Day 108: Favour

So it's been really great to have the comments feature on my blog. I love that you guys read my blog, and I love that you leave little comments for me to read! I thoroughly enjoy all the little thoughts and opinions and ideas and suggestions and questions and anecdotes that you leave up for me to check out. They're great! It helps me feel connected to you and inspires me to write even more! :-)

I am now going to use this comments feature for another purpose though. I have a small favour to ask of you. All of you. Each and every one of you who read my blog. This means the die hard fans who read it every day, and this means those who just pop in once in a while to read a sample of what I'm up to. This means those who leave me little comments to read all the time, and this means those who've never commented before. *EVERYONE*

I'm working on a little project and need your feedback. What I specifically need you to do is to list your Top Five favourites of my blog entries. No, I don't want you to go back and re-read the whole damn thing (cause would take forever!) Just jot down the first five best entries of mine that pop into your head. I'm looking for *your* Top Five, and this can be what you regard as the most memorable, the best written, the funniest, the craziest, or just the ones you enjoyed the most for whatever reasons. It doesn't matter. If you wanna list more than five that's cool, but five's a nice easy number so try to aim for that. It's not asking for much, but it's important to me. I want your feedback and your opinions - now more than ever before!

So please *please* PLEASE just scroll down and hit the 'comments' button and gimme your Top Five Faves. In any order, for any reason. Just tell me what's tickled your fancy.

Thank You!
Merci!
Gracias!
Danke Schoen!
Kamsa Hamnida!
Arigato!
Dohje!
Dekuji!
Khawp Khun!
Grazie!

Day 107: Shopaholic Much!

Today was Henry's last day in town, as he was flying back home to Vancouver that evening. We slowly rolled out of bed - a little tired, a little parched - and headed back out into the city. We finally went and visited Seoul Tower perched atop Namsan Mountain, but it wasn't the best day for it. It wasn't raining, but it was really humid and SO SMOGGY today!! You could hardly see anything for all the grey-brown smog that was drowning the sticky metropolis in a death-grip choke-hold! But it was his last day and so we figured better a partial view of Seoul from above than no view at all!

After spending some time atop Seoul Tower having lunch and taking in the polluted view we decided to do some more shopping in Itaewon. No, let me rephrase that, *HENRY* decided that we needed to do some more shopping in Itaewon. OMG can that boy shop!! I've never met anyone who can shop and shop and shop and still be itching to shop some more after all that. We've done virtually nothing but shopping in the last 72 hours and as much of a blast as its been I had personally had enough of it! But, Henry's the guest, so I went along with it like a good host and tour guide would. So we checked out all the street stalls of Itaewon and with even less than an hour left before departure time, Henry was still feverishly shopping with enough zest and passion to put Paris Hilton's consumption habits to shame! But to give Henry credit he's a *damn good* shopper - he can bargain like it's no one else's business and always manages to get these crazy discounts that no one else can! To watch him shop is to watch a master at work. He's had 32 years of practice and has made shopping a true art form. I bow down to Henry's shopping superiority.

It was then time to pack up all our bags and check out of Seoul Motel. I walked Henry to the bus stop for the airport shuttle and then said my goodbyes to my dear friend. He's one of my bestest buds in the whole world and we always have a blast together. Henry's one of the very few friends that I have that I can travel with extensively (ie: longer than a day trip) and not get tired or bored of his company. It was sad to see him but he says he's planning a second visit to Seoul in December, to do some more shopping, of course! LOL!

I journeyed back to Shihung and was EXHAUSTED when I got home. My weekend with Henry was only a few days but felt like much longer. We saw and experienced in 3 days what most people would do in a week! WHEW!!! But it was a great time from beginning to end. It even felt like I was on vacation myself, with all the touring and the time spent out on the town and in the motel. I don't imagine any of my other friends back home will ever be able to afford to come visit me (airfare to Seoul is not cheap) which is too bad cause there's so much cool stuff to see here. And I love being the tour guide to show it off! So accept this as an open invitation to come visit me here in Korea - please - I'd love to see you!!! :-)

Day 106: Whirlwind

Today was a crazy-busy but wonderfully-packed day full of all the best that Seoul has to offer. A whirlwind day from beginning to end - Henry and I played tourist like there was no tomorrow. We covered the city from top to bottom - we really did pack it all in in just 24 hours - palaces and shopping and night markets and history and Korean cuisine and culture and dancing and debauchery. *Whew!* Korea's capital will never be the same again!

And all of this was done with a late start! We didn't get out of bed until 11am (had to sleep in a bit cause of our late night out last night!) and grabbed a quick lunch at Subway before launching full force into Tourist Mode. We made a b-line for Gyeongbokgung - Henry taking no less than approximately 254 photographs, I believe, from the cab as we drove through the city on the way to the glorious palace grounds. This was my third visit to Gyeongbokgung - known as the Palace of Shining Happiness - and I still find it awe-inspiring each and every time. It never loses its ancient lustre or magnetic appeal - I love this place.

It was hot and humid again but at least there was no rain! We made our way through the palace grounds, Henry photodocumenting every nook and cranny of the place, and then we walked on over to the National Museum. The National Museum is the largest of Korea's museums and is a great place to spend an afternoon - not only is it filled with thousands of incredible artifacts from thousands of years of civilization on the Korean peninsula but it is a cool and comfortable escape from the city's heat and smog! Thank God for air conditioning is all I can say! Normally how I prefer to tackle a large museum like this is to dedicate a whole day, or at least several hours of an afternoon, to wander through the entire collection, browsing every piece and exhibit. Well we didn't have time for this in today's schedule! In less than one hour we wizzed through no less than 32,000 years of Korean history in a flash - wow, time travel can be exhausting at this pace!

It was time for a Starbucks break after the museum - the energy level had dipped dangerously low below 'fabulously over-zealous' and we really needed the caffeine boost!
After refuelling it was back on the tour - next stop Changdeokgung Palace! This is the palace that I visited on my own a few months ago - the UNESCO World Heritage Site that requires one to join an organized tour in order to enter the grounds. Henry and I arrived just in time for the 3:30pm tour and we spent the next 90 minutes soaking up the splendour that is Changdeokgung.

It's hard for me to decide which of the two palaces we saw today I like best. They're both several hundred years old and very beautiful, yet quite different at the same time. I like Gyeongbokgung because it's absolutely massive and sprawling and it feels like I'm in a city-within-a-city. And you can stand inside the main inner stone courtyard, look north and see the ginormous palace reception hall surrounded by stone walls, colourful wooden peaked rooves, and Buddhist statues guarding over the sacred building. And then you can turn your head south and look out over the courtyard and see dozens of soaring modern skyscrapers topped by flashing digital billboards rising up behind the burly gate that guards the entrance - a magnificently alluring juxtaposition of the ancient with the futuristic. At Changdeokgung, however, I really feel like I can disappear from the chaos of Seoul and just lose myself in the palace grounds. I can hide among the pavillions and ponds in the once exclusive royal family's private gardens and almost imagine that I've been transported back through time to the Joseong Dynasty. All that surrounds you are the quietness of the ancient architecture and the serenity of the private forest. Huge orange Japanese coy swim in the pond, birds are chirping, and a cool breeze whispers through the boreals. Escapism at its best.

After Changdeokgung we cruised through Insadong, exploring the arts and crafts shops, and then having some delicious bibimbap for dinner. Then it was time to head over to Namdaemun Market where we spent a good two hours plus exploring the never-ending market. Namdaemun is one of the largest outdoor markets in Seoul, comprised of several streets and alleyways, filled with thousands upon thousands of stands selling everything from shoes to lingerie to ginseng candy to leather jackets to squid to knockoff designer purses to sea urchents to twelve billion t-shirts. So cool! We both did some shopping - Namdaeum is a bargain-hunter's paradise - and stayed until it started to close down around 9pm or so.

It was then time to head back to Itaewon to get all gussied up for our big bad night out on the town. We decided to 'go glam' and really dress up tonight - dress pants and funky shirts and shiny shoes and modelesque hair! (yes we're modest boys!) We made our appearance back at the lounges on 'the hill' and met up with my friends Austin & Eric. We had an absolutely amazing night - we were introduced to lots of new people, had too many drinks, and danced the night away until 3am. We then left the club scene to repeat last night's late-night snack bar gig. We found another streetside Korean 'greasy-spoon' grill and ordered up a big buffet of deep fried treats. YUM!!!
After socializing and snacking it was time for bed. Another late arrival at the motel - just after 4am tonight when we pulled in.

What a great day!!! It truly was a whirlwind tour of Seoul! My head was still spinning as I laid down to sleep. Blissful dizziness...

Day 105: Electronic Candy

Henry and I were up bright and early this morning at 7am so that we could head out and do some touristy things before I had to go to work in the afternoon. We woke up and were disappointed to see that it was still raining cats and dogs outside. I had planned on taking Henry up Namsan to Seoul Tower to get a great introductory view of the city, but there was no point taking him up to the Tower if all we were gonna see were clouds and grey! Besides the rain, the humidity was DISGUSTINGLY high today! It was somewhere in the mid-to-upper 90-percentile range and it made for sweaty, wet times - even without the torrential downpours! Not a good day to be outside! Time for Plan B.

We decided to go and check out Yongsan Electronics Market instead. YEM is the largest electronics market in all of Asia, consisting of over 5000 stores spread throughout 12 or so buildings. YEM sells absolutely everything that's electric - from computers to washing machines to blenders to stereos to TV's to microwaves to telephones to MP3 players to electric badets (wow - I didn't know they existed!) Basically, if you can plug it in, it can be bought here at YEM. It was my first time here and it was mind-boggling, all the selection! Henry practically has an obsession with anything electronic and is always into the latest gadgets and toys and high-tech shit that 'just came out.' I knew he was going to LOVE YEM - and man he went nuts! He was like a kid in an electronic candy store - pure heaven for a self-professed gizmo guru like himself!
He wanted to buy a new laptop (he broke his current one on the way to the airport to come to Asia) and there were hundreds and hundreds for him to choose from. Crazy!

I had to head off to work so I left him behind and took the train to work. It was a really mellow day at work and before I knew it I was back on the subway to Itaewon to meet Henry for dinner. When I got back to the motel he was grinning from ear to ear - there on the bed was a bright, shiny brand spanking new Japanese laptop - a fancy-schmancy SOTEC that Henry bought for less than half than what he would have paid for it back in Canada. "I love Korea!!!" he exclaimed...I knew that taking him to Yongsan Electonics Market would be all that it would take! Ha ha!

We caught a cab over to the Jonggak area and Henry was in awe over all the streets full of neon, covering storefronts from street to rooftop. We went and had a delicious dinner of dakkalbi (sorta like a grilled spicy chicken stirfry dish) and then headed back to the streets. We were gonna go and see a movie but all the ones we wanted to see hadn't opened yet in Korea (I'm *DYING* to see The Day After Tomorrow!) Luckily for us the rains had stopped so we just walked around taking in all the sights. We did some shopping and then headed back to motel in Itaewon.

We got all cleaned up and then headed out for a night out on the town in Itaewon. We went and had some drinks at a lounge on 'the hill' and ran into my friend Gavin and his roomie Ryan who I hadn't seen in months. We all sat and chilled and chatted, and then later Henry and I headed out to some nearby clubs. It was a fun night but kinda disappointing in the clubs - they were less-than half empty! Apparently there was some big clubbing event going on in another part of Seoul and that's where everybody was. Ahh well - it was still good times! We headed home around 2am or so but on the way back to the motel stopped at one of the many street stalls for a late-night snack. Henry was ENTHRALLED with these little mini roadside restaurants and he ordered a plethora of Korean grilled goodies for us to sample - chicken, tofu soup, deep-fried shrimp, tempura, mandu (dumplings) and a bunch of other stuff that I didn't recognize. So yummy! Nothing like a belly full of greasy food after a night of drinking! These two guys sat down next to us at the stand and it turns out they were New Zealand's Trade Commissioners for Korea and Japan, respectively! They were super cool guys and told us all about their high-profile jobs and their lives they'd spent living abroad. The four of us just ate and chatted away, while a dozen or so trannies* were running around up and down the alley, cackling away, trying to 'make some new friends' (for an hour or so, for a small fee of course!) It was one of those wonderfully random 'Wow I'm in Asia having a crazy experience that I never would have back home!' moments - I love those unexpected and prolific waves of awe, englightenment, and the feeling of being so damn lucky! They make me pause, smile and reflect for a moment before the feeling passes and then I'm back in the current reality. It was then time for bed and our pillows never felt so good!

*Trannies are men (or formerly men) who've had operations to turn them into women (or something sorta womanish-like) and prostitute themselves out on the streets trying to woo in whoever they can - whether that be kinky gay guys (although if a gay guy sleeps with a man who's now a woman-come-lately does that mean he's straight?) or horny, drunk, and very lost and naive GI's who are in for a nasty surprise!!! Haha!!! :-)

Day 104: Catching Up

After David Copperfield I went back to Ilsan with the gang and we stayed up late playing Trivial Pursuit, to help us practice for The Contenders. And I won - yah! ;-) The whole quiz show thing is actually a bit up in the air right now. Andrea's sister back in Canada is very sick and most likely dying and she needs to fly home as soon as possible, however things at her job are making that complicated (long story, but let's just say her boss is a fucking bitch.) She's not sure when she's going to be able to fly home, but it may have to be before we go on the show, which has been tentatively scheduled for June 16. It would totally suck if she couldn't come on the show with me, but it's for understandable reasons, that's for sure. Steve is currently on 24-hour back-up notice in case Andrea has to go home earlier than the 16th. Either way I'm still gonna be on it for sure!

Last night marked the beginning of a 48-hour stretch of time where I spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME on the damn subway. Out to Ilsan Wednesnday night, back to Shihung on Thursday morning, to Itaewon on Thurs. night, back to Shihung on Friday AM, and then back again to Itaewon Friday evening. HOLY FUCK! By the end of it all I was sick of riding those trains!

School was alright on Thursday but I was so excited to see Henry, who was flying in that evening, that it felt like the afternoon was crawling by. By the time I got off of work it was starting to rain... Sprinkle turned to drizzle turned to pitter-patter turned to definitely-needing-an-umbrella turned to downpour turned to virtual monsoon! What a lovely welcome to Korea for Henry! I met Henry at our motel room that we had rented for the weekend - the Seoul Motel right on the main drag in Itaewon. It was so cool but SO STRANGE to knock on a motel door in KOREA and see HENRY FROM VANCOUVER answer the door!

We went out for dinner to a casual Western restaurant called Gecko's Tavern and it was so great to catch up with one of my best friends. We had a nice relaxing dinner then headed up the street to a really cool lounge called SoHo for drinks. It was a dead evening in Itaewon - the streets were near-empty and we were the only patrons in the lounge! I guess the monsoon rains* werem keeping a lot of people indoors tonight! After our drinks we headed back to the motel room for an early night to bed. Tonight was the beginning of a great little 'mini-vacation' for me that was only 3 days long but felt so much longer.

*okay technically they're not monsoon rains. Korea doesn't get monsoons (too far north) but it does have a 'rainy season', that typically runs from June to August. Tonight's rains were just really heavy and how I imagine a monsoon feels like. I had to put this in cause I know some of you are nit-picky about these details! ;-)

Day 103: A Date With David

It was Buddha's Birthday today - a national holiday - so no work for me today! I received a phone call from Brad in the morning informing me the gang was going to see David Copperfield that afternoon, and had an extra ticket for sale. Now I've never really been all that interested in magic shows, and Mr. Copperfield has brought his shows to Vancouver more than once while I lived there and I never paid attention, but a chance to see David Copperfield IN KOREA??? I'm so there!

The show was at 4pm so we all met up earlier before making our way into Sejong Centre to watch 'David Copperfield - An Intimate Evening of Grand Illusion!' as was advertised to us. Our tickets were the cheapest we could get (about $45 bucks CDN) and were WAY UP HIGH in the balcony in the second-to-back row - true nosebleeds! David's two hour show turned out to be alright - some of his illusions were in fact pretty darn cool - but like I said before I've never really been all that impressed with magic shows. Some of his tricks though, I must admit, really did make me go "How'd he do that!!??" He cut a woman in half and had her severed legs and torso pushed around the stage, made a 1950 Lincoln convertible appear on pedestals while completely surrounded by people (leaving me wondering exactly where it came from!) and rode off a mid-air platform on a motorcycle only to appear two seconds later at the opposite end of the theatre. Wow!

What was the most interesting part of the show, for me, was watching Mr. I'm-Too-Cool-I'm-The-Greatest-Magician-In-The-World-I've-Got-An-Ego-Ten-Times-The-Size-Of-That-Lincoln-Convertible attempt - and fail horribly - to make the Korean audience laugh, and in the process highly offend them with inappropriate humour. It's obviously a magic (or 'ILLUSION') oriented show, but David likes to mix it up with silly jokes and stories, all part of the constant 'build-up' he has before the pinnacle of every trick.

One important fact that either David wasn't aware of AT ALL, or just did't care, was that Koreans have a very different style of humour in comparison to North Americans'. Western humour tends to be based around sarcasm, teasing, and 'dirty' jokes, while Korean humour is much more subtle and 'gentle.' The sarcasm and the teasing and the dirty jokes went over like a lead bucket - David's jokes either crashed and burned because the Koreans didn't 'get it' (yes, a translator was part of the show who translated everything David spoke) or the result was the audience being offended or confused. Much of Western humour is just considered outright insulting here in Korea.

There were, in fact, times when all of us just hung our heads in near embarrassment for Mr. Copperfield. He's say things that we know are inappropriate for Korean audiences, and then look at each other like "did he just *really* say that???" Some of these things included singling out members of the audience to speak in front of everyone (Koreans are extremely shy to speak in public) and asking them completely inappropriate questions, such as what colour and type of underwear they were wearing, or when the last time they had sex was. (David used these facts and numbers as part of his tricks.) Also, everytime he brought someone up on stage he would ask their name, but would inevitable butcher the pronounciation. This is not unusual for a foreigner to do so, but he would then proceed to MAKE FUN OF THEIR NAME, as if it was a game to play to just a silly word that meant nothing. And this was to older members of the audience! In Korea you ALWAYS treat older people with the highest respect and integrity possible. You DO NOT tease them or make fun of their names which may sound strange to a foreigner's ears in front of 2000 people!

It was an interesting afternoon to say the least! Between the cool magic tricks and David making an ass out of himself and continually offending over 2000 Koreans, over and over throughout his show, it was quite the sight! My suggestion to Mr. Copperfield is that he does a little research into a culture before bringing his Western-humour-oriented shows into foreign countries! This will help to avoid embarrassment and awkwardness for all, and probably increase sales to his over-rated 'evenings of grand illusion!'

Day 102: Sex Sells

I know I've mentioned this before in past blog entries, but in case you forgot, Korea is a very conservative society. (At least in comparison to Western cultures, and even in comparison to other places in Asia, such as Japan.) This conservativeness applies to a lot of things in Korean culture, but particularly applies to romance, dating, and sexuality. In Korea public displays of affection are a big no-no - the most you'll ever see between a couple in public is the holding of hands or arms around each other's shoulders. Anything above that is considered offensive and inappropriate for public display.

Most fashion also tends to reflect this conservativeness, although this is rapidly changing with the latest fashion trends among the younger generations. The older generation still lives in a conservative world where necklines are high, skirts go down to the floor, and a woman's place is in the home serving her husband. This is in complete contrast to the generation of people my age and younger, who are eager to embrace and adopt Western standards of fashion, gender equality - and overt sexuality. Turn on M-Net here in Korea (the Korean equivalent of MuchMusic or MTV) and any of today's hottest Korean pop stars look like carboncopies of Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, Asian-style of course. This contrast has created a huge generation gap - never before have I encountered such a distinct and pronounced difference of values between living generations.

Korea is also a very consumer-based society - wealth and status are measured by how much money one makes, how nice their home is, how extensive their wardrobe is, what labels they wear, what kind of car they drive, etc. The meeting of these two worlds - the consumption-obsessed society with a younger, more sexually overt generation has resulted in a new phenomenon for Korea that marketers have latched onto like a leech - using sex to sell products. This concept is certainly not a new one back home - marketers and advertising execs have realized that for sometime now, but here it's just beginning.

Turn on the TV in Korea and within minutes a commercial will come on featuring some pop-star lookalike hawking a brand of soda pop or instant noodles or mobile phone. Every single home shopping network has *at least* one pretty young thing to keep the male gaze on the screen, and convince the female viewers that they too can look like that if they purchase such said product. Billboards and posters all across Seoul are now full of Asian Abercrombie & Fitch look-alikes - tight shirts, short skirts, sexy poses, pouty lips, sexually-aggressive embraces, and 'come here big boy' stares in their eyes. This has resulted in an *explosion* of sales of products that use these advertising tools to attract consumers. It has been successful beyond belief, and really has appeared out of nowhere. Using sex to sell has taken Korea by storm, and like a tsunami racing towards shore, it keeps growning and growing. And all of this is happening much to the horror of the older generation, who react with shock, disapproval, and pure and utter confusion. It really is two worlds colliding - the old and the young, and the consumerism with sexiness.

I've seen two examples of this in the last week. I was walking to school the other day and could hear loud music coming from across the street. I looked across the busy street and saw streamers blowing in the air, loudspeakers BLASTING out pop music, shiny fabric being waved around, and two scantily-clad cheerleader-type girls dancing in perfect choreography - all to announce the opening of a new...bakery...??? Wow - talk about a way to attract customers to come and check out your hot new buns! ;-) Ajimas (Korean for 'older women') on my side of the street just gawked in horror and disbelief - their eyes were literally bulging out of their heads...

And then today I was walking home from school and once again heard loud music coming from the direction of the street. This time a large open-air pickup truck drove past, very slowly, decked out in bright colours, ribbons, balloons, and glitter. Again speakers were blasting out some technopop music at unbelievably high decibals, while two young Korean girls in itty-bitty silver bikinis danced in the back of the truck. This time it was to announce that some department store was having a 50% off sale tomorrow! I've been over-exposed to a lot of overt sexuality in the media and advertising world back home - practically numbed to it if you will, but this sight caught me off-guard, and certainly caused my head to turn and stare - I can only imagine the effect this would have on the Koreans!

Korean culture seems to almost be at war with itself - half the country is desperately holding onto traditional, more conservative Confucian values, while the other half can't get their clothes off fast enough to make a buck or two for 'the man'. It's a strange phenomenon to watch firsthand, but I enjoy being right in the middle of the battle zone.

Day 101: Life in Korea 101

So I've officially passed the 100-day mark! Wow! For some reason it feels like a landmark to me. It's definitely the longest amount of time I've ever spent outside Canada, and by the time my Asian leg of the tour is up, it will have been the longest time spent apart from my family, my Canadian friends, and my Western comfort zone. It feels like it's flown by, yet at the same time I feel like it's been 3 years, just with all the cool stuff I've been up to. I sure have packed a lot of experiences and sights into just 100 days! I can't imagine how it's gonna feel after one full year here - will I be itching to leave, or will it still all feel new and undiscovered?

I'm still very much the foreigner here, but Seoul feels less and less foreign with each passing day. I can get around town without any difficulty. I know where to go for shopping. I have favourite restaurants and coffee houses, favourite streets and neighbourhoods. I know where to go to surround myself in the hustle and bustle of glorious Asian madness. I know where to go to escape to relax and unwind. I know where to take the tourists to show off the city, and I know where the secret hideaways are that only 'locals' know about. I may not speak very much Korean, but I know enough key words to get me by, and more importantly, to get me out of awkward situations! This city and this country and this culture, some days, are still strange and confusing and distressing, but those days are becoming fewer and fewer. I have adjusted and accepted. I have been thrilled and have thrived. I have been corrupted and I have conquered. I have embraced and I have experienced.

And yet there is still so much to see! So much more to learn! So many things left to experience! I don't think anyone could ever complain of boredom here. In a city this big, in a culture this different and foreign, there is *always* something new left to discover. Stones still remain, waiting to be turned over. Streets and alleys still stand, begging to be explored. Entire neighbourhoods remain that I have yet to step foot into. It's all very exciting and inspiring and wondrous.

I'm certainly nowhere near an expert, but again, I feel pretty proud of myself for what I've been able to accomplish so far. I've learned a lot, and feel like I can offer a lot of tips and information to someone who's just arriving here, another foreigner who's 'fresh off the boat.' Maybe I should start offering courses? (Life In Korea 101!)

I have one of my best friends from back home, Henry, coming to visit me this weekend, and I'm looking forward to touring him around Seoul. He'll be my first (and probably only) official guest coming to visit me from back home, and it will be a good test of my knowledge of the city, on what to see, how to get around, etc. It'll be a little strange at the same time though, someone from my life back home coming into contact with my new life here in Korea. Talk about 'Two World Collide!' I'm looking forward to it for sure anyway - it will be a fun and memorable weekend most definitely. :-)

Day 100: Buddha-Lovin'

Today was an awesome day!!!

Buddha's birthday is this coming Wednesday, and it's probably the biggest holiday all year here in Korea. Bigger than Christmas, bigger than New Year's, bigger than any of the other Korean religious holidays! They always have a huge festival for it in Seoul every year, on the weekend before, and that was today!

We headed back into the city and made straight for the festivities - and what a sight it was! They had closed off several blocks of one of Seoul's main downtown streets and it was packed with all the activities and excitement! Dozens and dozens of booths lined the sides of the street where you could buy crafts, sample food, browse through artwork and handiwork, and sign up for afternoon activities. Several stages were found throughout the festival, featuring music and dancing and all other sorts of live entertainment! It was really packed full of people, and was so beautiful with thousands of lanterns lining the streets and covering all the buildings. The Lotus Lantern is the main symbol for this event, so people in the city hang up colourful lanterns weeks in advance of Buddha's Birthday. By the time his birthday arrives the entire city is decked out in beautiful lanterns from top to bottom!

We signed up for a free lantern-making workshop, and it was a blast! We spent two hours putting together our own individual lanterns, where you attach pieces of coloured paper to a 'blank lantern' in your desired pattern and array of colours. It was so nice just to hang out and spent the afternoon being creative making our own lanterns. After we finished we had to turn in our lanterns, which went up on the display tent so that they could be judged later on. (Prizes would be given out for the best lanterns!) We were assigned individual numbers so that we could retrieve our luminous creations later on, and so we headed out to enjoy the rest of the festival.

After another hour or so of wandering through the festival, sampling samosas, perusing Nepalese artwork, getting free hand acupunctures, listening to Korean rock bands, and admiring all the thousands of lanterns, we went and had some dinner. After dinner we went back to the tent where we made our lanterns so that we could retrieve them and head on over to watch the parade. When we got there we were shocked and saddened to discover that someone had stolen our lanterns!!! Only Pauline's was left unharmed, whereas mine, Andrea's and Steve's were MIA. :-( We were quite disappointed to have our lanterns taken out of our lives so quickly and suddenly, without notice, no chance even for a last goodbye....*sniff sniff* But I guess we could just look at it as that our lanterns were so fabulous that the culprits couldn't *help* but steal away our magnificent creations, being so spectacular and all....LOL.

We headed on over to the end of the street where the city had closed off another major downtown artery that would be used for the parade. The parade started not long after sundown, around 7:30pm, and was amazing! It was one of the biggest parades that I have ever seen, lasting over 2 hours and being comprised of THOUSANDS of dancers and performers and lantern-carrying, Buddha-lovin' Koreans. To see everyone marching with their lanterns all aglow was truly an amazing sight - such luminous love all around! The parade had several really cool floats, including giant glowing elephants, colourful pagodas, and HUGE DRAGONS that moved and breathed real fire! Wow so cool! We spent about 2 hours watching the parade but we were so tuckered out from our long day that we actually left before the end of it, so I really don't know when the parade ended. Plus we wanted to back on the trains/busses before the inevitable crush of people at the parade's end. It was a really great day - perfect weather for a day outside celebrating the life and glory of Buddha! HOORAY FOR BUDDHA! (He throws great parties!) ;-)

Day 99: City Lights

I spent the night at Brad's last night, and it was great to have my first shower again after 3 days of having no plumbing and attempting to make do with sponge baths using water heated from the stove! LOL! The water actually came back on earlier than expected on Friday, when I 'experimented' with pulling the faucet and seeing water pour out around mid-day on Friday. Lesson Of The Week - never take indoor plumbing for granted!! But it sure was good to have a long shower - ahhh, hot water, firm water pressure, nothing like a good shower in the morning to start the day on a good foot! :-)

Brad, Andrea, Steve and I took the bus into Seoul and went to an art gallery near one of the palaces. There was a special exhibit that Brad and Andrea really wanted to see and were quite excited about, and Steve and I naturally tagged along. The exhibit was a visiting one from Japan, featuring painting and prints from a fairly famous Japanese artist. The theme of the exhibit was '100 Days at Edo' and featured 100 paintings, all of various city and country scenes of Edo, divided into the four seasons. The paintings were made quite some time ago (at least a hundred years ago I'm guessing) because they all depicted rather ancient times in the city. What was cool was that they had recent photographs of the exact same scene as illustrated in the painting right underneath each piece of art. This allowed the viewers to compare the city scene with the older painting and contemplate how much Edo has changed in a short period - a 'Then & Now' sort of idea. Really interesting actually!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering through Insadong, doing a little window-browsing, and then went over to the palace to watch a re-enactment of the changing of the guards. Very cool! It was a hot and sunny day and it was just great to be outdoors!
We then had some dinner at a really nice Korean restaurant, and then headed over to a nearby movie theatre to go and watch 'Troy.' I've been wanting to see this movie FOREVER, and was really excited to go and see it! It was my first time going to see a movie here in Korea, and I found out that movie theatres in Korea have ASSIGNED SEATING! When you buy your ticket you're given an assigned seat, whether you like it or not. I guess this has advantages and disadvantages - it's nice cause you can arrive last minute and don't have to worry about not having somewhere to sit, but kinda shitty if you don't like your seats, cause you can't just move somewhere else. 'Troy' turned out to be a really enjoyable film, but I'm always a sucker for historical epics!

After the movie we went and had some ice cream, and then split off. Brad & Andrea were tired and wanted to head home, and Steve & I were still wanting to hang out more in the city. Steve & I decided to go and walk up the stairs up Namsam to Seoul Tower to check out the view of the city at night. It was a warm beautiful night and good hike up the small city mountain. When we got to the top we were rewarded with a stunning view of sprawling Seoul, all lit aglow - 360 degrees of city lights, as far as the eye can see! WOW!! The tower was closing soon so we just hung out around the base - the view from there is still spectacular! It was only my second time up Namsam and going up there always reminds me of how GIANT this city is. Even from high up on a mountain you still can't see the end of the city - it just goes on forever in every direction. After enjoying the glittering visual spectacular, we hiked on back down the mountain steps and took the bus on back to Ilsan. Steve went straight to bed, but I stayed up a while longer and played Scrabble with Brad & Andrea who were also still awake. Good times!

Day 98: My Big Break?

So I have an announcement to make!

You better sit down - this is pretty big news!

Guess what???

I'M GONNA BE ON TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:-)

I am thrilled to announce that I will be competing on a Korean quiz show on national television where I will have the chance to win a fabulous trip!!! WOW!!!! Its a Jeopardy-style quiz show called The Contenders and is a very popular TV show here in Korea on Arirang (the network that owns and airs the show.) Yes, it's in English, and how it works is that you compete together on the show in PAIRS against the defending champion, and with each level you advance to, you win a bigger trip!!

Andrea is my partner, and tonight we went for our pre-interview down at the TV station in SE Seoul. When we got the Arirang TV Tower we had to sign several consent forms, and then answer several questions about our team (ie: hobbies, favourite subjects, nationality, why you're here in Korea, etc.) There were three other pairs of people who will also be competing on the show at some point. We all had to choose team names, and so Andrea & I will be known as 'Posh & Bex'! There is a bit of a long story, involving an inside joke between Andrea and I, as to why we chose this for our team name, but basically our team is named after the super-celebrity couple of the millennium - David Beckham and his wife Victoria 'Posh Spice.' 'Posh & Becks' is how the Brits affectionately call the couple, but due to limited letters allowed, we had to shrink it down to 'Posh/Bex'. We all then had to fill our a short quiz to find out exactly how smart each team is - this will help the show producers in matching up appropriate teams. The quiz was actually harder than I thought it would be, but overall I think I did alright, as did Andrea.

Andrea and I constantly joke about becoming famous in Korea, and we hope that this show will be our 'big break' into Korean superstardom! Who knows? Fastforward a month or so from now and Andrea and I could be the 'Posh & Becks' of Korea! Press conferences, photo shoots, autograph sessions, magazine cover shots, TV interviews, award ceremony presentations, tours across Asia, product endorsements, offers for careers in film and music - all these could soon be within our reach! I can taste the fame already!!!

In all honesty most of this is just a joke to us. We just think it would be cool to be on TV, and hey you never know, we might actually do well on the show and win a trip! (Trips include destinations such as Jeju Island, China, Japan, Thailand, Hawaii, USA, and Europe!) We don't actually expect to go all that far, nor become famous, but it's a lot of fun in the meantime to imagine these crazy scenarios, and I think it will be a blast to be on the show! We're supposed to know in the next week or two when we're gonna be on - hopefully sooner rather than later!!!

So everyone, gather up your pom-poms and get ready to cheer on Andrea & Scotty (aka: Posh & Bex!) as they compete for fame and fortune on THE CONTENDERS!!! WOOHOO!!! :-)

Day 97: Seeing *Is* Believing

So, after seven long gruelling hours on this damn computer, I finally have all of my photos uploaded onto a website for all you guys to check out! I'm using a site called Splashbulb, and it is really user-friendly and fun to use. Not only can you view my photos, but you can also rate them, write comments, and even order copies of them online!
The only catch is this, well actually there's two catches...

The first one is that you have to have enabled your web browser to accept cookies in order to check out the photos. I know, I know, we all hate cookies, I do too, they're a pain in the ass, but if you wanna see my photos that's just what you're gonna have to do (if the settings on your computer don't already allow them!) Worse comes to worse you can adjust the cookies settings temporarily just to view my photos, then set it back once you're finished, right?

The second is that this website works on a special elitist invite-only system. You can ONLY view my photos if you have received a special invitation via email. Now the only way I can do that is by adding in each of your individual email addresses into my Super Special Much-Coveted Royally-Fantastic *THE* Club Of All Clubs Invite List! Because the majority of you have multiple email addresses, I wasn't sure which ones to add. So, if you wanna see my amazing, breath-taking, awe-inspiring photos of my adventures here in Korea, send me your email address, being sure to give me the one that you will want to use for all time to access these prize photos. You can do this by either emailing me personally, or just by leaving a comment to this entry.

Remember - no email address sent to me by you means no photos for you!

I'm excited to share all my adventures with you guys! I've got lots and lots of terrific shots and I think seeing these photos will make all my stories and blog entries seem that much more real and vivid to you. I hope you like 'em! Be sure to let me know what you think of the photos once you've seen them!

ENJOY! :-)

Day 96: Butchered, Again!

So last night before going to bed I had to have one last hot shower before the water was turned off. I made sure it was a really long shower, and tried to savour the sensation of the hot luscious water pouring over my firm and supple naked body, slowly lathering myself with rich creamy foam, moaning over the pleasure of the beating heat of the powerful water on my tired muscles.....oh wait...this is a blog, not a porno....

WHOOPS!!! SORRY!!! HAHA!!! ;-)

Anyways it was a great shower, and it could be the last one I have until Friday night. (Although I am in the process of developing plans to invade the showers of friends of mine who live in the city!) I woke up today and it was just weird to not go automatically into my morning routine of shower-dress-breakfast-computer. My hair is looking pretty flat and limp, but I figured that since the whole city is without water I won't be the only one looking 'less-than-best' at work today.

After work today I decided that I really REALLY needed a haircut. Since my last haircut disaster I've been putting the next one off as long as I could, since I really didn't know where to go. I didn't want to go back to the same place, but don't know where else to go. I mean, to find a hair stylist that can speak English *and* won't butcher my hair seems like Mission:Impossible here in Korea. Michael has since found his old hair stylist - the one who cuts amazing hair and he's been going to her for over a year - so maybe I should give her a shot? Well the thing is she's located in some shop really far away (even farther than COEX which is the site of The Great Bad Haircut of 2004 that took place 6 weeks ago) and he couldn't remember the address and she doesn't really speak English and I wouldn't even know where to look.... It was just too difficult - I really would need Michael to BRING me there and help me, and I know that he's too busy during the week and stuff.

So I decided to give the lady at COEX another chance. I mean everyone in life deserves a second chance, right? Maybe she was just having an 'off day' when I saw her last?

This turned out to be a big mistake!!!

Once again, the same lady has given me another shitty haircut!! God - that makes two horrific hair disasters in a row!!! This sort of calamity is unprecedented in the history of my hair! I mean I've had bad hair cuts here and there, but TWO BACK TO BACK??? This is just unheard of! The Hair Gods must truly be punishing me for my many years of hair vanity that I'll quickly confess to.

I'm not quite as distressed about it as I was last time. Maybe cause this time I was almost sorta expecting it again... Either way I'm not going to ever go back to her, and I'm not going to wait another 6 weeks for my next hair cut! I've got a plan of action, and it starts tomorrow! I'm gonna steal some scissors from school, and do a little snippety-snip-snip myself after work. Now I'm certainly no trained hair stylist, and definitely no fool, so I'm going to be *very cautious* about this and just do a little trim here and there. I mean the lady left HUGE CHUNKS left uncut so it shouldn't be that hard for me to spot where to cut. And secondly, I'm going to phone up Michael and BEG HIM to take me to this other stylist of his sometime soon - probably next weekend (he's got a guest coming in town from Taiwan this weekend so no go for me!) Maybe she can do some serious damage control and help out a brother with his hair. I'm even willing to go SHORTER if it means a better style. Anything is better than what I have now!

*sigh*

;-)

Day 95: No Water For Three Days???!!!

So Tuesday was an uneventful day, until I got a phone call from Steven that night after work. He informed me that starting Wednesday morning, I was going to have no water for the next three days!!! AND THAT'S NO WATER AT ALL!!! No tap water! No toilet! And no shower!!! What the fuck!!?? You've got to be joking, right??? RIGHT!!!?????

At first I just thought either I was confused or that his English wasn't translating over well or that he was misinformed or something, cause I just couldn't believe that the water was going to be turned off for three whole days! I mean, what on Earth would cause such a thing? Was there a war or earthquake happening that I wasn't aware of?
Apparently 'they' (no idea who 'they' are - the waterworks company I'm assuming) are going to be replacing a water main, and so that's why I am going to lose my water. But it isn't just our house, or even just our street, or even just our neighbourhood... But it's ALL OF SHIHUNG CITY!!! And no only just that, but also Anyan, which is the suburb next to us, and even some parts of Seoul!

JUST HOW BIG IS THIS WATER MAIN!!!???

And if it's just *one single pipe* that separates a million Seoulites from being without water at all, then man, they've got some serious problems underneath this city! Talk about a fragile waterworks system!!! Where am I? Seoul, or Calcutta???

Okay, so let's say that it's the biggest mother of a water main there ever was that needs to be replaced, fair enough. But what? You can't figure out a way to re-route water through another pipe so that the lives of a million people aren't disrupted (as well as businesses and schools and such) for three whole days? I mean come on!! Seoul is a modern and high-tech city! Korea is an advanced and industrialized nation! This is the sort of thing that I'd expect to happen in Third World countries, not in a country with the 12th largest economy in the world! I mean get it together people! You can build high-speed bullet trains across the country, you can have the most crazy advanced futuristic cell phones I've ever imagined in the hands of every citizen, you can even be the first country in the world to clone human stem cells (the Koreans accomplished this back in February), but you somehow can't figure out how fix one measely pipe without shutting off water completely to entire suburbs!!??? What kind of crazy place is this?? LOL!

What's even funnier is how accepting and complacent and non-chalant everyone here is about it! Steven's tone on the phone was the same as if he was telling me that my classes were going to start an hour early the next day, or something insignificant like that. The only people who seem to be freaking out about this are the foreigners! I phoned Ailish up the street and she was as confused and surprised about it as I was! We both commented how this is something that would NEVER EVER happen in Canada or Ireland! CAN YOU IMAGINE if like Dublin or Ottawa were cut off water for three whole days? Entire governments would be impeached and respective parliamentary buildings would be burned to the ground by angry rioters! haha!! But hey I guess this kind of event is 'normal' (?) here in Korea, so when in Rome, I guess...

Susan came down shortly after the phone call to help me prepare for the next three days. We filled up my washing machine with water so I'd have a reserve for washing and stuff, and she also gave me a giant-ass basin to fill up as well. So I will have water in my apartment, it just won't be running. Or heated. I'm still not sure how this 'no shower' thing is going to go over with me. I mean I haven't showered for a couple consecutive days before, like while camping or something, but never in a situation like this. Like is the whole city going to SMELL come Friday? And more importantly, what am I going to do about my hair??? I simply can't have *bed head* for three straight days in a row!!!! haha!!!

Well, it should be an interesting three days, that's for sure! Stay tuned for more drama from this side of the Pacific! Wish me luck! :-)

Day 94: Shopping Spree

God did I ever spend a fortune today!!!

I woke up this morning and there was absolutely nothing in my cupboard at all to eat, so I went and bought a big load of groceries. After work today I decided to go and drop off some film as I now had five rolls waiting to get developed! Last week I had noticed that at the giant E-Mart department store at Bucheon Station there was a Fuji Film Centre that did one hour photo, so that's where I headed to. I dropped off my film and had an hour to kill so I wandered around the department store just browsing away.

I then found myself on the floor that has a grocery store. Well I'm always up for exploring a new grocery store cause you just never know what treats you'll discover there! And man did I ever hit the jackpot here!!! I found so many treats that I just haven't been able to find in my own local neighbourhood - I bought bagels and cream cheese, peanut butter, butter-flavoured microwave popcorn, Western-style brown baked beans, and then I came across the best discovery yet to date...

I was just aimlessly wandering through the crowded aisles and came across the alcohol section (yes, you can buy booze in grocery stores in Korea!) and there I saw it, like a mirage in the desert teasing my disbelieving eyes... HOOCH!!! For those of you who are yet to be enlightened, Hooch is a type of cooler, a sparkling fruity alcoholic drink that comes in a variety of flavours and is really really yummy! The reason why I am so partial to Hooch is more for sentimental reasons actually, rather than taste-preference. The first time I ever got drunk was on Hooch while in London on a high school trip way back in March of '96! It became my beverage of choice on that trip, and it spawned a whole cult culture amongst my trip peers and all my friends back home. I fell in love with the drink, and my friend Lisa became obsessed with it too even though she wasn't on the trip!

Hooch even spawned a whole comic book series that Lisa and I created, where we were both super heroes (Super Scotty and Lightning Lisa) and we used Hooch Power to fight the forces of evil. We even later developed a comic series called The Paris Chronicles where Lisa and I are trying to make our way to Paris but keep running into evil bad guys along the way (mainly in the way of one hated teacher who we turned into a character called Leatherpants - yes he wore them to school for real.) In the comic we discovered that by smashing a bottle of Hooch a portal would open up and we could jump back (and forward) into time and travel to distant lands to escape, and further destroy, the evils that Leatherpants sought to reap upon the Earth. (Yes, I was a big geek back in high school and had way too much spare time on my hands!!! LOL!!)

Anyways seeing the bottles of Hooch on the shelves brought me on a virtual trip down memory lane, and since I haven't drank any Hooch in years and years, I bought a couple bottles to enjoy at home. Needless to say I was quite excited about this unexpected find in the grocery store!!!

I finished my shopping and went up and retrieved my film. It cost me $60 CDN to get them all deleveoped - OUCH - but it was well worth it. The pictures turned out great and I was really excited to get them back! What's even cooler is that I was able to get all five rolls put onto CD-ROM also, so that I can share them with all my friends and family! What I hope to do is to upload all the pictures onto a website that allows you to display photos and write captions for them, so that everyone who's interested in seeing them can check them out at their own leisure. I have no idea what websites do this (for free, that don't involve signing up for some account like you have to do with Yahoo, and that's really easy to use for people who are dumb with computers like me!) If anyone has any websites they can reccommend to me that are good for this sort of stuff, please let me know! I really wanna share all my photos with everyone! The sooner you let me know, the sooner I can start sharing all these great photos of me in Asia!

Day 93: At The Fish Market

We all slept in fairly late today, and didn't get rolling until much later than what we had originally planned. We drove on over to the East Gate entrance of Sorakhsan National Park to explore around there for a while. Upon arrival we were instantly confirmed that this gate indeed was the infamously crowded entrance. There was a long line of traffic funnelling into the park and attendants actually directed you as to where to park in the parking lot. Tour bus after tour bus was arriving and there was a steady stream of people making their way into the park. Oh, crowded Korea...

The weather was sunny and hot today, and it was a beautiful day to gaze at the enormous jagged peaks of Sorakhsan. Unlike the triangular-shaped peaks of Canada's West Coast, Sorakhsan's mountains are very jagged and craggedy (a word?) - the peaks are rough and chunky and the rock is a light-brown coloured. Kinda hard to explain it, but amagnificent sight nonetheless. Perhaps it was the weather or maybe the crowds, or most likely just because of our big hike the day before, but all four of us were feeling SO TIRED AND LAZY! Gone was our boundless energy we had the day before - we just dragged our sorry asses through the park and felt much less-inclined to race up any of the slopes. We went and checked out the GIANT statue of Buddha in the park, and then explored a nearby temple. We were probably only in the park an hour and a bit and we were all so tired we decided to bail out. The crowds were just too much anyways, and there were other things we wanted to check out anyway.

We headed on over to Sokcho Beach to relax in the sun instead. We changed into our bathing suits (wishful thinking) and found a spot in the soft sand to relax. The colour of the East Sea (known as the Sea of Japan by the outside world) was a beautiful and dazzling aquamarine turquoise - very Caribbean-like (not that I've ever seen the Caribbean, but how I imagine it to be I guess!) We all put our toes in to feel the sparkling waters, and were met with a sudden reality check - the water was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING!!! Colder than Lake Superior, colder than Shebandowan in the spring. "Colder than a witch's tit" as my Mom would say! lol ;-)

Well Michael was feeling especially bold and brave, so he actually took a run and leapt right into the near-frozen but oh-so-pretty turquoise waters. His scream upon entering the frigid liquid reconfirmed that yes, indeed, it was god damn cold!!! He was RIGHT IN, RIGHT OUT of the water faster than you can say 'Got Hypothermia?'! Well machismo kicked in and Eric and I decided that we couldn't let Michael be the only alpha-male brave (or stupid, depending on how you look at it) enough to take the plunge, so this time all three of us boys made the run and dove right on in....

HOLY FUCK WAS IT COLD!!!!

Next to my brief swim in the Mediterranean when I was visiting Nice in March '97 this was definitely the coldest water I've ever felt in my life!!! I knew it was going to be cold, but not *THAT* COLD! Like what the fuck, is there some sort of ocean current that pumps in freezing water directly from Siberia and delivers it straight to Korea, icebergs and all? LOL! It was fun and exhilirating though, and I'm glad I did it (I'm still looking for my balls though, which brought new meaning to the term 'cold-water shrinkage') Maeve just took pictures and laughed at all of us crazy boys, and we were attracting a lot of attention from nearby Koreans on the beach as well. The entire beach seemed to be in disbelief over what we had done! Hey, I'm always up for putting on a show, so I'm glad I could once again entertain the crowds of confused Koreans - seems to be a daily ritual in my life these days! ;-)

After drying off and getting dressed in warmer clothes again, we decided to make our way over to the nearby Sokcho Fish Market. This turned out to be my favourite part of the day! The Fish Market is a long street that hugs the waterfront where all the local fishermen bring in their daily catch to sell to the locals. They literally pull up on shore, moore their boats, drag out their sea-licious catch, and plop it down into tanks or buckets for whoever to buy. Seafood really doesn't get any fresher than this! Wandering through the fish market really is like wandering through the Vancouver Aquarium - there were ocean creatures of every species, colour, size, aand spectacle! Many of the tanks had sea creatures that I couldn't even tell you what they were! There were giant fish, octupi, squid, crabs, clams and mussels, eels, sea urchents, shrimp and scallops, and all other kinds of squishy ocean things. Some of the fish were absolutely massive - so big and heavy that it would take a very strong person to be able to lift them out of the tank! (Certainly enough to feed a Korean family for a week!)

The best part was when we came across this tank of crabs. Now there's tanks of crabs all over this fish market, but this particular fisherman seemed to know exactly where to catch all the Granddaddy Crabs of the sea - they were the biggest fucking crabs that I have ever seen in my life!!! ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE!!! Seriously, some of them, if you laid them out from toe to toe, would probably measure at least THREE FEET LONG!!! Where do the hell do these giant crab monsters live? And more importantly, do they ever come on shore??? Can you imagine being at the beach, all warm and relaxed on your towel, covered in tanning lotion, just catching some rays, and then looking over to see a CRAB BIG ENOUGH TO CARRY AWAY A PONY coming at you??? I'd probably have a heart attack...

Well I guess the fisherman noticed how excited we were over his crabs (we were taking pictures of ourselves next to the tank) cause he came over and decided to give us something even more exciting to take a picture of... He reached in, with his bare hands, and grabbed one of these super giant crabs and just chucked the thing down on the street RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! All four of us *SCREAMED* like little school girls and jumped back about three feet in a single bound!! OMG!!! We couldn't believe that one of these creatures from the black lagoon was now loose and crawling around on the pavement near our feet - no thick tank glass to protect us now!!! We laughed as much as we screamed, and Eric was even brave enough to kneel down next to 'the thing' so we could take a picture. SO CRAZY!!!

We wandered through the rest of the market and just marvelled at all the sea creatures that you could buy and eat - stuff that I didn't even know was edible. I think it's the Korean's philosophy that absolutely *anything* from the sea is edible to them. Not for me, thanks! ;-) We were hungry so we stopped at one of the nearby stalls and ordered a fresh seafood snack. We had some delicious grilled prawns, some shellfish (I passed on those) and then some squid stuffed with rice and octopus like a big fat purple sack! I was feeling a bit brave and a had a sample of the rice/squid and it was actually not bad I must admit!

After this it was time for us to make the big drive back to Seoul and head on home. We hit the highway and enjoyed the breathtaking views of Sockcho and the coast as we climbed back up and over the mountains, westward bound. We were making great time getting home but then about half way back to the city we hit 'The Wall.' 'The Wall' is the end of the line of traffic heading back into Seoul - a fluctuating yet permanent line of cars that appears at the end of every weekend, regardless of the time of year. We ended up just *crawling* back into the city on the highway and it was so frustrating to be stuck in the car! What is normally only a four-hour drive from the East Coast back to Seoul turned into a 6.5 hour ordeal. Another reminder that Korea is a very small, yet very crowded country. Michael told us that he knows of people who've driven back after a long weekend in the summer and it's taken them 12 HOURS to get back to Seoul because of all the traffic, so I guess 6.5 isn't all that bad after all. Still, not a fun experience anyways! By the time we got into the city it was almost 11pm and we were all soooo tired. We said our goodbyes and then I hopped on the subway and headed on home. A tiring end to a really great weekend!!!! :-)

Day 92: Sorakhsan

After a very restful sleep in our love motel room, the four of us got showered up and dressed for our big day of hiking. We went and had some lunch in town and then drove on over to nearby Sorakhsan National Park. Sorakhsan to Korea is what Banff is to Canada - it is the prime jewel in Korea's crown of national parks - the most beautiful, the most famous, and the most crowded! Sorakhsan is known for its INSANE CROWDS but luckily the bulk of the traffic is concentrated in and around the East Gate of the park near Sokcho, and we were entering from the northwest side at a gate that receives very little traffic.

We found our trail entrance and made our way into the spectacular Sibiseonnyeotang Gorge. The Gorge (as it will now be known as, cause I don't want to have to write its name out more than once) is a small but beautiful canyon that slices its way deep into the park. A small river/large stream runs through the gorge and forms many beautiful waterfalls, rapids, and calm pools of crystal clear water. We spent over five and a half hours hiking the trail in and out of the gorge and it was incredibly beautiful. So quiet, so serene, so scenic, and so not like other hiking trails in Korea! In Korea's national parks on weekends it's not uncommon for it to be SO BUSY that people actually have to queue up just to get *onto* a trail - most trails in Korea are in fact just very long lines of people moving up the mountain like ants. It's even not uncommon for most national parks to have to PAVE their hiking trails because of the incredible volume of people that track through every weekend! CRAZY! This hike however, was completely unlike that. During our whole day in the gorge we came across maybe 4 or 5 other groups of people. Otherwise, it felt like we had the park to ourselves. What was funny was with the fresh air, lush green forest, and cool grey weather, I totally felt like I could've been hiking in a park back in British Columbia! I had to keep reminding myself that I was in Korea, not back home in Canada!

It was much more of an intense hike than we thought it would be - certainly no leisurely walk through the woods! The terrain was quite steep in portions, and in some sections you had to use a rope to climb up or down, or just hold onto so you don't plunge into the river below! (Barb you wouldn't have liked this hike - too many heights for you babe!) It was a great workout for us and the MASSIVE WATERFALL at the end of the trail (well, as far as we had planned to venture in that day) was well worth the long hike. We sat across from the waterfall and relaxed and ate cookies, enjoying the spectacular site of the rushing water carving out a massive slice through the hard granite. So amazing!!! It was then time to make our way back to the car. A great hike, albeit quite challenging, but very beautiful and well worth it in the end!

By the time we got back to the car we were SO TIRED but feeling proud of our big hiking accomplishment. We got back on the highway and headed for the coast where we were planning to spend the night. The drive to the East Coast of Korea was a beautiful one, with the highway winding up and over several large mountains, forcing us to drive very slowly through some hair-pin turns on the mountain switchbacks! We arrived in the port city of Sokcho around 7:30pm and were happy to find a hotel room. We were even more happy when we found out that just around the corner was a large water park with A HOT TUB THAT WE COULD SOAK IN! The only catch was that the park closed at 8:30pm and didn't allow anyone in after 8pm. The four of us RACED into the hotel room, madly threw on our bathing suits, and sped on over to Waterpia.

We arrived at exactly 8:01pm and were turned away by the bitchy cunt who was giving out tickets at the door. "I've done all my counting for the night and I don't want to do anymore" was her response to us (in Korean, luckily we had Eric to translate.) We all wanted to bitch slap her so she directed us to the Manager, who was nice enough to let all of us in afterall! Again, we madly raced through the locker rooms and dove on in to that hot tub. Dear God did it ever feel good!!! We all had one giant communal sigh of relief and relaxation when we sat in that tub, and none of us moved an inch from that luscious hot water. Yeah there was waterslides and wave pools and tube runs that we could've played in, but all we wanted was to soak our tired muscles in that hot tub. And it was so worth it - it was like heaven in a hot pot!!! :-)

After our soak we went out for dinner to Pizza Hut and were all absolutely famished so we ate a disgusting amount of food. Even though we ate until we wanted to puke we still had room for ice cream later on, so we grabbed some dessert and headed back to the hotel room. We rented two movies - 'To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar' and 'Ocean's Eleven' but only made it through 'To Wong Foo'! We were completely exhausted so we hit the sack and had a wonderful, long, deep sleep. Ahhhhh! :-)

Day 91: Urban Legends

I noticed today that all day long all of my kids were especially hyper and frantic in each of my classes. There was an extra buzz in the school and they all seemed to be talking very quickly and excitedly amongst each other. I had no idea what all of this was about, but then one of them came up to me and started to practically hyperventilate about something about a 'Red Mask.' She seemed almost distressed about this and so I inquired about it with more students. Most of them were so excited they could barely get any English out - all I kept hearing was something about a 'Red Mask' and 'Japan' and then they'd make a scary face at me. I was totally clueless! I wouldn't find out the answer until later that night...

My day ended again at 5:20pm today - that makes 2 full weeks of work now where I only work 3 hours a day (because adult classes haven't started yet) but still get paid for a full day's work. Awesome! I came home and packed up my bag for everything I would need for the weekend. I was going on a roadtrip with Michael and a few of his friends to Sorakhsan National Park and the East Coast of Korea and I was so excited about it! MY FIRST ROAD TRIP IN ASIA! Actually my first road trip *anywhere* in ages it seems. I packed way too many clothes, as usual, and lugged all my shit onto the trains and went into Itaewon to meet up with Michael.

I actually made it to Michael's apartment before he did, so I camped outside his apartment door waiting for him to return. While waiting I got to meet his neighbour, which were interesting to say the least.... Michael's neighbour is a trans-gendered hooker (a man dressed as a woman, who I think has had surgery to remove his 'extra bits', and now prostitutes him/herself on the streets.) She was having 2 friends over (all very tall 'women!') and they all stared at me with confused glances as to why I was camped out in the hallway. Let's just say that there was mutual confusion traded back in those curious stares!

Michael arrived later, he packed up his bags, and it was time to go. His friend Eric arrived just then and the 3 of us drove out to Bundang to pick up Michael's friend Maeve. The four of us then made a pit-stop for ice cream and chocolate (what road trip is complete without junk food?) and then hit the highway out of the city. Traffic was light heading out of Seoul and we were making great time heading out east across Korea. I was surprised at how long it took to get out of Seoul's endless suburbia - over and hour and a half on the highway outside of the city and yet we were still in the city's 'fringes'.... Just how far does one have to go to escape this city? It was just love motel after love motel for miles and miles it seems.

Now what's a love motel you may ask? A love motel is an inexpensive hotel where men go to bring their mistresses or hookers or whoever they're sleeping with that's not their wife for a little 'alone time' away from their families. These gawdy-looking neon hotels are all over the city, but tend to cluster along the city's edges where the men can go and feel safe that they won't be discovered by their wives or friends. These love motels cater almost entirely to this market, and even have curtains that hang over the parking lot entrances so that you can't identify the vehicles that are parked inside...total privacy and anonymity (sp?) guaranteed!

Another hour later we were out in the dark countryside out in the rolling hills and it was really quiet and pretty. While chatting with Maeve I finally found out the truth behind what all this 'Red Mask' stuff is that my kids were so excited about. The Red Mask is a Korean urban legend, (but all the kids believe are real) and is quite the unusual story. Apparently it's about a woman who was rather ugly, so she went to go and get plastic surgery to make herself more beautiful. Well the surgery went horribly wrong, and she was left with a scarred face and a HUGE permanent grin from ear to ear - a giant smile that never disappears. Well I don't know if she died or if she killed herself, but anyways lets just say her spirit has a lot of emotional baggage leftover yet to be dealed with. She's apparently from Japan but what she does every year, on this one day, is travel across the Sea of Japan to Korea (float? swim? KoreanAir? I don't know) and between the hours of 6-8pm seeks out new victims in Korea. How she attacks is she appears to you in your home, or wherever, and asks you if you think she's pretty. If you say yes, she leaves you alone. If you say no, or if she doesn't believe you, she cuts your face open to give you a grin just like hers, and then hacks up your body or something like that. LOVELY!!!! (Now I can see why the kids get so excited and frightened over this! So gruesome!)

We made it into the small city of Inje near the edge of Sorakhsan National Park sometime between 2am and 3am. It was only about 4 hours that we spent on the road but it had felt so much longer - we were all so tired! We pulled into a motel and got a room for the night. We're fairly certain that this was a love motel for two reasons... The first one being that our room rate suddenly went up an extra 10,000 won as soon as they found out that there was a woman staying in the room, and not just guys.... Hmmm.... And the other reason was that when we got to our room and went to turn off the lights to go to bed, Maeve accidentally hit a different switch... Well the main lights went off but this red light glowing from the ceiling came on instead, lighting the entire motel room in a soft red glow, very a-la-porno movie! We kept waiting for the mirrors to appear out of the ceiling and the soft porn music to start up in the background! Oh those funny Koreans! We all had a good laugh about the red light and then went to sleep.

Day 90: It's Yummy!

So in the past I've done a lot of bitching about Korean food that I don't like, well here's the reverse - an ode to all the yummy Korean food that I really enjoy, and will no doubt miss when I leave.

1) Bibimbap - I've talked about this in the past before, but it's so damn good that it deserves another mention. Bibimbap is most often a favourite among foreigners, and it's certainly won me over! It's best when served in a bowling hot stove pot, and consists of steamed exotic vegetables served over rice with some spicy red bean paste sauce. The dish is so hot they throw an egg on top of all of this and it cooks right then and there. You mix it all together, throw in a little more sauce perhaps, and dive in. Mmmm...so yummy, and so healthy! (and always vegetarian - hooray!)

2) Red Bean Paste - Soooooo spicy, and so tasty! I couldn't handle this stuff when I first moved here, but now I love it! There's actually a lot of really good spicy sauces here in Korea - a great work out for your taste buds and sure-fire way to clear your sinuses!

3) Chicken Dish - I forget the Korean name for this, but it's the one where you sit at a table in front of a giant grill and cook your own strips of chicken with mixed vegetables yourself at your table. You then throw in some spicy sauce, stir it all together, and then scoop it into lettuce leaves to eat like a little wrap. Ultra yummy!

4) Fruits & Milk - the Koreans are all about flavoured milk! I thought this was gross at first but now I'm a full-fledged addict. At any given moment my fridge is always stocked with at least one variety of flavoured milk. Banana and strawberry are my favourites, but it comes in all sorts of flavours! I'll *totally* miss this stuff when I go home!

5) Steven's Mother's Pancakes - When we had the kindergartens at work, Steven's Mom always made them lunch and mid-afternoon snacks everyday, a lot of which I wasn't too crazy about, but her pancakes are TO DIE FOR! They're just regular pancakes, but rolled and then covered in sugar - very much like a crepe. They're so simple but for some reason they're so fuckin' delicious! Now that we don't have the kindergartens she doesn't cook at school anymore - so sad!

6) Baked Goods - Every single street corner in Korea has *at least* one bakery on it! Bakeries are HUGELY POPULAR and there's several major bakery chains that can be found all across Korean cities - Crown Bakery, Tous Les Jours, Paris Baguette - lots of really yummy places. And Korean bakeries are THE SHIT! They serve up the tastiest little treats you can't even imagine - half the time I don't know what they are but they taste really good anyways! My favourite are Tous Les Jours' apple streudels - solid gold baby!

7) Ottogi Ketchup - Forget Heinz! I'm all about Ottogi Ketchup now! This is a brand of condiments that is really popular in Korea and they're ketchup is awesome. It's hard to explain, I mean yes it is "just ketchup", but it seems to have this little extra spice in it that makes it that much more memorable. It goes great with my grilled cheese sandwiches!

8) Rice Drink - This comes in a variety of forms (can be wine-like, or more like juice most of the time) but it's really quite tasty. Definitely an acquired taste though. The smell of it is enough to put anyone off, but if you can get past the smell the flavour is really delicious! Andrea loves this stuff so I often steal a bit of hers!

Well that's my list for now - I was just shooting it off at random as it came out of my head. I know there's lots more that I enjoy, but those are probably all my favourites. YUMMY STUFF!!!! ;-)

Day 89: "Mommy, please take me to the toystore and the gynecologist!"

So it was back into work early this morning to do some more textbook recording. It was all fairly ordinary for the first little bit, with me recording words from harmless innocent topics such as colours, fruit, vegetables, days of the week, kinds of weather, family members. etc....and then suddenly I came to the 'Medical' section of the text. This is a section of our textbook that I haven't seen up until now, and then next thing I knew I was reading outloud and recording words such as 'pediatrics', 'psychiatry', 'radiology', 'dermatology' (wow getting difficult here, especially considering that this textbook is for readers who are CHILDREN) and then it was 'ophthalmology' (no idea what this means, have never heard this word before, had to guess how to pronounce it) and then I had to record...'gynecology'...

What the...???

*did a big double-take and came so close to BURSTING out laughing*

Why the hell would a nine-year old need to know the meaning of 'gynecology'??? Dear Lord I hope I don't have to explain that one to the kids in class at some point! What the hell would I say? (that would make sense to them and still be appropriate for young ears?) It was hilarious anyways....

Today was Jessica's birthday and this past weekend she had invited me to her birthday dinner, so I thought I'd go and celebrate with her this evening. The dinner was way out at the TGI Friday's out in Ilsan which means 2 hours on 1 bus and 4 trains just to get there. It's a long ways to go, but hey I had no plans tonight anyways so may as well, right? So I made the great trek out there and actually arrived on time - if that journey isn't proof of dedication I don't know what is! :-) There was a big gang there for dinner including lots of faces that were new to me. Dinner was great and the party was fun - gotta love birthdays!

Next thing I knew it was quarter after ten and time for me to make the same great trek all the way back home. I decided to take the bus to Seoul instead and then catch my train from there as that usually shaves off some time, but I wasn't sure where to catch the bus from this part of town. Emilie, Kelsey, and Amy left the same time as I did and tried to help me find the right bus stop. The really frustrating thing about taking the bus in Korea is that the busses only stop at certain stops on a street, and they are not often labelled so you have to guess if you're at the right stop. And even then, busses here don't stop automatically, you have to 'hail' them down by stepping out into the street or waving at them, otherwise they'll just drive right by barrelling ahead...

Well we tried to hail a few busses but none of them would stop. Hmmm...must be the wrong stop... I walked up the street to the next one and tried the same thing, but alas, had the same response! Fuck man what does one have to do to catch a bus around here! I ended up having to walk like 10-15 minutes in the pouring rain up the street all the way to the next subway station before finding a bus stop where I could actually catch a bus! Grrrr.... At this point I was worried about missing my train at City Hall Station which would leave me stranded in the city.

I got into City Hall Station just before 11:30pm which is roughly when the trains stop running. I made a b-line to the ticket office convinced that I had still made it in time (just) to catch the last train. I ran up to Mr. Ticket Man and was told that I had just missed it...by 3 minutes.... ARRRGHHHH!!!!! NO WAY TO GET HOME NOW! I'm not going to cab it home from here cause that would cost a *FORTUNE*, so I called up my friend Michael in Itaewon and begged and pleaded to him to let me crash at his place overnight. He just laughed and said 'yeah come on over!' I'm lucky to have good friends!

Getting to Michael's from City Hall proved to be another challenge! Taxis are aplenty in Seoul, but catching one, and actually finding one that *wants* to go where you do is another story! I stood on the street corner trying to flag one down, but empty taxi after empty taxi just raced by... Finally one stopped and I asked 'Itaewon?' to see if that was cool. He just shook his head and sped off, nearly running over my foot in the process! Yes, that's right, taxi drivers here choose you, you don't choose them. It's really fucking annoying, I have to say, and Seoul is the only city in the world I've ever been that does that. A driver will only take you somewhere if he feels like it, and they tend to be *really* picky about their destinations. There's been times in the past when I've asked like 10 taxis to take me somewhere and I've been turned down 10 times in a row. It's like who pays your fares buddy??? THE CUSTOMER!!! HELLO!!! Finally I found a cab that would take me, and I went over to Michael's to crash. We stayed up for a bit just chatting and then went to bed around 1:30am. An unplanned detour, but it was fun to hang with Michael anyways.

Day 88: Lost In Translation?

This week I'm helping Steven with a project at work. Our elementary students are competing in an English-speaking Contest in August which is an annual big event in our province. To help the kids prepare, Steven is going to record sections of our textbook and vocabulary onto tape so that each kid will have a copy that they can listen to at home. And who's voice will the kids be practicing their pronounciation to? Mine! It's been a bit of a strange project, but kinda fun too. I go in every morning into the playroom which has been turned into a mini pseudo recording studio. I sit at this chair in front of a mic and clearly, with my best dictation voice, record chunks of the text book.

It feels a little strange to do it, because I have to record like half hour chunks all in one single sequence at a consistent pace - no coughing, no yawning, no errors allowed. I hate hearing how I sound on the tape, but doesn't everyone hate the sound of thier recorded voice? There was a few times during recording that I had to concentrate to keep myself from laughing, as some of the sentences are kinda funny. Here's a few of my favourites that almost made me giggle:

"Let's go to the playground and play. Do you want to play with sand? Don't throw sand!" (oh, playground drama...)

"I knew you could do it! Where have you been hiding all these talents?" (who would actually say something like this?)

"Shame on you. That wasn't good! Go to your room. You need some spanking!" (my personal favourite - it was hard to record this one in a normal voice cause I wanted to crack up!)

"Put on your pants. Do you want me to button your shirt? Change your underpanties!" (this to me just sounds really dirty...I had to try real hard NOT to giggle during this one!)

I've adjusted my blog again... Unknowingly I had set the comments feature so that only blog-writers could leave a comment. I've since changed it so that now absolutely anyone can write a comment. Sorry if there was any confusion! Feel free to comment away to your heart's content now! :-)

After work tonight I went over to Ailish's (the Irish girl I met last Friday who lives just up the street from me) to hang out and watch some TV. It's so great to have a friend who lives so near to me. Monday and Tuesday nights is GREAT television here - 1 episode of The OC and 3 episodes of Sex & The City, all back-to-back. Wonderful! All Western programming aired in Korea comes with Korean subtitles so that the Koreans can follow along too, and I've gotten so used to seeing subtitles on TV that I don't even notice them anymore.

However, while watching Sex & The City tonight, it got me thinking, do they translate everything *literally*? S&TC is a pretty 'racy' show, especially by Korean standards which are MUCH MORE conservative than North American shows. The Koreans are quite naive and sheltered when it comes to sex and sexuality in mass media, so watching a show like S&TC must either shock the hell out of them, or send them into a titillating frenzy! Do all the little slang expressions and sexual innuendoes and dirty talk on S&TC really translate over into Korean? Are there Korean equivalents to words like 'hummer', 'fling', 'one night stand', 'going down on me', and 'fuck buddy?' Cause in just 3 episodes of S&TC all of those expressions came up at least once, among many others that most Koreans could consider either horrifying, scandalous, offensive, or just plain inappropriate for public television. Yet the show is still aired... I can only imagine how red the faces of the translators must be when they have to write up the subtitles to put them on screen with each episode of that show! Who knew that Sarah Jessica Parker and company would unknowingly become 'sexual educators' in Korea? haha! :-)

Day 87: So Snazzy! So Sexy!

So as I'm sure you've noticed by now, my blog has a whole new look!

The website I used to publish my blogs revamped itself, and came out with some new cool templates and features that I could add to my blog. Besides looking snazzier and sexier than ever, there's a few new things on my blog for you to check out. There's a profile with a bunch of info on me, soon-to-be-coming photograph of yours truly, and you can now leave comments to all my entry!

The comments feature is especially noteworthy. It allows you to leave little remarks, suggestions, thoughts, feelings, questions, etc. regarding each specific entry up on the blog website for me, and everyone else, to view. I'm hoping that you'll use it actively, and since many of you suck at emailing, hopefully I'll hear from a few of you more often via the comments sections. Don't be shy - comment away, no inhibitions, no holds barred, no restrictions! As Dishwalla says, 'tell me all your thoughts...cause I'd really like to know 'em!'

I've been in such good spirits lately! Everything at school seems to be working out (so far), my computer is completely fixed, I've made new friends in my neighbourhood, just had one of the best weekends of my life, and now have a pretty snazzy and sexy blog to show off to the world! What more could a guy ask for? :-)

Day 86: Enchanting & Inspiring

We woke up at the not-so bright and VERY EARLY time of 4:30am this Sunday morning, the time when the Buddhist monks wake up every morning. There was no time for showers (and not sufficient facilities for all us anyways!) and we were bussed back to the main temple for early morning meditation. The monks meditate every morning at 5am, who believe that this time of the day is the most calm and quiet and peaceful and therefore the best time for praying to Buddha.

We rejoined the girls in the main temple and were all given small mats and began the meditation ceremony. The monks led us through their morning ritual, which involves breathing exercises and deep concentration to be able to release all your sufferings and offer yourself to the paradise of Buddha. The ceremony, in total, was about an hour and a half long, and was sooooo relaxing and calming and very spiritual, even for non-Buddhists. Buddhists believe that there are 108 different kinds of suffering in life, and so every morning you have to bow and kneel before Buddha 108 times so that you can release each of those pains. This would certainly take a while...but we were all willing to give it a go and be 'at one' with Buddha and the temple monks. We all had to do 54, as the Master Monk thought that was enough for us...hehe. (still standing up and kneeling down again 54 times is quite a lot!) After the meditation we were lead outside (into the pouring rain, but none of us cared) to join the monks for morning exercise. This consists of about 15-20 minutes of stretching, breathing, and jumping to 'wake up the body' and release all your pains. It was beautiful, and again with the lush green settings and the rains and mist, you couldn't have asked for a more enchanting atmosphere or more inspiring setting!

It was breakfast after this, which was several vegetarian dishes served with this oatmeal that most of us did not enjoy very much. It's unsweetened and definitely has a flavour that one has to acquire, but it was part of the experience anyways! We then had about 2 hours or so for free time, so all of us used the time to wander around the temple complex, take some photos, and just soak up the Buddhist atmosphere. I wish you could have been there to see and experience it for yourself because words and pictures could never do it justice! After this it was time to say goodbye to the kind, gentle, and hospitable monks, and the beautiful Daewon-sa Temple, and get back on the bus.

We drove over to some green tea plantations near where the festival was so that we could wander through the green tea plants. I was just expecting some farmer's field full of bushes, but it was completely different! The plantations are built as this STEEP green terraces that rise up the slopes of the hills (kinda like what the Incas used to build in the Andes!) The terraces rise soooo far up the hills, you can't even see the top of them, especially with all the mist. We got to wander through the tea fields and the terraces, and climbed up all over the hills exploring the lush green paradise. It was breathtakingly beautiful, even though it was crowded with Korean tourists, and we got some great shots of the terraces! I could've easily wandered through the green tea terraces all day, but we had to get back on the bus after less than an hour.

We had lunch in Boseon, where a whole restaurant was reserved just for us. The locals seemed so excited to have foreigners visiting, and even the town mayor came out to meet us and welcome us to his town! We enjoyed our lunch and then it was time to leave. We drove an hour and a half to the city of Mokpo to catch our train back to Seoul. We were all tired and wet and dirty, but no one wanted to go home. Our weekend was so incredibly amazing that each and every one of us were moved and touched by this incredible cultural experience. We hopped back on the KTX and sailed north across Korea back to Seoul. The scenery was beautiful again, green misty hills and lush rich farmland dotted by small towns and cities. Travelling by train, I've always believed, is the most romantic way to see a country, and I couldn't have asked for a more comfortable or picturesque journey.

We arrived back in Seoul, and had some dinner at Bennigan's. We were all craving Western food after our vegetarian, simple meal weekend, so we all ordered giant meals and gorged on the meat and carbs! Oh, us Westerners are so gluttonous! :-) The gang decided to play a little joke on me, and (without telling me) told the servers that it was my birthday (even though it's actually in August!) Half way through our meal a crew of Bennigan's servers suddenly showed up at the table with a giant green leprechaun hat for me to wear, and proceeded to sing a Korean birthday song and take our picture! So hilarious!!! At the end of the meal I was presented with a birthday card with our picture, and the whole gang signed me 'birthday wishes' in my card. Too funny!

After dinner we wandered around Kyobo books for a while, and then headed on home. This weekend was one of the best of my life, and was certainly an experience that I'll never forget as long as I live. I feel so blessed and so lucky to have had such an opportunity to experience something so inspiring and so beautiful! I'm so thankful that I came to Korea - I would have never experienced anything like this back home in Canada. I've only been in Korea three months but I feel like I've seen and done and experienced SO MUCH already! My eyes have truly been opened to the wonders that can be found outside Western lands and culture, and feel like my 'world vision has been expanded' so much. In many ways I've learned more about the world and about life and other cultures in just three months than what I ever learned in my 5 years at university, or my 25 years of life in Canada. To be able to explore and discover all of this has been truly amazing, and I'm not ever going to take it for granted!

Day 85: Mystical & Magical

This weekend was definitely my best weekend yet here in Korea, (yes I know I say that often!) and one of the best Ii've ever had in my life. Absolutely completely amazing...

Me and the gang had signed up for a package weekend tour down to the SW corner of Korea for an incredible cultural tour. I woke up at 6:30am, was thankful there was no red-wine headache from last night's dinner party, and rode the train to Seoul Station to meet up with my friends and the tour at 9am. This was going to be my first real train trip in Korea (and only the second ever in my life) and I was completely stoked!

We had a big gang out for this one - myself, Brad, Andrea, Steve, Amy, Emilie, Meighan, Jess, Kim and Jeremy. We met up with our tour (about 40 ppl in total) at the ginormous post-modern KTX terminal at Seoul Station and boarded the KTX high-speed train to Gwang-ju. The KTX is Korea's most ambitious engineering project to date, with the goal of installing high-speed bullet trains across the entire country. Phase 1 alone cost $1.5 billion CDN, and just opened in April. The train was ultra-modern and bright and clean and so comfortable. Soon we were out of the city and sailing smoothly thru green picturesque countryside. The only thing that was disappointing was that although the train *was* fast, it did not travel at it's full speed capacity. The trains have a full speed capacity of 300 km/hr, but until the entire project is finished, they only travel about half that speed. Still pretty speedy though!

We arrived in Gwang-ju in early afternoon and took a bus to Boseong where we got to check out the Green Tea Festival that this small city hosts every year. This province of Korea is known internationally for its very high quality of tea, and so this festival aims to promote the local products. We got to wander through the festival and watch the tea being prepared from leaves, and even got to engage in some hands-on tea leaf sorting and drying - was quite fun actually! Later on there was tea samples of the many many varieties of green tea, and as the token foreigners at the festival we got first pick at everything. We were honoured with a green tea ceremony where these older women who basically dedicate their whole lives to growing and preparing green tea served us some delicious tea in this elaborate, beautiful ceremony. It was so graceful and elegant and the preparation for serving takes a good 10-15 minutes with every single move being an art form in itself. Wow!

After trying the tea we checked out the rest of the festival, which sells an endless variety of products made from green tea - candy, clothing and linens, make-up and facial-cream, even meat and vegetables and other foods soaked or prepared with green tea. One corner of the festival was a pottery area where pots and cups were made my hand on one of those crazy spinning clay machines, using mud and clay with green tea in it. Well this was another hands-on exhibit that people could try out and they wanted a foreigner to demonstrate how it all worked. Everyone else was too shy to get up in front of the small crowd and try it, so I volunteered myself!

It was so much fun, but also SO MUCH harder than it looks! You have to spin the wheel with your foot, and it takes a lot of energy and rhythm just to keep the wheel spinning consistently at a fast-enough speed. So while kicking the wheel every 2 seconds you have to concentrate on molding the wet clay with your hands, up into this blob-shape that (in theory) eventually becomes a cup or bowl. Well I started off alright and everyone was all impressesd as my blob started to form a bowl-shape, but that's when disaster struck and suddenly without warning a hole burst through my clay and the whole thing fell apart back into one messy blog right before my very eyes. IT'S SO TRICKY (and messy)!!! It was really funny though and I was the 'star' for being brave enough to give it a go. It's definitely an art form that takes a lot of skill and practice!

After the festival we got back on the bus and drove to where we would be spending the night - at a small but beautiful Buddhist temple high up in the remote hills near Boseong. The temple was incredible - its architecture was simple yet stunningly beautiful, and you couldn't ask for a more breathtaking setting - surrounded by lush, green, misty hills. It was a rainy weekend and with the temple and the mists the whole temple complex had a very 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' feel to it. Mystical and magical.

We had dinner at the temple (in the 'eating building') which was a vegetarian Buddhist meal prepared for us by the monks. It was actually very delicious, with lots of familiar Korean dishes, and some new ones as well. After dinner we went down to the Tibetan Museum which the monks have assembled over the years, just next to the temple. It was a small but amazing museum full of hundreds of pieces of Buddhist relics - pottery and scriptures and paintings and blankets and sculptures and figurines and of course many little Buddha statues. What was especially great was that our visit to the temple coincided with the visit of this famous Tibetan monk! He led us through the museum and described everything to us, and explained a bit about Buddhist beliefs and philosophies, and about the current suffering and margilization of Tibetans. Buddhism is banned and criminalized in Tibet, which has been occupied forcefully by China since 1953. Very sad, indeed, as the Tibetans are probably the most peaceful and friendly people on the planet. After the tour through the museum we were rewarded with a live Pansori performance - a very old, traditional style of Korean music, using vocals, drums, and story-telling. Completely enchanting!

At this point it was getting close to 10pm which is bed time at the temple. The boys and girls on our tour had to sleep separately, so the girls went to bed in the building where we had dinner, and us boys got shipped off on the bus to a 'male hermitage' located just down the road. The hermitage was a simple building partioned off into 4 rooms. For sleeping, we were given a few matts and pillows and we slept on the heated floors, totally Buddhist style. It wasn't the most comfortable sleep, but with the warmth coming from the floor below, to the sound of the rain falling outside, to just knowing that I was in the middle of these beautiful forested hills in rural Korea in Asia, it was peaceful and inspiring. How lucky am I for being able to experience something so different and so beautiful!!!