been good good good lately. No more am I wallowing in the sad sack sadness of failed romance, but have been getting out and being Shanda. And it had led to Some Wonderful Discoveries.

Wonderful Discovery #1: Homeplus has roller blades for half price

I bought some roller blades. I'm not sure if I posted about this way back when I first got here, but I've tried this already. Part of my first paycheque from the Villagey went to a pair of cheap blades. They, sadly, were unusable. I returned them and decided not to buy another since the places for comfortable roller-blade use are few and far between here, compared to Saskatoon at least, where you can go down the middle of the street and not be bothered by cars, or to the river and not meet a single person to get in your way.

But, my attempts at running having being foiled lately by my dodgy hip and knee, I decided to give Korean roller blades another try. And I got a sweet pair for half price. And they rock.

Wonderful Discovery #2: The parks are blade-able after all

You may not really care about this, but it makes me so happy. The thought of another summer with no rollerblades in it make me very sad. And so the discovery that cobbled sidewalks aren't impossible to blade on was like finding gold. There are two parks near our apartments and going between and around the two of them makes for a varied and intense workout.

Wonderful Discovery #3: Road Rash gives you street cred

Yes, I wiped out. Big time. In front of a nice young Korean man who spoke enough English to ask if I was okay and tell me to be careful after helping me up. It was actually his fault that I wiped out in the first place. He was walking on the smooth part of the sidewalk that ramps onto the sidewalk so I had to take the cobbled part that has no ramp. And the difference from street to sidewalk was more than I anticipated. And I hit the curb at pretty much full speed. And ended up sprawled pretty much face first on the sidewalk. Luckily my shoulder broke my fall. I'm used to having a few skraped knees over the course of a summer, but it's the first time I've had road rash on my shoulder. Not pretty. Especially when the kids at school notice it and poke it and say "Teacher, what?" But one of my facebook friends says that road rash gives you street cred. And plus it makes me feel "hard core." (I was going to post some pictures of my impressive war wounds...but I just realized how disgusting they are.)

Wonderful Discovery #4: Black Bean Noodle is actually good

We all know Valentine's Day. Well in Korea and in Japan and some other Asian countries they also have White Day, one month after V-day, where men give presents to women in reciprocation of the gifts they recieved on V-day. And the month after that comes black day. It is a day to celebrate (or lament) singleness. Me and my fellow single co-workers chose to celebrate.

The traditional food of black day is black bean sauce on noodle.

So we went out for dinner to a noodle house. The black bean sauce is not something new to me, we eat it at the school cafetteria every week. But, as most people will agree, cafetteria food shouldn't be used as the basis for judging anything. Even the best of foods will taste awful once a school cafetteria gets its hands on it. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that black bean is actually delicious!

After the noodles we went on a grocery shopping spree at homeplus, our favourite department store hang-out. Then to an organic soy icecream shop. (I gave up dairy at the start of the month hoping it would help improve my health, so Baskin Robins was out of the question.) But we found the soy delicious, though not as creamy as real cream. (Who'd a thunk...) We then topped of the evening by giving ourself mud facials and reading Shakespeare and tarot cards.

Who needs a man when you have girlfriends? When was the last time your boyfriend let him give you a facial or debated the healthiness of banana chips for 20 minutes?

For more information about black day: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSSEO18852320080414?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

Wonderful Discovery #5: Hwaseo Station has a gorgeous park/lake

Hwaseo is the station next to Suwon Station, where I usually catch the subway. I see out the window when I go into Seoul every weekend that there is a lake near the station. And right now is cherry blossom time and the lake was in full bloom. (Well, not the lake exactly, but the trees around it.) There are cherry blossom festivals all over the place, but I wanted to see them without the crowds of people that would inevitably flock to the festivals. So on my lazy Sunday I went to check out the lake. And found my new favourite place.

It felt like I was actually in nature, not just in a park in a city. True, there were sky-scraper apartment building in the background, but those are easily ignored. And you could hear the subway rattle past every few minutes. But the trees and flowers and water and families picnicing and children frolicking...it was heaven to my poor nature-starved soul.

I took a million pictures. Here are some of my favourites.

There were dozens of blue herons nesting on an island in the middle of the lake. I caught one of them in flight in this picture.

To see the rest of the album visit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=104272&l=ba44f&id=890700076

Wonderful Discovery #6: I am a circus cat

I bought a new shirt. On it, a cat in a red cape balancing on a tightrope. And the words "I am a circus cat." This may not seem note-worthy, but I feel I must live up to that shirt. It's not the kind of thing you take the wearing of lightly.

In other news, I have started a new blog. This one is more of a creative writing project. I've been wanting for a while to start a second blog, something more personal. So I was inspired the other day when I found a small red block on the side of the road.

You can see the new blog at http://redblockdiaries.blogspot.com

I hope you like it. (And also don't mind if you don't.)

Hey, did you get rid of Tony yet?!

2008-04-06T02:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the obscurity of the title. Kids in the Hall fans might recognize it. And what does that have to do with anything? Well, I blame the Kids in the Hall for me not having posted since JANUARY!!!! Yes, January. To be fair, I wrote a really long post in February, but it was accidentally deleted before I could publish it. And in frustration I vowed never to blog again. Plus I downloaded all five seasons of KITH and watched it for a long time...and someone got me hooked on The Office. And it's spring and who wants to be stuck at a computer writine a blog when it's spring outside. And...ok, enough excuses. I'm just a bad blogger.

But let my try to get you all up to speed. What has been happening since last we spoke.

Well, the biggest real reason I haven't been keeping up with my blog is because I was pre-occupied with a romance. It was short lived but intense and took up all my thought an energy while it lasted. And then all of my evenings turned to chocolate-eating, feeling sorry for myself and tv watching when it ended. But now that I no longer have that distraction, I'm trying to remember what my life actually consists of, and one of those is this, my wonderful blog. :) So that's probably the biggest news in my life, but I'll try to come up with some other things that have been going on.

How far back should I go?

The first week in February we had a holiday from the Villagey for Lunar New Year. It's one of the biggest holidays in Korea, so we closed the school for a whole week! I went to a Buddhist meditation retreat, intending to stay the whole week, but ended leaving after 4 days. (This experience is what my ill-fated three-hours-to-write post that was deleted was about. I'll give you the short version here.) It was going fine until the third day when this man came to stay at the temple, claiming he was a Buddhist monk. Even I could tell he wasn't. He knew less about what was going on than I did. The afternoon after his arrival, the head monk at the temple confronted him and asked him what temple he got his monkhood at (I'm not sure of the proper terminology here) and when he couldn't answer satisfactorily, the head monk got super pissed off and kicked him out of the temple. When the man refused to go, the monk began to punch and kick him. Watching this, I decided that this was not the sort of place I wanted to learn enlightenment at. There were other things about the place that made me not like it, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back. I left that night. Spent the rest of the week with Sean (the afore-mentioned romance) hanging out in a deserted Seoul eating mexican food and Dunkin' Donuts until I was ready to explode.

The week after that I went with Lee and Pip to see Bjork play in Seoul. It was AMAZING!! I was in tears pretty much the whole time. She is such a powerful performer, and though I didn't know much of her music at the time it still was so moving. It was for sure one of the top five concerts of my life. (Hawksley excluded.)

A few weeks after that I went to see maroon 5. A much less satisfying concert experience. But a good fun evening none-the-less.

I've started my drum lessons at last. This weekend was my forth lesson, and if I do say so myself, I am certainly one of the best in the class. :) I try to practice every day, much to the chagrin of my neighbours. The other day while I was banging away I heard a distinct tinkle from the bells I keep on my door. I stopped playing and heard banging on my door and yelling from the hallway. I sheepishly put away my drum and tried not to make a peep for the rest of the night. I put it inside its case to practice now so it only makes a quiet thump when I hit it. It does the trick, but it's not nearly as satisfying.

The spring is reeking havoc on my asthma and I find myself out of breath a lot of the time. The infamous yellow dust is also coming and going of late which doesn't help the problem. I think I'm going to consult a traditional medicine doctor about it, and have given up dairy in an attempt to get it under control. I really want to run a half-marathon in October and my training is way behind. (Okay, my training is back at square one. Darn boys for distracting me and then breaking my heart!)

School is getting busy. Kids are on a waiting list to get in. I guess word has spread that the Villagey is the place to be. My one year anniversary of being in Korea is coming up at the end of this month. I can hardly believe that this time last year I was stressing about what to pack.

I really just wanted to post a quick catch-up note so I could get back on track with my regular postings without feeling daunted by the prospect of writing 3 months worth of posts at one shot. So sorry for the "highlights reel" but I hope to stay on track from now on. And hope to have some exciting things to post about.

Oh! And speaking of exciting things, I was featured in an article in the Suwon News. Here is a picture of it. (A student brought me this clipping and asked for my autograph! Perhaps she's never known anyone who was in the newspaper before. It's not like the Wynard Advance where everyone in town is in it at least once a year.)

I can't tell you what the article says, but it's basically about my opinions on the state of English education in Korea. I don't know why they picked me for the article...but it was pretty fun to do. The interviewer didn't speak English so boss-lady Jeannie did the translating. I told her to make me sound smart. I'm hoping she succeeded. The Korean teachers all assure me it's a nice article.

So that's all I'll say for now. It's dinner time and my tummy is rumbling.

I hope it won't be too long before we meet again!

Ice Fishing Festival

2008-01-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

So this weekend we went to Hwacheon, a lovely city in the mountains, to the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival. Sancheoneo is the river trout ("a fresh water fish that is only able to live in the cleanest water and tastes with firm, chewy flesh and a nutty as well as sweet.") that lives in the rivers up there. So they dedicate a festival to them, and to other icey activities. According to the brochure we were given, it is "one of the biggest funs of your life." There were many "unique events." To quote the page-turning brochure, "Why don't you have a good time at Eolgomi castle, snowman photo zone and New Year's folk town? You can enjoy Sancheoneo Ice Festival at everywhere. Have you seen those gorgeous sceneries of rural village? You can meet also marvelous events there." A lot to live up to, no? But I assure you, it delivered.

The weekend began dark and early Saturday morning as we had to be in Seoul by 7am to catch the bus. Long subway ride followed by Burger King breakfast and a long bus ride. Stopped at a village on the way up the mountain to get lunch and booze (gotta have soju to keep you warm.) We got to the festival around noon and proceeded to the ice fishing area.

We had to dig our own hole using a t-shaped "drill" that was more like...a chipper.

And then scoop the ice chips out of the hole using our fishing rods.

Here is a hole I dug all by myself. Sadly, it did not yeild any fish.

And here's me fishing.

After we tried our hand at real ice fishing (Hannah was the only one who actually caught a fish) we decided to partake in the bare hands fishing event. Which was really the highlight of the weekend for me.

Basically they had a pool of water with some fish in it and they gave you shorts and a t-shirt and you jumped into the icy water and tried to catch a fish with your bare hands. Sounds easy, right? Well, we all thought it did. I was bound and determined to come out of that pool with a fish since I didn't catch any the traditional way.

Here you can see me, Hannah and Pip huddled around a wood stove to keep warm before it was our turn to go in the water. (These pictures are all from the tour website, so I don't know any of the other people.)

Here we are all lined up. I bet so many white legs were never seen before in Korea!

There's me in the back and fellow villager Mike in the middle, up to our shoulders in ice water. We were hard-core.

I did not actually catch a fish, though I had my hands on many. My fingers were too stiff from cold to grab hard enough to keep the fish from wiggling away. But I was rewarded these two for diving into the water. I wanted to represent Saskatchewan girls and prove that we are no woosies!

And just to emphasize my point...here's me in my Saskatchewan shirt. Represent!

I took one of my fish to the sashimi tent so we could try it raw.

It was really delicious. Very chewy but not too fishy. Yum!

We also checked out some of the other things at the festival before we had to take off...

There was an ice tunnel aka tunnel of death as the floors were so slippery no one was able to keep their footing. And I didn't even have any soju at this point!

And here's me hugging a polar bear. Naturally.

After the festival funs, we went to check into our cabins which were an hour away. It was a beautiful spot in the mountains. We had to walk about 15 minutes up a mountain trail that the bus couldn't make it up and by the time we got there it was already dark and it was amazing to be able to see it. Actual dark, not neon buzzing dark, not streetlight dark, actual dark. And hear silence. I'd forgotten what both of those things were like.

We met some other teachers from Suwon just by chance and bunked with them for the night. Luckily they were super cool and we ended up fast friends, aided of course by a game of flip-cup.

There was a great meal of roast pig (yes, the whole thing) and Korean sides where the soju flowed...

After dinner there was a bonfire and wrestling and such things. The next day there was the option of going on a hike (which I opted out of...headache and all) and then it was back down the mountain and onto the bus.

Here's the whole group we went with. I'm sure I talked to all of them at some point, but I'll be damned if I can remember it! (We were standing on a frozen pond to take this picture and just as we did we heard a huge crack and felt a shudder under our feet. We dispersed pretty quick!)

And here's team Villagey at the festival. (Not sure why I appear to be falling over...)

Lots of the pictures I've posted here were from the website of the tour group we went with. There are tons more if you want to see them. Go to www.adventurekorea.com and click on the photo gallery.

I also have a facebook album if you want to see that too.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82373&l=05d70&id=890700076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82375&l=83bfd&id=890700076

Happy New Year!

2008-01-07T02:07:00.000-08:00

2008 already? How did that happen? And the coming of the New Year also marks my 8 month anniversary in Korea. So that means I have 10 months left. Looking back on how the first 8 months flew by, I can only suspect the next 10 will go by even faster.

We spent New Year's Eve at our favourite "Self Club Bar" the Crazy Duck. We're regulars there and the owner knows us and there's a good pack of other regulars we're getting to know by site if not by name so we thought it would be a good place to ring in the New Year. It was a night of rum buckets, dancing and fancy dress. And good fun. Sadly, there was no countdown to midnight, we just kinda watched the clock and when it changed to 12:00 we started cheering and kissing.

Here are some photos of the highlights of the evening:

Here's me posing in my sexy sequined hat.

Here's some of the group: Pip, Rupali, Mike, Myself and Collin in front.

Posing again. Love this pic. I look like I'm waiting for a martini or something...but should also be checked into a mental home.

Hannah enjoying the creepiest mask in the world.

One of the best things about the Crazy Duck is the regular who we call our "helmet-haired spirit guide." He's always there in a strange costume of some kind making balloon animals and schmoozing, though he can't speak a word of English. He gave Mike a business card once, and I guess he's like a clown for hire. But anyway, he made me these wings. I was so overjoyed with them...it seemed like a good omen to welcome the New Year.

I brought them home and gave them to Hue. He is still wearing them, though they are slowly losing air.

At school on New Year's Day we had a western-style New Year's Party with the kids. We had Time Square live from New York on the big screen and played games and had party hats that the kids made and noise makers. At "midnight" sang Auld Lang Syne and tried to get them to kiss their friends. (Not likely...)

Here's me pouring some apple juice "champagne" for the kids. (Look closely and you'll see how red eyes are. The lack of sleep and the emotion of missing everyone at home kinda got to me...)

Happy New Year!!!! toast.

New Year's babies chillin with Father time just before they crash the party and Father Time gets kicked out.

It was pretty fun, anyway. I don't know if the kids understood what they heck was going on, but they like playing with balloons and juice is always good...

Some exciting things have happened since New Year as well...I finally got a new ipod after getting the run-around from my insurance company and many fruitless trips to the repair store who never have regular hours and always seem to be closed whenever I take the hour and half trip into Seoul to go see them. So it's been a month and a half sice I broke my old one. Naturally I was pretty happy to see the new one.

I bought tickets to see Bjork in Seoul in February. Once in a lifetime opportunity...

I have also bought a jangu. Remember the hour glass shaped drum I fell in love with at the Korean Folk Village? Well I found a place in Seoul where I can take lessons to learn to play it so I spent my Christmas money to buy one. The lessons don't start until March and I can't wait!

Getting a little artsy with the photos lately...

Isn't he shiny and beautiful? I have no name for him yet...

And the most exciting news: I have a new nephew! My sister and her husband had their second child on January 2nd. I won't post pictures because I don't know how they would feel about their son being put on the world wide web...but trust me he is the most handsome baby in the world.

So Happy New Year everyone! Going ice fishing next weekend so I'm sure I'll have some great stories from that!

Christmas in Korea

2007-12-27T04:41:00.000-08:00

Well the Christmas season has come and gone. We celebrated in style with a multi-cultural potluck feast in my tiny apartment. Almost all of the teachers from school were there, with the exception of two. And since I inherited the oven from Jo and Pete, I was the natural choice to host the party.

I made pumpkin pie from scratch. I should have gone for the small pumpkin...I only used a quarter of this one to make a double recipe. I have a lot of pumpkin frozen to use at Thanksgiving next year!

Here are the finished pies. I made the little heart-shaped one for sampling to make sure they weren't a colossal disaster. Luckily the substituting of Korean ingredients didn't affect the taste too much.

Christmas Eve we had a little party on the roof at midnight. It was a full moon and Mars was really bright. Lovely way to welcome Christmas.

Christmas Day I came home early to put the chickens in the oven. I managed to fit four chickens into my specially-bent pan that just fits my tiny oven. And a loaf and a half of bread's worth of stuffing. (was too hungry to remember to get an after shot...)

I had a tiny tree that was also bequeathed to me by Jo (I really should thank her for my Christmas) that set the mood for the party.

And I gave Hue a little bit of Christmas head gear to get him in the mood.

The gusts' arrival and the cooking of the chickens happened pretty much in perfect timing, and we all settled down to our feast. We had Korean food in the form of mandu (think potstickers/dumplings) and kimbap (Korea's answer to sushi) and jjigae (spicy Korean stewy soup). My Mexican/American friend brought some spicy ricey. The Brits made a traditional Christmas pudding (with some substitutions...). And Nick, from Buffalo, brought a meat and cheese tray courtesy of the stores on his brother's Air Force base. They were really the star of the show...you can't get good meat and cheese here. We all wanted to kiss Nick when he walked in with that.

He also brought veggies and dip, something else you don't get a lot of here, and devilled eggs. I was so happy to see those. We always have those at my Grandma's at Christmas and I really wanted to make some, but ran out of time and budget.

Here's a pic of everyone chowing down. We just passed all the bowls around the room because it was too packed to do a proper buffet. No one wanted to risk standing up.

And here's me enjoying the fruits of my pie-making labour. I must say I deserved a pat on the back for those babies. Grandma would be proud.

I stayed up late to call my family when they woke up so I could open my presents with them. Sadly, my web-cam was telling me things in Korean that I couldn't understand, so couldn't fix it. But I got to see them opening. When I could keep my eyes open, that is. Cooking for 15 people in a tiny kitchen tires one out.

I'm hoping to take some pictures of the Christmas decorations around here before they're all taken down...if I manage it I'll post them. 'Til next time...I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I'll see you next year!

The Korean Wish Book

2007-12-08T19:30:00.001-08:00

I came home the other day and found in my mail box what I will assume to be the Korean equivalent of the Christmas-time Sears Catalogue known as "The Wish Book." I was very happy to find it as I had just been commenting to my fellow Canadians how I missed having the Wish Book to look at. It is an essential part of Christmas in any Canadian household.

Now the official name of the catalogue, as I can read it, is "2007/Goodbye/Hyundai Homeshopping." Hyundai? Yes, not only do they make cars but they have department stores and, evidently, 2007 Goodbye catalogues.

I was very happy to discover that, despite it's small stature, it was what I would expect from a Christmas catalogue. Inside you can find anything you'd need for gift-giving. Fashion, beds, furniture, shoes, bags, food. But, as is usual in Korea, it also has a few unusual things in it. Things you would never find in the original Wish Book, or any other Canadian catalogue for that matter.

First off, these strange shoes. I will draw your attention to the soles. Now why on earth would you want to wear shoes with a curved sole? I'm sure this nice man in the red shirt is telling us why, but I've got to disagree in principle with whatever he's saying.. Maybe the arrow at the top means you can use them as street skis or something.

This little gem appears to be a cereal dispenser. I look at this and I think of those things you can buy that will automatically feed your dog when you go out of town for the weekend. Is this for those busy families who can't afford a baby-sitter in the morning before the kids go to school?

For those of you who are thinning (and trust me, Korea will do that to you) here's a contraption that will help you get back what you've lost. I wonder if it massages the scalp into relaxing enough to let the hair grow back? If that's not a cup of your tea, maybe you'd prefer the more traditional method:

Spray paint.

For the lady who has everything, including a jewelry fetish, a mirror that opens into a storage closet for her accessories! My only beef with this is that it's not really big enough. My earring collection alone would need maybe three of them. (Yes I nearly ordered this but luckily was rescued by the thought "how would I get it home.")

For the body-conscious, a selection of slimming underwear. And, as I like to call them, cleavage makers. Not just a regular push-up bra, these babies appear to pull all the fat off your back even and push it up to your chest. I guess some people can use all the help they can get in that area. (My favourite thing on this page has to be the little cartoon old lady in the upper left corner. She's thinking....hmmmm...i could look like that again...with the right underwear of course.)

And here's a little something for those of you who need a little help in....other areas. (NOT ME!)

On to the exercise equipment! This is something straight out of the '50s. Jiggle yourself skinny! They have these at the gym I go to and I've never had the courage to try them. (Mostly because you have to take off your shoes to get on.) Notice the many positions to take on the giggling surface to target various parts of the body.

And the "SlimU." How this works is any one's guess. But it might...steam you skinny? Shock you? Heat you? Who knows.

And the food! No where to been are the tins of cookies and taffy you would expect in a Christmas catalogue. No candy canes or anything like that. Instead we have...

...random fried things and spicy noodle...

...vacuum-packed all-nutrients-boiled-away corn...

...sweet potatoes (of course)...

...dried squid (what else?!)...

...mail order mussels (!!!!!???????!!!!!!!)...

...and a two-page spread of kimchi. What more could you need?

My favourite thing in the whole catalogue has to be this though:

I like to try to guess what it could be for. A personal sauna for your legs? Some sort of detaining device for concerned parents to keep their teen aged daughters out of trouble? Personal heating? Personal air conditioning? Vibration? Steam? I could get one of the Korean teachers to read it for me but I prefer to be left in the dark on this one. It's much funnier.

The Foreigner's Sing My Girl

2007-11-28T22:38:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post the video of us singing at the wedding. Enjoy!

No I am not dead!

2007-11-28T02:38:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh it's been so long since I've written! I do apologize to all my faithful readers. (Do I have any of those? I have no idea!) But I have a valid excuse if you'd like to hear it! Since my promotion to Senior Teacher I have no real breaks like I used to. Technically they are "office hours" so I feel naughty if I use them to do things such as write my blog. And since I have no computer at home it makes it hard to find the time to sit down and catch up. I also mentioned last time I wrote that there hasn't been much blog-worthy happening lately. One of my friends pointed out that maybe it's not that nothing has been happening, it's just that now I'm so comfortable here that things just feel like normal life instead of exciting adventures. Which could be very true. So in that spirit, I will try to catch you up on things that may seem mundane to me but that might be of interest to you. As well as the few interesting things that we've been doing as well.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween week (I think I mentioned this in my blog last posting. And yes I realize that was a month ago) was really fun. We did two weeks of special Halloween programs for the kids. It was pretty fun for them, and for us. The highlight of the week was when we did a haunted house. We darkened the school and all teacher dressed up in hideous masks and whatnot and hid throughout the hallways in the classrooms. The kids came through in groups of five or six and we would jump out and scare the pants off them. One kid was so scared he stood there for about 5 minutes screaming at me "You are bad, teacher! You are very bad! Who is you?!!! You are bad!!!!" After it was all over I went to find him to apologize. But he was like, "I am fun!" Kids.

Here are some pictures of the staff all dressed up. In the top one, I'm the one in the blue mask. The bottom...the creepy ghost with the stringy black hair and the severed hand.

Here's me in my devil costume, thrown together from Homeplus finds and my real clothes. Oh and lots of red eyeliner.

EVERLAND

Around Halloween we went to Everland, which is like the Disneyland of Korea. It was Shaun's leaving wish that he visit it for the third time, so how could I refuse? It was the usual gammut of rides and whatnot, but also a lot of animals in a zoo-type area and other things to do. It was a beautiful day for it and it was a nice way to say goodbye to the summer too, as the cold weather set in shortly after that.

Here are Shaun and Collin on one of the rides I opted out of. Being upside down is not my bag, baby.

I did ride this roller coaster. And discovered that if you scream really loud its a lot less scary! I applied this philosophy on the rest of the rides we went on.

On the safari ride they had lions, tigers, hyena, bears, and these LIGERS! Yes, that's right. A lion/tiger fusion. Unnatural isn't it?! Oh those Koreans!

Inside the bird house we fed the budgies. It reminded me of feeding the pigeons on Granville Island with Raea. But the budgies are less smely.

SEODAEMUN PRISON

At the beginning of the month we went to visit a Prison Museum in Seoul. It used to be a real prison where the Japanese held Korean patriots during Japanese occupation of Korea. It's set up to show the horrible tortures and unfair treatment suffered by the Korean prisoners. It was a real eye-opening experience. Very graphic and realistic-looking robotic mannequins doing things like shoving bamboo sticks under the fingernails of the prisoners, whipping them, pouring hot water laced with chilis up the noses of prisoners who were tied to the ceiling by their feet. Photos weren't allowed in the museum part, but I snapped a few shots of the outer buildings.

This is one of the long hallways leading off the y-shaped cell-blocks.

This is the inside of one of the cells. They would put as many people as can fit in these tiny rooms. And did not have the windows open so there was no fresh air or sunlight.

And here is a giant Korean flag on the outside of one of the cell-blocks.

AUTUMN HITS SUWON

As I mentioned earlier, the weather started getting cold around this time. And the leaves changed colour and autumn was here. (It's now the end of November and by my standards, it's still autumn weather.) But I thought I'd post some photos of the gorgeous colours. None of these photos are mine. I stole them from my fellow teachers Lee, Hannah, and Pip. I hope they don't mind.

The above photos are couresy of Hannah, and were taken in the parks that skirt our apartment building.

These two are Lee's and were taken somewhere in Seoul.

This one is Pip's. We walk up this road every day to go to the caffeteria for lunch. It's a wonderful walk and a nice break in the day.

This one is mine, and was taken by Hwaseong Fortress, the fortress wall that is the main tourist attraction in Suwon. These beautiful plants bloom everywhere lately. You can see patches of them on the side of the tracks on the subway. I thought they were particularly beautiful here with the sun shining on them.

YBM PARTY

YBM, the giant mother company that owns our school, threw a party for all it's teacher all over South Korea a few weekends ago. It was...interesting. There was a "talent" show and some professional entertainment and lots of prizes, none of which we won, and a great dinner. But it was a little disappointing becuase we got stuck in the overflow room with the other English Village and had to watch the whole show on a screen. On the plus side we got fed really quickly as our room was only half full. And we got to laugh without restraint at the attempts at talent that were showcased.

Here is the lovely ice scupture at the entrance to the party.

Our Names on the seating chart!

One of the contests was to make balloon creatures. We didn't win, but we made this guy, the Villagey Mascot for the night.

Here is me with Hannah and Rupali, looking sexy for the big night!

JAMIE'S KOREAN WEDDING

One of our Korean co-workers, Jamie, got married this past weekend. We were all invited (and actually performed a wonderful rendition of "My Girl" at the ceremony.)

Now I must explain something about Korea. It seems like they take a lot of "Western" ideas and squeeze everything extranious out of them and make a kind of...Korean version of them. They do it with Christmas, donuts, hamburgers, English. And now I can say they also do it with weddings. It was like someone read a book about a wedding in the west and said "Oh yeah, we can do that!" but didn't quite get the details right. Don't get me wrong, it was still really lovely and Jamie looked absolutely gorgeous. But...well, let me explain.

It took place in a huge hall (5 floors of huge) and there were two "chapels" on the second floor, side by side. One couple would be ushered in, a quick ceremony, some photos, then that bride out, new one waiting. It was like Vegas or something. There was a fog machine and dicso lights for when the groom came in. The wedding march was played on the piano by another of our Korean co-workers, Julia, so that part was good. Then the officiant (Priest? I don't know...) talked for about 10 minutes. Apparently Jamie and her groom said something like "I do" but I must have missed it. Then they walked over to a giant tier of plastic champagne glasses and poured some champagne into the top one so it cascaded down like a fountain. They then drunk some champagne with linked arms.

Then someone lit two birthday candles on a cake, Jamie and Jesse (I gave him his English name!) blew them out and were handed a knife longer than my arm to make a single cut in the cake. And I have a feeling that if you had looked at the top of that cake there would have several cuts from all the other wedding that had happened that day.

They did bow to their parents and before the ceremony the mothers lit some candles on the altar so there were still some remnants of what I assume would be tradition.

Here is a photo of the happy couple leaving the chapel before being whisked back in for a whirlwind photo shoot.

After the ceremony we went up to the buffet where there were guests from what I'm told was probably five other weddings. I guess people just mill in and out and eat and some don't even watch the ceremony! The food was amazing. There was I think 8 different tables of different kinds of food. Western food, Korean, sushi bar, salad bar, dessert bar. Everything you could want, really. After a while Jamie and Jesse came up to the banquet room in their traditional Korean dress. Sadly by that time most of the guests had gone already. Not us foreigners, however. Leave when there's free food to be had!?

Here is a picture of me with the bride and groom in their hanboks.

And the "Best Dressed" pciture. Me and Ricky (aka Luxury Boy), another co-worker.

VISIT TO THE DENTIST

About a month ago my teeth started hurting me, but I put off going to the dentist, my fear of them being compounded by the fear of the unknowns in going anywhere in Korea. But last week I looked at my tooth and discovered that I could actually see a hole in one of them, so I bit the bullet and made an appointment. I was nothing but pleasantly surprised when I walked in. There was a fire place and water feature in the lobby. And the receptionists looked as if they had been waiting all day for me to show up. The dentist spoke very good English and was really happy to practice it on me. He was very kind and answered all of my questions, even recommending a good brand of toothpaste for me since I'm not familiar with Korean brands. My initial visit cost me the equivalent of $4, and when I went back yesterday to get the tooth filled it cost me a whopping...are you ready for this...$5!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes five. That is not a typo. I think I will get him to look for more cavities so I can get them filled while I'm here. I feel like I was making money just by visiting the dentist! I had to go back after school today to get the filling polished and he said he would miss me. I've never had a dentist say that before!

RIDER PRIDE IN SUWON

Many of you know about the Grey Cup (pretty much everyone who would read this blog proabably do) so I won't go into details. I just wanted to show you how I spread Rider Pride to South Korea.

I couldn't watch the game live at is was on during the middle of the day on Monday here and I was working. But some of my friends (two Americans, a Brit and a Quebecer) agreed to watch it with me. They all knew the score but were nice enough to have me convinced that the Riders lost so I was really happy when they didn't.

All day at school I had the kids chanting "Go Roughriders!" (I'm in charge of the microphone during morning and afternoon assembly) and though they didn't really know what was going on, they were good sports about it.

IN CLOSING

In other news, it's pretty much for sure that I will be extending my contract another six months when this one is finished. So that puts me home in November of 2008. The thought of going home in less time than I've spent here doesn't sit well with me. And I feel like I have much more to do here before I'm ready to come home. So that's that.

And that's about all I can think to write about. I hope this has brought everyone up to speed. I've been at this PC room (think internet cafe without coffee) for nearly 3 hours typing away, so I think I shall wrap it up. I promise it won't be another month before I get back at it!

Update

2007-10-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I have just realized that it's been a while since I've posted. I guess I should bring everyone up to speed.

It's been a very busy few weeks. Another batch of teachers has left us. (Goodbye Shaun, Chris, Jo and Aaron!) And another has joined (Hello Mike, Nick, Lee and Pip!) With the departure of Chris, I was promoted to the position of Senior Teacher here at the Village. It doesn't really mean anything too exciting. A little more pay and a lot less teaching but lots of other kinds of work. This is my second week in the post and I feel like it's going pretty well.

Not alot has been happening other than school. We had a Halloween program this week and last and a Saturday program last weekend so it's been a lot of work. Been going out quit a bit getting to know the new teachers and saying goodbye to the old ones, but nothing really blog-worthy....

I'm beginning to think that I haven't posted in a while because nothing is actually happening!!!! Let's hope that situation is remedied soon! I'll have to make a point of doing things to blog about this weekend!

Parade, Fireworks and Fish

2007-10-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while since my last post! The post-holiday depression after Thailand and the empty wallet situation made for some boring weekends with nothing to post about. But now that's over and life is back to normal, so here I am again.

Busy busy weekend. Saturday was the Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival. For those of you who don't know, Suwon has a fortress, Hwaseong, that winds through the centre of the city. It's Suwon's major tourist attraction and was built a couple hundred years ago (most of what stands today is not original) by King Jeongjo in memory of his father who was killed by HIS father. So the festival celebrates the Fortress and the cultural heritage of the city. On Saturday there was a parade reinacting King Jeongjo's visit to his father's tomb. So we went to check it out, and were very much entertained.

We saw....

Many pigs being roasted on spits.

Guys in poofy hats playing drums.

A yellow band.

Beautiful flags.

Warriors on horses.

A troupe of garden gnomes.

King Jeongjo himself!!!!!!

And his mother. (Who got accosted by someone in the audience--a random guy walked up to here and shoved a piece of paper in her face. Very strange. And no one did anything about it, he just walked oh-so-casually away.)

And--the best part if you ask me--the Homeplus float!!!!! Well it wasn't actually a float, just some Homeplus guys in their lovely supermarket vests. But still.

After the parade was over I decided to go to the International Fireworks festival in Seoul. So I hopped on the subway where I had to transfer one stop before the stop that would take me to the fireworks. The station was so packed it took me over half an hour to get shoved onto a train. I stole some pictures from a friend who was there (thanks John!!!!) to give you an idea of what it was like, but even these can't capture the terror of it all.

For those of you who don't know, I am more than a little claustrophobic, so this was a nightmare for me. People were shoved in as tight as could possibly be and every time a train came they would start screaming and pushing and the subway officials were blowing their whistles and the sweat and noise and people and babies crying....I just looked at the ceiling and concentrated very hard on not decided I needed to get out, which would have been impossible. Finally I got shoved onto a train and after one stop made my escape.

But the nightmare didn't end there. The crowd continued out of the subway and all the way up this hill that led to where the fireworks were. Half way up they started and the people started running to get a look. Running crowd--even more terrifying than pushing screaming one!! It was impossible to see the fireworks due to all the buildings in the way so I tried to elbow my way closer, but gave up and followed the trickle of people who were moving the opposite direction. After watching the fireworks for maybe 5 minutes, being shoved and man-handled the whole time and dodging guys on scooters--who rides a scooter through a crowd of people? seriously--I decided that it wasn't worth it for a half-seen show of fireworks and that I would make my escape before all these billions of people decided to get back on the subway. I'm really glad I did, I don't think my heart could have handled another controlled panic attack.

The next day we went to the COEX Mall, which is, as it's name may suggest, a big shopping mall. But they also have an aquarium inside, so we checked that out. I think I have been ruined for all aquariums but the Vancouver one, maybe because without an adorable neice to show me around it's not nearly as much fun. But we did see some really cool things, though the theme of this particular aquarium seemed to be "how many wierd things can we put fish in?!" rather than "Let's educated people about marine life." I don't know why I'm surprised. I am in Korea after all.

Here are some highlites of the trip:

This is Hootie, the dopey blowfish.

A leafy sea dragon. Amazing creatures.

A sea turtle. I feel a great kinship for these now that I have one tattooed into my flesh.

A sawfish. I chased this thing around several tanks for like 15 minutes trying to get a good shot.

And I got swallowed by a shark. It happens.

Adventures In Thailand

2007-10-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK MAKES A HARD MAN HUMBLE

Had an amazing 9 days in Thailand. Only problem being that they were too short. We packed so much into them but still didn't see and do everything we wanted to. This is going to be a very long post, so you might want to a get a cup of coffee and snack or something.

We started out in Bangkok for two nights and a day. Arrived the first night in the early evening and checked into our moderately priced, moderately nice guest house. Here are some pictures I snapped on the way from the airport.

We wandered around for a while to get our bearings and ate some gorgeous food. Sampled Thai "whiskey" which is actually rum, and very delicious. And cheap.

This is a picture of some baby buddhas that decorated the bar we were at. This became our favourite hang out while we were in Bangkok.

We ended up at a bar that had a live band and sheesha pipes.

Being the adventurous soul I am, I decided to try a puff or two. (It's only flavoured tobacco.)

Found it quite inoffensive, but certainly not something I will do on a regular basis. It was nice to be around some live music though. Not something I've seen a lot of in Korea. Unless you count Boney M of course.

After that we went to see the "Ping Pong Show." For the sake of my more "delicate" readers, I'm not going to get into details about that...but for those of you who know what I'm talking about... Yeah, not an experience I would recommend. I consider myself to be very far from prudish, but I was shocked and horrified with that experience. Shaun seemed to look at it as research or something, and enjoyed it far more than I did. (Luckily, or sadly, there were no cameras allowed.)

The next day we spent sight seeing and eating. Food is so so cheap there, and so delicious. We probably ate 6 meals every day.

First stop was the Royal Palace. There we saw the Emerald Buddha which is actually made of jade. (This is not my photo. No cameras allowed inside the temple.)

We wandered around the grounds for hours looking at the amazing decorations on the buildings. I took about 100 pictures. Here are some of the best ones.

After the Grand Palace we stopped for lunch and our favourite drink, guava shake. I'd never tried guava before, but both Shaun and I were in love with these drinks. While in Bangkok we had one probably about every hour if we could manage it.

Our second stop was Wat Pho, another Temple, where lives the Reclining Buddha. It is 46 metres long and 15 metres high and decorated with gold plating. This was probably the best part of the day for me, maybe because it was such a surprise. I had never heard of the Reclining Buddha and was expecting a normal-sized statue. Imagine my surprise when we walked into the temple and I saw this massive gold Buddha. I was truly awe-inspiring.

The feet are inlaid with scenes in mother of pearl.

Also in the Temple you can buy a cup of tiny coins that you take and drop into a row of black metal pots. We weren't sure what the exact point of it was, but chose to believe it was for good luck or something along those lines. We made a wish while we did it, just in case. I've since looked into it and I guess it's just a local custom that is "supposed to be auspicious and bring merit" and good way for the Temple to raise funds. So we were pretty much right. Here is a picture of me dropping the coins in the buckets.

I took this picture out on the grounds of the temple. It also houses the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand.

Next stop was Wat Arun, or the Temple of the Dawn. It's around 85 metres high and decorated with bits of porcelain which had previously been used as ballast by boats coming to Bangkok from China.

It's incredibly beautiful both from across the river it sits beside, and up close. You can climb up a set of deadly steep stairs to about two-thirds of the way up

which gives you a pretty nice view of Bangkok and of the temple grounds. We stayed up there for a while enjoying the sunshine and the view.

After our steep climb we were famished, so took the ferry back across the river and ate a quick bite at a restaurant on the river. The waitress was exceedingly rude to us, but seemed to having a jolly time with another table of somewhat more rich-looking tourists. Perhaps she hates backpackers....But the food was good, of course, and we enjoyed watching some local children swimming in the river.

After our lunch we took off to the Weekend Market, the biggest most famous market in Bangkok. Sadly we got there only about an hour before closing, but we still managed to part with some money. I bought a really cool pair of embroidered shoes and some Buddha paintings which I think were hand-made originals, as all of them were slightly different.

After our shopping trip we were both exhausted to made our way back to our guest house and then out for more food and some more Thai whisky. We didn't do anything too exciting that night, just sat around and talked about how great the day was and debated everything under the sun. Retired far too late considering we had to be up at 7 the next morning to catch our bus to Ko Chang.

MINI BUS HELL

Day 3, Monday, found us squeezed into a mini bus with 9 other people on our way to Ko Chang, one of the largest island in Thailand, where we planned to spend the bulk of our holiday. Things were fine, the air con worked, the seats were relatively comfortable, we had entertainment in the form of a strange (we think) American girl who was regaling her friend with her thoughts on the lyrics to many songs by the Killers. (Her favourite was Number 2.)

About 2 hours after we set out we stopped at a restaurant off the free-way for snack and toilet and when we were all piling back into the van the driver told us that we were supposed to wait here for another bus that would come soon. So we unloaded our luggage and sat down to wait. And the bus did not come soon. Maybe 45 minutes later two huge gaudily decorated buses pulled up. We still weren't sure if these were our buses, as we had paid budget prices for our tickets, and these buses looked very luxurious. They were indeed the ones we were waiting for, so after they finished their 20 minutes stop we climbed aboard and discovered that its true that you cannot judge a book by its cover, or a bus by it fancy paint job. The only seats left were ones that had been bolted in behind the original seat where a door used to be. So we had, by my calculation, exactly 3 inches of leg room, and no air con vent. And to top it all off, there were ants living in the wall that seemed very interested in me. Maybe those were the budget price seats...

At last we made it to the port and were preparing to board the ferry when we were ushered to a car and had our bags loaded into the back and they drove away with us. I guess our budget fair tickets were for another ferry 10 minutes down the road. A ferry that looked more like a fishing boat. But certainly had more character than the huge car ferry we originally thought was for us.

Here is a picture of the sun setting over Ko Chang and the shrine to Buddha at the front of the ferry boat.

After a lovely boat ride and a cramped ride in the back of a pick-up truck, or "share taxi", we arrived at Lonely Beach and rented a hut that was to be our home for the next for days. Now doesn't "a bamboo hut on a beach in Thailand" sound like perhaps the most wonderful thing you could experience? Think again. I'm sure it would have been if our hut had had more than an inch-thick smelly mat to sleep on and had not been infested with horrible biting ants. I can handle roughing it, but ant bites are not something I relish. Never-the-less it was certainly cheap (around $3 a night) and did have a lot of character.

The best part was the shower. I wish I had a picture of it, but did not have the prescence of mind to snap one. It was a big pool of rain water inside a stone hut with a little basin that you used to scoop water from the pool to pour over yourself. Very refreshing on a hot day. Not so nice in the chilly evening. But still somehow wonderfully satisfying.

Here are some pictures of our surroundings while on Ko Chang.

SHANDA GOES SCUBA DIVING

Our second day on Ko Chang we went SCUBA diving. The day started at 8 am when we were picked up by the dive company's pick-up truck. It seems to be the preferred way of mass-transporting people there...just shove them in the back of a truck.

The boat-ride out to the dive spot was very long, so Patrick, our dive instructor, used that time to give us the low-down on what we'd need to know. I was a little nervous. Equipment and me don't really get along. My nerves did not diminish as we got dressed in our gear. And then as soon as we jumped in the water, I lost my weight belt and Patrick had to dive down to get it. This did not seem a good sign to me, and my jitters increased. We finally got my re-weighted and then swam over to the buoys where we were to do our training exercises before going down for the actual dive.

Now for those of you who don't know, I have had ear problems my whole life. And when SCUBA diving it is very important to nuetralize the pressure in your ears or else you can burst your eardrum. I had a lot of trouble getting my ears to pop and thus was getting very frightened and freaked out. I kept making Patrick take me back to the surface because I couldn't control the panic. But eventually I managed to keep myself calm, and before I knew it Patrick was pointing down and lo and behold, my flippers were touching sand! And once I got down there among the fish and coral, I was fine. All thoughts of worrying about my ears went out the window, and I relaxed and just enjoyed the wonder around me.

This is one of the islands we swam around while diving.

We saw so many fish, none of which I know the names of unfortunately. And it was amazing to watch the clam-like creatures and little bottle-brush-like animals closing up and hiding as we swam over. The best was when we swam through/beside/with a school of fish. I could have reached out and touched one if I hadn't signed a contract that said I wouldn't interfere with the wildlife.

After the first dive we ate lunch and then swam around the boat and out to an island where there were hermit crabs on the sand and a big swing in a palm tree. Our second dive went much more smoothly than the first, although my ears still did not behave as I would have liked them too. Patrick coaxed an eel out from under a rock and we saw more exotic fish and some anemones that were flowing with the current and had little fish hiding in them.

I've always wanted to try SCUBA diving, and now that I have I think I will do it again. It was possibly the most relaxing thing I have ever done in my life. Nothing to do but breathe, kick your feet a little, and look at amazing sealife. Our day of diving definately rates very high on the list of the best days of my life.

INDULGENCE "O", ACTIVITY "X"

Our second day on the island we were both pooped from too many light nights and early mornings so we decided to allow ourselves a day of indulgence. We sat on the wooden deck of our "lodge" and ate all morning and read and drank fruit shakes. In the afternoon we headed to the beach and swam in the waves, then went for bbq chicken supper and took a bottle of Ko Chang wine to the beach. I was falling asleep on the beach so went home early. I slept in the hammock that night, away from the biting ants, and was awoken by a huge thunderstorm in the night. But I was warm and cozy wrapped in my hammock under the bamboo roof of the porch, so got an excellent view of the lighting and rain without getting wet.

RAMBO THE ELEPHANT AND TREETOP TARZAN

After our day of indulgence we were ready for some activity. So we signed up for an elephant trek in the jungle. They picked us up in the usual pick-up truck and as we pulled up to the elephant huts we looked over and saw a large bull elephant named Rambo running out toward us. We climbed a small tower to then climb on his back. Well actually, onto a seat that was strapped to his back. The trek took us through rainforest, a pomelo orchard

and a rubber tree plantation.

The "driver" of the elephant picked one of the pomelos for us to taste. It's like a huge green grapefruit, but with a lot less sourness. A lot les flavour in general actually. But still very delicious.

We stopped at a mountain stream for a dip and to give Rambo a break and drink.

Shaun go to ride directly on his back for the return journey, and he (Rambo that is) kept walking straight into the pomelo trees and lifting his trunk. We finally figured out, with much grunting from the trainer, that he wanted Shaun to pick on and feed it to him, which he did with much delight. I have to admit, I was jealous. But when we were almost back I got to climb down on his back as well, so I was happy. Though it wasn't a very comfortable ride as I was sitting right on his shoulder blades.

After the trek was over we went to a Treetop Adventure park. I was expecting lovely wooden bridges to ramble on through the treetops. Instead it was zip cords and rope ladders and things to climb and fall off of. Which I did about 5 minutes in. And that was enough to make me decide it was not my cup of tea so I went back to the club house and waited for Shaun to finish. And I have nothing to show for experience but bruises on all my apendages.

TATTOO AND BANG BAO (OR THE TALE OF TWO INCOMPETANT KAYAKERS)

Friday, our last day on Ko Chang, I had an appointment in the morning to get a tattoo. So I left Shaun sleeping, his only task being to wake up early enough to check out of the hut, and headed to the tattoo hut. Now when I say hut, I mean just that. Yes, I got a tattoo in a hut on an island in Thailand. At least it wasn't made of bamboo.

It was done in the traditional way, with needles attached to a stick of bamboo. So it's much gentler than with a gun so it heals faster, but also takes a lot longer. I was there for around 4 hours and the tattoo itself took about 3. But it was really amazing experience to watch such a beautiful peice of art emerging. And the detail they can accomplish with the bamboo is amazing compared to the conventional gun method.

Here's the finished product. Notice also the many ant bites.

After the tattoo was finished we took a truck to Bang Bao, a village built in a bay, most of which extends off a long pier. I wanted to go there for the shopping and the seafood, not to mention the view. We figured it would be a great place to spend our last night. And we were right. We found a really nice guest house for a really good price. Had a bite to eat and then rented a kayak to paddle out to the end of the bay where we were told we could see monkeys in the evening.

When we set out it was a wonderful evening. Sunny and calm. We paddled around the point and up and down the shore. We managed to see one monkey even, so we were happy. When we got bored with monkey hunting, we decided to try to paddle across to the other side of the bay to a beach where we could go for a quick swim. When we got about half way there, however, the wind picked up considerably (the locals had been predicting a storm would be settling in ever since we got to the island, so we shouldn't have been surprised.) I knew that if we just kept paddling we'd eventually make it to the other side and it would be foolish to try to paddly directly into the oncoming wind and waves to get back to the pier. Shaun did not see it this way, however, and began to panic and regale me with tales of British people who drown in Thailand every year. So I agreed to turn around, which, as I knew, was easier said than done. He managed to get going in the direction of the pier, but I was not so lucky. And next thing I knew I was out in the middle of the bay all by myself. Being the resourceful young woman I am, I knew it would futile to try to follow where Shaun was leading, so I turned around and made for the beach that was our original goal. I made it there fine, granted quite exhausted, and wandered into an "exclusive resort" that was situated along the beach. I must have a looked a fright, soaking wet from the rain that had started to fall and from jumping in the water once I got close to shore. But some nice people at the resort helped me and gave a motor-bike ride back to town. Shaun meantime had made it back to the pier and sent help after me. We must have met on the road.

So it was an adventure anyway. I seem to be really good at getting into those. Shaun's still convinced we almost died, but I know I've got more moxy than to let a little wind take me out. ;)

After our "near death experience" we decided some sustinance was needed. And as we were sitting on the lovely deck of our guest house having a drink, an amazing storm blew in. We had to move in off the deck because the wind was blowing the rain in horizontal sheets under the roof. It also closed all the shops I wanted to shop in, much to my disappointment. But we managed to find a lovely seafood restaurant.

I ordered a whole fish, fresh off the boat, and it was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten. Very meaty and not too fishy, just nicely flavoured. And the sauce! It was just the right amout of flavour to compliment the fish without overpowering it. I also had a spicy soup with fresh prawns. The whole thing was incredible.

Here is the view from the deck of our guesthouse at night.

Here it is in the morning.

The deck had these really cool tables. The floor was cut out and overtop was a low glass table. You sat on the deck and dangles your feet over the water. At night, when the water is clear, you can see a statue in the water. The guest house was called Buddha view. I think that's why.

HOME AGAIN HOME AGAIN

The next day we got back on a mini-bus, this time for the whole journey, and back to Bangkok. I got a massage and then we had supper and I finally got my shopping fix. I bought lots of jewellery and 11 pairs of fisherman pants! I figure those should last me a few years at least. And an amazing pair of handmade leather boots.

We had another amazing supper and a few drinks. Nearly ended up back at the ping pong show thanks to a shady taxi driver. Then it was up early to get to the airport. Arrived home at about 11, stayed awake long enough for a quick phone call home and to but all my wet clothes in the wash, then crashed.

We had a really great time. We came home relxed, though exhausted. I'm still catching up on sleep. I only wish it could have been longer. 9 days wasn't nearly enough to experience Thailand. There were so many other things we would have liked to do!!!

I took 8 albums of photos. Here are the links if you want to check them out:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55478&l=95a4e&id=890700076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55529&l=09b41&id=890700076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55532&l=9e1fe&id=890700076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55560&l=57f30&id=890700076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55561&l=c8500&id=890700076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55563&l=fda2a&id=890700076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55836&l=3a358&id=890700076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56083&l=1340f&id=890700076

New friends

2007-09-20T00:34:00.001-07:00

Well I just wanted to do a short little post to get everyone up to speed before I run off to Thailand in a few days and come back with more stories than I know what to do with. I'm sorry to say that I have no pictures to go along with this post, so please bear with me.

This past weekend was one of new friends and interesting conversation. Saturday night found us outside our favourite CVS having a few drinks, minding our own business when along came Jamil, an outgoing fellow from Pakistan who lives in our building. He works as a cook at a guest house for Indian and Pakinstani people who work at the Samsung plant near-by. So he invited us to come eat at the guest house, thinking we might be interested in some Indian food. Which, of course, we were. So Jamil sat down with us, and before you know it another friend Hokey, a Korean whom my fellow teacher Chris plays basketball with, joined us with his hip-hop cell phone and perfect mastery of English curse words. So this turned into more drinks (I chose to drink orange pop) and, as it usually will, the conversation turned to matters of religion and science. Did you know, for example, that a chicken is not an animal? Great debate was had over that topic, let me tell you. But luckily before things got too heated the fried chicken arrived, and at that point we didn't care whether it was an animal or not, just that it was delicious. Once we were finished picking the bones and licking our fingers we realized it was 4am, so retired to our respective beds. Another one of those random evening that will live on in memory as reasons I love Korea.

So on Tuesday we took up Jamil's offer of Indian food. 8 of us Villagers and my new friend Erich, a fellow Suwoner, formerly of Edmonton, with a Saskatchewan obsession and rented piano in his tiny Korean box-house, set off to find the guest house. We were greeted by Jamil and escorted to a sitting room in the parking lot complete with sofas, a table, and some orange drink. We chatted there for a while until there was room at the dining tables for us, and then partook in the most fabulous meal. There was actual basmati rice, much better than the usual sticky rice you get in Korea, lamb, lentils, and cucumber cooked in amazing spices so it was rich and sweet and...unlike cucumber. Who knew you could cook cucumber? We all gorged ourselves embarassingly and were so full we could hardly walk home. And all for the low low price of $8! Jamil was so happy to host us, and we were more than happy to accept his hospitality. We will definately being going back there some day soon.

So the adventure continues. As fall sets in we are relaxing as far as going out and doing things, but I hope that will change soon, or it could be a very boring winter. I'm looking into taking some drumming classes (sorry Mom, another musical instrument you'll have to store for me) and possibly going to Buddhist meditation "workshops" on the weekends. Some cozy things to keep me occupied for the winter. And! New friend Erich has informed me of a bungee jumping site in Korea somewhere. Guess what my next obsession will be?

So, I'm off to Thailand in two days. Probably won't post until I get back.

Sushi, Noraebang, tall towers and a Folk Village

2007-09-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

Well we are slowly recovering from the loss of Mel and Shawn. Life must go on, I guess. And the fact that their replacements are very fun people helps in the healing process. (No, no one will ever replace Mel and Shawn, but Collin and Rupali are pretty awesome too.)

Last week we decided to go for sushi on Friday night, something Mel and Shawn would never had done with us as they are both seafood haters. We figured it would help us to not miss them. We went to an all you can eat sushi buffet and needless to say got very very full. It was Korean-ized sushi. Mostly california rolls with various sauces on top, and some sashimi-type bits. But still very very delicious. And only $10 for an hour and a half of as much sushi as you can stuff into your stomach. I don't think I need to say that we will definately be going back there again.

We also discovered a new noraebang that night. Window booth as usual. We're never satisfied with displaying our talents just to ourselves, but must also make sure everyone in the street can see us too.

Some of the Korean teachers from school came with us and a good time was had by all.

Saturday during the day we vegged out. Shaun and I did some research for our trip to Thailand next week (YAY!!!) and in the evening we went to Jongno Tower. It's one of the tallest buildings in Seoul and there is a really exclusive (and expensive) bar at the top of it. It was a nice little exersion, though a pricey one. The view of Seoul was amazing, and the bathroom have a really cool motion-detecting sink. I got a glass of wine that cose approx. $20, was only half full and was the most disgusting wine I have ever tasted.

On Sunday I went to the Korean Folk Village, an historical reconstruction of Korean life. There were tons of building in different styles from around the country, and from different eras. It was interesting to see, but a lot of the same stuff over and over again. My favourite parts were the statue garden (I'm such an art snob)

and the performance of traditional dance.

This isn't my video, I found it on the web, but it's pretty much the same thing that I saw.

The best part was these hats. They have a long ribbon attached to the stick that you see here, and with the slightest bob of the head the musicians make them twirl around in amazing patterns. Also while their doing this they can flip in the air and play drums. Now that's multi-talented.

The leader of the ribbon guys did a solo bit with a huge long ribbon. He did break dancing moves and stood on his head, all while keeping the ribbon going. I was gasping and clapping along with the Koreans on that one.

I was also intruiged by these drums.

They have different kinds of skin on either end so they make a very different sound depending on which end you play them on. And you also used two different sticks, one thin bamboo one, and one with a round rubber tip. They make a really beautiful sound, and I think there's a lot of skill that goes into playing them. I really want to learn how..I'm going to see if I can find some lessons somewhere. Though maybe having another delicate musical instrument to fly home would not be such a good idea. I'd have to have to choose between my drum and my guitar.

There was also a buddhist temple onsite. I'm not sure if it was an actual temple, as in people actually used it...or if it was just...a representation of a temple for the purposes of the folk village. It was my first temple visit though, and I was rather awestruck, even if I wasn't sure it was a real temple. I want to search out more of them now, and am even more determined to do a mediation retreat while I'm here.

For supper I had chicken stew with ginseng. Very delicious, though it could have used more salt. And yes, that's three kinds of kimchi. The cabbage one was much "riper" than what I'm used to. The first bite was quite a shock, but once I knew what to expect I rather enjoyed it.

That's pretty much all that's been happening, I guess. I'm working on expanding my circle of friends, meeting a fellow Canadian in Suwon on the weekend to talk about organic farming and what not. You know, the usual. Still going to the gym, which has been much more enjoyable since the weather cooled down a little. Bought a bunch of Korean poetry books and a cookbook.

To see the rest of my photos from the folk village visit my facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1188934&l=36359&amp;amp;id=890700076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50788&l=ea857&id=890700076

Birhdays, partings, and new friends

2007-09-05T22:44:00.000-07:00

It's been too long since I posted anything...I guess nothing much has been happening. I've been religiously going to the gym since the beginning of August and rather enjoying it. The theatre festival took up a lot of my time. But we haven't been having many crazy adventures of late...

Let's see..where did I leave off. Oh yes, I don't believe I've posted about my new friends yet. One night not too long ago after soju and fireworks in the park, we partook what has become our new fad, crane games. You know the kind where there is a glass box full of toys and whatnot and a big claw that picks them up. They have them all over here and you can win really cool things like mp3 players, digital cameras, ipod accesories. At least in theory you can, but they make it pretty much impossible to win those.

Anyway, I don't think I mentioned it, but my faithful teddy, Punky, was accidentally left behind at the Motel Coconuts while we were at the Mud Festival, and I have since been mourning the loss. Now it just so happened that there was a teddy in the particular crane machine we were at, and after pumping in all of my cash, I finally won her. I named her Miju, and while she is not Punky, she does have a striped jumper like he did.

Here she is while still inside her prison.

Also that night while walking around looking for more crane games, we came across Hue.

Imagine the looks we got carrying him home!!! (Don't worry, I didn't steal him, he was set out to be taken away with the trash.) I named him Hue after the seedy Hotel I can see out my window. I will paint some fashion on him eventually.

We have been going through a period of transition here at the Village. Three teachers have gome home, and two more have arrived, soon to be a third. It was a very sad week for us, saying goodbye to two members of our five-some.

We went to our favourite place, Carne Station (all you can eat bbq and all you can drink alcohol) on Saturday for one last night out. Needless to say we took full advantage of the open bar sitchation. And then went to our favourite Doll House noraebang, horseheads in tow.

Details are splotchy at this point...sorry...

Tuesday was my birthday, and Mel and Shawn's last day of work. So it was a bitter-sweet day for all.

I got some carrots as a gift, a joke at the expense of my penchant for red-heads and thus all things orange.

Here is me blowing out the candles on my cake. And I thought I was going to a staff meeting...

Here's a pic of the staff as they were on Mel and Shawn's last day.

After cake we went for Thai food and then back to our apartment for drinks and fireworks. And a tearful, prolonged goodbye. Its crazy how, though we've only been together for 4 months in total, I feel so close to the people here. It broke my heart to say goodbye to them. I suppose I should get used to it if I'm going to keep up this nomadic lifestyle...

We miss you Shawn and Melodie!!!!!!!! The Villagey will never be the same without you!!!!!

Suwon Hwaseong Theatre Festival

2007-08-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

Last week I spent most of my out of school time at the Suwon Hwaseong Theatre Festival. It was an international theatre festival that took place at different spots along Hwaseong Fortress (the wall in Suwon) and the best part was; most of it was free. My friends and I took in quite a few shows and enjoyed most of them.

This is first show I saw, "The Angel and the Woodcutter." At this point the woodcutter is being forced into the army and eventually abandons his family and his wife is forced into prostitution in order to feed their son. It was a really good show. There was no talking, only dance, so it was really easy to follow the story.

This is "MOB (Mobile, Oblique and Bucolic)". It was basically some drumming clowns who wound throught the audience and then hooked themselves to this crane and drummed while dangling in the sky. Interesting to watch...

This show was called Ku-Do. It was based around a video game theme. Here the actors can be seen emerging from a giant cube. I really like this one, but other described it as "pretentious." A woman did give birth to a rock at one point, so I can see how it might be seen that way...

This is "Blue Bird" from a German company. They spoke in English and they projected subtitles in Korean. I found this one to be visually interesting, but story-wise could have used some help.

This was my favourite show, "History of Madness." It was about the effect of the Korean War on Korean people. It was all in Korean, but was so visually powerful that it moved me to tears. This is a picture from the end of the play when the "leader" is being lifted up the side of the wall.

This is the only pictures I managed to get of "Apropo de Butterfly" before the usher came over and gave me the "X." It says "This is not a contemporary play."

This was my least favourite of all the shows. It was called "A Soldiers Tale." It was all in Korean, so maybe if we could have understood it we would have liked it more.

The last show we saw was called "Charanga" and it was by a Portugese company. It consisted of clowns on bicycles with various brass instruments. It was neat to watch and the music was cool. I managed to get a litte video clip of it:

All in all it was a great week. I felt more like myself this last week than I have in a long time, and it inspired me to be creative again, which is never a bad thing.

DMZ Tour

2007-08-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

We took a tour to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North and South Korea on the weekend. It was a very interesting and eye-opening experience, albeit very touristy, which surprised me.

We started the weekend Friday with a trip into Seoul where we planned to stay the night so we wouldn't have to get up quite so early to catch our 7:30am bus for the tour. We went for supper at a Turkish restaurant...very delicious. 9 courses and lots of lamb. Yogurt drink. Tea. Dessert. Yum. We also found a foreign foods supermarket where I was able to buy some cous cous and Thai curry. Very exciting.

We slept at a love motel that night. Have I mentioned love motels yet? Korea and other Asian countries have special motels intended for business men to have affairs in. The parking lots are curtained so you can't see who is entering and leaving. There are sexy things in the rooms (porn, condoms sometimes) and you can pay by the hour or stay all night if you want to. They don't take your name or anything. You pay cash at the door and get a key. They can be really dodgy but also really nice depending on your luck. We didn't luck out this time. The bathroom had no sink and we had to brush our teeth in the tub. And it was very small and kinda smelly and the walls were very thin. Hannah and I shared a room and Mel and Shawn could hear us laughing from across the hall. Good thing it seemed to be pretty much deserted so we couldn't hear the sexy things from other rooms!!!

The morning came very early and we made our way to the American Army camp to catch the bus. Our tour guide was a very witty and cute old man named Young ("You see, I am very young") who kept us entertained with stories and pointing out the various sights on the road. The highway we took was lined with barbed wire on the side that ran along the Han River. This was to keep out any North Korean spies who would try to get into the South with small submarines in the river. Sounds weird, I know, but I guess this has actually happened. It was kinda creepy to see that...where we live you don't really see signs that the two countries are still in a very tense situation and it's easy to forget. To have actual physical evidence of it out the bus window was a bit disconcerting.

Our first stop was the JSA (Joint Security Area) that is occupied by the Republic of Korea (ROK) army, American soldiers and North Korean Army on the other side. I believe it's under UN control... We were forbidden to take pictures for most of it, but were allowed certain photo-ops in specific areas.

First we were escorted into a hall where we signed a form saying that we understood the dangers of entering the JSA and instructing us not to point, gesture, look at, talk about, the North Korean soldiers. Then we had a short briefing on the Korean War and the area around the JSA, then were herded back onto buses to make our way to the border. We were escorted in two straight lines into an area with UN buildings and allowed to take photos of the North Korean buildings on the other side of the border. Our American army tour guide told us "Be sure to take pictures of them, they are taking pictures of you." Not creepy at all....

There is a North Korean soldier on the steps of this building looking at us through binoculars.

We then went into a building where talks are held between the two sides. It was half in N. Korea, half in S. Korea. So for a brief moment we did step into the North. There was a cement line that signified the border.

Inside the building were ROK soldiers who were there for our safety. We were told not to get to close to them or they would stop us with physical force. Again...not creepy at all.

They also told us stories of ROK soldiers being pulled into N. Korea by soldiers when they go to lock the doors. So they introduced a new policy of one soldier hanging on the wall while also hanging on to the others gun belt. The walls are worn white where they lean.

They have framed plastic flags on the walls instead of little silk ones on stands. I guess at one point when the president of the US and the president of S. Korea were visiting, some N. Korean soldiers came into the building and blew their noses and wiped their shoes with the US and S. Korean flags. So they replaced them with plastic ones to remove the temptation.

After that we were taken to a look-out point where we could see into N. Korea. In particular Propaganda City with a their giant N. Korean flag the size of a three story building and weighing 600lbs.

It's called Propaganda city because up until a few years ago they had a massive speaker system there that blasted propaganda into the South trying to get people to come over to their side. I guess they stopped doing it when they realized that the answering propaganda from the South was much more effective and that their people wanted to go south, so they offered up an agreement to end the broadcasts on both sides. Propaganda Village is actually uninhabited except for a few people who come there during the day to do maintenance.

Here you can see the mitre-tall white posts that are placed along the border all the way across the peninsula.

After that we were driven to a spot where 30 years ago there was a incident that resulted in 2 deaths. There was a big tree that was blocking the view from the aforementioned look-out point, so some UN people, some ROK soldiers and some workmen went to cut it down. But the N. Koreans didn't like that, saying that the tree was their property, so they started a fight and axed two people to death. The day we were there was the day after the 30th anniversary of this incident so there were wreaths layed out around a monument.

Also at this spot is the Bridge of No Return. At the end of the Korean War both sides realeased eachother's prisoners and they were allowed to decide which side they wanted to go to. They crossed this bridge into whichever country they wanted, but only under the stipulation that they would never be allowed to return to the other. Hence the name.

After that we were taken to the gift shop. You could buy pieces of the wire fence, t-shirts, N. Korean wine. Many things with the slogan "freedom is not free." I chose to opt out of the souvenir buying. It seemed somewhat wrong to me to turn an area of political strife into a tourist attraction. I guess the DMZ tour is the most popular tour in Korea...

After leaving the JSA we were taken to another lookout point where you could see like 12km (that might be the wrong number...) into North Korea on a clear day. Luckily we had a clear day so the view was amazing. No pictures allowed past a certain point, though, so I didn't get any stunning shots. I chose to obey the rules, too chicken to risk losing my camera over a few pics.

On the way there Young pointed out the red triangles hung on the side of the road. These denote a live land mine area. YIKES!!!! I was a little nervous putting my trust in the hands of the busdriver not to drive us off the thin mountain road and into a land mine!

After that we went to see Tunnel #3. After the war was over the South Koreans discovered a bunch of tunnels dug under the DMZ that the North had dug to try to infiltrate the South. They claimed they were just digging for coal and painted coal on the walls to try to prove it. You could go inside the tunnels as far as the North Korean border. We had to wear hard hats because the ceilings were so low. I was feeling very clausrophobic and it was basically 15 minutes of panic control on my part as we explored it. But it was an interesting thing to see. Shawn took some illegal pictures, he being much more bold than I am.

That was the last stop on the tour. I found it a really interesting experience. I was really amazed at how the American tour guide made no attempt to hide his bias, in fact everything on the South Korean side was blatantly anti-North. I thought that they would at least make and attempt to appear neutral. Especially the Americans who had no personal beef with the North. I can understand the Koreans, I probably wouldn't like a country that invaded me either...

It's made me really interested in the history of this country too. They've really been through a lot...and though the propaganda we saw that was pro-south made it seem like a reconcilation is in the works, I don't know how true that is. And if they did, they would lose their biggest money-making tour!

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures from the tour, check out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44561&l=70222&id=890700076

Friends from Canada visit Seoul

2007-08-13T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well another weekend has passed. My fellow teachers went to Jeju Island (described as the Hawaii of Korea) but I did not have the funds to go, so was left to my own devices for the weekend. Not a big deal, as two of my friends from Canada were in Seoul Saturday night on a layover on their way home from Hong Kong.

So Friday was really low-key. I shopped around for a while, and then took myself out for sushi. I finally joined the gym, something I've been talking about for months. And then went for a walk with one of the teachers who was also not on Jeju.

Saturday I went to Seoul in the afternoon to do some more shopping in Dongdaemun market. Went to this really creepy flea market inside an old baseball stadium. It was hot and smelly and just generally weird. Stalls and stalls of useless crap amidst the odd laptop, stereo, musical instrument (tuba, saxophone, violin, guitar, you name it). Not to mention a jade carving of a foot-long penis. Very lifelike...except the green colour and the footlong-ness. Unfortunately my pics don't seem to be liking their existence on this computer and I don't have my camera with me today so I can't post the pics from the flea market. But once I bring in my camera I will put some up.

So after a long hot (a thermometer in the flea market read 39degrees...not counting the humidity) day of shopping and not really buying anything I went to the hotel Amanda and Calvin would be staying in to wait for them. They didn't show up until nearly 11 and I was just about to give up on them and take the last subway home. I'm so glad I didn't though! It was so great to see people from home, even if only for a few hours.

After they were settled in their hotel room we went out for food and I introduced them to galbi. They enjoyed it, I think. Then to the convenience store for drink and snack. And introduced them to soju. Which was less well received, but that's really to be expected. We stayed up playing a card game called horse. Something we play all the time at home, so it was really cool...felt just like old times. And though I didn't win (came in second from last) I did beat Calvin, who is usually a pro at all card games. Perhaps it was the influence of the soju. After that we piled three in the bed and stayed up til 4am giggling and gossiping. It was just like a high school sleepover. Except there was a boy present.

Sunday the visiting Canadians took off to the airport to go home and I took off on the subway to find a bookstore I've been wanting to go to for some time. I found it, but it was closed. But I discovered that across the street was a palace. So, even though I was totally exhausted and not really in the mood for things historical, I went to check it out. It was really beautiful. I didn't find myself enjoying it as much as I usually would have, but managed to get tons of amazing pictures. These are just a few. (yeah I have a thing for ceilings...what's it too you?)

If you want to check out the rest of them here are the links. I recommend that you do. I can't really describe it right now...my brain seems to be on stand-by this morning.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=964896&l=29503&id=890700076

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=42438&l=42431&id=890700076

Anyway, after the palace I went home and got a CVS supper (convenience store) and fell instantly asleep. I think I was actually still chewing...

Weekend of good eats

2007-08-06T18:26:00.000-07:00

So last week we had a group of Science geniuses at our school. And not only were they super smart, but they were also older than our typical kids. Up to 15 years old. So it was a bit of a challenge, making our lessons geared toward 11-year olds interesting for them. And also fitting them in the classrooms. It's amazing how one year of growth makes such a huge difference! Teaching these huge tall men with low voices and moustaches.

Luckily my team was still young, but also very smart. I wrote a new drama with them that was called "The New Romeo and Juliet." The story is basically Romeo falls in love with Cinderella instead of Juliet but then Cinderella has to run away at midnight and leaves her shoe behind and Romeo smells it and dies because it is so stinky. Then Juliet and Prince Charming also die due to the smelly shoe, and some terrorists come and take it to use as a biological weapon. (I'm not sure what the Korean youth's obsession with terrorists is all about...It's okay to make jokes about it here...)

Here's a picture with me and my team. I will never forget them, it was truly the best week I've had at the English Village.

Nothing too exciting happened this weekend. Last weekend before payday tends to be low-key. But we did of course manage to find some trouble.

Friday night we went for Thai food in a city whose name I can't remember that is half an hour away on the subway. It's near where the American Army base is, so there are a lot of foreign foods and lots of foreign people around. Army folk and their families. So we went to a Thai restaurant that Mel and Shawn had been to before. The food was absolutely amazing. It's a rare thing in Korea to have food that makes you exlaim in joy. But every bite of this was like a taste of heaven. The last time we had Thai food here it left much to be desired, but this was perfection. It was even better than in my favourite little Thai place at home. It made me so excited to go to Thailand next month!

After the restaurant we went to and English pub for a few drinks. I had some Guiness, a rare thing to find here, and earned a free pair of flip-flops for drinking two pints! I don't really know if it was worth it...the beers were like $9 each and not very good. I think its true what they say, Guiness loses it's taste the minute it leaves Ireland. But I've had some in Canada that tasted way better than that stuff...

After the pub we got the subway home and went to our favourite alien norae-bang. (If you've been keeping up with my face-book photos you'll have seen it many many times.) It's Mel and Shawn's last month, and every weekend between now and their departure is taken up with activities, so it was probably their last visit there. It was a very emotional moment, our last song. I don't know if I can go back there without Shawn to sing Celine Dion with, and Mel to help me out with "November Rain."

Saturday we all slept in as late as we possibly could, then Shaun, Hannah and I made a proper English fry-up. Translation: huge greasy breakfast. It was so good. We went to Home plus and bought all the ingredients and then went to my apartment to cook everything. We had two hotplates, an electric frying pan, and the toaster all cooking at the same time. Not to mention music playing and the washing maching running. It's a wonder we didn't fry the electric!

Anyway, here's a picture of Hannah and Shaun enjoying the fruits of our labour.

And the breakfast.

And the aftermath.

But that breakfast really hit the spot, let me tell you. It felt like Christmas. We were all totally stuffed and just laid around all afternoon groaning and laughing.

Saturday night we finally met up with our Korean friends from two months ago. I've been texting them for weeks trying to find a mutually agreeable night to go out, but we've all been too busy. Finally we were able to connect and went for drinks. They taught us a Korean drinking game and we taught them the name game that we use at school to learn kids names. Who would have thought you could turn teaching tools into drinking games!

I do love those guys those. We met two other friends this time, and all of them are just wonderful. So kind and funny and sweet. I've never met anyone so genuinely lovable. I really hope it doesn't take another 2 months before we see them again.

Sunday we went to what we were told was a rich part of Seoul. They have a Rodeo Drive and supposedly lots of posh shops and what not. But we didn't see much that you can't find anywhere else. And it looked just as grimey as most parts of Seoul. But it was interesting anyway, and we found this great Mexican restaurant. They only used fresh natural ingredients and boasted home-cooked food. And delivered. It was so amazing. And so much of it! We were all stuffed.

Isn't it funny how the weekend of good eats did not involve anything Korean in the slightest. Don't get me wrong, lots of Korean food is really delicious. But you know how it is. What you're used to is what you find most delicious. And we have been pretty good with getting out and trying Korean stuff too. Just so happened that this weekend we did not.

Oh, and I also tried out my mud mad from the Mud Festival. Here's a pic of me just before removing it.

Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival

2007-07-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to Incheon to the Pentaport Rock Festival. It was a three-day festival with mostly Korean and Japanese bands, but a few British Bands performed. It was more about the atmosphere than the music anyway...

We left around noon on Saturday and took the bus into Seoul, then another bus into Incheon. (Stopped for Quizno's in Seoul. How long has it been since I had a proper sandwich! It was heavenly.) We finally got to the festival around 4:30 and were fitted with three orange wristbands, each allowing us a different privelige. Found a spot in the grass (very long grass...trust us to find the only spot that hadn't been mowed) and set up our tent.

It looks huge, I know. But the actual tent part is only a third of what you see. The rest is a waterproof tarp that you strap up to keep the rain off...and it provides you with a nice rest area outside the tent. Or if you're Shaun, a place to sleep where you can stretch out your long legs.

The first night there was only one band that we knew, Ocean Colour Scene. Incedentally I had seen them when I lived in Scotland, just randomly was offered a ticket and, being the music lover I am, did not decline it. So I feel like I should download some of their music and get to know them better. Two random meetings in foreign countries? Sounds like a sign to me. Anyway, here's a picture of their performance with a random British flag from the audience.

The headliner that night was a band called L'arc en Ciel from Japan. We didn't really watch them for very long, but they did have a dancing polar bear projected onto the large screens on stage. Not sure what that was about.

Since the bands that night were generally X we chose to hang out at the beach party section instead.

This bar sold soju jello!

And here's us groovin' under a palm tree.

Here's Hanna in a dance-off with a random guy. He was "very bouncy."

After the beach party we went to the Groove Station tent where they had a dj. I don't usually like that type of music, but I was really getting into it. We squeezed our way right into the middle of the crowd and at one point they played a re-mix of a Nirvana song and everyone started moshing. I felt like I was in grade 9 again.

It was about 2 when we went back to the tent, and after some antics involving ditches and raw bacon sandiwiches we all crashed. Next day was really hot and humid and we mostly layed around the tent area listening to the mainstage. It was unbearable to watch it close up. Mostly death metal. Not our cup of tea.

Sunday evening we saw Ash, a band from Northern Ireland, and Muse, who Shaun really likes. They put on an amazing show. Lots of special effects and though I wouldn't normally have loved their music, the atmosphere was contagious. I thought some of the Korean girls were going to faint they were screaming so much. Here's a picture of Shaun enjoying his favourite song.

By the time Muse was finished the busses home had stopped running so we had to get a taxi back to Suwon. Thank god it didn't take us 4 hours to get home like it did to get there in the first place.

It was a great weekend though. The food was really good and the drink was cheap, the company without flaw. My capacity for joy is still every-widening.

I'll leave you with somemore t-shirt wisdom. This time from a girl at the village last week.

"Give juicy a chance."

Mud Festival

2007-07-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

July 21st and 22nd were spent at the Boryeoung Mud Festival. Great time was had by all. We left early in the morning and took the train to Daechon Beach, the best beach on Korea's west coast. And compared the only other west coast beach I've seen here, it was paradise. In fact, compared to many other beaches I've been on at all it was amazing. Miles and miles of gorgeous white sand.

So the point of the Mud Festival is, of course, the mud. It is rich in minerals and whatnot that are really good for your skin, so they harvest it and make cosmetics and shampoo and stuff out of it, and once a year have a festival celebrating it. We were expecting miles of mud to roll in, but were disappointed to find out that it was trucked in to the beach. Well actually, it was manufactured. They dry and grind the mud into dust and then add water to make...clean mud. It's the same dust they use to make the cosmetics. Anyway, despite the fact that we couldn't roll in the mud like we wanted to, we still had a great time.

After getting off the train and squeezing onto a bus with other mud-goers (and lots of foreigners. We felt really weird and exposed knowing people around us could understand what we were saying. Not something we're used to.) we managed to find our hotel. The Motel Coconuts. Don't you love the neon palm tree?

Here's a picture of me posing in the room. What style! And I am of course refering to the wallpaper.

After checking in and getting changed we headed for the beach. Our first stop was the "Mud Self Massage." Which really means...painting yourself with mud.

Here's Shaun in the process.

And Hannah.

And my finished product.

The first day we spent just wandering around and checking out the various mud-related activities. They had a mud bath, a huge pool of muddy water that you would go in and splash eachother and do belly-flops and stuff. It wasn't very pleasant as I kept getting gritty mud in my mouth and eyes. And when we went in it was full of macho American army guys who kept trying to wrestle the Koreans. Didn't make it very fun for anyone else. There was also mud wrestiling, which Hannah and I meant to do, but kinda ran out of time. There was a huge inflatable slide that we went down on the second day. There was a guy with an inner tube at the bottom to catch people as they came down and I just ran right over him and flew off into the sand. A large group of Koreans was gathered at the bottom and they all gasped in horror. I stood up and said "I'm OK!" but no one laughed. It was pretty smooth anyway.

Once we were tired of the mud we sat on the sand and played around and had some beers. We sculpted a mud ddong (have I explained ddong yet? Its a curly pile of poo that Koreans seem to be fond of drawing, making musicals about, putting on t-shirts...)

And we also buried Shaun in a hole in the sand. That's me standing on him.

That night we went for seafood. What else would you eat while on a sea-side adventure? We ended up getting a meal that consisted mostly of raw fish and seafood. It was really delicious. There were some bits that we didn't eat...we weren't really sure what they were, and they didn't have any taste really. Hannah described it as "eating a rubber band without the rubber taste." So we left those on the plate. And the grilled fish you see here, the only cooked sea-thing, was really yummy until I bit into this one piece that must have been intestine or something because it was the most rank thing I have ever put in my mouth. I thought I was going to die it tasted so bad. I spat it out on the floor (it was an outdoor restaraunt) and wouldn't touch the fish after that. But everything else was really amazing. Even eating is an adventure in Korea!

After supper we got some wine and sat on the beach to watch the sunset.

It was a really amazing sunset. Something about watching the sun sink beyond the waves... I think I have about 30 pictures of it.

We stayed out pretty late that night, just wandering the beaches, enjoying the fireworks and the atmosphere.

Fireworks were actually X, but there were so many people setting them off it was impossible to stop them. They had these teenaged boys patrolling the beach with lighted batons...I think you can actually see one of them in this photo...telling people to stop, but there were too many fireworks and not enough batons. We set some off and a baton came over and said "Fire No!" But we just waited until he was gone and then set off the rest of them.

We met some random Koreans as well and sat with them for a long time. The one in the middle kept telling me I am "Glamour." and making the curvy motion with his hands. I'm guessing it was meant to be a compliment. He took my phone number and said he was going to call me and drive the 4 hours to Suwon to visit me. So far no call... and I can't say I'm disappointed.

The second day was spent much like the first. We tryed to go to the tidal mud flats that were the source of all the mud, but couldn't get a straight answer from any of the help desks as to how that would be possible. And the raw fish from the night before caught up with us and we made immodium our new best friend... But there was much swimming and painting and rubbing ourself with sand. The exfoliating sand mixed with the nourishing mud made us all baby-soft by the end of the weekend! But also very sunburned, as it's hard to keep sunscreen on between the mudding and sanding. Hannah and I got mud facials and massages and I bought some of the mudpack. I can't wait to use it, my face felt so amazing afterward!

After the day on the beach we changed and went for beef galbi (barbeque). It was the best thing I have ever tasted. Maybe because it's been so long since I had good beef. But it was just incredible. And we left right after supper, leaving Dacheon on a great note. Train ride home was uneventful as trains go. Except for the sunburns that started to come out...I managed to escape anything too bad except for on my back where I couldn't reach myself. But Shaun and Hannah were both like giant lobsters.

I don't have any picture yet of the second day because we bought a disposable camera so we wouldn't have to worry about wrecking out digitals. But once we get those developed, I'll post some if they are any good. If you want to see the rest of the pics from the first day, go to my facebook album at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37237&l=aff4d&id=890700076

Rock festival this weekend! I can't imagine what stories will come from that!

From the Mouths of Babes

2007-07-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

Each week we make our teams write journals to find out what they thought of the school, what they liked, who were their favourite teachers, etc. And also to fill up a homeroom class. Sometimes if they finish before the class is over I get them to draw pictures of their favourite teachers.

I've had some pretty interesting comments about and pictures of me since I started, and thought I would share some of them with you. And a few of the funnier comments about me and about the school.

"My favourite teacher is Shanda because Shanda is cute and funny I love Shanda teacher. and another teacher some love."

"I was feeling so fun when I come to Suwon English Village. and now, I feeling interesting."

"Some pepol says 'would you like to come back to SWEV?' my ancer is....mmm...sure!"

"My favourite teacher is Shanda. She has many patient we provoke she~bet she not admonish."

"My favourite teacher is Shanda teacher because Shanda teacher is kind and funny and not angry. I like every class because English village classes is all cool. I like cool."

"I'm favourite teachers Shanda because we teach study excellence! and laugh beautiful ha ha ha!!"

"My favourite teacher is Shanda because she old time with us also very kind and pretty and so so funny."

This is one of my favourites. Exorcist Shanda.

Questions I Find Myself Asking

2007-07-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

Since beginning my life here in Korea, I've noticed that there things, mysteries if you will, that keep popping up but are never really solved. Or...themes...that keep recurring. So, in order to give you a glimpse into my day to day life, I present a list of questions I find myself asking on a regular basis:

1. Why would you want a heated toilet seat when it is 35 degrees outside?

2. What did I just say!? (to students who are continuing to do things I have told them not to do.)

3. What is that smell?

4. What exactly am I eating?

5. What's for lunch? (followed a disappointed groan when I read the day's menu for the caffeteria. Does the phrase very many oil suffice to describe it? Almost.)

6. What is that smell?

7. Whose file is this? (to a group of students who are rushing to get out of the classroom to make it to the snack machine first but who will inevitably come knocking on the staff room door demanding to have their file returned to them.)

8. Who does have the right of way? Aren't cars supposed to give way for pedestrians? (which is evidently not the case. I have to get rid of this belief if I'm to survive the year here.)

9. What can I buy at homeplus today? (like a little chunk of normalcy, Homeplus is the department store down the street where you can buy pretty much anything you need with minimum amounts of stress. Sometimes we go there just for fun. And I find myself thinking of when my Grandpa used to say "If you can't get it at the Bankend Co-op, you don't need it. " Same goes for Homeplus.)

10. Seriously, WHAT IS THAT SMELL!!!!!????

11. Why did I drink so much soju? WHY!?

12. WHAT are you staring at!? (usually while walking down the street or doing something completely normal)

13. Could this be any more random?

and finally,

14. Come on now, will someone PLEASE tell me what smell is?

While I have just realized this paints maybe a very pessimistic picture of life here, please don't take it that way. With a few grains of my unfailling sense of humour, all these things just become part of the charm of life in Korea.

Peace out.

Another weekend...but this one had chocolate in it

2007-07-15T18:07:00.001-07:00

Hello all. Another weekend has passed. Not too much to report from it, however, as I was working all day Saturday and spent Sunday in bed with a cold/sore throat/exhaustion. Went out for Chinese food and soju on Friday night, which did not help me to survive my six day work week. Or help me fend off my cold, I'm sure.

Watched the lasest episode of Canadian Idol and almost cried when we found out that the three best people on the show did not make in to the top 10. We might not even keep watching it, as there is no one interesting left to look for.

Our three weeks of no chocolate is over. We had icecream at 11pm last night and I'm sad to say that it was not as good as I had hoped it would be. It might just be because of my cold I have no appetite at all and everything I ate yesterday was an effort. But I guess it would be a good thing if I didn't like chocolate anymore. Though, as I said before, a life without chocolate sounds like the saddest life imaginable. We'll have to see how I feel about it once I'm feeling better. Though I am losing weight, so maybe I shoud roll with it.

This weekend we are going to the Mud Festival. I'm really looking forward to it. I can't think of anything more fun that rolling around in mud for two days. There is also a foreigners singing contest that I might just take part in... I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories and pictures for you next Monday!

In the meantime I'm going to try to catch up on my sleep and get myself feeling better so I can enjoy it. Try to get my tonsils back to their normal size. I hope I won't have to do much yelling this week. What are the odds of that though?

Correction

2007-07-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

So after doing some research on Boney M last night, we have discovered that the Boney M we saw is not in fact the original Boney M. The lead singer was the only one who was in the original group, the rest have been touring with her only since the 90's. So the muscley man I was raving about is not actually 60. Which makes his antics less impressive, but still pretty cool.

I didn't want to leave you with false impressions.

Shanda

2007-07-10T21:04:00.000-07:00

Boney M!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I said Boney M. Could it be any more random?

It all started just before I arrived. One of my fellow teachers, Hannah, was suddenly accosted in the hallway of our apartment building by an over-friendly Korean lady. The lady took Hannah to her apartment and fed her yogurt and sang for her. She also gave her a photo of herself and a plant, which I inherited when I arrived (and have since killed, sadly.)

Since that night, the lady, who we have affectionately dubbed "the Crazy Lady" has been a regular in our lives. We will often sit in front of the convenience store on the ground floor of our building having a drink or playing cards. And it's pretty much a guarantee that she'll come along at some point in the evening. She's a wedding singer at a nearby hotel and is always either on her way to or from a gig. She'll always sit with us and take sips of our beer, help herself to our snacks, and usually give us presents.

Here she is with our beloved friend, the horse head. Every time she sees him she uses her favourite expression, "wow!"

Here she is with some flowers, which she seems to have an endless supply of, for she is constantly carrying some, not always in the freshest of states. Various stages of wilting and dying is more the norm.

Anyway, what does this have to do with Boney M, you ask? Well here is a picture of her latest present to us.

Yes, that is a ticket to see Boney M in concert. Now you may be saying "I didn't know Shanda was a fan of Boney M...." And I can't deny that before now I really wouldn't have called myself one. But I challenge you to find someone who would say they are against Boney M. And I'm sure everyone likes at least one of their songs. You have to enjoy their Christmas album if nothing else. They are just one of those bands that are just kinda...in the collective unconscious if you will. And I never would have thought "gee, life would be a lot better if I could just see Boney M in concert." But after last night, let me assure you, it is.

It was such a great show. They've been together for like 30 years, but you'd never guess that they were old enough to have been doing anything for 30 years. The man of the group was so buff and didn't stop dancing the entire night. He must be at least 50, but was bustin' a move like a teenager. Though his moves were slightly outdated, and not necesarilly suited to the song, it was impossible to take your eyes off of him. He was like....a disco MC Hammer or something. Here is doing one of his many acrobatic flips. Very impressive!

At onepoint he stood at the front of the stage flexing his pecs in time to the music while the singers stood around him in a Barker's Beauties manner, showcasing this little show. Hilarious.

He would run into the audience once in a while too and there would be women trying to grab him and screaming their heads off. (I have to admit here that I did my fair share of screaming...and I challenge anyone to imagine themselves in the same situation being able to contain themselves.)

They kept pulling people up from the audience to dance with them on stage. Here's a chubby middle-aged white guy with no rythym to none-the-less bravely danced on.

And some little Korean girls who seemed totally unfazed by being led in a dance routine by a half-naked gyrating man.

I could go on and on about how much fun this show was. Crazy I know. And so random. Boney M in Korea...but the crown knew all the songs and were totally going crazy.

Speaking of going crazy...here's a picture of me when they sang Rasputin. That's always been one of my "feel good" songs. You know, a song you play to pump yourself up or cheer you up when you're blue. So seing it live was quite the exciting moment.

I think one of us has some video of that song. If I can get my hands on it I'll post it for all to see.

All in all this was one of the best nights I've had in ages. Since the Juno's in fact. Though nothing will ever compare to the excitement and joy of that occasion, Boney M is right up there. I don't know if it's just that I have less stimulation here, so everything seems more exciting, or if I'm just getting to be a happier person. But I can safely say that I feel my capacity for pure joy is ever-widening since I landed here. And my tendency to give in to depression is shrinking. I hope it's something that lasts after I leave here...

And on that happy note! Thank you Crazy Lady! I will never grudge you a sip of beer or handful of chips ever again!

2007-07-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

Another weekend has passed with it's fair share of fun. Have you noticed that I only ever sit down to write a blog post on Mondays? Usually because all of the fun happens on the weekend. I'm going to try to put together a "Day in the Life" soon, but in the meantime, here's what I did this weekend.

Friday we went into Seoul to eat Mexican food. An hour by bus for Mexican. I was missing the Taco Time on Idlewild, a short walk away at home... But anyway, it was very good, well worth the drive. But sadly my stomach was protesting all the spice it's been fed lately and I was not feeling well that day, so didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. A fruit smoothy from Smootie King soon made me feel better, however. After supper we went to a very posh bar to drink 10 dollar cocktails. Needless to say we only stayed for one, then it was back on the bus. After a long and tiring week we didn't even have the gumtion to find a noraebang. My first weekend in Korea that involved no karaoke.

Saturday I had to work. I volunteered to do level testing for the summer camp that our school is putting on this month, so while all my friends went shopping in Seoul, I spent 5 hours quizzing 12 year olds as to what their favourite food is and what they think is the biggest problem in Korea. It was alright though, much easier than a day at real work. And I get to trade it for a day off in the future, which might come in handy.

That evening we gathered to watch the last 3 episodes of Canadian Idol. I was very much enjoying my new discovery, Boones Sangria, and a good time was had by all. After the shows were over the two Brits, Hannah and Shaun, and I decided it would be a good idea to go for a swim in the fountain in the park across the street. 1am.

But it was a gorgeous night and the water was super warm. We were also trying out Shaun's new electric bug zapping tennis raquet. I know I know. Electronics in the water. What will you all think of my lack of common sense... It's the coolest invention though. An electrified metal screen where the strings should be, complete with a light for attracting the bugs. All you do is wave it around and it zaps them. We didn't get a single bite!

Here is the Lotte World Castle.

Sunday we went to Lotte World. It's an amusement park in Seoul, partly indoors. It had been closed all winter for repairs after several people died on the rides. But the spent many billion won fixing it up, and re-opened it a few weeks ago under the name of Lotte World 2. And it sure did look new and spiffy, let me tell you. I rode my first rollercoaster [pictured above](something I can now check of my list of things to do before I die) and many other terrifying rides. This was my first time at an amusement park and the whole "scary is fun" thing has never really been my way of thinking, but I have to admit it was actually tons of fun. Apart from this one ride called the Gyro Swing[pictured above]. It was just a huge pendulum with seats and it swung you and rotated and it was the scariest thing I have ever done in my life. You're horizontal to the groud (or the water, depending which way you're facing at the time) peering down as it swings back down and I honestly thought I was going to die. It lasts almost 2 minutes too, and by then end I just closed my eyes and held on for dear life. (We were securly strapped in, but it feels safer to hang on as well) Some of the others wanted to try it again but I didn't think my heart could take it. So we went to the haunted house instead. Much less scary.

I came across this Mountie walking around. Not sure if he was an employee of the park or just a wacky guy, but he was very shy about taking a picture with me. Mounties in Korea. Who woulda thunk.

And I've decided that after my teaching contract is up, I'm going to get a job doing this. Playing trombone in the Lotte World band.

Canada Day Weekend

2007-07-01T19:26:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! Well another week has passed and more adventures have been survived.

Last week was pretty uneventful. We had one student in a wheelchair which provided some interesting challenges, especially in classes like dance and golf. Luckily he was really content to sit and watch. But it makes us wonder what they will spring on us next.

Friday night was really low key this weekend, just went for pizza and then played board games until the wee hours.

Saturday afternoon went shopping with Hannad and Shaun. Found a really amazing outdoor market that I will be spending a lot more time in if I have my way. Miles and miles of shops all crowded in. Too bad it's getting to the pre-payday pinch so I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Also found--I think I'm in heaven-- a store that only sells Converse merchandise. I have dreamed of such a place all my life. I can forsee an entire suitcase of variously coloured and decorated high-tops by then end of my year here.

Saturday night we went to our favourite all you can eat all you can drink buffet. And since it was the eve of Canada Day we did many soju shots in honour of our fair country. Not to mention singing the national anthem in both English and French. It was a good time. We went to a noraebang afterward, of course. It was super fun with so many people. Lots of off-key singing as per usual.

Canada Day we spent most of it recovering from the night before, but managed to get together in the evening to watch the latest two episodes of Canadian Idol, drink some Tim Horton's coffee and play cards. What could be more Canadian. We also managed to get our hands on some red and white face paint and tied down our English friends and painted them in the spirit of the day.

It wasn't a very exciting week and weekend compared to some we've had, but fun nonetheless. And last night we had a real taste of the rainy season. Was sitting in my room reading when a thunder storm blew in. Amazing lighting flashing across the sky. Then all of a sudden sheets of rain came smashing down. So naturally England Shaun and I ran up to the roof to enjoy it. (I know, not the smartest of things, going on a roof in a thunder storm, but we made sure the lighting was far away first.) It was so much fun though. Splashing and dancing in the rain. We were soaked in minutes. Luckily it was the middle of the night so no one could see us.

Not too much else to report. Working Saturdays for the next two weeks, but I think we're going to an amusement park on Sunday and then in two weeks is the mud festival and after that the rock festival. Really looking forward to both of those.

Rain drops keep fallin on my head, but that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning red. :)

2007-06-25T19:30:00.001-07:00

Ok so I finally set up a youtube account and uploaded my videos, so now I'll post them so you can all enjoy.

This is a video of my performing in my team's drama my very first week of teaching. One of the girls got in a fight the class before and was crying and wouldn't go on stage, so I grabbed a script and filled in. The kids almost died laughing, not to mention the teachers.

Here is a video of we the teachers in a noraebang one night. For the sake of privacy, I will not tell you who is singing. But this is just an example of how awesomes things can get in a tiny room with a mic and four tv's and many beers.

Here is my sweet bunny Heathcliff. This video was taken the day I brought him home. Sadly, he only lived about 5 days after that. I'm so glad I have this video to remember him by!

This is at Wonchon Amusement park, a run down ghost town of rides and restaraunts. Shaun and I went on this ride. It spins around and bounces and they guy running the ride was very enthralled with us. Kept talking to us and asking questions and we got bounced a lot more than the Koreans who were on it with us. At one point he told me I was sexy. We're pretty sure he was making fun of us in Korean too, once he was sure we couldn't understand.

Here are the Korean fellows we made friends with that Friday night. We were all showing off our mapagi dancing skills in the bar. (If you don't know mapagi, and I don't know why you would, be patient. That's the topic of another blog altogether...)

And finally, the Korean children singing. This is a music festival of some sort that I came across while walking around the city one Saturday afternoon. I have no idea what they're singing, but you have to admit it's pretty cute.

That should bring us up to speed as far as the videos go. I also know how to post mulitple pictures now! Things are getting more and more exciting!

Oh, and I am now a brunette. Dying your hair in Korea is very many adventure.

Another weekend of fun.

2007-06-24T21:33:00.001-07:00

Another weekend has passed with more adventures to report.

Friday we went out to the pub of course. Not much else to do on a Friday night. But we stopped for galbi (Korean Barbeque) first, and all had the linings of our stomachs eaten away by the spicyness of it, but couldn't stop eating because it was so fantastic. Nothing like beer to cure an ulcer!

It was a pretty typical night, finishing in a karaoke room but this time complete with dance routines and rapping. We are reaching a new low. (or high, we can't be sure.)

After the karaoke we were standing around on the street trying to decide what to do next as the night was still very young, when Shaun discovered that there were dozens of stalls on the sidewalk that were selling steamed mussels. So naturally, being the seafood lovers that we are, we sat down and had a bowl. And let me tell you, it was the most amazing food experience of my life. I have never tasted anything so delicious as those mussels. They were so fresh and tender, two things one normally wouldn't have the chance to say about mussels. And the night was so beautiful, the company amazing. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect moment. It was one of those times when you seriously wouldn't change a minute detail. A moment of perfect supreme happiness.

Saturday we climbed a mountain here in Suwon. We're such fools sometimes. We call pictures a nice leisurly hike through the forest. Forgeting that we were climbing A MOUNTAIN. None of brought enough water and I was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. Not the best attire for hiking. And it was such a humid and hot day, we were all dripping with sweat within minutes. And, true to form, we couldn't just have an uneventful moutain climg. We had to have some misadventure along the way.

We planned out route and set out around 3 oclock. (Give us a break , we didn't go to bed until like 4 the night before.) Shaun had to be home at 6 to head to Seoul, and we figured three hours was a good time. So, after consulting our map, we planned a route that we thought would take around that time. I think that the times posted on the map are meant for seasoned climbers, though, cuz it sure took us a heck of a lot longer than that. And then when we finally got to the path that we had planned to take OFF the mountain, it was closed for some reason. (There was some speculation about land mines, but I think that was just an association someone had with the barbed wire strewn across the path.) So we had to keep going up. And up. And up. I have no idea how high that mountain is, but it felt like climbing Everest. (Which I now have no ideas of ever being able to accomplish. We prairie girls weren't meant for hills.)

Finally we found a path down and set off. And just then it started to rain. Not a nice drizzle either. Monsoon season in Korea rain. So we slip-slided down the mountain, soaked to the bone, and finally came out of the trees in a rural area populated with goats and tomatoes. Oh, and some people. We stumbled across an outdoor restaraunt under a tarp and bought ciders (aka 7-up) and the lady called us a taxi and gave us coffee. We must have looked pretty pathetic. But that lady was an angel from heaven, let me tell you. We couldn't have gone on in the rain any farther.

Anyway, after getting back to civilization we all got into dry clothes and then went to an all you can eat buffet. We sat there for two hours stuffing ourselves. I think we earned it though.

Sunday I went to the National Museum of Modern Art. It was really good, I really enjoyed it. There was one artist in particular whose name I can't recall right now that I really enjoyed. He was named artist of the year in Korea this year, so there was a big exibit of his work. Amazing stuff. I wanted to buy all of it.

And now it's back to work. Should be a good week, the kids seem nice so far. Although one of them kept calling me a monster this morning. Something to do with my shrek-like pigtails I think...

Just stuff

2007-06-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

Well what can I tell you?

The monsoon season has started. When I woke up this morning the world was very wet, though I didn't need an umbrella on my walk to work, which makes me hopefull that it won't be all that bad. But if reports are correct, it will be another month or so before we get a day of sunshine. Which might be alright since there are a lot of museums I want to check out, and who could live with themselves if they spent a gorgeous sunny day inside a museum?

I finally tried out my new rollerblades. I'm sad to say they are unusable. The wheels are off-center on the foot...closer to the inside. Which makes it impossible to get your balance and therefore impossible to get up any speed. And it's really painful on the ankles. Very wierd. I'm going to try to return them. Hopefully they won't ask any questions and just give me my money back. But you can imagine my disappointment. And my humiliation having to walk home from the park in my sock feet because I simply could not make them work!!!!

The string of sad animal stories continues as well. My best bud Shaun has a parakeet at home that died this week, and yesterday on our walk to school we saw a days-old kitten abandoned on the street corner. He was so tiny and so young that his eyes weren't even open yet. I could feel my heart breaking as I had to walk away from him. Poor little guy. He wasn't there when we went home for lunch, so we're choosing to believe that his mom came and rescued him. Much better that than many of the other fates that could have befallen him.

This afternoon at school we get the afternoon off to go and watch a speech competition at City Hall. Some of the teachers here are judging it, so the rest of us and all the students are going to watch. I hope I don't fall asleep.

Weekend Adventures

2007-06-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

So this weekend was a really good one. Went out Friday night with some of my fellow teachers and randomly met this nice Korean fellow who recognized my tattoo from the station. I guess he saw me there at some point and remembered me. I felt quite flattered. Anyway, we invited him and his friends to join us and we ended up partying with them until the wee hours of the morning. It was extremely fun. I felt like I had a little glimpse of real Korean culture, not just dancing on the outskirts. I'm hoping I will see them again soon, they were really nice and a lot of fun.

On Sunday we went to the beach. That was an adventure, as I'm quickly discovering most things are in Korea. Nothing is quite what you'd expect it to be. From chips to beaches.

The day began with a stop at the tourist information centre at the subway station in Suwon to ask for directions to the beach. They told us there is a beach, but you can't swim there because it's too muddy. We asked "Are there any other beaches where we can swim?" "No." So we got some half-assed directions and found the right bus and hopped on. The lady had told us this would be a direct bus to the beach. So we happily rode along the country rodes admiring the rice paddies and hills. And then all of a sudden the bus stops and everyone gets out. Apparently the last stop is not at the beach at all, but in the middle of the town... So we somehow made ourselves understood (I think it involved making a swimming motion with our arms. Very sophisticated) and got pointed to another bus. It was this tiny bus that looked like it would fall apart at any minute and the driver was like an aging hippy version of David Suzuki. Oh wait...David Suzuki is an aging hippy... Anyway, we finally got to the beach, or what we assumed was the beach. We saw sand. And people sitting on it. But not really any water. Just...mud. Miles of it, it seemed. The lady at tourist booth was right about that anyway.

But, not to be disheartened, we found some rocks close to the water to sit on for a few hours and took some pictures and just chatted. And then noticed that the tide was quickly coming in. And what had been miles of mud was kinda turning into a proper beach. So we got a swim in after all, though the water was very murky from the mud and very salty. Though that might just be the prairie girl in me talking, being used to swimming in lakes I'm sure all salt water would taste especially salty. It's been a long time since I swam in the sea.

After our swim we were laying on the beach for a while, and then decided to go for supper. We stopped at the bathrooms on our way and noticed that the road we had come over on (did I mention this beach was on an island?) was now under the water. The tide that had covered the mud has also covered the road. And we didn't know how long it would take to go back out, or if it would at all that day. So we resigned ourselves to our fate and thought it would be a good story to tell if we ended up having to sleep on the beach. And it might get us a day off work on Monday too! So we went for supper. Seafood of course. The usual grill in the middle of the table but this time they brought us a basket of assorted shells and some prawns. It was amazing! Cooking fresh seafood over an open fire. Oysters, mussles, scallops, snails. I've never had anything so delicious. I ate one of the oysters raw, and it was so amazing. Seafood fresh from the ocean really can't be beat.

After supper we decided to go see if the road had re-appeared yet, and luckily for us, it had. So we caught the same bus with David Suzuki as our driver and made our way home, tired and salty and happy. Though I was really looking forward to sleeping on the beach.

The picture is of the Korean friends we made on Friday. Adorable aren't they?

At last

2007-06-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

Well hello everyone. I have finally taken the big step of creating a blog. Now comes the even bigger step of actually keeping it up to date...

I don't have much time to write right now, but I'll try to do a quick up-to-speeding.

Let's see....what's been happening. Where should I start?

School is going pretty well. I really like it here, the work is easy yet somewhat fulfilling. And I really do love kids, so it's nice to be around them all the time. Even if sometimes they are little shits. But it's nice, they treat you alsmot like a celebrity. Accosting you in the halls and giving you presents. And they are so cute, it's almost unbearable sometimes.

This past week was a little trying because the teams were particularly low (as in their English skills are very very weak) but it kept us on our toes for sure. My team were a bunch of sweethearts though, so that makes it easier considering I spend about 40% of my time with them.

Last weekend we went to a water park in Everland, which is a huge amusement park (I guess it's a blatant rip-off of Disney Land. Though I wouldn't know cuz I only went in the water park part of it) near Seoul. We had a blast. Though the rules were very odd. Everyone had to have a bathing cap on at all times and life jackets were manditory in the wave pool. Which might be understandble because I doubt that many Koreans can swim very well. But when they see you doing the breat stroke and then whistle at you to get out of the water...wouldn't it click that maybe you know what you're doing.... Anyway, it was midly annoying but didn't really put a damper on our fun. We all got sunburned and were exhausted by the end of the day. It was pretty sweet. And we got some cool bathing caps for a souvenir.

I finally bought some rollerblades a few days ago. Haven't been out on them yet because its been really hot, and well, I do have a social life sometimes. I'm afraid I'm only going to be able to use them in very specific places which kinda sucks. Not like at home where I just blade down the middle of the street and no one seems to care. Here I would die if I tried to do that. But I discovered a Youth Centre near school where they have a rink specifically for rollerblading. It's really small, but the area around it smooth too, and I've seen people skateboarding there so I'm thinking blading would be allowed. I can't wait to get on them this weekend. It will be very freeing.

And I'm officially obsessed with Home Plus. It's a department store that's less than a block from our apartment and I have been there every day this week. But they have everything a person could possibly need. That's actually where I got my ill-fated bunny that some of you may have been aquainted with. And my rollerblades. And my guitar. And pretty much everything I've bought since I got here.

And I thought I'd sign off with some wisdom from a t-shirt I saw and almost tried to buy off the woman's back. I probably would have if I thought she would understand me. It said:

Algebra is for lovers.

Think about it.